Never Seen It: Part Two

Posted by Harry in Film, Frontpage, Never Seen It | 4 comments

Never Seen It highlights films that you might not have heard of or watched but definitely should, the kind of films that aren’t as well-known as others and don’t attain the accreditation or accolade they perhaps deserve. The films noted may not be 5-star features but every one mentioned is a film worthy of your time…

Dead Man’s Shoes (2004)

Shane Meadows and Paddy Considine collaborated to make Dead Man’s Shoes which stars Considine as an ex-paratrooper returning to his home town to settle a score with the men who tormented his mentally challenged brother. Motivated by his belief that God will forgive these men and let them into heaven, he sets out to stop that from happening by any means necessary.

Dead Man’s Shoes is a brilliant British film and its dark undertones compliment the dark narrative excellently. The plot twists are surprising and welcome and particular scenes are incredibly well directed.

The Truman Show (1998)

One of my favourite Jim Carrey films, The Truman Show digs deep into the darker side of reality television, but from a comical standpoint. Ed Harris stars as a God-like “creator” who is commissioned by a television studio to make a reality television show that chronicles, 24-7, the entire life of Truman Burbank (Jim Carrey) from birth. The creator makes an entire mini world which Truman lives in and does everything he can to keep him there, making him develop a fear of water and add people to his life to change up the show.

Jim Carrey is bang on form as he strives to live a life of travelling and when he stumbles across unusual things going on in his town he tries to escape and get away from his life, unaware of the real underlying secret. The film culminates in an absolutely fantastic finale but the whole film is excellent throughout. The Truman Show is a real gem.

Kiss Kiss Bang Bang (2005)

Shane Black’s directorial debut takes a different approach to your typical crime film, mixing dark humour with a film noir style and a tongue in cheek approach to a narrative structure. Starring Robert Downey Jr as a thief who gets lucky and winds up getting the part in a Hollywood film, Kiss Kiss Bang Bang tells his story and how he gets caught up in a muder mystery with his high-school crush (Michelle Monaghan) which plays out very much like the books of their childhood did.

It’s an unconventional crime film, as several scenes play out much against your expectations and the story progression and dual narrative structures blend together and mix-and-match to create a very much engaging plot which compliments the film’s subtle humour and dark undertones beautifully. Downey Jr is on top form and his chemistry with Val Kilmer who plays a gay private detective is excellent. Downey Jr’s arrogant style plays out excellently with the script and is one-liners are both pitch-perfect and quotable.

Kiss Kiss Bang Bang is a clever film that plays with you, mixing different styles of film and making its own genre in a superb way. Really worth a watch.

Full Metal Jacket (1987)

In my opinion there are too many war films in the film industry and many are underwhelming or try too hard to be emphatic. Thankfully that’s not the case with Stanley Kubrick’s Full Metal Jacket, which takes a gritty look at both the US Army’s training methods and the ugly and dark side of the Vietnam War.

Focusing on several soldiers going through training before being shipped out toVietnam, Kubrick tries his hand at depicting the war and he pulls it off with brutal conviction. It’s a harrowing take on the war, but the use of perhaps lesser known actors and some real life soldiers aswell creates a better sense of realism and the intense action sequences that lack in special effects but focus more on the mentality of the soldiers and the man against man scenarios are more impactual, more engrossing. Full Metal Jacket isn’t your ordinary war film and it’s more bare-bones, gritty approach to war depiction works on greater levels than you’d expect.

He Was A Quiet Man (2007)

In a similar vein to Office Space but from a darker viewpoint, He Was A Quiet Man is an unconventional look at office life, as Christian Slater stars as a man who’s bored of his dead-end job, tired of living day by day as an unappreciated, over-worked office worker. One particularly bad day after weeks of debating he decides to end it all in an office-shootout, where he wants to kill the people who make his life a misery. However, someone beats him to the punch and Bob (Slater) becomes the accidental hero who saves the day by taking out a fellow disgruntled worker.

After saving the day, Bob becomes a public hero, but things get complicated as a fellow office worker Vanessa (Elisha Cuthbert) was made paralyzed after getting shot by the disgruntled worker and Bob takes it upon himself to take care of her. Vanessa is the only person Bob cares about in the world but she blames him for saving her life and not letting her get killed. William H Macy also stars as another complication. Macy plays Bob’s boss who promotes him to vice-president of Creative Thinking but is more closely involved in his life than it first seems.

He Was A Quiet Man is a twisted film to put it bluntly but it’s a great watch because it tries something new. The special effects are maybe unnecessary and the film can be a little slow at times but Slater’s stellar performance makes up for this alone.