Ryan's Daughter (1970)
Personal Rating: 8.5/10
This was really, really disliked by critics when it came out, and though it did decently at the box office, the initial response towards it resulted in this being often remarked as David Lean's 'weakest' film. It's not a perfect film, admittedly, perhaps a bit overlong, and with a lacking leading male performance, but on the whole it deserves to be recognized as a strong film by the master. It has beautiful cinematography and music, a strong supporting ensemble around Sarah Mile's titular character including the reliable Leo McKern, an uncharacteristically kindly Robert Mitchum, an underrated John Mills, and a terrific Trevor Howard as the local priest. It's a slow-moving film but also a very rewarding one that I feel was just released at the wrong time, with the wrong campaign behind it.
Rocky IV (1985)
Personal Rating: 8/10
For some reason, Rocky II and III both attained respectable levels of critical acclaim while IV proved to be a sudden turning point in critical appreciation for the series, though the box office numbers remained excellent. The turning point in quality would come later with Rocky V and dissapate with Rocky Balboa, and Rocky IV should not have been considered the junction where the franchise started becoming 'bad'. It's a bit of a step down from the previous films in some regards, yes; there's a few overly cheesy lines, the villain is perhaps a bit too one-dimensional, and the ending is a tad bit preachy. Also Rocky himself seems to be going in a bit of a strange mental wavelength in this installment. But all in all this is a pretty rousing boxing film in most regards, which really packs an emotional punch with its midsection tragedy (which helped set up the great Creed) and makes the finale really heart-pounding and uplifting. And the music this one, from the opening montage set to 'Eye of the Tiger' to of course the training montage scene, is particularly great.
Hook (1991)
Personal Rating: 7.5/10
Firstly, there's something a bit weird with the critics and children's films in this time period, Home Alone got mixed reviews which is kind of bizzare if you think about it, even if you don't really like the film is there really anything to hate on it for? Same goes for this. It's naturally not going to reflect very well on your film if, between Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade and the double whammy of Schindler's List and Jurassic Park it's anything less than great. Hook is not a great film, but it's a good one that does deliver on what it promises, which is a fun, somewhat irreverent but sincere retelling of the Peter Pan tale. Robin Williams, Bob Hoskins, and especially Dustin Hoffman, are loads of fun, and the set design and costumes are all excellent.
The Three Musketeers (1993)
Personal Rating: 7/10
There's something very endearing about this film I can't put my finger on. I actually have only seen it once when it was playing on television, and it was a pleasant surprise, to say the least. In contrast to say, that lifeless 2010's version with Logan Lerman as D'Artagnan, or the disappointing Man in the Iron Mask, this is so much more vibrant and fun overall. The titular trio are actually very well cast, with Charlie Sheen and Kiefer Sutherland surprisingly convincing and Oliver Platt unsurprisingly spectacular, and though we have bland Chris O'Donnell in the lead, we have Tim Curry to more than make up for it as a very hammy Cardinal Richlieu. I wouldn't consider this to being anything near a great film, but it's some harmless and entertaining popcorn Disney fun.
Event Horizon (1997)
Personal Rating: 7.5/10
Paul W.S. Anderson started off his career making two critically panned movies and never looked back, continuing a long string of them from Alien v.s. Predator (which I've admittedly never sat the whole way through) to all those Resident Evil films (which I've only seen bits of) to the aforementioned The Three Musketeers remake, and a few years ago the hilariously incompetent Pompeii which does have entertainment value in Adewale Akinnuoye-Agbaje's performance, worthy of a Ben-Hur or Spartacus around him. That film seemed to hearken back to Anderson's Mortal Kombat, which is another bad film with some fun performances to bolster it. That did well at the box office, whereas Event Horizon flopped, yet I sincerely believe that Event Horizon is a pretty rock solid film that should be appreciated as such. It's an atmospheric horror, with some inventive cinematography by Adrian Biddle of Aliens fame, and two very interesting leads in Laurence Fishburne's stoic badass and Sam Neill's loopy designer. Out of all the B-movie space flicks of the 1990s, this is probably my favourite.
Riding in Cars With Boys (2001)
Rotten Tomatoes Score: 49%
Personal Rating: 8/10
The film on this list that I'd say comes closest to being 'great' after Ryan's Daughter. The story of a teenage mother Bev (Drew Barrymore) who overcomes the odds against her in a very atypical fashion was criticized at the time for being tonally imbalanced, with dead serious scenes often becoming light and comedic in a matter of seconds. I'd say that was the intent of director Penny Marshall, whose similarly handled A League of Their Own had used comedy to balance out the dramatics. Here we have a surprisingly multidimensional and not glorified protagonist who feels very much like a real human being and not some perfect caricature. The scenes where we see Bev's domestic life and her higher ambitions clash are often directed in a lighthearted fashion, but with an underlying sense of regret and discontent, and Steve Zahn's terrific portrayal of the upbeat but selfish father figure whose optimism gradually crumbles is another terrific gem that encompasses the odd but effective tone of the film. It doesn't mesh together quite perfectly at the end, but on the whole is a very, very good film that should not have been written off the way it was.
Scooby-Doo (2002)
Personal Rating: 7.5/10
One of those films the critics hated but audiences clearly enjoyed based on the box office success, I've always had a soft spot for this film. It's no masterpiece and the plot is very flimsy, but it manages to hit all the sweet spots you'd ever want from a film about everyone's favourite meddling kids. All the principals are perfectly cast, with Raja Gosnell and James Gunn's script (!!!) milking the best out of otherwise bland actors like Freddie Prinze Jr. and Sarah Michelle Gellar, and allowing Linda Cardenelli and Matthew Lillard to excel with Velma and Shaggy, who they were born to play. As I said, the mystery isn't great, but hey neither were a lot of them in the original animated series, and there's enough corny jokes, enjoyable B-movie horror parodies, and heart to push this film through.
The Longest Yard (2005)
Personal Rating: 7/10
Adam Sandler's made a lot of crap in recent years, but he's also made a few good films. Punch-Drunk Love is great of course, and also good are 50 First Dates and to a lesser extent, Click. And The Longest Yard presents us with perhaps the last time ever where Sandler's child man schtick worked in a film. It's a really, really dumb film, but I think it revels in it, and the whole cast had a lot of fun throughout which really comes across when watching the film.
Lucky Number Slevin (2006)
Personal Rating: 7.5/10
The noir dialogue is occasionally a bit unwieldy and the final twist is a bit stupid, but overall this is a very refreshing film that tries to upend all formulae of the crime genre and does so to a mostly effective and very entertaining film. Josh Hartnett's titular trickster is quite a joy to watch as he and newfound comrade Lindsey (a surprisingly good Lucy Liu) navigate the bizzare underworld of Morgan Freemans and Ben Kingsleys and Stanley Tuccis and Bruce Willises. Paul McGuigan may not have proven himself to be much of a filmmaker after this, but this is a very strong and assured effort at crime comedy that is worthy of being mentioned along the most fun movies of the genre in recent times.
Live by Night (2016)
Personal Rating: 8/10
Really don't get the hate for this one. It moves by a bit too quickly and the ending, more specifically the last few minutes or so, is a bit lacking, but on the whole I really enjoyed this gangster flick. I'm a bit of a sucker for Dennis Lehane anyway, and this is a good example of an adaptation of his work, if not quite on the level of something like The Drop, I probably liked it more than Shutter Island and Mystic River. Joe Coughlin (Affleck) and his downwards spiral into crime after falling in love with the wrong lass (a surprisingly good Sienna Miller) is not the most consistent film overall, but when it gets going it really hits some high heights. The shootouts, cinematography, and sound editing are all pretty immaculate, Affleck's direction is superb, and though some subplots don't quite resonate as well as others, I really liked the atypical father-son realtinoship between Joe and his police captain father (Brendan Gleeson), the KKK stuff, and the story of a Sherrif's daughter who begins as angelic as can be and emerges from the tale as its most tragic, haunted and corrupted soul (a very good Elle Fanning). Again it does suffer from some pacing issues, and a misguided performance or two, but on the whole this definitely deserved much more acclaim and did not deserve to be such a massive flop at the box office.
