Sunday Ten Spot: Watch This!

Underrated Movies I Love

10. Enemy of the State
Everybody loves Will Smith, but very few people love this movie. It's just not one that makes very many top tens, but I think it should. This "big brother conspiracy" movie, also starring Gene Hackman, is fast paced and fascinating-certainly worth a watch and definitely worth more credit than most people give it.

9. Jersey Girl
Yep, it has Ben Affleck in it. And yes, Jennifer Lopez-but only for a minute I swear. Still, in the end, I happen to think that this funny and heartwarming movie about a widower and his daughter is one of the best Kevin Smith movies ever.

8. National Lampoon's Van Wilder
It's not Shakespeare. Fine. Is it crude? Absolutely-but it's about college kids so I think that kind of goes with the territory. At its core though, Van Wilder is about a guy with a big heart who stays in college by purposely failing everything. Ryan Reynolds makes Van Wilder such a hilarious and yet sweet character that it becomes a lot easier to look past the sex jokes-plus the end makes you want to say awwwww.

7. Shaun of the Dead
The tag line says it all-"A Romantic Comedy. With Zombies." There might be zombies in it but the real point of this movie is beyond that, and scene by scene it is absolutely HILARIOUS which keeps the movie from being preachy or too zombified. I know it's not for everyone but I happen to love Simon Pegg and British humor...if you like either one and don't mind a little zombie action you should definitely see this movie.

6. Layer Cake
I know what you're thinking-you've never heard of this movie. You and pretty much everyone else...but it's awesome. Basically it's about a drug dealer trying to get out of "the life". It's definitely for mature audiences only (it IS about drug dealers so there is lots of, you know, drugs violence swearing etc.) but the ending will blow you away. Bonus-you get to see Daniel Craig pre-007.

5. Office Space
While plenty of people have seen this movie, no one seems to love this movie and I don't know why! Maybe I'm just a huge nerd, maybe I worked in a cubicle too long, but I think that the story of three guys breaking out of the cubicle and sticking it to the man (in a nerd way) is freakin' awesome.

4. Big Fish
When people tell me they haven't seen this movie I'd be lying if I said I wasn't a little upset. It is so wonderful I just watch it over and over and over again. Big Fish is about the tall tales a father told his son all of his life. While the father is on his death bed the son comes to him and wants 'the truth', and in return we are taken through many of the fantastic stories of his father's youth. This movie is charming, and everyone should watch it at least once.

3. Serenity
Okay, in my world (full of SciFi/Joss Wheden dorks) this movie is a BIG deal. An awesome, fantabulous big deal that most of the rest of the world is missing out on. I still haven't forgiven Fox for marketing Firefly (this movie's founding TV series) as a "space western" and murdering it in its first season...not because the description isn't accurate (it totally is) but because it is better to let people come to that conclusion themselves rather than limit the amount of people willing to watch. Still, if you can start out with an open mind, I promise Serenity won't disappoint anyone interested in action/adventure.

2. Accepted
No one I ever ask has seen this movie and that just makes me want to run out and buy you all a copy. I LOVE this movie. This movie is about a kid who doesn't get accepted to any colleges so, rather than face disappointing his parents and being humiliated in front of his classmates, he decides to make up his own college. Besides having a (subconsciously?) pro-unschooling message, it's just plain funny.

1. Lady in the Water
A modern day cross between a thriller and a fairy tale, this movie is enchanting. In it a man finds himself in the midst of an ancient bedtime story come to life, and he and his fellow apartment dwellers join in the story, learning more about themselves along the way. I cannot recommend this movie enough and yet at best people have never heard of it because it gets eclipsed by M. Night Shyamalan's other movies (The Sixth Sense comes to mind).