10 Awesome Recent Movies Nobody Saw Coming
7. Black Bag
Talk about a movie that was done no credit whatsoever by its marketing.
Steven Soderbergh's new spy thriller Black Bag was more-or-less sent out to die on its week of release back in March, arriving with only the most meagre of marketing campaigns despite starring the likes of Cate Blanchett, Michael Fassbender, Naomie Harris, Regé-Jean Page, and Pierce Brosnan.
The general lack of hype seemed to suggest that Black Bag would be a middling, minor entry into Soderbergh's filmography despite the alluring star wattage, and yet, it ultimately turned out to be one of the best-reviewed films of the year so far.
A drum-tight 94-minute thriller that's low on locations but high on witty wordplay and anxious tension, Black Bag makes terrific use of its game cast throughout, once again proving Soderbergh to be one of the most dynamic and reliable filmmakers working today.
Sadly Black Bag flopped at the box office - in part because of its hefty $60 million budget, in part because audiences just can't be coaxed out of their homes to watch modest genre films like this on the big screen anymore.