20 Most Underrated Movies of All Time, Ranked
If you watch and enjoy a movie, only to find plenty of other people didn’t feel the same way, or find that most people just didn’t watch – or hear about – the movie at all, you might feel it’s underrated. Finding a few like-minded people might feel validating, but if there aren’t too many of those like-minded people, then you’re still looking at something that’s probably underrated.
It’s straightforward, but also a little subjective, so if you disagree with some of the following picks, that’s just life, or just the nature of calling something underrated. It’s better than trying to single out overrated movies, since that can be more controversial and even kind of risky. As for “rated” movies… you know, Star Wars, The Shawshank Redemption, Goodfellas. The classics that everyone knows about. What follows, instead, are some would-be/should-be classics that more people should know about, or otherwise movies that people do know about, but should either talk about more or revisit.
20
‘Faraway, So Close!’ (1993)
Wings of Desire is one of the better-known Wim Wenders movies, but if you want a hot take, its sequel, Faraway, So Close!, might well be even better. Or, if that’s a bit much, how about suggesting that it’s just as good? The first movie was largely about a guardian angel wanting to join the human world, and then Faraway, So Close! looks at his life after deciding to become part of humanity.
Also, there was another angel character in Wings of Desire, and he’s got a whole bunch of stuff going on here, and then the film also takes off in some other interesting directions; it’s a bit wild, really. It’s like an arthouse film, but it’s trying to be a little more fun than most arthouse movies, and for showcasing the more playful and approachable side of Wim Wenders, it’s pretty great.
19
‘Occult’ (2009)
Koji Shiraishi is pretty great at directing horror movies, as Noroi: The Curse (his best-known movie) shows. Even that one might well be a little underrated in the overall scheme of things, but then you get to Occult, and this one doesn’t even have much by way of a cult following, even though you literally can’t spell the film’s title without the word “cult.” This is disappointing, therefore, on more than one level.
Anyway, outlining the premise of Occult probably runs the risk of making it sound a bit simplistic, since it’s about strange things happening to the survivors of an already strange incident, but then things get… yeah, stranger. It’s weird, where Occult ultimately chooses to go, but it’s engrossing and difficult to fall into, with the found-footage style – as was the case with Noroi: The Curse – serving to make an already intriguing horror/thriller kind of film all the more intense and engaging.
18
‘Soldier Blue’ (1970)
It’s hard to talk about Soldier Blue, and even harder to recommend, since it’s up there among the most miserable and soul-crushing Westerns ever made. The likes of The Great Silence and (especially) The Wild Bunch are well-known for being dark and boundary-pushing Westerns made around a similar time to Soldier Blue, yet this one gets overlooked, or sometimes dismissed for being too tacky, or just too much.
Soldier Blue is disarming, because it’s only a little gritty before its final sequence, and there’s even a breeziness to some of the movie, as a survival/adventure kind of flick, before it goes all-out at the end. When it wants to drive home certain horrors, it doesn’t hold back, and the ending here is impressive for how far it went, for a film of its age, and it’s all still effectively nightmarish. So, don’t watch Soldier Blue, or maybe do, but be prepared, because it’s a lot.
17
‘Electric Dreams’ (1984)
Giving Scarface a run for its money as the 1980s movie that feels most distinctly 1980s in style/sound/energy, Electric Dreams is like a feature-length music video, which makes sense, since its director, Steve Barron, is well known for directing music videos, having done the likes of “Billie Jean” (Michael Jackson) and “Money for Nothing” (Dire Straits). That’s all to say that Electric Dreams is high-energy, perhaps a little simple, and maybe even corny at times, too.
Still, it’s a movie about a love triangle between an advanced computer, a young man, and a young woman, so a little bit of silliness is understandable. Also, as a science fiction comedy, Electric Dreams also has a surprising amount of heart, and maybe you do have to have a soft spot for the ‘80s to click with those attempts at heartfelt moments, but they’re still appreciated, and ultimately help elevate this to something more than a piece of mostly forgotten ‘80s kitsch.
16
‘Woman in the Moon’ (1929)
Just as worthy of praise as some of Fritz Lang’s other silent classics (yes, even Metropolis), Woman in the Moon is both wild and wildly underrated. The premise is a bit goofy by modern standards, since it’s about a trip to the moon done to mine gold, and there’s also quite a bit by way of romantic melodrama thrown in, but it’s so engaging and inventive once the story really gets going.
Honestly, Woman in the Moon got quite a bit right in terms of the kind of space travel it looked toward, and the stuff that doesn’t “hold up” is still creative and understandable, since this movie came out so long before people did actually go to space. Technically, this film’s continually astounding and easy to appreciate, and anyone who likes watching silent movies from time to time – but hasn’t seen this specific silent movie yet – should undoubtedly check it out.
15
‘Getting Any?’ (1994)
Absolute chaos awaits anyone who decides to give Getting Any? a shot, as it’s beyond plotless and all-over-the-place. Well, early on, it’s about a man doing a bunch of things because he’s desperate to – as the title hints at – have sex, but his endeavor gets continually messier, and then the film sort of just explodes, or implodes, and becomes like a series of scenes that parody various types of movies.
If you’re there for the ride, or don’t mind being taken for one, all the while being told you can’t wear a safety belt, then Getting Any? is great fun. It’s one of the silliest comedies, perhaps of all time, and it’s also a quintessential piece of sicko cinema, since the premise does make it pretty perverted, by default, but at least it’s also incredibly funny; not just racy for the sake of it.
14
‘Black Sunday’ (1977)
A long but ultimately well-paced thriller, Black Sunday is about preventing a terrorist attack on the Super Bowl. Oh, that’s it? Why nearly 2.5 hours, then? It’s hard to justify it, but the runtime feels right when you’re actually watching the thing, since it’s the sort of slow-burn where the slower parts do indeed still burn, and then the explosive parts deliver even more.
The final act is tremendously exciting, and makes the whole thing feel like something of a disaster movie, too. Black Sunday is tough and unwilling to mess around, all in a way that makes it still feel rather uncompromising all these decades later. It’s not often talked about widely, and maybe the length and overall pessimism here make it a bit of a tough sell, but there’s a lot to appreciate here if you’re willing to give it a shot.
13
‘Godzilla: Final Wars’ (2004)
While Godzilla: Final Wars is an absolute mess, at least it’s a mess of the glorious variety. Its release came 50 years on from the original Godzilla, and the movie ended up being a massive celebration of the series, its legacy, and all the monsters that appeared throughout it. Godzilla himself doesn’t fight every single old foe of his in this movie, but he does take on many of them.
Further, Godzilla: Final Wars also goes all-out as a sci-fi/action movie about an alien invasion, to the point where even if you edited out all the giant monster stuff, you’d still have quite a lot by way of fight sequences remaining. The whole movie is loud, silly, and even immature at times, but if you just want non-stop/maximalist fun, and don’t mind that kind of thing being very goofy, then the film’s a blast.
12
‘Soldier of Orange’ (1977)
Within the filmography of Paul Verhoeven, Soldier of Orange sometimes gets overlooked, though it shouldn’t, since it might well be his best Dutch-language movie. The story here mostly takes place during World War II, and involves a group of young men all having their lives impacted in different ways after Germany invades the Netherlands, with the scope here making Soldier of Orange feel like something of an epic.
But it’s not a particularly long epic movie, and it does feel personal/intimate, owing to things sticking to a small and compelling group of key characters. Verhoeven keeps things restrained here, by his standards, though Soldier of Orange does still get explosive and even a bit alarming when it needs to, or at least when appropriate. It’s great, and should be talked about more often as one of the legendary director’s very best works.
11
‘Rope’ (1948)
Speaking of great directors making a movie that’s not always considered one of their best, here’s Rope, directed by Alfred Hitchcock. Hitchcock himself soured on this one a little, post-release, but with respect to the master of suspense, he’s wrong. This is one of his greatest films, and the presentation – a series of long takes that are, for the most part, strung together to look like one take – adds so much to Rope overall.
It’s a movie that has a surprising and intense set-up, and then the rest of the movie is just an exercise in milking the maximum amount of suspense possible from that set-up. It’s very playful, and maybe even a bit silly, but there are few films this old that still successfully feel so nail-biting, and so what you get, with Rope, is easily one of the most entertaining and well-paced of all Hitchcock’s movies.
