2 Most Underappreciated Movies by Audience

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 Most of the movies get an appreciation for their unique screenplay, acting performances, great direction but some of the movies don’t get the appreciation they deserve. This appreciation is not in the awards or critic's ratings but in the eyes of the audience. Sometimes the audience doesn’t get the main subject of the movie and criticizes the plot of the movie. The length of the movie plays a pivotal part in the audience’s perception of the movie. Nowadays with social apps like TikTok, Instagram Reels, the patience level of the audience is getting shorter. One small slow scene can drive them too fast forward the movie. I don’t fast-forward movies as it lost the touch of a movie. Three hours movie seems dragged to the audience as ninety- or hundred-minute movies seem good to them. Sometimes the audience has to understand that slowness has to be there to maintain the flow of the movie. This led to poor ratings on the sites like IMDb and Rotten Tomatoes.

For example, in Taxi Driver (1976), when Travis Bickle (Robert De Niro) calls Betsy (Cybil Shepherd) to ask her about the flowers he has given her then the camera moves to the empty passage next to him to show the loneliness in his life. This shot was important in the movie to show the loneliness. The overall cinematography in the movie is fabulous, I will write a whole blog on it later. Martin Scorsese is a legend for a reason.

In this blog, I am going to explain 2 movies from my watchlist which are underappreciated by the audience.

Meet Joe Black (1998)

The movie is slightly based on 1953’s Mitchell Lensen’s Directed “Death Takes a Holiday” which was adapted from the 1924 Italian play La Morte in Vacanza by Alberto Casella which was adapted in English for Broadway in 1929 by Walter Ferris.

The movie revolves around a Death/ Joe Black played by Brad Pitt who has come to earth to take a rich businessman named Bill Parrish played by Sir Anthony Hopkins. As we all will panic, a rich, successful, and sensible businessman Bill Parrish starts to panic and starts makes difficult choices for him. You may have seen a clip of the movie on social media, in this clip actor and actress trying to look at each other but every time they miss the other one as one looking in opposite direction. This type of suspense and interesting clips are a new way of promoting movies that are giving good responses. Susan Parrish, daughter of Bill Parrish played by Claire Forlani starts to fall for Joe Black due to his honesty and kindness. When Joe Black visits her in hospital (as Susan is a doctor by a professional) it surprises her as to why would someone come to the hospital in their free time? When there are coffee shops, cinema halls which are more cheerful than a hospital. This moment makes a strong bond that started to build in that coffee shop before Joe taking over that guy’s body. Bill Parish build his way to success but some people are now wanting to break it. Bill Parish is already tensing about his daily interaction with death and now all this drama makes him more stressed. Susan falls for Joe because of his simpleness. This becomes a big concern to Bill as his daughter is in love with Death. All the movie Joe Black is shown a dumb as he is not from this world but at the end when he turns the table on Drew. Drew tried to outsmart Bill but he got busted and Bill fired him immediately. At last, Joe takes Bill and both of them go on to start their new journey.



The movie is great and rewatchable. Not all movies are rewatchable. After revealing the main part, you start to see the movie differently. This movie is long and it is the need of the story to go slow. The total time of the movie is three hours and one minute. The two hours of edited version was released given credit to "Alan Smithee". Director Martin Brest was in opposition to this edited version so they gave this nickname to it (the nickname is the usual nickname when directors disregard the work). The direction of the movie is great. The way director ‘Martin Brest’ showed the opening scene of Death was taken in the glass. It is commendable.



The movie does not have much success at the box office. Movie collected only 44.6 million in the US and Canada despite collecting 15 million on opening weekend. The worldwide collection of the movie is 142.9 million on the budget of 90 million. This movie is one of the best Brad Pitt movies. After this movie, he got the “Fight Club” which became a cult classic. If you want to know what is cult classic then see my blog What is Cult Classic? . If you want to watch fight club online then it is available on Amazon Prime. Grab your “Amazon Prime” in this Amazon Prime Sale.

The Secret Life of Walter Mitty (2013)

The movie is adapted from James Thurber’s short story “The Secret Life of Walter Mitty”. The story first came in ‘The New Yorker on March 18, 1939. The story was collected in his ‘My World and Welcome to It’ book in 1942. This short story is one of the most celebrated stories of Thurber’s collection. In 1947, Norman Z. McLeod made the movie from James Thurber’s short story naming it the same. The movie starred Danny Kaye in the leading role of Walter Mitty. The movie is 479th ranked on 2008’s Empire magazine list of the 500 Greatest Movies of All Time. In the 1990s, producer Samuel Goldwyn Jr wanted to make the remake of the movie and was considering actor Jim Carrey in the leading role of Walter Mitty. Samuel Goldwyn Jr.’s father produced the 1947 movie adaption. But it doesn’t happen for two decades. In April 2011 Ben Stiller was announced as a lead after the long waiting. In that year in July, the director was announced which was Ben Stiller himself. You also have seen the clip of this movie on social media. In that clip, Walter Mitty (Ben Stiller) is showing some skateboard tricks to a boy but when Cheryl Melhoff (Kristen Wiig) turns to see, all is normal. This type of clip makes you curious about the movie and you eventually watch the movie.



Walter Mitty a leading character does daydreaming of countless adventures. This phenomenon is called ‘Maladaptive Daydreaming’. He is a negative assets manager at Life magazine. He daydreams about all things that he starts to listen to or start to see. He daydreams about jumping out of the station, to saving his crush from an accident. Despite all this, he is fully dedicated to his job. He has great relations with famous photojournalist Sean O’Connell (played by Sean Penn) without even meeting. As his job gets in trouble due to the magazine going online. The final print of the magazine is due and it is based on Sean O’Connell’s photograph but the problem is he doesn’t have the negative. This missing negative problem leads him to his crush Cheryl Melhoff (played by Kristen Wiig). This was the first time he talks to her as he was trying to talk withher through the dating website eHarmony. Walter gives Cheryl the one piece of negative and she suggests to him that negative might be the clue to the location of Sean O’Connell. This led to the journey of adventure in Walter’s life. For more watch the movie. I recommend you all to watch the movie once in a life. The movie is available on YouTube (PAID).



Ben Stiller did a great job in directing the movie. Some of the scenes are great and make a lot of sense. It is good to watch movies with a good sense rather than just watching for the time to pass. He was not over with the character and bonded himself in the role. Not to take credit from writer Steve Conrad. He wrote the screenplay very efficiently. All the supporting cast was great but I would like to give Patton Oswalt. He played the character of Todd Maher, customer service representative for eHarmony. He was in constant touch with Walter and somehow may have encouraged him to do all the adventures. It was great to finally see Walter and Todd together at the end. Kristen Wiig played the character of Cheryl Melhoff. Kristen Wiig is famous for her SNL characters and impressions.

The movie showed that you can achieve what you can think. You just have to try harder and harder to make it a success. The movie is an inspiration to me. This movie is a great example for the people who are waiting for the right time to achieve something. There is no right time as you have to make every time a right time.

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