-->

5 Great Movies You’ve Never Seen

There are some films that everyone knows to be the best of the best and some that everyone knows are the worst of the worst. However, there are some films that are the best of the unknown. This is my top 5, in no particular order.


If you have heard of these films, don’t get mad. I’m not saying you in particular haven’t seen or heard of them just that they’re not incredibly well known films (that title didn’t roll off the tongue as well as the other one). 

1. Firstly I’m just going to say a little bit about a film called Twelve Monkeys. This film stars Brad Pitt and Bruce Willis and was released in 1995, so you’d think it would be way more famous than it is. Also, the fact that it held the No. 1 spot in the box office for two weeks would make you think it would be better known, alas no. It centres around James Cole (Willis), a convicted criminal living in a post-apocalyptic future where the surface of the earth has been rendered uninhabitable by a deadly virus. So that he can get a pardon James Cole is sent back in time by scientists to try and find information on the deadly virus. This is where he meets Brad Pitt and the plot thickens. I’ll say no more lest I ruin it for you.



2. Next up we have: 50/50. This story about a young man, who learns from his doctor that he has schwannoma neurofibrosarcoma (a malignant tumour) in his spine and finds he has a 50/50 chance of living, stars Joseph Gordon-Levitt as Adam, the young man in question. It also has Seth Rogen and Anna Kendrick as his best friend and therapist, respectively. The story is light-hearted with some good comedy mixed in but doesn’t forgot the gravity of the situation. It is a personal favourite of mine and made it in to the top ten of many lists in 2011, including the New York Post and the Boston Globe. It’s definitely worth a watch; it’ll tug on your heart strings when Adam Loses it in his friend’s car and it’ll make you giggle when Seth Rogen...swears a lot. 

3. Moving on to another small film starring Simon Pegg: A Fantastic Fear of Everything. It tells the tale of a children’s author who wants to move on to grittier stuff and so decides to write a crime novel entitled ‘Decades of Death’. Spending most of his time in his flat Pegg becomes obsessed with murderers and murder and goes a wee bit loopy. He then finds out he has a meeting in just a few hours but has no clean clothes, so he must go to the laundrette! The only problem is that he was abandoned in a laundrette by his mother when he was very young. The film is not a thrill ride or an enthralling murder mystery but it’s a nice story with some good laughs and a little bit of drama. I’d say stick it on if you’re bored and looking for some entertainment.


4. Nearing the end we have another movie with Joseph Gordon-Levitt as our leading man: The Lookout. This story of a young boy named Chris Pratt who, after his prom, crashes his car, killing two of his friends and injuring his girlfriend and himself. Pratt ends up with severe brain damage affecting his short term memory. Many years later he is convinced to help rob the bank that he works for by an old friend from school. Things don’t exactly go to plan and the story takes a few twists and turns. The Lookout also stars Jeff Daniels and Isla Fisher and won the award for Best First Feature at the 2008 Independent Spirit Awards. Definitely one of my favourites from the list and well worth checking it out on Netflix or at your local Blockbuster...oh wait.


5. Last, but by no means least, we have Hush. Now this is the 2009 film with William Ash, he was on Waterloo Road for a bit, not the 1998 one with Gwyneth Paltrow, she was in Iron Man. It’s a thriller about a young couple on a motorway journey. When they stop at a service station, however, things take a turn for the worst and our leading mans girl is kidnapped by a lorry driver. Ash or Zakes Abott, as his character is named, then embarks on a mission to save his girlfriend. It’s a bit like Taken, so if you like that, which of course you did, you’ll like this one.

Words by Adam Hughes