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.

SM Movie Geeks

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!

SM Movie Geeks