Sparked by a discussion this morning with righteousfist at PT:

My Three Top Underrated Movies
These are three fun, interesting films that are better than most folks think they are, often due to internal or external flaws. They are some of my favorites, despite themselves, on their own merits.


1. Hudson Hawk (1991)
Compare the tagline in the image and that listed on the actual IMdB webpage: "Catch the excitement. Catch the adventure. Catch the Hawk." vs. "Catch the excitement. Catch the laughter. Catch the Hawk." The Wikipedia page on Hudson Hawk makes a good case, I think, in pointing out that the film was pitched as an action-adventure when it's really a comedy-actioner -- indeed, it's nearly a live-action cartoon. Compare it to Our Man Flint and Austin Powers: it compares well.

The dialogue is hysterical. The script is servicable. And a point made on the DVD commentaries, part of the humor involving Eddie never getting his cappuccino was that at the time, cappuccino was fru-fru coffee, almost impossible to get anywhere reliably outside of dense metropolitan centers and Italian restaurants. In these days of Starbucks and other chain coffee cafes, it's kinda lost its sting.


2. Popeye (1980)
The Wikipedia page on Popeye points out some interesting details: it was a musical (unusual at the time) with atypical music (lack of rhyme in the songs; dependence on repetition).

Furthermore, Williams' spot-on redition of the Fleischer Popeye of the 1930s and focus on the supporting characters from the original Thimble Theatre strip were actually problematical, as few people had seen the brilliant Thirties cartoons in decades, and almost no one knew of the Thimble Theatre history. (I did know about the latter at the time only because one of the books in my podunk hometown library was a collection of Popeye trips back into the TT days.)

If you're an early Popeye fan, it's not a bad movie at all; however, if you're looking for the color, white sailor suit, three freakish clone-dwarf nephews Popeye, you are SOL.


3. Flash Gordon (1980)
Flash Gordon is a fantastic film, marred by the just-not-up-to-par performances of the leading man and leading lady.

In a smaller film, Sam J. Jones and Melody Anderson would have been just fine. Unfortunately, they were placed next to perfectly cast supporting actors, who all went to town chewing scenery with wild abandon (in a good way). Max von Syndow is a perfect cast for Ming; Timothy Dalton is a perfect cast for Barin; Topol is a perfect cast for Zharkov; Brian Blessed is a perfect cast for Vultan; etc.

The set and costuming design is excellent Flash Gordon-y pulp, with only one or two missteps (Blessed's shorts, the faces of Ming's guard, and the Lizardmen with the eyes inside of their mouths). Compare to the early serials and the comic strips, and contrast with the fairly sterile first season of the TV Buck Rogers. Glorious.

The soundtrack by Queen is a work of utter genius. The operatic rock shouldn't go with pulp space opera, but it does. Indeed, you can listen to the soundtrack and see the freaking movie perfectly.

The script has a few places of sketchy dialogue, but better performances by the leads would have covered the problem: compare some of the hokey-ass crap Barin, Aura, Zharkov, Ming, Klytus, and Vultan say. . . but the way they say it makes the cheese work. Jones and Anderson just couldn't quite nail the energy needed to get there, but damn, they are giving it the old college try.

Tags: movies, underkoffler's overviews