Underrated but flawed films

BuilderPlumber

What do you consider to be underrated but flawed films? First off, I will mention some films that are underrated but I don't consider them flawed (most are members of a good franchise but made to look inferior by other entries in the franchise). They are Indiana Jones and The Crystal Skull, the Star Wars prequels, many James Bond films, Hitman (2007 version), The Magnificent Seven sequels, The Enforcer, Sudden Impact, The Dead Pool. All these I do not consider flawed.

Now, I will come to what I consider underrated or interesting films that are flawed. 2 readily come to mind: The Handmaid's Tale (1990) and The Postman (1997). Both films deal with a very similar story of the USA falling apart during the war and becoming the fascist Republic of Gilead and then eventually becoming a restored USA.

The Handmaid's Tale from 1990 is a film I only watched the weekend. Of the 2 films I mentioned, this is the stronger one. It stays faithful enough to Margaret Atwood's excellent 1984 book of the same name. But like a lot of films of the time, there had to be a bad guy in it so the Commander is turned into one and he is killed by Kate (Offred) and Kate then walks away from Gilead with Nick and we get a happy ending so different to the book. In the book, the Commander is shown as having many good points. Perhaps I may have really enjoyed this film ... if I hadn't seen the excellent TV series of the same name which is how both the film of this and The Postman should be done. The film seemed rushed and formulaic while the series can explore more deeply what the world of Gilead is and how it operates.

The Postman from 1997 was based on another 1980s dystopian book this time written by David Brinn. It is the more wellknown of the 2 films and many will have it on their list of worst films of all time. And if The Handmaid's Tale from 1990 was too short, The Postman was too long. Very little is explained here about how America became 'Gilead' run by a vicious neo Nazi regime. The world of Gilead as shown in The Postman (though not named this but the world we see here and in Handmaid where Gilead is the official name are part of the same alternative universe) shows isolated communities and there are too many scenes with dancing to bad modern country music (the soundtrack to this film is awful).

I believe The Postman would be better done as a TV series. The 1997 film attempted to oversimplify things. Apparently, Kevin Costner's titular character defeat Gilead by indirectly killing its leader General Bethlehem in what can be called a 'Thunderdome-lite' fight borrowed from the third Mad Max and we are lead to believe things then suddenly improved. A lot of source material from the book was left out here.

So, there are 2 films that I think are flawed (especially The Postman) but yet underrated. While both source materials deserve to have something done to really show them justice, Handmaid has gotten that (can't wait until later in the week for series 2) while Postman waits to get it. The Postman film was neither an action dystopian film like the Mad Max classics or either was it the story of an oppressive regime like The Handmaid's Tale. The book by David Brinn was Margaret Atwood meets Philip K Dick, somewhere placed between The Handmaid's Tale and Blade Runner. 2 types of drama could come out of the source material. The film ignored all the sci fi parts of the book by the way.

Tony EH

I think everyone on this site knows my opinions on the Star Wars prequels by now, so I won't comment there :pac:.

However, on 'The Enforcer', I like it, but it is the lesser of the proper Dirty Harry films. By "proper", I mean the 70's ones. Tyne Daly is pretty good and I like the way she wins Harry over, with her honesty and commitment. But those ridiculous People's Revolutionaries are absurd. They really drag the film down.

It's easy to see why it was the last film until the 80's.

Can't remember 'The Postman', but its counterpart 'Waterworld' is very enjoyable.

BuilderPlumber

Tony EH wrote: »

I think everyone on this site knows my opinions on the Star Wars prequels by now, so I won't comment there :pac:.

However, on 'The Enforcer', I like it, but it is the lesser of the proper Dirty Harry films. By "proper", I mean the 70's ones. Tyne Daly is pretty good and I like the way she wins Harry over, with her honesty and commitment. But those ridiculous People's Revolutionaries are absurd. They really drag the film down.

It's easy to see why it was the last film until the 80's.

Can't remember 'The Postman', but its counterpart 'Waterworld' is very enjoyable.

I like The Enforcer but the main problem I have is it is too short. Magnum Force is the perfect length and the twist of who the real bad guy was I didn't see coming first time I watched it. The People's Revolutionaries are typical of their time: the 1970s films and TV series were littered with such vaguely communist terrorist groups. I agree Harry works better when the bad guys are deranged killer psychopaths, rapists, gangland figures and especially rogue cops.

The Postman was a very interesting concept of an America run by a fascist army. It was let down by a lack of explanation of how the world came to be. A few more of the letters read and flashbacks would have helped. The series version of The Handmaid's Tale has done what The Postman hinted at in a fuller and more gruesome manner. Scenes like hanging the man who had no place to sit was a once off and Bethlehem from then on did not seem all that scary. Gilead in The Handmaid's Tale constantly conjures up the cruelty of a fascist run state and perhaps a TV series of The Postman made by the same people who produced Handmaid's would be very good (as with Handmaid's, get the original author onboard too).

Waterworld had a less interesting world but was a great action film. It can be enjoyed more as a modern pirate adventure with a sci fi flavour than as a true post apocalypse or dystopian film.