ten films you should watch instead

Reason's Tim Cavanaugh points us to The Onion's Classic Movies it's Okay to Hate. Cavanaugh opines,

This is the kind of catalogue that should have at least 40 or 50 entries, instead of just 10, and even with this short list there are some I disagree with.

Indeed. But instead of trying to augment the list, I'm going to take it the other direction: ten films you should watch instead, listed in the same order as their overrated counterparts.

1. The Forbidden Planet
It's the Id! The Id! Young Leslie Nielsen is taciturn and sexy, much like young Harrison Ford. (Their later careers only seem to have diverged. Both make stupid comedies these days.)

2. Hail the Conquering Hero
Only Preston Sturges could satirize World War II hero-worship and make it work. Way ahead of its time.

3. Chopper
Eric Bana is magnetically evil as Mark "Chopper" Read, an infamous Australian killer. Yes, the Eric Bana of Munich. The guy has range.

4. Le Trou
It's tense, it's gripping, and, best of all, it's true.

5. Invasion of the Bodysnatchers (1956)
It's tense, it's gripping, and, best of all, it's more realistic than Friedkin's now-laughable demon flick.

6. Fantasia 2000
Call me a heretic, but I like it better than the original.

7. Shaolin Soccer
You want stupid sports comedy? Stephen Chow directs and stars in the stupidest of them all. I got my parents to watch--and enjoy--this one. What better time than smack in the middle of the World Cup?

8. Battleship Potemkin
The Odessa Steps sequence will never be surpassed.

9. What Ever Happened to Baby Jane?
Tortured female leads done right.

10. Raising Arizona
More offbeat, symbolic, and Coenesque than the execrable Lebowski.