A couple of movie favorites.....

...that you've never heard of. Well actually, I better not underestimate the people reading this blog. I guess a better subject title would be "movies that have flown under the radar."

While living in Bowling Green, my apartment complex was literally right next door to an independent local movie rental store. I believe their little tag line read "a movie buff's paradise." Unfortunately, it took me all of four years to actually go in there and take a look. Their tag line was correct. So during my last year in Bowling Green, when I knew my days there were numbered, I made it a point to go into the store at least once a week and sift through the incredible amount of really good movies on hand, many that would never be found at your local blockbuster. My favorite section did not organize the movies by genre or alphabetical order, but by director. So for a while, over the course of a couple weeks, I would watch a particular director's entire library from beginning to end. I did this with Scorsese (which introduced me to such films as Taxi Driver and Raging Bull), the Coen Brothers, Speilberg, Wes Anderson, Kevin Smith, M. Night Shyamalan, etc., etc.

In case you haven't noticed, I've been pretty hard pressed to come up with good blog topics lately. Maybe it's all of this sitting around I've been doing since my casino has not needed me much. It's turning my brain to mush. So I got to thinking that perhaps I could just list some of my favorite movies, like pretty much EVERY blogger on the face of the planet has done. However, my little twist is that the movies below not only comprise my list of favorites, but also seem to have really been ignored for the most part by mainstream America, especially when compared to the creator's other works. Another theme that these movies seem to have is that the viewer probably loves them or just doesn't get them. There isn't much middle ground with these selections.

So if you're looking to rent a movie or two tonight and you're tired of seeing the same old crap shoved down your throat, consider seeking these out.

The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou

The Life Aquatic is probably in my top 5 ALL-TIME favorite movie list. The director of this movie, Wes Anderson, is probably most known for his hit The Royal Tenenbaums. Like Royal, and his previous work Rushmore, Life Aquatic is a dark comedy. I loved Bill Murray in this movie!

The Kentucky Fried Movie

The Kentucky Fried Movie is one that I NEVER hear anyone ever talk about, except for all of my weird friends who obviously love it as much as I do. This was the very first movie that the Zucker Brothers/Abrahams produced way back in 1977. Of course their more popular works include the Airplane movies and the Police Squad/Naked Gun series. Basically, if you like Airplane, you'll like KFM. It's definitely NOT a family flick, so keeps the kids well away. There's no real plot to this movie, just a bunch of random sketches centered around a parody within the parody, "A Fistful of Yen."

Barton Fink

The last two are films by the Coen Brothers. So what do you think of when I mention the Coen Brothers? Most people that I ask that immediately start talking about either Fargo, O Brother Where Art Thou, the cult favorite The Big Lebowski, or their first hit, Raising Arizona. Those are all FANTASTIC films! However, Barton Fink deserves to be somewhere in that conversation as well. John Turturro and John Goodman are brilliant in this movie. Once again, there's going to be a certain segment of people who watch this movie and just throw up their arms saying, "what the f**k!", especially after a rather confusing scene at the end. But at least give this one a try.

The Man Who Wasn't There

I'm not sure The Man Who Wasn't There ever really had a chance to become a great hit. It didn't help that it appeared shortly after 9/11, but it also doesn't really lend itself to movie stardom. To be honest, I'm not the biggest fan of Billy Bob Thornton. But he did do a super job in this movie! The movie is shown entirely in black and white, and also stars Scarlett Johanson and that guy who is in the Sopranos (the main guy, I can't remember his name). If you're looking for a lot of action, do NOT rent this movie. I looked up some reviews of this movie online and a couple themes of those who were not fans mentioned that its a 90 minute movie shown over 2 hours. Although I'd admit the pacing is pretty slow, it's actually one reason why I like it. Nobody complained about the length Shindler's List or Saving Private Ryan, so when it's appropriate, there's certainly nothing wrong with a movie running a little long.

Oh, and if these are already rented out or unavailable, a couple alternate Coen movies would be Miller's Crossing and The Hudsucker Proxy.