Elizabeth Shue discovers cold fusion, because Val Kilmer asked her to. That's just a big old bowl of what the hell. "I wanna kill, everyone, satan is good, satan is my pal.."
Don't sleep on Starship Troopers; it's an incredibly sly satire of fascism/the military-industrial complex, wrapped in a popcorn sci-fi movie. In the society, only "citizens" (i.e. "volunteer" soldiers) can vote. The bugs clearly didn't start the war; their planets were colonized and they're fighting back. All of the military uniforms and insignias are direct ripoffs of Nazi finery. All the acting is purposefully wooden. (Casper van Dien is an Aryan posterchild.) All you have to do is, like Robocop (also by Verhoeven), look at the propaganda/commercials in the film: the little kids stepping on earthbound cockroaches so that they can do their part for the cause, etc. Only Doogie Howser seemed in on the joke, though, so I don't blame most critics for missing it at the time.
Bottle Rocket I didnt understand any of the symbolism when I first watched it. One of the LAST things I did in movie watching was look for that kind of thing. But its easy to sense there's a lot more depth to to that movie than appears on the surface. I count that as a "pleasant surprise"
I dunno if this movie got mad reviews but doesn't have the hype of a anchorman, 40 year old virgin, Old School, but Saving Silverman is my top 5 fav. comedy ever. One of Jack Black's funnier movies imo. Him and Steve Zahn worked so well together I'm surprised they haven't made another movie together.
I think Breakdown got good reviews from critics...just didn't receive much fanfare. Definitely agree on Pitch Black...that's an awesome movie and character. Story is pretty simplistic, but it's really about the atmosphere and the Riddick character. Underwold - Kate Beckinsale. Automatic pistols. Vampires and werewolves. Bill Nighy as the villain. Nice action scenes. What's not to like. Superman Returns and Hulk were both good movies that got trashed by fans. They had flaws but don't think they deserved all that hate.
The Ninth Gate - great Depp movie that's fairly obscure and was not well received, one of my all time faves. Butterfly Effect - I was surprised how much I liked it.
The scene where the demon chick is on top of him and having her way while he seems frozen in a combination of both repulsive fear and seduction stood out for some reason.
The Prestige OK, RT gave it good reviews, but critics seemed to hate how it ended. I, however, loved it. Just watch the damn movie and stop worrying about being critical.
Man On Fire got bad reviews. I thought it was fricking awesome. Just looked it up on RottenTomatoes. http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/man_on_fire/ Critics- 39% Audience- 89% LOL FAIL.
