10 Forgotten Movies That Turn 20 Years Old In 2021

2021 is fast approaching and it’s fascinating to consider we’re nearly 20 years on from a truly unique year in cinema. 2001 remains the only year of the current century to not feature a major superhero movie, though Sam Raimi’s Spider-Man dropped its first trailer later that year. Mega-franchises, like Lord of the Rings and Harry Potter, were just making their theatrical debuts, while established juggernauts, like Batman, were stuck in development hell.

However, like any other year, 2001 also features several movies that may have been forgotten in the sands of time. While Academy Award-winners such as A Beautiful Mind tend to remain in the public lexicon longer, others may not, making it worthwhile to revisit the movies that may have prematurely come and gone in the last 20 years.

10 The Majestic

Fresh off of his run of critically-praised performances in The Truman Show and Man on the Moon, Jim Carrey teamed up with The Shawshank Redemption director Frank Darabont in this 1950s period piece. In the movie, Carrey plays a screenwriter named Peter Appleton who is exiled from Hollywood, suffers amnesia, and is welcomed into a new town after being mistaken for a long-lost World War II vet named Luke Trimble.

Despite Carrey and Darabont’s involvement, The Majestic received poor reviews after its release and only made back about half of its $72 million dollar budget. Criticized for its bloated and overly-sentimental story, the movie remains one to watch, largely thanks to the talents of Carrey, Darabont, and the rich supporting cast.

9 Blow

Blow is certainly one of Johnny Depp’s lesser-known movies, telling the story of American drug-smuggler George Jung and his dealings with the Colombian Cartel and eventual incarceration. After its release, the movie was critiqued as little more than a rehash of better bio-pic movies, like Goodfellas and Boogie Nights, and it faded into obscurity.

At times, it feels difficult to remember a world before Depp was Captain Jack Sparrow. Yet prior to his role as the flamboyant pirate, Depp was actually fairly commonly cast in smaller budget movies portraying real-life figures, notably Ed Wood, Joseph D. Pistone, Hunter S. Thompson’s alter ego, and Jung.

8 Bandits

In this crime caper dramedy, Billy Bob Thornton and Bruce Willis play two bank robbers known as the “Sleepover Bandits,” who spend the night at bank owners’ homes before robbing their banks the next morning. Along for the ride is Cate Blanchett, who, along with Thorton, earned a Golden Globe nomination for her role as the aloof Kate.

The movie memorably pairs Thornton and Willis together again after they didn’t share nearly enough screen-time in Armageddon. Blanchett’s character instigates a humorous love triangle with the two criminals, pitting the alpha-male Joe (Willis) against Thornton’s hypochondriac Terry. The movie suffers at times from generic machinations and plot, but the three actors, especially Thornton, still make it a worthwhile caper to revisit.

7 61*

This HBO movie starring Barry Pepper and Thomas Jane tells the story of Roger Maris’ 1961 record-setting baseball season while playing for the New York Yankees. Over the course of the season, Maris (Pepper) would surprisingly usurp his more well-known teammate, Mickey Mantle (Jane), as the home run champ, despite Mantle being the initial odds-on favorite. This caused the quieter, reclusive Maris to experience intense stress under the pressure of death threats and the commissioner stating the record would come with an asterisk, for occurring in more games than Ruth needed.

Directed by native New Yorker Billy Crystal, whose love for baseball feels very apparent, 61* is simply an excellent baseball movie. Crystal painstakingly remade Detroit’s Tiger Stadium to look like 1960’s Yankee Stadium and directed Pepper to a Golden Globe nomination for his work in the movie.

6 Made

Seven years before directing the MCU’s inaugural title Iron Man, Jon Favreau made his directorial debut with Made. The crime comedy stars Favreau and Vince Vaughn, making the movie a spiritual successor to the pair’s 1996 outing Swingers, but with no story connections.

Made continued to establish Favreau’s triple-threat capabilities as a writer, director, and actor. The movie wouldn’t share the same success as Swingers in the cultural zeitgeist, but it allowed Favreau to continue making a name for himself as he directed bigger and broader movies on his way towards grandfathering in the MCU.

5 Ali

Released on Christmas Day 2001, Ali features Will Smith moving beyond his “Big Willie Style” 90s persona and towards his first Oscar-nominated role. Directed by acclaimed filmmaker Michael Mann and co-starring Jamie Foxx and Jon Voight (who was also nominated for an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor), the movie focuses on a 10-year portion of the life of legendary boxer Muhammed Ali in the 60s and 70s.

Ali was generally well-received by critics but curiously ignored by audiences at the box office. Mann elected to film both in the United States and in Africa, raising the production’s budget and potentially contributing to the overall financial losses the movie suffered.

4 Monster’s Ball

On the same night that Denzel Washington took home an Academy Award for Training Day, Halle Berry would do the same for Monster’s Ball, marking the first time in history that two Black actors won the award in the same year.

Though both films are well-regarded for their strong performances and compelling stories, Monster’s Ball seemingly hasn’t enjoyed the same kind of visible longevity that Training Day has. This is by no fault of the narrative, which tells two compelling, intersecting stories, that of Leticia Musgrove (Berry), a struggling single mother, and Hank Grotowski (Billy Bob Thornton), a correctional officer raised from a bigoted father. After Hank participates in Leticia’s husband’s execution, the pair eventually form a romantic relationship, as Hank reforms himself over the course of the story.

3 The Others

The Others is a gothic horror tale from Spanish-Chilean director Alejandro Amenábar, featuring Nicole Kidman as a mother of two attempting to uncover the mystery of “the others” within her home. Filmed predominantly in Spain, the $17 million period piece took in over $200 million worldwide, earning several award nominations along the way.

Amenábar chooses to focus on the characters and the plot over cheap jump scares, leaving the movie to tread closely at times to 1999’s The Sixth Sense in terms of atmosphere and storytelling. However, Amenábar’s direction and the unique and understated tone allows it to still feel like its own entity. Overall, the movie did well in both the United States and Spain, delivering a chilling experience for horror and non-horror fans alike.

2 Ghost World

Based on the mid-90s comic book of the same name, Ghost World became an under-the-radar critical darling in the summer of 2001. The movie stars Thora Birch and future Black Widow Scarlett Johansson as two high school outcasts who have a shared disdain for most things. They cross paths with a lonely older gentleman, played by Steve Buscemi, who is similarly detached from the social normality of the world.

Though the movie didn’t have a large theatrical run, it found grassroots success, thanks to its realistic characters and relatable themes of alienation and conformity, making it one of 2001’s best movies, overall. Director Terry Zwigoff and screenwriter Daniel Clowes (who wrote the comic) manage to craft a dark and endearing movie, one which somehow feels even more relatable today than it did 20 years ago.

1 The Man Who Wasn’t There

The Coen Brothers are an absolutely fascinating unit, capable of putting out timeless classics such as No Country For Old Men and The Big Lebowski, while also releasing under-the-radar gems like The Man Who Wasn’t There. Billy Bob Thornton’s third film of 2001 makes it’s way onto this list thanks in large part to Thornton’s chameleon-like acting chops and the Coens’ film noir setting.

Also starring Scarlett Johansson and Coen regulars Frances McDormand and Richard Jenkins, The Man Who Wasn’t There doesn’t feel like a movie that should go unnoticed for many years, and yet when you put out as many gems as the Coen Brothers do, that’s exactly what can happen.

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