25 Underrated Movies Featuring Marvel's Top Stars
One of the coolest aspects of the Marvel Cinematic Universe has been the freedom that these roles have afforded their performers to choose weirder and wilder projects in their off-time.
Warner Bros.
Add in the performers whose peculiar taste in projects extends to even before they became MCU mainstays and there are a wealth of interesting yet obscure titles featuring some of the biggest stars on the planet. With this in mind, I've put together 25 of the most underrated, overlooked, and unusual hidden gems featuring the many faces of the Marvel Cinematic Universe.
1.A Perfect Getaway
Rogue Pictures
Before he was Marvel's God of Thunder, Chris Hemsworth played a rough-and-tumble suspect in David Twohy's underrated Hawaii-bound survival thriller.
2.The Brothers Bloom
In Rian Johnson's fairly unseen follow-up to his critically acclaimed cult classic Brick, Bruce Banner himself, Mark Ruffalo, co-stars as one-half of a charismatic con man team who plan to go on the straight-and-narrow after one final grift targeting an eccentric heiress in this twisty caper.
3.Ingrid Goes West
This independent dark comedy about a woman who ventures out to Los Angeles to ingratiate herself into the life of an Instagram influencer features a number of MCU talents, including Wyatt "US Agent" Russell, Pom "Mantis" Klementieff, and Elizabeth "Scarlet Witch" Olsen.
4.Dogville
This harrowing and star-studded experimental cinematic stage play from provocateur, Lars von Trier, features longtime MCU regulars Stellan Skarsgård and Paul Bettany in prominent roles.
5.Wake Up, Ron Burgundy
While the Anchorman films have received plenty of love over the years, the first film's direct-to-video companion flick, patched together from a feature-length unused subplot about Ron Burgundy and friends facing a radically political group of bank robbers, is pretty damn hysterical in its own right, especially in an unhinged scene in which the news team is temporarily lost in the woods and attempts to cannibalize Brian Fantana, aka Ant-Man's own Paul Rudd.
6.Ghost World
Terry Zwigoff's critically beloved adaptation of Daniel Clowes' groundbreaking comic book gave Black Widow star, Scarlett Johansson, a chance to showcase her dramatic chops prior to her breakout role in Lost in Translation.
7.Reign Over Me
This sadly forgotten drama about grief and friendship, anchored by the inspired pairing of Adam Sandler and the War Machine himself, Don Cheadle, also features The Incredible Hulk's Liv Tyler and Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.'s Saffron Burrows.
8.Bushwick
This intense and ingenious film about an insurrection turning Brooklyn into an urban battleground features one of the best dramatic turns from Guardians of the Galaxy star Dave Bautista to date.
9.Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy
Though it could have been easy to get lost in the shuffle of this exceptional ensemble spy thriller, Dr. Strange himself, Benedict Cumberbatch, stands out alongside his MCU costars, Toby Jones and Tom Hardy (depending on whether you count his 15 seconds of fame in Spider-Man: No Way Home).
10.Vox Lux
Actor-turned-director Brady Corbet crafts some of the most gripping (and, honestly, despicable) performances from Thor franchise regular Natalie Portman and Captain Marvel baddie Jude Law in this fairly obscure drama about a school shooting survivor who later becomes a flamboyant, alcoholic pop star balancing the pressures of her lifestyle and complicated motherhood with the shocking news that her music video may have inspired an unthinkable act of violence.
11. Puncture
Chris Evans has done much to star in against-type roles in non-MCU projects during his tenure as Captain America, including in The Iceman and Snowpiercer, but perhaps even less known in his catalog during this time is Puncture, a shocking true legal drama that hit independent cinemas mere weeks after his debut as The First Avenger.
12.We Have Always Lived in the Castle
This unsettling adaptation of Shirley Jackson's iconic novel places a spotlight on Marvel's Winter Soldier, Sebastian Stan, in a suitably intense yet underappreciated performance.
13.Spartan
In a foul-mouthed precursor to his Agent Coulson character, Clark Gregg demonstrated his commanding on-screen presence in this riveting action film directed by famed playwright, David Mamet.
14.Free Fire
Captain Marvel herself, Brie Larson, is a cool-as-ice badass in Ben Wheatley's single location shoot-'em-up, which was sadly overlooked upon its initial release.
15.Only Lovers Left Alive
Before they became the forefathers of Marvel's initial Disney+ streaming slate, Tom Hiddleston and Jeffrey Wright were both amazing in Jim Jarmusch's deep-cut vampire flick, which likewise costarred Doctor Strange's Ancient One, Tilda Swinton.
16.Formula 51 (aka The 51st State)
He may have donned an eyepatch to play Nick Fury, but Samuel L. Jackson sported a kilt in this stylish, biting, and violent-as-all-hell (yet criminally unseen) action-comedy.
17.The Lost City of Z
While critics went head over heels for this beautifully shot adventure film, chances are that the 2016 film fans might know Tom Holland more from Captain America: Civil War, which introduced him as the MCU's friendly neighborhood Spider-Man.
18.Redbelt
A brilliant performer beyond his short stints as Stephen Strange's mortal enemy, Karl Mordo, one Chiwetel Ejiofor performance that deserves more love is his exceptional role as a skilled yet stubbornly principled martial arts teacher in David Mamet's engrossing drama.
19.Hard Eight
The solid directorial debut of indie cinema legend Paul Thomas Anderson features a number of future MCU performers, including franchise stalwarts like Gwyneth Paltrow and Samuel L. Jackson as well as Guardians of the Galaxy actor John C. Reilly.
20.Dual
Best known to MCU die-hards as Nebula from the Guardians of the Galaxy and Avengers films, Karen Gillan plays a woman who hires a company to clone her after she is diagnosed with a terminal illness, only to make a miraculous recovery that results in a court-ordered fight-to-the-death in a years' time in Riley Stearns' sordid sci-fi satire.
21.The Kid
Directed by Daredevil and Hawkeye star, Vincent D'Onofrio, Moon Knight's Ethan Hawke comes face-to-face with Guardians headliner Chris Pratt in a rare villainous role in this pensive and poignant independent western film.
22.Ghost Stories
Captain America: Civil War and Black Panther star, Martin Freeman, has had a reputable career in both the US and the UK for quite some time, with his underrated appearance in the scariest segment of the English horror anthology Ghost Stories definitely in need of more eyes.
23.Little Woods
In the directorial debut of The Marvels filmmaker Nia DaCosta, both Thor and Avengers scene-stealer, Tessa Thompson, and Iron Man 3 villain, James Badge Dale, shine in this story of two sisters who fall on desperate times as an unexpected pregnancy forces one to return to a life of crime mere days before her probation is to conclude.
24.Synchronic
Longtime Marvel performer Anthony Mackie made magic with Moon Knight's filmmaking duo Benson & Moorhead in this underrated sci-fi thriller about an EMT who attempts to rescue his best friend's daughter after she takes an experimental drug that incidentally enables time traveling.
25.A Scanner Darkly
Robert Downey Jr. steals the show in Richard Linklater's trippy, rotoscoped adaptation of Philip K. Dick's science fiction masterpiece, even if it remains less prominent than Downey's other work thanks to the studios' lack of faith in its theatrical release.
