Not all movies are created equal. Even the b𝄹iggest movie stars wind up in long-forgotten movies. If you've ever wanted to see a famous actor in something you've probably, definitely never heard of before, today is your lucky day.
Whether it's a soon-to-be award-winning star working early in their careers, or an established movie star trying something different for a change, some movies happen to have incredibly famous actors yet still fall from collective memory. Even if the movies are really good and showered with accolades, they remain powerless to the ultimate test of time. Luckily, we're just👍 obsessive enough to remember them all.
From foreign-language thrillers to low-budget indies, here are 32🧸 movies you have (probably) never heard of before despite featuring A-list stars.
32. Out on a Limb (1992) with Matthew Broderick
After enjoying career highs in the 1980s, Matthew Broderick saw a brief career slump at the start of the 1990s. In 1992, Broderick led the road trip comedy Out on a Limb, playing a hotshot New York City stockbroker who travels back home after receiving a distressing phone call from his younger sister. Unfortunately, while all roads lead to home, Broderick embaꦰrks on the most hilariously dﷺifficult route, getting mixed up in a kidnapping plot and losing his wallet containing a valuable phone number in the process. Broderick would bounce back a short while later with movies like The Lion King and The Cable Guy, but Out on a Limb marks a time when the young actor was spinning his wheels.
31. BMX Bandits (1983) with Nicole Kidman
Before she was a world famous movie star, Nicole Kidman was an up-and-comer who made her s𓆉creen debut in this obscure Australian-produced crime comedy. BMX Bandits follows a group of teenagers who come across a stash of stolen police-band walkie-talkies used by a notorious robber gang. The teens, including Kidman – as a young and pretty trolley collector – accidentally anger the criminals and e🐻vade their wrath on some totally sick mountain bikes. It's the most '90s movie to ever come out of the '80s, and it's simply a treat to see Nicole Kidman pop a wheelie.
30. Supercon (2018) with John Malkovich
It's Ocean's Eleven meets Galaxy Qꦐuest in this Comic Con-themed caper, with none other than John Malkovich as an elderly comic book artist. Set inside a major regional comic book convention, a group of former TV stars and broke comic artists band together to steal from a greedy convention promoter and his biggest star attraction, the arrogant Adam King (Clancy Brown). Released in theaters and VOD in the same week as Aven🧔gers: Infinity War, Supercon invited fanboys and fangirls to the other side of the meet-and-greet curtain.
29. The Thing Called Love (1993) with Sandra Bullock
While Hollywood beckons dreamers of the silver screen, Nashville in Tennessee invites those with country rock aspirations to make it or break it. The Thing Called Love, released in 1993, follows an aspiring country singer (Samantha Matahis) who moves from metropolitan New York City to Nashville to pursue her rock-𒅌'n-roll goals. A pre-Speed Sandra Bullock co-stars as another musician who befriends Mathis' protagonist and, unfortunately for her, doesn't really have what it takes to stay in the spotlight. The Thing Called Love doesn't aspire to much beyond its sappy trappings, but at least it's got Bullock singing a country tune with an Alabama twang.
26. Tiptoes (2003) with Matthew McConaughey, Gary Oldman, Kate Beckinsale, and Peter Dinklage
Bizarre and borderline offensive, Tiptoes is a long-forgotten comedy with a comically stacked cast made up of Matthew McConౠaughey, Kate Beckinsale, Gary Oldman, and even a pre-Game of Thrones Peter Dinklage. The movie follows a couple (McConaughey and Beckinsale) who are expecting their first baby; what McConaughey's character hasn't revealed to Beckinsale is that he comes from a family of little people, and their child just might inherit those genes. While well-meaning, Tiptoes is heavy-footed, with its theatrical cut – edited without director Matthew Bright's involvement – receiving poor reviews and dubious recognition as one of the worst movies ever made. According to Peter Dinklage however, Bright's unreleased "director's cut" is 𒉰actually "gorgeous," so he told in 2012.
20, The Ten (2007) with Paul Rudd and Winona Ryder
Not since Mel Brooks' History of the World, Part🌳 I or Kevin Smith's Dogma has Catholicism been so funny. In this irrev💜erent anthology comedy from director David Wain, The Ten Commandments are a jumping-off point for 10 sacrilegious short segments that explore how people in the 21st century honor (or don't honor) thy commandments. While the movie didn't leave many critics shouting "Hallelujah," it's still a bizarre indie gem with super famous leads like Paul Rudd, Winona Ryder, Jessica Alba, Liev Schreiber, Gretchen Mol, and many more.
, saying: "I guess it was too much of a shocking transition from Rambo to that, but I love doing that kind of drama.", President Bar🍸ack Obama once privately confided in "going Bulworth."9. The Last Station (2009) with Helen Mirren, James McAvoy, and Paul Giamatti
While its prolific cast members were decorated with Golden Globe and Academy Award nominations for their performances, The Last Station has not enjoyed a lasting presence even among hardcore cinephiles. The movie adapts Jay Parini's 1990 novel, which chronicles the last year of Leo Tolstoy's life and especially his marriage problems with his wife Sofya; Christopher Plummer portrays Tolstoy while Helen Mirren co-stars as Sofya. Also starrin✨g are James McAvoy, Paul Giamatti, and Kerry Condon. Its overall handsome production and surprisingly sharp sense o🥀f humor make it a much easier thing to digest than your average Russian novel.
8. Eastern Promises (2007) with Naomi Watts and Viggo Mortensen
A pitch black gangster movie from director David Cronenberg, Eastern Promises stars Lord of the Rings' Viggo Mortensen and King Kong's Naomi Watts; the movie follows a British midwife (Watts) who clashes with the Russian Mafia in London – represented by their lethal enforcer (Mortensen) – after she delivers the baby of a trafficked Ukrainian teenager. Although Eastern Promises w🌱as critically acclaimed and collected nominations from the Golden Globes and Academy Awards, not to mention landing on various critics' top movies of 2007 lists, the movie was and has been overshadowed by contemporaries like No Country for Old Men, There Will Be Blood, and Michael Clayton.
7. Extract (2009) with Jason Bateman, Ben Affleck, and Mila Kunis
You'll find th⭕e name "Mike Judge" attached to a lot of seminal comedies, both on TV ꦗ(Beavis and Butt-Head, King of the Hill, Silicon Valley) and movies (Office Space, Idiocracy). But have you ever heard of Extract? In 2009, Judge again roasted the mundane workplace in this amusing workplace comedy, which tells the story of Joel (Jason Bateman) who faces marital problems and disgruntled employees at his flavoring extract factory when he falls prey to a beautiful con artist (Mila Kunis). The movie is replete with Judge's familiar themes of personal ambitions clashing with suburban boredom, even if it doesn't live up to the same expectations set by Judge's other movies. Still, its cast are a treat, especially Ben Affleck as a sleazy and greasy bartender.
6. The Company Men (2010) with Ben Affleck, Tommy Lee Jones, and Kevin Costner
Amid the financial crisis, writer/director John Wells examined the aimlessness and emasculation of adult American males in his movie The Company Men. Ben Affleck, Tommy Lee Jones, and Chris Cooper play three men wh🍎ose comfortable lives are suddenly changed by corporate downsizing. (Kevin Costner co-stars as Affleck's brother-in-law, a salt-of-the-earth renovator.) At a time when people everywhere were hurting, The Company Men – essentially a softer, but no less earnest complimentary piece to Glengary Glenn Ross – examined the true personal costs of financial instability.
5. The Way, Way Back (2013) with Steve Carell, Toni Collette, and Sam Rockwell
In this sunny coming-of-age comedy, shy teenagerඣ Duncan (Liam Janes) endures a summer with his mom (Toni Collette), her condescending new boyfriend (Steve Carell) and his equally mean daughter (Zoe Levin). While moping at his part-time job at a water park, he's taken in by his charismatic boss (Sam Rockwell) who teaches him how to ride life's turbulent waves. Featuring an 🙈uncharacteristically mean Steve Carell and Sam Rockwell who balances sleaziness with earnestness, The Way, Way Back is a splash that deserves more than one lap.
4. Confess, Fletch (2022) with Jon Hamm
Seemingly out of nowhere in 2022, Jon Hamm took over for Chevy Chase in a brand new sequel to the Fletch series. Based on the 1976 novel, Jon Hamm stars as former crime journalist Irwin "Fletch" Fletcher who unwittingly becomes a prime suspect in a murder case while inves🎶tigating a stolen art c🐷ollection. Despite positive reviews, Confess, Fletch saw a quiet release in limited theaters and video on demand before getting dumped on streaming on Paramount+. You would think a Fletch revival starring one of the most talented and prolific TV actors from the Golden Age of Television would have drawn more buzz, but it's a mystery.
3. Bernie (2011) with Jack Black, Shirley MacLaine, and Matthew McConaughey
A black comedy from Richard Linklater and based on a tragically true story, Jack Black plays Bernie Tiede, a mortician in a small Texas town who is beloved by his fellow town residents. Tiede is in a controlling relationship with elderly millionaire Margaret (Shirley MacLaine), and winds up the prime suspect when Margaret is shot and killed. While the town disagrees over the culprit of Margaret's murder, Bernie goes to great lengths to keep up the ruse that she's still alive. Mꦯatthew McConaughey co-stars as the town's hard-boiled district attorney. While Bernie is not the first movie people think of when they thi🐈nk of Jack Black, it enjoys critical acclaim and even inspired a retrial of the real-life Tiede in 2016.
2. Southland Tales (2006) with Dwayne Johnson, Justin Timberlake, and many more
The controversial sophomore movie from writer/director Richard Linklater, Southland Tales is Linklater's treatise on post-9/11 America, a nigh-incompr🐓ehensible satire that was appropriate for the moral miasma the U.S. found itself in throughout the mid-2000s. Before beefing up into a major action star, Dwayne Johnson leads the movie's ensemble cast as Boxer Santaros, an amnesiac movie star in an alternate 2008 whose screenplay is said to be prophetic of the end of the world. While Southland Tales boasts a very prolific ensemble cast – including Seann William Scott, Mandy Moore, Justin Timberlake, Miranda Richardson, Wallace Shawn, and Amy Poehler, to name a few – Dwayne Johnson is a standout, playing against his usual type to inhabit a sort of neurotic individual he hasn't played before or since.
1. Gen-Y Cops (2000)
It's the most obscure movie in Paul Rudd's entire filmography, which has ironically given it notoriety and mention on talk shows. In Gen-Y Cops, a 2000 sequel to the 1999 Hong Kong sci-fi action film Gen-X Cops, Paul Rudd plays a supporting role as an FBI agent working abroad who teams up with local authorities in ꦆHong Kong to locate a stolen, cutting-edge robot. In a 2019 appearance on Graham Norton, Paul Rudd reflected on the movie, finding ✅it amusing that he of all people was supposed to be a straight-laced FBI agent despite his boy band hairdo. Rudd also learned a little Cantonese for some of his dialogue.
Eric Francisco is a freelance entertainment journalist and graduate of Rutgers University. If a movie or TV show has superheroes, spaceships, kung fu, 🐭or John Cena, he's your guy to make sense of it. A former senior writer at Inverse, his byline has also appeared at Vulture, The Daily Beast, Observer, and The Mary Sue. You can find him screaming at Devils hockey games or dodging enemy fire in Call of Duty: Warzone.
