my most original movies
by richardmarkes | created - 30 Apr 2011 | updated - 04 Jul 2011 | Publicmovies that surprised me for the fact that they had an intriguing story, charachters that were not what i suspect them to be with totally original endings as well as other movies that were told in a different perspective and unpredictable plots
- Instant Watch Options
- Genres
- Movies or TV
- IMDb Rating
- In Theaters
- Release Year
- Keywords
1. Mulholland Drive (2001)
R | 147 min | Drama, Mystery, Thriller
After a car wreck on Mulholland Drive renders a woman amnesiac, she and a Hollywood-hopeful search for clues and answers across Los Angeles in a twisting venture beyond dreams and reality.
Director: David Lynch | Stars: Naomi Watts, Laura Harring, Justin Theroux, Jeanne Bates
Votes: 383,385 | Gross: $7.22M
2. Memento (2000)
R | 113 min | Mystery, Thriller
A man with short-term memory loss attempts to track down his wife's murderer.
Director: Christopher Nolan | Stars: Guy Pearce, Carrie-Anne Moss, Joe Pantoliano, Mark Boone Junior
Votes: 1,321,566 | Gross: $25.54M
3. 21 Grams (2003)
R | 124 min | Crime, Drama, Thriller
A freak accident brings together a critically ill mathematician, a grieving mother, and a born-again ex-con.
Director: Alejandro G. Iñárritu | Stars: Sean Penn, Benicio Del Toro, Naomi Watts, Danny Huston
Votes: 245,746 | Gross: $16.29M
4. 25th Hour (2002)
R | 135 min | Drama
Cornered by the DEA, convicted New York drug dealer Montgomery Brogan reevaluates his life in the 24 remaining hours before facing a seven-year jail term.
Director: Spike Lee | Stars: Edward Norton, Barry Pepper, Philip Seymour Hoffman, Rosario Dawson
Votes: 184,590 | Gross: $13.06M
5. Before the Devil Knows You're Dead (2007)
R | 117 min | Crime, Drama, Thriller
When two brothers organize the robbery of their parents' jewelry store the job goes horribly wrong, triggering a series of events that sends them, their father and one brother's wife barreling towards a shattering climax.
Director: Sidney Lumet | Stars: Philip Seymour Hoffman, Ethan Hawke, Albert Finney, Marisa Tomei
Votes: 111,544 | Gross: $7.08M
6. Awake (2007)
R | 84 min | Crime, Drama, Mystery
A wealthy young man undergoing heart transplant surgery discovers that the surgical team intend to murder him.
Director: Joby Harold | Stars: Hayden Christensen, Jessica Alba, Terrence Howard, Lena Olin
Votes: 80,513 | Gross: $14.38M
7. 11:14 (2003)
R | 86 min | Comedy, Crime, Drama
The events leading up to an 11:14 p.m. car crash, from five very different perspectives.
Director: Greg Marcks | Stars: Henry Thomas, Colin Hanks, Ben Foster, Patrick Swayze
Votes: 50,023
8. Seven Pounds (2008)
PG-13 | 123 min | Drama, Mystery, Thriller
A man with a fateful secret embarks on an extraordinary journey of redemption by forever changing the lives of seven strangers.
Director: Gabriele Muccino | Stars: Will Smith, Rosario Dawson, Woody Harrelson, Michael Ealy
Votes: 315,053 | Gross: $69.95M
9. Final Destination (2000)
R | 98 min | Horror, Thriller
After getting a premonition about a plane crash on his school trip, Alex, a student saves a few of his classmates. However, their situation gets complicated when death starts chasing them.
Director: James Wong | Stars: Devon Sawa, Ali Larter, Kerr Smith, Kristen Cloke
Votes: 279,125 | Gross: $53.33M
10. Pulp Fiction (1994)
R | 154 min | Crime, Drama
The lives of two mob hitmen, a boxer, a gangster and his wife, and a pair of diner bandits intertwine in four tales of violence and redemption.
Director: Quentin Tarantino | Stars: John Travolta, Uma Thurman, Samuel L. Jackson, Bruce Willis
Votes: 2,216,628 | Gross: $107.93M
11. Wild Things (1998)
R | 108 min | Crime, Drama, Mystery
A police detective uncovers a conspiracy behind a case involving a high-school guidance counselor when accusations of rape are made against him by two female students.
Director: John McNaughton | Stars: Kevin Bacon, Neve Campbell, Matt Dillon, Denise Richards
Votes: 130,510 | Gross: $29.75M
12. Identity (2003)
R | 90 min | Mystery, Thriller
Stranded at a desolate Nevada motel during a nasty rain storm, ten strangers become acquainted with each other when they realize that they're being killed off one by one.
Director: James Mangold | Stars: John Cusack, Ray Liotta, Amanda Peet, John Hawkes
Votes: 266,919 | Gross: $52.16M
13. Stay (I) (2005)
R | 99 min | Drama, Mystery, Thriller
A psychiatrist attempts to prevent one of his patients from committing suicide while trying to maintain his own grip on reality.
Director: Marc Forster | Stars: Ewan McGregor, Naomi Watts, Ryan Gosling, Kate Burton
Votes: 85,955 | Gross: $3.63M
14. Shutter Island (2010)
R | 138 min | Drama, Mystery, Thriller
Teddy Daniels and Chuck Aule, two US marshals, are sent to an asylum on a remote island in order to investigate the disappearance of a patient, where Teddy uncovers a shocking truth about the place.
Director: Martin Scorsese | Stars: Leonardo DiCaprio, Emily Mortimer, Mark Ruffalo, Ben Kingsley
Votes: 1,453,828 | Gross: $128.01M
15. Inception (2010)
PG-13 | 148 min | Action, Adventure, Sci-Fi
A thief who steals corporate secrets through the use of dream-sharing technology is given the inverse task of planting an idea into the mind of a C.E.O., but his tragic past may doom the project and his team to disaster.
Director: Christopher Nolan | Stars: Leonardo DiCaprio, Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Elliot Page, Ken Watanabe
Votes: 2,547,331 | Gross: $292.58M
16. Entrapment (1999)
PG-13 | 113 min | Action, Crime, Romance
An insurance agent is sent by her employer to track down and help capture an art thief.
Director: Jon Amiel | Stars: Sean Connery, Catherine Zeta-Jones, Ving Rhames, Will Patton
Votes: 123,851 | Gross: $87.70M
17. The Number 23 (2007)
R | 98 min | Crime, Mystery, Thriller
Walter Sparrow becomes obsessed with a novel that he believes was written about him, as more and more similarities between himself and his literary alter ego seem to arise.
Director: Joel Schumacher | Stars: Jim Carrey, Virginia Madsen, Logan Lerman, Danny Huston
Votes: 212,487 | Gross: $35.19M
18. Life or Something Like It (2002)
PG-13 | 103 min | Comedy, Romance
A reporter interviews a psychic, who tells her that she's going to die and her life is meaningless.
Director: Stephen Herek | Stars: Angelina Jolie, Edward Burns, Tony Shalhoub, Christian Kane
Votes: 28,084 | Gross: $14.45M
19. Gothika (2003)
R | 98 min | Horror, Mystery, Thriller
A psychiatrist awakens as a patient in a mental institution, with no memory of the murder she's accused of committing. As she tries to regain her memory, a vengeful spirit manipulates her.
Director: Mathieu Kassovitz | Stars: Halle Berry, Penélope Cruz, Robert Downey Jr., Charles S. Dutton
Votes: 119,120 | Gross: $59.69M
20. Perfect Stranger (2007)
R | 109 min | Crime, Mystery, Thriller
A journalist goes undercover to ferret out businessman Harrison Hill as her childhood friend's killer. Posing as one of his temps, she enters into a game of online cat-and-mouse.
Director: James Foley | Stars: Halle Berry, Bruce Willis, Giovanni Ribisi, Richard Portnow
Votes: 51,131 | Gross: $23.98M
21. The Machinist (2004)
R | 101 min | Drama, Thriller
An industrial worker who hasn't slept in a year begins to doubt his own sanity.
Director: Brad Anderson | Stars: Christian Bale, Jennifer Jason Leigh, Aitana Sánchez-Gijón, John Sharian
Votes: 415,165 | Gross: $1.08M
22. Knowing (2009)
PG-13 | 121 min | Action, Mystery, Sci-Fi
M.I.T. professor John Koestler links a mysterious list of numbers from a time capsule to past and future disasters and sets out to prevent the ultimate catastrophe.
Director: Alex Proyas | Stars: Nicolas Cage, Chandler Canterbury, Rose Byrne, Lara Robinson
Votes: 247,362 | Gross: $79.96M
23. The Talented Mr. Ripley (1999)
R | 139 min | Crime, Drama, Thriller
In late 1950s New York, a young underachiever named Tom Ripley is sent to Italy to retrieve Dickie Greenleaf, a rich and spoiled millionaire playboy. But when the errand fails, Ripley takes extreme measures.
Director: Anthony Minghella | Stars: Matt Damon, Gwyneth Paltrow, Jude Law, Cate Blanchett
Votes: 240,789 | Gross: $81.30M
24. Enemy of the State (1998)
R | 132 min | Action, Thriller
A lawyer becomes targeted by a corrupt politician and his N.S.A. goons when he accidentally receives key evidence to a politically motivated crime.
Director: Tony Scott | Stars: Will Smith, Gene Hackman, Jon Voight, Lisa Bonet
Votes: 258,714 | Gross: $111.55M
25. John Q (2002)
PG-13 | 116 min | Crime, Drama, Thriller
John Quincy Archibald takes a hospital emergency room hostage when his insurance won't cover his son's heart transplant.
Director: Nick Cassavetes | Stars: Denzel Washington, Robert Duvall, Gabriela Oltean, Kimberly Elise
Votes: 143,586 | Gross: $71.76M
26. Orphan (2009)
R | 123 min | Horror, Mystery, Thriller
A husband and wife who recently lost their baby adopt a 9-year-old girl who is not nearly as innocent as she appears.
Director: Jaume Collet-Serra | Stars: Vera Farmiga, Peter Sarsgaard, Isabelle Fuhrman, CCH Pounder
Votes: 252,026 | Gross: $41.60M
27. Black Cat, White Cat (1998)
R | 127 min | Comedy, Crime, Romance
Matko and his son Zare live on the banks of the Danube river and get by through hustling and basically doing anything to make a living. In order to pay off a business debt Matko agrees to marry off Zare to the sister of a local gangster.
Director: Emir Kusturica | Stars: Bajram Severdzan, Srdjan 'Zika' Todorovic, Branka Katic, Florijan Ajdini
Votes: 56,355 | Gross: $0.35M
28. Law Abiding Citizen (2009)
R | 109 min | Action, Crime, Drama
A frustrated man decides to take justice into his own hands after a plea bargain sets one of his family's killers free.
Director: F. Gary Gray | Stars: Gerard Butler, Jamie Foxx, Leslie Bibb, Colm Meaney
Votes: 319,478 | Gross: $73.34M
29. Inglourious Basterds (2009)
R | 153 min | Adventure, Drama, War
In Nazi-occupied France during World War II, a plan to assassinate Nazi leaders by a group of Jewish U.S. soldiers coincides with a theatre owner's vengeful plans for the same.
Director: Quentin Tarantino | Stars: Brad Pitt, Diane Kruger, Eli Roth, Mélanie Laurent
Votes: 1,581,682 | Gross: $120.54M
30. 8MM (1999)
R | 123 min | Crime, Drama, Mystery
A private investigator is hired to discover if a "snuff film" is authentic or not.
Director: Joel Schumacher | Stars: Nicolas Cage, Joaquin Phoenix, James Gandolfini, Peter Stormare
Votes: 142,623 | Gross: $36.66M
31. The Whole Ten Yards (2004)
PG-13 | 98 min | Comedy, Crime, Thriller
Jimmy the Tulip's quiet new life is shaken up by his old pal Oz, whose wife has been kidnapped by a Hungarian mob. The Tulip and his wife Jill spring into action.
Director: Howard Deutch | Stars: Bruce Willis, Matthew Perry, Natasha Henstridge, Amanda Peet
Votes: 58,648 | Gross: $16.32M
32. The Whole Nine Yards (2000)
R | 98 min | Comedy, Crime
A struggling dentist's life is turned upside down when a famous gangster moves in next door, and his wife convinces him to inform a notorious mob boss about the gangster's whereabouts.
Director: Jonathan Lynn | Stars: Bruce Willis, Matthew Perry, Rosanna Arquette, Michael Clarke Duncan
Votes: 129,070 | Gross: $57.26M
33. The Usual Suspects (1995)
R | 106 min | Crime, Drama, Mystery
The sole survivor of a pier shoot-out tells the story of how a notorious criminal influenced the events that began with five criminals meeting in a seemingly random police lineup.
Director: Bryan Singer | Stars: Kevin Spacey, Gabriel Byrne, Chazz Palminteri, Stephen Baldwin
Votes: 1,144,221 | Gross: $23.34M
34. The Firm (1993)
R | 154 min | Drama, Mystery, Thriller
A young lawyer joins a prestigious law firm only to discover that it has a sinister dark side.
Director: Sydney Pollack | Stars: Tom Cruise, Jeanne Tripplehorn, Gene Hackman, Hal Holbrook
Votes: 147,551 | Gross: $158.35M
35. The Glass House (2001)
PG-13 | 106 min | Crime, Drama, Mystery
An orphaned teenager is taken in by a Malibu couple but discovers they aren't the caring friends they seemed to be.
Director: Daniel Sackheim | Stars: Diane Lane, Leelee Sobieski, Stellan Skarsgård, Bruce Dern
Votes: 39,799 | Gross: $18.00M
36. Premonition (I) (2007)
PG-13 | 96 min | Drama, Fantasy, Mystery
A depressed woman learns that her husband was killed in a car accident the previous day, then awakens the next morning to find him alive and well at home; then awakens the day after that to find that he's dead.
Director: Mennan Yapo | Stars: Sandra Bullock, Julian McMahon, Amber Valletta, Shyann McClure
Votes: 81,661 | Gross: $47.85M
37. Wild at Heart (1990)
R | 125 min | Crime, Drama, Thriller
Young lovers Sailor and Lula run from the variety of weirdos that Lula's mom has hired to kill Sailor.
Director: David Lynch | Stars: Nicolas Cage, Laura Dern, Willem Dafoe, J.E. Freeman
Votes: 100,849 | Gross: $14.56M
38. The Da Vinci Code (2006)
PG-13 | 149 min | Mystery, Thriller
A murder inside the Louvre, and clues in Da Vinci paintings, lead to the discovery of a religious mystery protected by a secret society for two thousand years, which could shake the foundations of Christianity.
Director: Ron Howard | Stars: Tom Hanks, Audrey Tautou, Jean Reno, Ian McKellen
Votes: 458,457 | Gross: $217.54M
39. Collateral (2004)
R | 120 min | Action, Crime, Drama
A cab driver finds himself the hostage of an engaging contract killer as he makes his rounds from hit to hit during one night in Los Angeles.
Director: Michael Mann | Stars: Tom Cruise, Jamie Foxx, Jada Pinkett Smith, Mark Ruffalo
Votes: 432,708 | Gross: $101.01M
40. The Curious Case of Benjamin Button (2008)
PG-13 | 166 min | Drama, Fantasy, Romance
Tells the story of Benjamin Button, a man who starts aging backwards with consequences.
Director: David Fincher | Stars: Brad Pitt, Cate Blanchett, Tilda Swinton, Julia Ormond
Votes: 695,125 | Gross: $127.51M
41. Triangle (2009)
R | 99 min | Fantasy, Mystery, Sci-Fi
Five friends set sail and their yacht is overturned by a strange and sudden storm. A mysterious ship arrives to rescue them, and what happens next cannot be explained.
Director: Christopher Smith | Stars: Melissa George, Joshua McIvor, Jack Taylor, Michael Dorman
Votes: 129,586
Tell Your Friends