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Hollywood is a machine. Every week, every month and every year countless films are released into theatres and not every one is as successful as the studio heads would hope. Sometimes the publicity machine was askew, sometimes the movie targeted an odd demographic, sometimes the release was steamrolled by a much larger movie and occasionally the movie is flat out bad.

But Hollywood's loss is our gain. There is a veritable treasure trove of film out there that you may not have seen. I will be your guide to this veritable wilderness of unwatched film. It will be my job to steer you towards the action, adventure, drama and comedy that may have eluded you, and at the same time, steer you away from some truly unwatchable dreck.

Hopefully we'll stumble across some entertainment that may have slid under your radar. Wish us luck.

Recount (2008)

I watched some truly great films this summer. Iron Man was far better than I hoped, and it looked great before I saw it. Kung Fu Panda was absolutely the best animated film I've seen in a long time (with apologies to Kim Hollis and her deep and true love for WALL-E) The Dark Knight, in particular Heath Ledger's crowning performance, completely mesmerized me. And Recount completely enthralled me with its amazing and unbiased story.

What's that? Recount never made it into theatres? I know. And it's a shame that it didn't. I don't know if it would have set the world on fire or put up Dark Knight style numbers, but I really do feel that the biggest cinematic mistake this year (aside from Speed Racer...) was NOT releasing Recount into theatres. HBO probably could have made an extra $50 million in revenue if they had.

Recount stars Kevin Spacey as Ron Clain, Dennis Leary as Mike Whouley, Tom Wilkinson as James Baker, Laura Dern as political dingbat Katherine Harris and Ed Begley Jr. as David Boies. It's a GREAT cast. I too often throw around terms like eclectic and brilliant, but these were all impressive actors with serious material and heavy dialogue to throw around and they all handled it like it was an Oscar caliber film as opposed as a direct-to-cable release.

Recount, not surprisingly, tells the story of the 2000 election Florida recount. It doesn't shy away from anything in that story and represents both sides with surprising fairness. The film also utilizes news footage taken during the period the recount was occurring and it reinforces just how loony things were when all this happened.

That's the real strength of this film. Not the great actors. Not the well written dialogue. The sense of uncertainty, panic, patriotism, elation and fear that permeated the air when the fate of the country was hanging in the balance. The films conveys this so well that I, a Canadian no less, watched a film with no car chases, no fist fights (Ron Clain gets his nose broken, but it's accidental.) , no gratuitous sex, little humor and little more than a heavy concept and some committed actors at least seven times.

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