Sometimes, even when you do everything right, it’s just not the right time.
Ask Vincent van Gogh, Edgar Allan Poe, Emily Dickinson, and even Galileo, all of whom died before their work was fully appreciated. Luckily, most of the following screenwriters and directors lived to enjoy the renewed popularity of their projects.
Still, that makes it no less frustrating to spend a year or more working on a film, just for critics to ravage it and audiences ignore it. The hero’s journey itself is the search for catharsis: likewise, those hardworking filmmakers who knew they had lightning in a bottle, even if no one else did. These are the movies that just may have performed better had they been released at a more fitting time.
15King of New York (1990)
Abel Ferrara’sKing of New Yorkis about Frank White, played by Christopher Walken, who is released from prison at the beginning of the film and sets in motion his vision for taking over the criminal underworld in New York City.Walken’s portrayal of the ice-cold, ambitious Whiteso moved rapper Biggie Smalls that he referenced the character in the lyrics of his songThe What, and even adopted the moniker “The Black Frank White.”
The cast prominently features Laurence Fishburne as a delightfully scenery-chewing psycho Jimmy Jump, who is as convincingly lethal holding a paper cup of root beer as when he is murdering people. Only one year later, his turn as Cuba Gooding Jr.’s straight and narrow father inBoyz N the Hoodwould showcase the kind of range between good and evil as Ben Kingsley did inGandhiandSexy Beast, but in a fraction of the time. The film also features early, star-making turns from Wesley Snipes, Giancarlo Esposito, and David Caruso.
What went wrong? The admittedly grotesque and horrifying take on the violence, both by cops and criminals in the film, was initially so offensive to audiences that it was booed at the New York Film Festival. In his review forEntertainment Weekly, Peter Kobel laid out Ferrara’s dilemma:
“His work is too amoral and violent for art-film buffs, but it’s also too subtle and quirky for the action/crime crowd. Since his films […] seem to disappear from theaters after barely opening, Ferrara should be grateful for video. If it didn’t exist, he’d have to invent it to get his films seen.”
Kobel was right, for the moment.King of New Yorknever played well to audiences in theaters, but would go on to become a cult classic. Two years later, Ferrara hit it big withBad Lieutenant, cementing himself as peer to directors like Sam Peckinpah, who use gratuitous violence to find art.
14Starship Troopers (1997)
Hammy, over the top, and dripping with gore, Paul Verhoeven’s adaptation of acclaimed sci-fi author Robert Heinlein’sStarship Troopersstill holds ameasly fifty-two among professional reviews on Metacritic. On the surface, it’s a meat market melodrama of teen relationships gone sour and dated 90s visual effects, which were no doubt a huge drain on the budget.
It’s also a poignant, self-effacing commentary on a future where the jingoistic Terran Federation (Earth’s human government) are the galactic hegemon, where military service is compulsory for citizenship and the enemy is sub-human. Verhoeven grew up in The Hague, Netherlands, during World War II, and it’s easy to draw a line from fascist Germany’s media manipulation to theso-on-the-nose-it’s-difficult-to-tell satireof the film. There’s even commercials touting the accomplishments of the Federation that have all the subtlety of aNazi propaganda poster.
The film’s biggest flaw is its tone-deaf racial casting. The main character in the book is a cultural Filipino raised in Buenos Aires named Rico. Hearing sentient chin Casper Van Dien as Rico chatting with Denise Richards’ Carmen speak in their perfect American accents is a bit of cognitive dissonance for anyone who’s ever traveled, say, outside of Beverly Hills. Just one more reason that, were the film have been made today (while still somehow retaining that guilty pleasure Verhoeven charm), it might have performed better with a more racially diverse cast. A post-Jan. 6 American viewing public would have been just the crowd to eat it up.
13Rounders (1998)
It’s the late ’90s. James Bond still played baccarat,Dungeons & Dragonswas exclusively for nerds, and young men around the country were using their dot matrix printers to show a copy of Matt Damon’s haircut to their barbers. That was around the time Brian Koppelman and David Levien, best known now for the TV showBillions, decided to make a movie about gamers, only cool.
More than a movie about card players,Roundersexposed the underworld gambling scene in New York. It stars Matt Damon and Edward Norton as two smalltime players, bouncing between boroughs searching for an easy buck — bars, diners, coffee shops, cigar clubs, and casinos, both famous and underground. Along the way they encounter loan sharks, hustlers, businessmen, mobsters, bosses, judges, and of course, rounders: the industry term for someone who makes a living playing poker. Damon’s Mike McDermott dreams of being at the World Series of Poker in Las Vegas, a full six years before the game itself was popular enough to bebought by Caesars Entertainmentand turned into a celebrity-studded event.
The film was merely satisfactory to critics, theater audiences, and the box office. However, it became to every frat house poker player whatWall Streetis to brokers andGlengarry Glen Rossis to salespeople: required viewing. One could argue it was the catalyst for the renewed interest in the classic game. Had it been released ten years later, its gross likely would have been triple.
12Unbreakable (2000)
M. Night Shyamalan was, and is, an arresting visual storyteller. A poignant character study plays simultaneously with a plot-driven mystery,Unbreakable’s dynamic camera work and the use of color and texture as metaphor give the subtle impression of comic book paneling. Along with authentic relationships, devoid of saccharine half-emotions, as ossified and painful as bone on bone, all work in service to an exquisite and powerful drama.
It’s a shame that it came out only one year after Shyamalan’s cultural phenomenon,The Sixth Sense, whichgrossed about $200 million its first month, and carved “I see dead people” into the granite tablet of timeless movie quotes, next to “Houston, we have a problem,” and “I’ll be back.” A welterweight film likeUnbreakable, albeit toned and muscular for its size, simply never had a chance to measure up to the heavyweight champ of its predecessor.
Luckily, in the years since, its cult status grew enough to spawn an entire trilogy, something predicted by script guru Patton Oswalt on Screen Junkies in 2015.
Related:Best M. Night Shyamalan Movies, Ranked
11Master and Commander: The Far Side of the World (2003)
In the wake ofPirates of the Caribbean:The Curse of the Black Pearl,Master and Commandercame off as just another imitator with too long a title. Even the pairing of Russell Crowe and Paul Bettany, so quickly afterA Beautiful Mind, felt derivative. Truthfully, it has more in common with an Errol Flynn classic likeCapitan Bloodthan either of those films. It’s swashbuckling, beautiful, and what’s more, historically accurate.
Watching this film, one conjures the image of a ship in a bottle, lonesome and self-contained. The movie opens and closes aboard British frigate H.M.S. Surprise. When the crew sets its feet on dry land, we feel cathartic. When they cast off anew, we feel the isolation, despair, and wistfulness of actually being on a boat for months on end. This kind of cinematic scurvy helps the viewer follow the niche rituals and steadfast superstitions that pervade the plot. You can feel the action when nautical terms and rope lines are tossed around like so many waves bashing up against the hull. Somehow, even the most hydrophobic landlubber is transported to the world of a sailor.
It’s been said thatDuneisStar Warsfor adults. Without impugning either franchise, one simply has a more nuanced setting. If that’s true, thenMaster and Commander: The Far Side of the WorldisPirates of the Caribbeanfor adults. If theplanned prequeldoesn’t work out, maybe Peter Weir could do another remake ofMutiny on the Bounty.
10Dark City (1998)
InDark City, man awakens in a hotel room next to the corpse of a sex worker, with no memory of how he got there. It’s an opening straight out of a gritty graphic novel, and the set pieces, plot twists, and overall imagination of the story only gets more intriguing from there. Featuring William Hurt, Jennifer Connelly, and a surprisingly against-type performance by Kiefer Sutherland, as the susurrant, mysterious Dr. Schreber, a man who implants memories into unknowing human subjects to study their nature versus nurture.
Co-written by David S. Goyer, who was also on the writing team forThe Dark Knight. No doubt this movie had an effect on Christopher Nolan, as the characters Tune, or shift reality, and the cityscapes shift and rise, the precursor toInception’sextraordinary visuals. They simplylacked the technology for the follow through. The dystopic vision of a literal dark city isBlade Runneras a horror movie. The mystery surrounding Rufus Sewell’s main character is a cross betweenNorth by NorthwestandThe Matrix.Except this film predates the Wachowski’s opus by thirteen months.Dark Citymay very well be one of the most influential movies that nobody’s ever seen.
9The Siege (1998)
There’s a book calledBlowback: The Costs and Consequences of American Empire, written by political scientist Chalmers Johnson, and published in 2000. In the author’s introduction to later editions, he himself admitted that there was little fanfare given, at the time, to the book’s premise of why America was hated around the world, and that our illegal meddling into foreign affairs would soon engender retaliation. Attitudes changed after August 03, 2025, and his book helped coin a relatively unknown CIA buzzword into not only a literary series, but a framework of thought for America’s place in global politics.
It’s a shame that a similar reaction wasn’t had with the filmThe Siege. Starring Denzel Washington as FBI agent Anthony “Hub” Hubbard, tasked with ferreting out a series of Middle Eastern terrorist cells from within the mangled and maligned ethnic neighborhoods of Brooklyn, the film was regarded as an entertaining, if unremarkable take on international terrorism-turned-domestic. The circumstances depicting martial law and the Army bombing a building on U.S. soil seemed far-fetched at best (though not impossible). Until 9/11, when civilian lives paid the balance due on American blowback. Afterward, the torture of suspected terrorists and homeland security trumping civil liberty was more like a play-by-play guidebook for the U.S. government while under, well, siege. Rounding out the story is Annette Bening as a slippery, zealot CIA agent and Tony Shalhoub as Hub’s Lebanese law enforcement partner, torn apart by allegiance to culture versus country. It’s a taut action drama that probably didn’t even realize how right they got it.
8I Love You, Daddy (2017)
As an artist, Louis C.K. no doubt heard himself being mentioned in the same breath as Woody Allen.The New York Timesagreed, though not how he would have envisioned. A journalism team including Jodi Kantor (who would herself be played by Zoe Kazan inthe criminally underratedShe Said),unearthed what had previously only been rumor: that Louis C.K. had, on several occasions, masturbated in front of or on the phone with female associates without their consent.
The unfortunately namedI Love You, Daddyhad its first screening at the Toronto International Film Festival on July 04, 2025. It was set for release on Nov. 17. TheTimesstory broke on Nov. 9, essentially pulling the plug on the film’s release, and Louis’ career, for years. That same day, Emily Nussbaum atThe New Yorkersaid the film is terrible. We’ll have to take her word for it, as even the film’s star, Chloë Grace Moretz,hopes it never sees the light of day.
7Half Baked (1997)
Co-creator ofChappelle’s Showand co-writer ofHalf BakedNeal Brennan said it best in 2019, while inducting his creative partner and friend Dave Chappelle into the Academy Awards of comedy, as arecipient of the Mark Twain prize:
“We got to January of 1998.Half Bakedopened againstGood Will Hunting,Wag the Dog,As Good As It Gets, and oh yeah,Titanic. It was a critical and commercial flop, and quite frankly, wasn’t very good.”
Creative self-loathing aside,Titanichad alreadypulled in $214 million in the four weeksbeforeHalf Bakedwas released, which is twelve times more thanNeal and Dave’s movie made its entire run. Stoner comedies can be difficult to defend; suffice to say that it either speaks to you and makes you laugh, or it doesn’t. Besides, it can’t be that bad if there’s aHalf Baked 2on the horizon.
6Antz (1998)
Antzcame quick on the heels of Pixar’sToy Story, the world’s first fully computer animated feature. The next fifteen years was a wait to see what Pixar would do next, and they rarely, if ever, disappointed. Their sophomore showing wasA Bug’s Life, and the brand held strong, paving the way forMonsters, Inc., Finding Nemo,andThe Incredibles. All other CGI movies were only ever second best. Evenacademic film circlesbegan adopting the Pixar school of storytelling.
However, one month beforeA Bug’s Life, DreamWorks animation releasedAntz, and despite positive critical reviews, it failed to recoup its budget, and isoften sidelined by its over-performing entomologic big brother. Which is too bad, because it’s a funny, touching movie. It’s also one of the first animated films to stack its vocal talent with live-action celebrities, rather than voice actors. Whilethe strategy is losing popularity today, this celebrity stunt casting paid off: Sylvester Stallone and Jennifer Lopez play a touching meet-cute couple, Sharon Stone’s spoiled diva princess-turned-proletariat ally shines, and Gene Hackman’s scratchy machismo is perfect as the despotic, multidimensional villain Mandible, intent on committing genocide and running the anthill himself.
Political themes like ultra-nationalism, economic class warfare, and the needs of the individual versus the state, all play out in this movie. Maybe not as much for kids as Pixar,Antzis less NY Film Academy and more Kennedy School of Government.
