We take a deep dive into what we think are the most underrated movies of 2024, from Furiosa to Horizon and beyond.
Yesterday, we posted a poll asking readers what they thought was the best summer 2024 movie. By a landslide, the winner was Deadpool & Wolverine, but the runner-up was George Miller’s Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga, which was an infamously giant flop earlier this summer. In this case, the box office result didn’t do justice to the quality of the film itself – at least according to us here at JoBlo. But Furiosa wasn’t the only good movie that came out this summer that get enough love.
Here are five underrated summer 2024 movies:
Horizon: Chapter 1:
Kevin Costner’s ambitious, multi-part western saga landed with a bit of a thud when it opened earlier this summer, with the grosses so feeble that the planned August release of Horizon: Chapter 2 was scrapped. No one knows when the already-shot sequel will come out, but Costner will try and relaunch the series at the Venice Film Festival this week. While I’ll admit that the first instalment of what Costner plans as a five-part saga was uneven, I still found myself pretty enraptured by his deliberately old-fashioned western, which is more in the vein of John Ford than edgier Western directors like Sergio Leone or Sam Peckinpah. The second instalment is (supposedly) even better than the first, so I suppose there’s still a glimmer of hope that Costner could put the sequel out in theatres and earn enough to get back to shooting Chapter 3 (which he’s already filmed a good chunk of).
The Fall Guy:
This big-screen reboot of the classic Lee Majors TV series was supposed to be the summer’s first big hit. After all, it followed hot on the heels of star Ryan Gosling’s biggest hit ever, playing Ken in Barbie, while it also co-starred the fantastic Emily Blunt. Director David Leitch’s movie isn’t perfect. It’s too long and perhaps has an overemphasis on comedy. Still, the action sequences are impeccable, such as a fantastic chase mid-movie brilliantly scored by the Phil Collins classic, “Against All Odds.” While box office pundits called it a flop, it made a solid chunk of change at the box office ($92 million domestically towards a $180 million international total). The problem is it costs a heck of a lot and, as such, will likely lose the studio a ton of cash, which is too bad. It’s a good movie.
The Bikeriders
The Bikeriders had a strange path to theatres. It was supposed to come out via one of Disney’s adult affiliates last fall, but the studio felt they couldn’t market it correctly. They sold it to Focus Features, which released it as a solid summer counter-programming. It’s one of the highest-grossing specialty releases of the year, making over $20 million domestically. Still, given the star-studded cast, including Tom Hardy, Austin Butler and Jodi Comer, it should have done better. To me, it’s another great Jeff Nichols movie, and it tells a compelling true story. Hopefully, folks will discover it now that it’s streaming, as it is a nice little gem of a flick whose reputation (I think) will grow over time.
Kinds of Kindness
Searchlight made a mistake in making Yorgos Lanthimos’s latest mind-bender a summer movie release. Perhaps coming off of his hit, Poor Things, the studio thought they had a nifty counter-programming smash on their hands. Still, despite a strong opening, it only made about $5 million domestically. That’s too bad, as Lanthimos’s triptych of tales is one of the more compelling movies I saw this summer. While I’d wager that only the second of the three mini-movies is genuinely remarkable, Jesse Plemons, in three roles, delivers a powerhouse performance. Emma Stone, Margaret Qualley, the great Hong Chau, and Willem Dafoe are pretty stunning, too. Alas, the movie didn’t have the hook that Poor Things did, as it’s not easy to market a movie which is really just three short films strung together. Of all the movies on this list, this one has the most potential to become a future cult classic.
Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga
The fact that George Miller’s prequel to Mad Max: Fury Road whiffed at the box office is one of the more tragic box office stories of the year. It seems Miller and WB gravely misjudged the public’s appetite in a Mad Max movie that didn’t star the titular Road Warrior. Many rolled their eyes at the fact that they were making a Furiosa movie without Charlize Theron reprising her iconic role. Still, those who did bother to check it out were rocked by another epic post-apocalyptic adventure from Miller. Indeed, it’s the movie JoBlo readers have picked as the second best of the summer, with Anya Taylor-Joy terrific as the young Furiosa, while Chris Hemsworth has a whale of a time as the villainous Dementus. For me, one of the movie’s breakout stars who deserved more buzz was Tom Burke as the Max-like hero Praetorian Jack, who serves as Furiosa’s quasi-love interest and mentor. Like a lot of other movies on this list, it’s one that I hope more people will discover now that it’s streaming.
What do you think was the most underrated movie of the year? Let us know in the comments!