By Jesse, Teen Portal Staff Writer
Awhile ago, I wrote a column about the five most overrated movies I’ve ever seen. Leaving no stone unturned, I have created this top five list of UNDERRATED movies. (Enjoy!):
5. “Finding Forrester”: Surprisingly not well received by the media (and relatively unknown among the American public), this film stars Sean Connery as the reclusive writer William Forrester. Rob Brown plays Jamal Wallace, a brilliant African American writer from the streets of Harlem who befriends Forrester and, under his instruction, learns to write beautifully. The characters are acted out extraordinarily well by both the stars and supporting actors with each appearing to be a living, breathing person. Why its intellectual message and great filmmaking never was accepted by the mainstream I’ll never know.
4. “Pirate Movie”: This movie simply makes the list because it is not the worst musical ever produced (Many people give it that ominous title). While it is bad, it successfully manages to lampoon itself with silly lyrics and hilarious characters. Don’t go out of your way to see it…but don’t hate it if you do.
3. “Love and Death”: This Woody Allen movie has always been second fiddle to “Annie Hall,” but, in my opinion, it delivers just as many belly laughs. Allen plays a hapless Russian serf destined to almost assassinate Napoleon. The bombast of the philosophical ideals of this film are laughable and a scene with Allen acting as a modern cheerleader on the fields of war can not be missed.
2. “The Matrix: Reloaded”: There are no problems with this movie. However, the original was so good that this one has received too little fanfare.
1. “Into the Wild”: Yes I know that audiences received it well but…why did “Juno” get an Oscar nomination whereas this work of art did not? Emile Hirsch pulls off a Herculean feat by portraying Chris McCandless as he was portrayed in the book and not merely as some generic kid up in Alaska. Penn directs the piece with a great taste for landscapes and moods. So the question remains: Why did “Juno” get the Oscar nomination?
