If you're looking for some films from the 2000s that are undergoing critical re-evaluation, take a look at these critically hated movies that are actually awesome.
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00:00Film critics might provide an invaluable filter between audiences and bad movies, but they
00:05don't always get it right.
00:07In the case of these secretly amazing movies, most reviewers majorly miss the mark.
00:11For those that put stock in the Rotten Tomatoes score before ponying up ticket fare, these
00:15are the movies you might have missed the first time around.
00:18And be warned, there are spoilers ahead.
00:21The Cell
00:22Directed by Tarsem Singh, The Cell is not a movie for everyone.
00:26The critics who accused the movie of being shallow and derivative might have been a bit
00:30too harsh in retrospect.
00:31The film tells the story of Catherine Dean, a child psychologist who uses some impressive
00:36tech to enter the subconscious of a comatose boy, hoping to bring him back into the real
00:41world.
00:42Thanks to her unique set of skills, she's asked by an FBI agent to explore the mind
00:46of an unconscious man who'd imprisoned a girl in a bizarre death trap before having a seizure.
00:52Now, she only has hours to live, so Dean is tasked with finding her whereabouts.
00:58But this is easier said than done, since his subconscious is a nightmare world of torture
01:02devices, horned monsters, and living dolls that resemble his victims.
01:06It's an S&M fever dream where corpses are bathed in blood, horses are dissected with
01:11glass slides, and men have their intestines slowly pulled from their bodies.
01:16So, The Cell is full of depravity, but it's still pretty gorgeous to look at, thanks to
01:21some horrific tributes to artists like Damien Hirst, Odd Nerdrum, and H.R. Giger.
01:26And the costume game is at its finest, with designer Aiko Ishioka's array of jumpsuits,
01:31demonic purple wings, and sadistic sci-fi masks.
01:35Better still, the sets are practical, the performances are on point, and the result
01:39is something big, bloody, and perversely beautiful.
01:43Of course, they didn't all get it wrong.
01:45Roger Ebert was one of the few critics who actually liked it, and in fact declared it
01:48was one of the best films of the year.
01:51The Hunted
01:52When it comes to nail-biters, William Friedkin is one of the best in the business.
01:56After all, he's the guy who made films like The French Connection and The Exorcist.
02:00In The Hunted, he gives us a chase movie for the ages, even if critics weren't too impressed.
02:06The story follows a tired tracker named L.T.
02:08Bonham, who used to teach special ops soldiers, but unfortunately, his training was a little
02:13too good.
02:14After seeing some pretty horrible things overseas, an old pupil has lost his mind and now spends
02:19his time picking off deer hunters, so Bonham is brought in to give his student one last
02:25lesson.
02:26Tommy Lee Jones is amazing as the weary survivalist, a man who knows what he has to do, but that
02:30doesn't mean he has to enjoy it.
02:32Is this yours?
02:33Yeah, it is.
02:36As for Benicio Del Toro, he's both scary and sympathetic as a man who's seen and spilled
02:42far too much blood.
02:44Friedkin expertly follows these two as they chase each other down, and when it comes to
02:48the final showdown, there are no showy ninja moves here.
02:51It's painful, brutal, and in-your-face, which pretty much sums up the entire feel of this
02:56underrated thriller.
02:58Constantine
02:59When Constantine was released in 2005, it had a devil of a time with moviegoers.
03:05It lost money at the domestic box office, and critics did their best to exercise the
03:09film from theaters.
03:10But those reviewers must have been in league with Lucifer, because Constantine is one hell
03:15of a movie.
03:16Granted, it doesn't have much in common with Hellblazer, the comic it's loosely based on.
03:20But nevertheless, it's an amazingly fun film noir about a chain-smoking cynic who deports
03:25demons for entirely selfish reasons.
03:28As a kid, he tried to take his own life, and now he's damned for all eternity.
03:33So his plan is to exercise his way to heaven, and he finally gets a chance at saving his
03:37soul when a cop asks him to take on a strange case.
03:41Directed by Francis Lawrence, Constantine plunges our hero into a world where otherworldly beings
03:46spend their evenings at a supernatural club, and heroes blast demons with crucifix shotguns.
03:52In this freaky film, cats can guide you through the underworld, holy water is stored in five-gallon
03:56jugs, and angels dress to the nines in killer pinstripe suits.
04:01John Constantine is one of Reeve's best performances.
04:04The man is playing a mashup between Sam Spade and Neo from The Matrix, expertly blending
04:09a snarky sense of humor, detached detective cool, and a secret side of anti-hero empathy.
04:14Then there's Tilda Swinton as an incredibly suave Gabriel, and Peter Stormare as the sleaziest
04:19Satan of all time.
04:21With all that awesomeness, it's baffling the movie did so poorly.
04:24But to all the critics who've hated this film, Constantine has a little message for you.
04:35Knowing
04:38There's no denying that Nicolas Cage has had a checkered cinematic career, but faithful
04:44fans are rewarded every so often with a legitimately great movie like Joe, Adaptation, Bad Lieutenant,
04:51and Knowing.
04:52Though almost every film critic wishes the last movie would disappear in an Extinction-level
04:56event, Knowing is genuinely thrilling, and poses some interesting philosophical questions.
05:02When it's not freaking you out, it's making you think, which is why Roger Ebert was the
05:05lone holdout who declared it was one of the best science fiction films he'd ever seen.
05:10The plot revolves around a rational professor, played by Cage, whose son discovers a 50-year-old
05:15document covered in numbers.
05:17Despite his skepticism, Koestler realizes these numbers are a code for predicting the
05:22dates and body counts of major disasters.
05:25And as he digs deeper into the mystery, he realizes something bad is looming on the horizon.
05:30With the unsettling appearance of some otherworldly strangers, Koestler begins questioning everything
05:36he's ever known about the universe.
05:38With director Alice Proyas at the helm, Knowing is just brimming with dread, the same creeping
05:44kind of fear you'd find in a movie like Signs.
05:46Plus, the film grapples with concepts like free will versus predestination, a deterministic
05:52universe versus a random one.
05:54You might not like where the movie eventually sides, but it's a film that takes chances
05:59and generates ideas that are well worth exploring after the credits roll.
06:03"...and you have to do it.
06:05You have to, or I'll fire you, do you understand?"
06:09Super
06:10Before directing Guardians of the Galaxy, James Gunn put his stamp on the superhero
06:14genre with Super, an upbeat version of Taxi Driver where the supposed heroes take out
06:19drug dealers with pipe bombs and claws.
06:22If you can stomach the gore, then you'll find yourself nervously chuckling along with one
06:26of the best — and nastiest — superhero satires.
06:29The plot follows a schlubby cook named Frank whose wife has just left him for the world's
06:34sleaziest drug dealer.
06:36But after receiving a vision from God — one involving razor blades and tentacles — Frank
06:41believes it's his divine mission to become a superhero, fight crime, and rescue his wife.
06:46And accompanying him on his quest is a comic book nerd who has way too much fun breaking
06:50legs and bashing heads.
06:52Disguised as the Crimson Bolt, Frank uses a pipe wrench to punish both child molesters
06:57and people who cut in line.
07:00The violence is shockingly hard to watch, and as a result, Super feels like we're watching
07:05a schizophrenic madman who's building towards something terrible.
07:08And it's that over-the-top bloodshed that angered so many critics.
07:12But the violence here is kind of the point.
07:14If superheroes existed in real life, they wouldn't be the most stable people on the
07:18planet, so Super is a savage and side-splitting response to every comic book movie to ever
07:24come out of Hollywood.
07:25Which is kind of ironic, considering what Gunn would later sign up to direct.
07:29Face the wrath of the Crimson Bolt!
07:35The Majestic
07:36In between Stephen King adaptations, Frank Darabont decided to make a movie in the style
07:41of Frank Capra.
07:42The result was The Majestic, a film so sweet and nostalgic that it's shocking to think
07:47the same director would later make The Mist.
07:50But while that grisly creature feature is about as pessimistic as movies get, The Majestic
07:54believes in old-fashioned ideas like right and wrong and freedom of speech.
07:59The story follows a blacklisted screenwriter named Peter Appleton who gets amnesia and
08:03winds up in a sleepy little town where he's mistaken for a long-lost World War II vet.
08:08And since he can't remember who he is or where he came from, Peter accepts the story and
08:12bonds with his new dad in a wary love interest.
08:15Eventually, Peter's memories come flooding back, threatening his new existence, and things
08:20get even more complicated when he's called upon to testify before the House Un-American
08:24Activities Committee.
08:25But Peter rises to the occasion and delivers a rousing speech in defense of the right to
08:30say and believe whatever you want.
08:32Jim Carrey is on top of his game here, delivering a dramatic performance that's right up there
08:37with his roles in The Truman Show and Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind.
08:41And The Majestic is an inspiring little film, the kind we hardly see anymore.
08:45Vanilla Sky
08:47The world of Vanilla Sky is filled with Monet sunsets and Bob Dylan streets, but that doesn't
08:52mean you'd want to live there.
08:54Why not?
08:55Well, it's also a world of crazy stalkers, creepy face masks, and a dreadful feeling
08:59that something awful is waiting in the dark.
09:02Based on the 1998 Spanish film Open Your Eyes, Cameron Crowe's fifth feature marks the spot
09:07where many believe he started losing his touch.
09:10Despite its reputation, this Tom Cruise film is a massive mind-bender with more layers
09:14than Inception, more twists than memento, and Cruise is really earning his paycheck
09:19here as David Ames, an ultra-rich playboy who has his life ripped apart and then starts
09:24losing his mind.
09:25Maybe.
09:26The superstar really sells David's growing fear and paranoia, and his relationships with
09:30the women of the film are masterfully crafted, highlighting two very different sides of the
09:35same man.
09:36The movie is also filled with some pretty horrific images and some genuinely disturbing
09:40moments, from bizarre bedroom body swaps to grotesque shots of Cruise's face.
09:46There's also a fantastic soundtrack that features one of the most disturbing uses of a Beach
09:50Boys song you'll ever hear.
09:52The Book of Eli
09:54This movie starts off with Denzel Washington shooting and eating a feral housecat, and
09:58it only gets crazier from there.
10:00Set in a post-apocalyptic world, The Book of Eli takes place at a time when moist towelettes
10:05are used as currency, people pay to charge their iPods, and the local saloons make their
10:10money selling water.
10:12It's a dusty and depressing realm where those who can read hold all the power, and faith
10:16is more powerful than a loaded gun.
10:19This sci-fi western follows Washington as Eli, a holy warrior wandering across what's
10:24left of the United States.
10:26Accompanied by a machete and Mila Kunis, Eli is carrying the last remaining copy of the
10:32King James Bible, and he hopes to get the holy book to a safe place on the coast.
10:36Unfortunately, a small-town dictator wants the book for himself, knowing it can help
10:41him establish his evil empire.
10:43Only Eli isn't giving up the good book so easily, and instead of turning the other cheek,
10:48he's prepared to take an eye for an eye to make sure the relic makes it safely across
10:52America.
10:53In addition to some masterful action scenes, The Book of Eli is a powerful commentary on
10:58the power of religion, but ultimately, it's a story that's also about the power of the
11:02written word, and how books can shape entire civilizations.