Lesser Known Movies you must watch - 22

Margin Call

Cast: Kevin Spacey, Jeremy Irons, Paul Bettany, Stanley Tucci, Zachary Quinto, Simon Baker, Demi Moore (big star cast with mere 3.5 Million budget)

When we talk about movies made on 2008 Recession of sub-prime (financial) crisis , we think about The Big Short or Wall Street or Inside Job but there is one movie which shows the impact of recession from the other side i.e. on the investment banks specifically just one bank who realizes that it will be a victim of financial collapse and takes a decision to sell off its assets within 24 hours before market realizing the risk.

The reason for such a big star cast was mainly to show the emotions and ensuring that the financial talks between the actors are compelling. The movie has done justice and scored full marks practically in all the areas specially considering the fact that it’s a directorial debut for J.C.Chandor who was accoladed by an academy nomination for Best Original Screenplay for this movie. The best part about the movie is that the financial bank is never named throughout even though you would find similarities with falling of Goldman Sachs and Lehman brothers during financial crisis.

The movie begin with the usual mass layoffs happening in the bank where the head of risk management  Dave (Stanley Tucci) is also requested to go. When he leaves, he is handed over a USB drive by one of the risk Analysts Peter Sullivan (Zachary Quinto) to investigate. Sullivan while working on Dave’s project discovers that company’s current volatility of market securities has exceeded its levels and due to the company’s excess leverage if the firm assets are decreased by 25% , the loss for the firm is greater than its total value i.e. firm will go bankrupt.

In starts the round of meetings between Floor head Sam (Kevin Spacey) , Divison heads Jared (Simon Baker) , Chief Risk Management Officer Sarah (Demi Moore), and CEO John tudd (Jeremy Irons) hindsight how it had happened and why was it not reported. The discussion is to sell the firm toxic assets to save their grace which would mean creating lot of enemies in the financial market or finding other alternatives to stop the crisis or minimize its impact. The dialogues between Spacey and Irons are breath-taking  specially seeing Spacey on the other side who is opposing the sale of assets. This movie also shows that gains and losses are part of economic cycle along with the layoff’s and there are just few people who would gain from such catastrophe. Do watch our 22^nd Recommended movie for yourself to see if they succeeded in selling the assets and to which limit they went to sell-off the same.

SM Movie Geeks

Lesser Known Movies you must watch - 21

Eddie The Eagle

Cast: Taron Egerton , Hugh Jackman, Christopher Walken, Jim Broadbent

This week movie mention (21st) is a biographical sports comedy-drama about a loser who with his determination and positive spirit became a public hero. This movie is about a Britain first competitor (Eddie Edwards) in Olympic Ski Jumping since 1928 (after 6 decades) who even against all the odds went on to participate in the winter Olympics and was able to record his jump successfully.

We are going to begin with a dialogue from the movie between the winner of 1988 Ski Jumping event and Eddie Edwards, where the winner before the 90m jump tells Eddie that “You and I are like one o'clock and eleven o'clock. You see, we are closer to each other than to others. Winning, losing, all that stuff is for the little people. Men like us, we jump to free our souls. We are the only two jumpers with a chance to make history today. If we do less than our best with the whole world watching, it will kill us inside. For all time.”

The movie begins, with 10-year-old Eddie dreams of Olympics and tries his luck in various sports but fails miserably in all of them. He gets support from his mother, but his father discourages him calling it a waste of time. As an adolescent he decides to participate in Winter games instead of summer games in the Skiing event. Although he is decent at sport, he is rejected by the officials due to lack of manners and irrational behavior. He Stills doesn’t give up his dream and instead goes to Germany to self train himself in the training facility with other seasoned jumpers.

In the camp he meets an alcoholic snow jumper Bronson Peary who himself was former American champion but left the sports due to conflicts with his coach. He reluctantly agrees to train him by using the most unorthodox techniques that one can think of (you will literally laugh at some of the scenes). Eddie is able to 40 m hill but to qualify for the Olympics he would have to successfully complete one jump from 70-meter hill. He does complete that but the officials due to his behavior and being afraid that he might spoil the games decides to change the rules to a jump of 61 meters at-least to qualify for the Olympics.

This is where we would leave you to see the movie for yourself to know how was he able to qualify with a 61 meter jump when he was merely reaching 40 meters during training sessions. Once again, you will feel a sense of happiness and energetic with the climax scene and the ending. Hugh Jackman like always has been brilliant in his role (this man can do hardly anything wrong)  and Taron Egerton is amazing as Eddie. See this movie , and you will get the feeling that giving your 100% will give you more satisfaction than winning.

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Lesser Known Movies you must watch - 20

Nightcrawler

Cast: Jake Gyllenhaal, Rene Russo, Bill Paxton, Riz Ahmed

Nightcrawler was a directorial debut for Dan Gilroy (brother of Tony Gilroy- Michael Clayton) and is one of the low budget movies like Man from Earth where most of the movie was shot at midnight before sunrise. The main tone of the movie is not to let its visuals take over but to show it as close to reality as they could which is why you would see a wide-angle lens camera is being used.

Jake Gyllenhaal is a gem of an actor who has showed his versatile acting skills from Brokeback Mountain to Donny Darko to Source Code to Nocturnal animals but I think Nightcrawler was the one where he was truly snubbed by Academy for not nominating him. He was acclaimed by every critic for his acting skills shown in this movie specially the scenes with Rene Russo.

The movie starts with a thief lou (Jake) who is caught stealing from a security guard in Los Angeles. While looking for a job and getting rejected from the places Lou on one night sees a car crash where photojournalist (Freelance) are trying to record the entire proceedings. On conversing with one of them, Lou finds out that they are selling this footage to local news stations and earning money.

Lou gets into the same profession by stealing a bicycle and exchanges it for a camcorder and police radio scanner. After few unsuccessful attempts Lou gets his hands on the footage of carjacking and sells the same to a news channel (KWLA6). The news director Nina (Rene Russo) tells him that she is interested in such violent news accidents. This is where story gets interesting where Lou to gain popularity starts tampering the accident scenes for creating a good footage. With all the money, he buys better equipment and car to cover more areas.

He gets into a sexual relationship with the director who when not getting a good footage reprimands him for getting more footage. Lou to keep his reputation he sabotages another freelancer Rick’s (Riz Ahmed) van by getting into a tussle with him and records the accident. The movie gets further interesting when Lou gets the chance to record a footage of gunman leaving in SUV and of victims in the house (Case of home invasion) and Nina plans to show the footage even though the staff is anxious over the ethics of the footage. The story gets further interesting when but Lou and Rick plans to catch hold of gunmen who killed the family in the home invasion.  We will leave it for you to see what becomes of Lou on the dark path he has taken. The story is all about betrayal, struggle and survival in the city of fallen angels. Riz Ahmed and Rene Russo have portrayed their character’s to perfection and Gyllenhaal has been compared with Robert D Niro of Taxi driver by some critics for his portrayal as Lou in this movie.

Let us know your views on our 20th recommended movie.

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Lesser Known Movies you must watch - 19

Escape from Alcatraz

Cast: Clint Eastwood (no other name is required)

When we ask the viewers can they name any prison movie that they have seen, the only name that comes up is Shawshank Redemption, probably because it is the greatest movie ever been made in its own time. But, there have been few other lesser known movies that were Prison thrillers and must also be appreciated because they were made well ahead of their time. Escape from Alcatraz is one of those movies based on a novel with the same name directed by famous Don Siegal who casted Clint Eastwood (5^th Collaboration between both) for this master thriller.

1962 prison escape from the famous Alcatraz prison, Clint Eastwood in his late 40’s (living legends) and the cool cinematic elegance is what you would see in this movie. The movie starts when Frank Morris (Clint Eastwood) who is prisoned in Alcatraz and had been informed by the warden that no prisoner had ever escaped.

In the prison, Morris make acquaintance with 3 other prisoners and enemies with one of the prisoner (Wolf) who is on trial for raping someone who harasses him and even attacks him with knife. Things unfold in prison where Morris sees how the prison is controlled by warden and without him no proceedings can happen (not going into details as we want you to watch them). When Morris notices that the cell walls are weak and can be chipped away , he plans for an escape with his friends by digging through the weak walls with spoons, make Paper dummies to act as their imitations and construct rafts out of raincoats.

On the night of June 11,1962 Morris and the other inmates decides to bring the plan into action (Prison Break and Shawshank Redemption coming all together in the same movie). Wolf also intercepts their plan and prepares to stab Morris with a knife. The other inmates also plan to meet Morris at the rendezvous point where one of them had a cold feet. With all the excitement in the final 30 mins of escape – we leave for you to watch if the escape was successful or if Morris was attacked by Wolf even before meeting the other inmates. If they were able to escape the cells, how did they manage to escape the search lights running around the prison at night to keep a watch on the prisoners and if they somehow managed that, how were they able to cross the barbwire and use their raincoats as rafts. With so much of excitement we would want you to watch this movie and just see it for yourself why Clint Eastwood is called the masterpiece and legend of all times not only because of his direction but also of his acting skills. This will be our nineteenth recommended movie.

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Lesser Known Movies you must watch - 18

Snowpiercer

Cast: Chris Evans, Tilda Swinton, Ed Harris, Jamie Bell, Octavia Spencer, John Hurt

A famous South Korean Director, French graphic novel that brings Captain America/Ancient One/Men in Black together on the same screen is our 18th recommended movie. Snowpiercer is one of those underrated movies which hasn’t received all the credits and acknowledgement from the viewers even though it was critically acclaimed for its vision, direction and performances. The production house decisions who planned it for limited release initially can be one of the main reasons of this movie having lack of viewership.

This is a pure Science Action Film based on a dystopian future which is setup somewhere in 2031. This movie looks so real because of the future created by the attempt to prevent global warming through climatic engineering which backfires and thus creates an ice age kind of situation in 2014 which leads to global extinction of most forms of life including animals (only those survived who can live below sub-zero temperatures), plants and most of human race. By 2031 only survivors are the one who live on a train Snowpiercer which is travelling on a created by an inventor named Wilford to enable the train running in a circular track. The Train cars are divided into two parts where the front cars are extravagant, and inhabitants are called elites and the rear end cars inhabitants are called Scums who lives under brutal conditions and are only being fed upon protein bars to survive.

With such an intriguing concept the movie is about the “Scum” lead by Gilliam (John Hurt), Curtis (Chris Evans) along with Edgar (Jamie Bell) plans to lead the passenger to take control of the engine. Mason (Tilda Swinton) who is one of the accomplice of Wilford comes to take over two children and easily able to defeat the passengers and amputating the arm of the father of those children by pushing it out of the train in brutal weather, Curtis decides to initiate their plan. Curtis and other passengers can overrun the guards realizing their guns are empty and are able to take over Security and prison cars.

Now starts the real fight where one by one Curtis and his team plans to take over water supply car so that they can negotiate with Wilford, gets some of their friends killed in multiple battles (intense battle scenes which you cannot miss), goes through other luxurious cars uptill the gate of the engine. This is where we leave you to see the movie where a breath-taking conversations happens between Curtis and Wilford where he reveals his real intentions of such an order and chaos in the train. We will surely uncover other questions on whether the life outside is inhospitable or if it’s just another strategy by rich to rule the poor in state of anarchy. Do watch and let us know your thoughts!

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Lesser Known Movies you must watch - 17

Wonder

Cast: Jacob Tremblay (11 year old genius from the movie room), Julia Roberts, Owen Wilson, Mandy Patinkin

The next movie (seventeenth) is a very sweet American drama cum comedy film which is based on a novel. This movie is a sheer brilliance because of the cast and their acting specially Jacob Tremblay who had already impressed everyone in the movie Room. All other cast members have supported Jacob to their best potential and special mention needs to be given to Mandy Patinkin for his role. Although the movie was nominated for Academy in best Makeup and Hairstyling, we feel it could have easily been nominated in other categories as well.

This story starts with 10 year old boy “August” who lives in New York with his parent and older sister and has a rare face deformity due to which he has to undergo 27 surgeries since his birth. He is been home schooled by his mother who has left her job to teach him. As he approaches fifth grade, his parents decide to enrol him to a public school whose principal (Mandy Patinkin) is very supportive and arranges a tour with three other students to let August feel confident. The students reject him except one named jack who becomes close friend with August.

August starts feeling comfortable in school but during Halloween when he dresses as Ghost face into the school and no one recognizes his disguise including Jack who makes fun of him along with other of his friends. He becomes sick on coming back home and her sister convinces him to go trick-treat with him even though her day with their mom was ruined. In school, Auggie forms a new friendship with a girl name Summer who reveals her about his splitting with Jack. When Jack realizes his mistake and try to rectify by choosing Auggie as his partner in the school science fair, Julian (The bully) gets upset and gets into a fight with Jack when he calls Auggie a freak. Jack apologizes to principal who suspends him only for two days realizing he was trying to defend his friend.

There is a parallel story between Auggie’s older sister Via and her best friend Miranda going on which is as sweet as this one.

Auggie continues to be bullied by Julian and his friends which is finally discovered by one of the teacher who informs the principal. Mr Browne call Julian parents and shows the evidence to Julian Parents about his bulling Auggie to which there defend his actions by saying boys like Auggie should not be put in a regular school. This is where we leave you to decide whether Jack parents are right in their thought process that boys like Auggie are freak and should be put in special schools with other children with disabilities. Watch until the very end as Mandy Patinkin will steal the show with his speech.

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Lesser Known Movies you must watch - 16

Megamind

Cast (Voice): Will Ferrell, Brad Pitt, Jonah Hill, Tina Fey, David Cross

Megamind will be our sixteenth recommended movie, an 3D animation comedy film about a super-villain who is engaged in a never-ending battle with superhero in a city which gives his life a purpose of moving forward every day. But when he defeats his foe, he loses that purpose and thus plan to create a new superhero on his own which turns out to be a super-villain. 

This 90 minutes comedy has very strong visuals which would be a selling point of this movie and with the cast chosen for voice adds extra spice to the same. The movie starts with a quick background of a Superhero and a Super-villain who invaded the earth as Infants and have been each other rivals. When Megamind creates a new plan to kidnap a reporter (Roxane Ritchie) and hold her hostage inside Copper Lined Observatory. When Megamind realizes that Metro-Man is weekend by the copper, he finally gets his sweet revenge and kills him with the death ray and takes over the city.

After taking over the city , Megamind realizes he has nothing else to achieve and his life has no purpose now. While wandering around in the city one day, he disguises himself as another person (Bernard) and starts interacting with Roxanne and immediately gets attracted to her. He gets an idea from Roxanne, where he would create a new superhero to fight him. Megamind creates a serum using Metro Man DNA and injects it to Roxanne proclaimed boyfriend Hal Jordan and convinces him to become a superhero “Titan” to fight Megamind.

Things go wrong when Titan is not able to woo Roxanne and realizes that she is on date with Bernard and leaves. Megamind also reveals her identity to Roxanne who leaves. Titan, also fights Megamind realizing he is being used for all this mess and is unaffected by the copper-lined trap which killed Metro-man becoming a new super-villain. Megamind seeks help of Roxanne who reluctantly takes him to Metro Man headquarters where they are both surprised to see Metroman healthy and alive. He faked his death to take retirement from being a superhero and declines to help Megamind.

Megamind on his own now decides to take up the fight with the super strong HAL now. And we enter in to last 30 minutes of climax fight which is truly visually stunning (The Incredibles level). But, the question lies how can Megamind defeat someone who has been created to defeat him and will he get any help from Metro-Man who has been hiding and relaxing all this time. Although this movie has received mix reviews saying this is the same old superhero vs super-villain story i.e. served in a new package we would still recommend this for its stunning visual effects and dialogues. Do watch the movie and let us know your comments.

SM Movie Geeks

Lesser Known Movies you must watch - 15

                               Edge of Seventeen

               Cast: Hailee Steinfeld, Woody Harrelson, Blake Jenner, Haley Richardson

The next recommended movie is a typical American drama film with a flavor of comedy in it but that’s because of the sheer acting brilliance of Woody and Hailee. Also, with a mere $9 Million budget and loads of positive reviews this movie is a must watch.

The movie begins with Nadine Franklin (Hailee) typical high school kid of west United States informs her teacher Mr. Bruner (Woody) that she is going to commit suicide. On asking her the reason for the same, she narrates her story about how her life has progressed so far. She told him about the regular fights between her brother (Since the age of 7) who is popular, about her theatrical mother who always favor her brother and its only her father whom she feels she is close to. But when he dies by heart attack she is left alone with just one friend Krista (Haley) whom she can communicate.

On one night, when Nadine and Krista are at home drunk and asleep, her brother throws a pool party. When Nadine wakes up and found Krista in bed with her brother she gets tormented about the same. Things take a U-turn when due to her sister when Darian and Krista think not to do it again but ends up becoming a couple. All this time Nadine feels all alone and turns to her classmate Ervin who has a crush on her. Even though, him being someone having great sense of humor and of kind nature, Nadine is attracted towards an older student Nick.

When Krista tries to break the ice between Nadine and her brother by inviting her to come along with them in a party, things don’t work out as Nadine is unable to talk to anyone and ends up going back home alone. She confronts with Krista to choose between her or her brother to which she refuses to which she ends their friendship.

There are lot of things happening in this teenager life where she ends up sending a sexual text to the same senior boy on whom she had a crush (Nick) and this is where her narration ends with Mr. Burner who tries to keep her calm. On receiving a text back from the senior boy, she feels excited but ends up knowing the truth behind her being invited. This is where we leave you to watch the movie and let us know if you liked it or not.

This movie is not like the thriller or a sci-fi action or fantasy movie that we usually are attracted to but a story of a teenager which feels real as it is all about coming of age where you might be able to relate some of the incidents with your life or life of someone you know.

SM Movie Geeks

Lesser Known Movies you must watch - 14

Predestination

Cast: Ethan Hawke, Sarah Snook

The 14th movie that we are proposing is a science fiction based on a concept called predestination paradox. Although this movie has lot of views on IMDB (more than 2 lakhs), we still feel that movie has not been appreciated to an extent to which it should have been in actual.

Now, if you are aware of the concept you would be able to predict the movie either at the very beginning or somewhere in the middle, but if you are not aware of the concept, we would suggest you to watch this movie first and then read about the concept as it will give you sense of appreciation for the writers and actors as they have done complete justice to the same. The best part of the movie is its pace i.e. 95 minutes which means there won’t be even a single scene or moment where you would feel it was not required at all.

The movie begins from between with an agent trying to disarm a bomb by putting it in a case which explodes and burns his face. He tries to catch hold of his time traveling case which lies far away from him and with the help of someone (important person) grasp it and travel to his own time in a hospital. Agent undergoes face reconstruction in an hospital and its revealed that he was trying to stop a “Fizzle Bomber” attack in New-York in the year 1975. After reconstruction of his face and a new identity, the agent is given final tasks post which his device will be decommissioned and he will retire from his role.

The agent has moved to the year 1970 in New York and is working as a bar-tender where he encounters one of the customers and starts a conversation with him. It is revealed that the customer writes articles named “True Confessions” under the name ‘Unmarried Mother”. He tells his own story that he grew up as a women named “Jane” in 1945 and excelled in studies. She wanted to join a program called “Space Corp” for a secret organization which lead candidates travel to space as Astronaut if they clear all the tests. She did well in test but was expelled due to a fight with another candidate and some physical tests which told that she had a medical condition (not revealed).

She takes up a normal life trying to fit in and eventually meet a man somewhere in 1963 and fell in love with him. They had a fling but the man leaves her discloses that they are part of a Temporal Agency and would like to recruit her now but eventually broke the contract when they discover that Jane is pregnant. During the delivery, doctors had to perform a C-Section on Jane but they discover that Jane is actually an intersex having both Male and Female reproductive organs and due to the delivery her female organs are destroyed and now she has to undergo few more surgeries to become John, the man in the bar.

The agent impressed with John’s story offers to take him back in time to take revenge with the man who destroyed her life. Now comes the series of excellent screenplay moments which would reveal who these characters are and what is their true purpose. What is the true purpose of the agent and why does he want to help John? Will John agree to go back in time with Agent to take revenge or not is for you to see it and get amazed your self.

SM Movie Geeks

Lesser Known Movies you must watch - 13

ZATHURA: Space Adventure

          Cast: Josh Hutcherson, Dax Shepard, Kirsten Stewart, Tim Robbins

The 13th movie that we are going for is a sci fi space adventure film which can be called as a sequel to Jumanji (90’s classic) where two brother Walter and Danny play a board game and gets transported to outer space along with their sister and the only way to return is to finish the game. Now, you would probably think, what could be different from the 90’s Jumanji , so our answer would be that first of all this movie is directed by Jon Favreau (Iron Man , Jungle Book) who is a very good director in terms of using the visual effects to its best. And being a fantasy movie, this movie will surely be loved by little Kids as it will directly connect to them.

This movie begins with 2 brothers who don’t get along with each other are living in their home with their older sister in charge. Their father has gone away for work. The younger brother Danny discovers a board game which is based on space theme named “Zathura”. The rules are simple where the player must reach the final space on the board. Danny convinces his elder brother Walter to play the game with him which is when the adventure begins.

As soon as Danny plays his turn and get his card which says Meteor Shower, they realize that the game has actually turned into reality and there house is actually floating in the space. Danny being afraid doesn’t want to play this game anymore but Walter concludes the only way to return everything to normal is to finish the game. This is where Danny and Walter cards brings them face to face with a robot, too close to Sun-Like Planet, attacks by Aliens, and an Astronaut stuck in space coming to their rescue.

Full of ups and downs for the next 30-40 mins, where the boys would accuse each other of cheating, getting ejected into space, Astronaut telling them his story of how he and his brother have played this game and how he got stuck in the same forever due to one wrong wish that he made. Also, Lisa, their sister, realizing that they are really in an altered reality and then coming to the boys’ rescue helping them to finish the game. Obviously, the big climax scene / reveal of who actually that Astronaut was, we would see a strong relationship getting established between the siblings. Whether the siblings are able to complete the game or not is for you to see.

We will recommend this movie for it sheer elegance as Jon Favreau has tried not to use the CGI but the actual robots, aliens. There are very minimal green screens used in the movie which would make you aww in the end wondering how much effort the special effects team has put in the movie.

SM Movie Geeks

Lesser Known Movies you must watch - 12

Dial M for Murder (Alfred Hitchcock classic)

Cast: Ray Millard, Grace Kelly (beauty queen of 50’s era), Robert Cummings and John Williams

The 12th movie we are going to talk about is one of the may classics that Alfred Hitchcock has directed which even though was a decent hit and is among IMDB top 250 movies but has not been recognized the way other Hitchcock classics have been like Psycho or Vertigo or Rear Window but this movie is equally good and those who have already watched this may rate it over all the other highly rated Hitchcock movies.

It’s a Crime Mystery film set in 50’s America about Tony (Ray Miller) who realizes that his wife Margot (Grace Kelly) is having an affair with writer Mark (Robert Cummings) and decides for a revenge against her by plotting her murder and ensuring he gets all of her money.

Tony invites a small time criminal Swann (Anthony Johnson) to his apartment who has been his old acquaintance and blackmails him into murdering Margot. Tony offers to pay him an handsome money if he agrees and if he doesn’t he will turn him into a police as Margot’s blackmailer by handing them the letter which he retrieved from her handbag six months bag which now has finger prints of Swann. He reluctantly agrees in killing him and Tony tells him a perfect plot where he will take Mark to a party which would leave Margot Alone at home and will hide the key to the house outside the front door just under the staircase. Swann will sneak into the house and hide behind the curtains and Tony will phone her from the party at a specific time and at the very moment when she answers the phone Swann must kill her, open the French door, create a scene which would look like burglary gone wrong and exit through the front door hiding the key at the exact same place.

Based on this perfect plan, all the things goes well the very next night and as soon as Tony calls Margot from the party but when Swann strangles her with scarf she manages to catch hold of scissors and kills him accidentally. She pleads for help from Tony who immediately comes back and calls the police. Realizing his plan has failed Tony plots a new plan by placing the latchkey from Swann’s pocket into Margot handbag, plants Mark letter on Swann and destroying his Scarf to entrap her in killing.

Now has the plot perfectly worked against Margot? If yes, will she be pleaded guilty on having an affair with an unknown man and in-turn killing him which would result in her being sentenced to death? If yes, will Mark be able to help her realizing something is fishy in the story of Tony as he immediately left the party. Seems Tony’s backup spontaneous plan is too good not to be true but this is Alfred Hitchcock guys, the master of all thriller movies. We would recommend this 105 minutes roller coaster ride as our next lesser known movie.

SM Movie Geeks

Lesser Known Movies you must watch - 11

The Man Who Knew Infinity

Cast: Dev Patel, Jeremy Irons, Toby Jones

The 11th movie that we are recommending is a biopic about the world greatest Indian mathematician of all times Srinivas Ramanujan. This movie is about Ramanujan story during world war 1 where he gets admitted to Cambridge university and his theories become widely famous with the help of professor G.H.Hardy (Jeremy Irons).

Born in Madras to a very poor family Ramanujan a child genius gets noticed with his exceptional mathematical skills in solving accounting tasks very easily. His employees sees him as someone with extraordinary skills and encourage him to create his own writings on common mathematical problems. All those writings are sent across professors in different universities , one of them is received by G.H. Hardy in Cambridge who decides to bring Ramanujan to UK.

Ramanujan ,a married man at that time decides to pursue on the offer of Hardy and goes to Cambridge even though it requires him to be living separately from his wife for a long period. Living in UK is not easy as he faces lot of Racial preconceptions , the food not to his liking and many other discomforts. Even Hardy become concerned as Ramanujan’ s lacking ability to provide proofs and lacking effective communication leads him to face many challenges. But his trust towards Ramanujan helps him to publish a Major Journal.

This is where Ramanujan finds out that he is suffering from tuberculosis and his condition and health and abilities starts deteriorating. Hardy continuously sees promise in his abilities but is unaware of his personal difficulties including health, loneliness and other issues. His health continuously worsens but his mathematically discoveries and research increases. Hardy after seeing his efforts proposes Ramanujan to be inducted in the fellowship program of Cambridge University. University politics initially didn’t allow him to get what he wanted for Ramanujan but eventually with the effort from his fellow members in the faculty, he eventually is able to get him accepted as a Fellow of the Trinity College (A rare scenario in which Indian getting accepted in Fellowship). Ramanujan decides to go back to be with his family as his health continuously declines and lives with his family during his last days.

This movie even though didn’t become quite famous but needs to be appreciated for its mere acting by Jeremy irons and Dev Patel who was entirely into the Ramanujan’ s character. The supporting cast has been equally good and well placed where required. The movie art directions is brilliant creating the world War 1 environment and the dressing and makeup has been top class. Ramanujan’ s story needs to be heard as he was a rare talent , a genius who came and conquered and then returned to the almighty (Restored).

SM Movie Geeks

 

Lesser Known Movies you must watch - 10

The Man from Earth

Cast: David Lee Smith, Tony Todd, John Billingsley (lot of star war supporting actors

We are into our 10^th Movie guys and we would like to thank you all for your support and viewership in making this blog a success and letting it run this long. We will keep on giving you the best unseen movies that would entertain you, surprise you, make you emotional, make you laugh insanely, drive your mind crazy.

This movie is very close to my heart only because of its share elegance in story telling with a bunch of characters in a small room and the sequence in which it runs. It’s a 90 minutes science fiction dram film with a mere budget of 200,000 USD (1/5 of a million) and was shot with 2 camcorders because the director never thought it to be release on a grand platform.

This movie is about a character named Professor John Oldman who is leaving for his new home after spending 10 years at his current place (although none of this is explicitly mentioned but you would know instantly once the story begins). His colleagues and friends show up for a sort of a farewell party to his surprise. Amongst his colleagues we have a history professor, a biologist, an anthropologist, a historian, a psychiatrist and an archaeologist. When his colleagues request him to tell them reason for his sudden departure, he reluctantly reveals that he is a caveman who is been living on this earth for around 14000 years and now he relocates after every 10 years to hide his identity and let people not identify that he is not aging.

Now there are two ways, either you guys can directly jump to a movie if you have already gained interest in the plot because believe me it will be interesting afterwards, or there might be some spoilers below as our protagonist would be revealing and discussing about some identities from pre-historic era which will make you believe in him. So, will leave it up to you.

Moving on, when his colleagues doesn’t believe in his story, he starts revealing how he belonged to the Mesopotamian civilization and then traveled to east instead of south and became disciple of Gautama Buddha. He how he befriended Van Gogh who gifted him one of his original paintings. His colleagues still struggle believing him bringing in their field expertise to prove him wrong. The biology professor doesn’t believe that a human body can survive for this long. The Archaeology professor doesn’t believe in the events that John is trying to explain. The Psychiatrist threatens him with a gun asking him if he ever felt guilty of outliving someone he loves and left the scene due to his wife being dead on the very previous day after diagnosed with Cancer (Later revealed). The discussion turns to religion and where he tells them reluctantly that he has been a famous character in Christianity (We are not revealing that for you). The story goes on and on where he is making his colleagues realize that he might be someone who he claims.

Will they finally agree to him or is the entire story a faux / prank and if yes, it must have been a good prank.  To know about the same, we would recommend this movie for you for this weekend.

SM Movie Geeks

Lesser Known Movies you must watch - 9

Kubo and the two strings

Cast (Voice)- Charlize Theron, Matthew McConaughey, Ralph Fiennes, Rooney Mara, Art Parkinson

 The ninth movie that we would recommend is actually an Action Animated movie which was released along with the big Sharks like Zootopia and Moana and was nominated for an Academy Award as well but in terms of viewers it has very less viewership which is why we are writing about this movie.

This movie is about a young boy named Kubo whose left eye was stolen when he was an infant yields a magical guitar and defeats his mother corrupted sister and his grandfather (The moon king). The movie visual effects are truly enthralling and have been critically acclaimed.

The movie begins with a 12-year-old Kubo who has patch over his left eye taking care of his ill mother Sariatu in a cave. He is a very good story teller and earns living out of it by telling stories of a samurai warrior (his missing father) using his magical guitar Shamisen to the villagers nearby. He is never able to finish the story as he himself is not aware of the end , what happened to his father. His mother doesn’t let him live outside in the dark due to her estrange evil sisters and grandfather (The moon) who will find him and take his remaining eye.

One day Kubo finds out that there is a Bon festival where he might be able to speak to the departed souls. When he is not able to speak to his father, he becomes angry and forgot to return before midnight. His mother sisters finds him and attacks him , but his mother saves him using magic and send him to estrange land telling him to find his father armor and sacrifices her life.

When Kubo wakes up , he finds that his monkey (Wooden snow toy) has come to life along with the little action figure of his father. With their help, he went on the journey to find the armor. In their journey they found a beetle who has been cursed to take the current form and is suffering from amnesia but considers himself to be Kubo’s father apprentice in the past. Now Kubo, beetle and Monkey went on expedition to the “Hall of Bones” to find the Sword (part of Armor), Long Lake to find “Breast plate – impenetrable” and abandoned fortress to find “Helmet Invulnerable”. There are lot of deaths and reveals in between which will keep the story going at a good pace and towards the exciting climax.

Will Kubo be able to defeat his Aunts and his grandfather the Moon King? Who is the moon king and why does he took Kubo’s eye at the very first place? What is the relationship between Hanzo and Sariatu (Kubo Parents) when Sariatu entire family is evil. All this will be revealed during the final action packed half n hour with compelling visual sequences. This movie has a very good hidden message that memories is a strongest magic of all and can never be destroyed by any other powerful dark magic. Hence our recommendation for this weekend is this 100 minutes of adventure.

SM Movie Geeks

Lesser Known Movies you must watch - 8

Buried

Cast: Ryan Renolds (one Man Army)

The Eight movie that we are going to applaud and suggest is a Thriller where Ryan Renolds has played a role of his life time… yes its not Deadpool, its this movie. Whosoever things that Ryan Renolds is only suitable for R rated comedy like DP we would request you to watch this movie. It will change your opinion about his acting skills and you would like place him amongst the likes of top Hollywood actors. The entire budget of this movie is USD 2 million as the entire movie is shot in a wooden box i.e. a Coffin and only one actor with 95 minutes of absolute nerve wrecking excitement.

This movie is about a Iraq based American truck driver , who finds himself buried alive in a coffin, with only a lighter, a flask, flashlight , mobile phone and few other accessories. Paul Conroy , when wakes up has no idea what happened to him and how he ended up in this coffin. After putting things together he realizes that his truck was ambushed by some terrorists, and his colleagues were killed and he passed out. He receives a call from the kidnapper, who tells him to pay USD 5 Million by 9PM or he will die in the coffin.

Conroy calls the state department where the government refused to negotiate with the terrorist but assures him of his rescue. The kidnapper negotiates with Conroy and brings the ransom amount to 1 million but ask him to make a video or they will execute his colleague if he doesn’t so he complies but they still kill his colleague. There are some explosions which lead to coffin being damaged and sand started filling the coffin which leaves him very less time to live (other than claustrophobia and less Oxygen). The team trying to rescue Conroy tells him that they have rescued another man Mark white from similar situation 3 weeks back and he is safe and fine to lift his spirits. The Kidnapper again calls him asking him to make a video of himself cutting his finger, threatening him that his family will suffer if he doesn’t. Having lost his job and benefits (receiving a call from his employer), Conroy again complies and shares the video with kidnapper cutting off his finger.

Conroy becomes disillusioned and starts imagining that he is being rescued (The sequences are amazing to watch). After losing all the hope, and sand continues to fill the coffin, giving Conroy minutes to live he receives call again from rescuing team that they have found his location and will soon be reaching out to save him from dying in Coffin. He receives call from his wife as well, who tells him that everything is going to be fine and he will be with his family soon.

Will he be rescued by the team? We leave it to you to watch and enjoy. One thing is for sure that you will not be disappointed.

SM Movie Geeks

Lesser Known Movies you must watch - 7

The CORE

Cast: Aaron Eckhart, Hillary Swank, Stanley Tucci, Richard Jenkins, Delroy Lindo

The seventh movie that we are going to recommend is a Science Fiction that came in early 2000 when the technology of CGI was not in full force but visionary directors like Steven Spielberg, Peter Jackson or James Cameroon were making the movies which were mind boggling considering the evolution of technology was still in progress. This movie came during the same time and is one of those visionary movies regarding Apocalypse that’s going to destroy the earth and entire species living on it.

Then comes a team of high profile scientist who plan to drill a hole in the earth to reach down its very core and perform a series of nuclear explosions to restart its rotations and save humanity. Sounds weird right? But this is what happens where these guys build a shuttle that can reach earth’s very inner core where they can bring their plan to action.

The movie begins with series of incidents happens across globe which let the team of Dr. Josh (Aaron Eckhart) , Dr. Serge (Tcheky Karyo) and Dr. Conrad (Stanley Tucci) realize that Earth’s Magnetic field is becoming instable due to its molten core rotation being halted due to reasons unknown. Due to this , within the year the entire field will collapse and earth will become vulnerable to solar radiation. Team with the help of other scientists create a vessel made of “Unobtanium” a rare element that can withstand earth’s crust. They also built a boring system using laser which will allow them to pass through crust.

These scientists are joined by space shuttle pilots Major Rebecca (Hillary Swank) and Commander Robert (Bruce Iverson) on the expedition. The Army also appoints a high profile hacker Donald “Rat” (DJ Qualis – Who has been brilliant with his acting) to ensure that all the traces of any news of disaster are erased from the internet.

Now comes the expedition where the team of Six people goes down the earth via the deepest trench (Marianas Trench) into the earth crust down to its very core. In comes the series of sacrifices from these scientists / pilots in order to progress in their journey. Meanwhile, no-one is aware that there is also a PLAN B in place called Project “DESTINI” (Deep Earth Seismic Trigger INItiative) which will be deployed if Conrad (Who is aware of it) mission fails in performing nuclear explosions. Project DESTINI will allow to initiate a series of earth quakes in Earth’s core but to restart its rotation.

Will they be able to carry out their plan of nuclear explosions or the PLAN B has to be initiated and if there was another plan, why was not it carried out at the very first place? If they are able to carry out their plan, how will they get out if there ship is destroyed? There is too much excitement that you can expect out of this 135 Minutes full of Masala movie. So grab your popcorn and enjoy this roller coaster.

SM Movie Geeks

Lesser Known Movies you must watch - 6

Idiocracy

Cast: Luke Wilson, Maya Rudolph, Dax Shepard, Terry Crews, Justin Long

The sixth movie is again a comedy but a science fiction which is funny in its own way where it tells about a story of a top secret military program where two human beings are selected for hibernation experiment, which was sort of illegal and when no one realizes about the same those two human’s ends up in hibernation mode for around 500 years and once they are awaken, they realized that they are in a sort of dystopian society where human beings have become dumber with zero IQ and more virile.

The story starts in the year 2005, where a Corporal Joe Bauers (an Average person) is selected for the suspended animation experiment (Person is induced to a sleep to a hypometabolic state to try to preserve its mental and physiological capabilities). This experiment is forgotten when the officer who is conducting the experiment is caught for some prostitution racket.

Now starts the prime humor of the movie, as Joe is in hibernation mode along with another women (a prostitute), human population has become more stupid as the intelligent humans are becoming less and less fertile while the lesser intelligent race are becoming more and more reproductive which results in a chain reaction and people become more and more dumber.

Joe and Rita awoke in the year 2505 and Joe’s suspension chamber crashes into the apartment of Frito (Dax Shepard) who tells him that there is a time machine which can help him go back in time. In a funny events of ups and downs Joe gets caught by the police and escapes gets a name “Not Sure” by faulty Tattooed machine, takes IQ test and connects with Rita again. He is finally apprehended and taken to the white house where due to the his IQ test results which makes him the most intelligent person alive on planet earth he is appointed as Secretary of Interior.

In an attempt to fix the word Joe realizes that the crops in this century are irrigated with a sports drink and not water which is treated as a wasted commodity. When Joe tries to replace drink with water, it resulted in the Brawndo (sport drink) losing it stocks and most of the population losing their jobs. This results is riots and Joe being sentenced to death by a unique way of combating in demolition derby.

Will Joe be able to survive this ideocracy (a form of government in which a country or territory is run by fools)? Will he able to get back to his own time with the help of time machine Frito has suggested? You would have to see it for yourself!!!

SM Movie Geeks

Lesser Known Movies you must watch - 5

The Boy in Stripped Pyjamas

Cast: Asa Butterfield, Jack Scanlon (two main protagonist who have lifted the movie on their own through brilliant acting), Vera Farmiga, David Thewlis, David Heyman

The fifth movie we are presenting is a historical drama film from world war 2 based on a book with the same name by John Boyne. Even though there have been a lot of historical movies being made (Dunkirk, Fury, Valkyrie, Saving Private Ryan, Schindler’s list to name a few), most of them have been war films. This is where The boy in Stripped Pyjamas is unique from its counterparts as you won’t see any war scene in this movie yet it also showcases the genocide during world war 2 by Nazis which killed nearly 6 million Jews.

A young boy Bruno lives with his family in Germany during the period of Holocaust. His father part of Nazi army who has just been promoted requires to relocated to a countryside location along with his family. Bruno doesn’t like his new home as he has no friends and is not allowed to go out or explore. They get a private tutor for their studies who is inclined towards teaching Nazi propaganda which doesn’t satisfy Bruno as he finds Jews to be normal people and nothing like his tutor has shown in his teachings.

One day, Bruno sneaks out in the backyard and into the woods where he finds a bob fence wire surrounding a camp. He meets a boy who is his own age (Shmuel). He things that the prisoner clothes all the people are wearing are mere pyajamas. Befriending Shmuel was the best thing happened to Bruno as he meets him regularly and brings him food, plays with him.

After discovering what is the black smoke all about Bruno’s mother gets heartbroken and confronts with his father. When there is a disagreement with the fellow lieutenant results in violence’s, the next day Bruno finds Shmuel working at his home. Bruno offers him some cake which he accepts but when the Lieutenant walks and get furious, Bruno under fear lies that he never offered anything to Shmuel.

Bruno feeling bad about his actions when goes to meet Shmuel and didn’t find him there gets him worried. But he eventually appears behind the fence where Bruno apologizes and rekindle their friendship. The tension arises in the movie when Bruno find difference occurring between his parents has led to them moving to their relative place but also Shmuel not able to find his father in the camp. The next day Bruno decides to help him, and this is where we leave you as we want you to watch one of the most excruciating climax of all times.

SM Movie Geeks

Lesser Known Movies you must watch - 4

                                                                                EXAM

                                Adar Beck , Gemma Chan , Nathalie Cox ( In short a lot of unknown names)

The fourth movie that we want you to watch is again a mystery thriller but with an entirely different concept. It’s a very low budget movie where the entire shoot of the movie has been completed in a single room and the star cast is also not that famous. Still the mere sequence in which movie progresses from the very first scene to the climax and reasoning as to why the things happened in a specific manner is amazing.

This movie is about finding an answer of the exam in which 8 of the top candidates are selected. The catch is they have only 80 minutes to find the answer and they cannot get help from the guard in that room, or can’t go outside or can talk to the invigilator. This exam seems to be employment assessment where only one candidate will be selected by the firm (Name unknown).

As soon as the timer starts you can see the tension building up because the answer that they are suppose to provide in the sheet in front of them doesn’t have any question, its entirely blank. Now, what would you do in such situation, would you start writing based on what you think the question is , if your answer is yes, then its wrong. As soon as, one of the candidate (Chinese) starts writing on the paper, She is disqualified for spoiling the paper.

This is where the rest of the seven candidates start collaborating realizing that its permissible to talk amongst themselves as there were only three rules for this paper. Without getting to know each other names, they assign nicknames based on hair and skin color as Black, White, Brown, Blonde, Brunette, Dark and Deaf (for the candidate who doesn’t speak at all). In the next hour or so , these candidates try everything from lights to fire splinkers in attempts to reveal what is the answer if any to the unknown question.

This is where these 7 candidates come to know that the company is preparing a miracle drug to treat the virus that has affected a large amount of population i.e. it’s an alternate history. They also start knowing about each other and why have they applied for this interview. There are so many hidden secrets that you would find throughout the movie which will keep you at the edge of your seats. Two things that we can tell you which would make movie interesting is one of the candidate is suffering from the same disease and one of the candidate will try to take control of the situation by trying to disqualify each and every candidate one by one , whether he/she succeeds or not is for you to watch and enjoy. The ending like always will make you feel that the 100 Minutes were worth spent.

SM Movie Geeks