In The Desert Movies You May Have Never Seen!
by keepitgoan | created - 23 Jan 2012 | updated - 28 Sep 2012 | PublicLike those movies in the desert? the ones in those small towns with not much to do? These are my favorites. Everything from newer Westerns, Thrillers, Indie Flicks and Crime to Small Town Dramedies. Everything Desert
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1. Red Rock West (1993)
R | 98 min | Crime, Drama, Thriller
Upon arriving to a small town, a drifter is mistaken for a hitman, but when the real hitman arrives, complications ensue.
Director: John Dahl | Stars: Nicolas Cage, Dennis Hopper, Lara Flynn Boyle, Craig Reay
Votes: 25,179 | Gross: $2.50M
2. U Turn (1997)
R | 125 min | Crime, Drama, Thriller
A man heading to Vegas to pay off his gambling debt before the Russian mafia kills him is forced to stop in an Arizona town where everything that can go wrong does go wrong.
Director: Oliver Stone | Stars: Sean Penn, Jennifer Lopez, Nick Nolte, Billy Bob Thornton
Votes: 54,759 | Gross: $6.63M
3. Desert Blue (1998)
R | 90 min | Drama
An academic obsessed with "roadside attractions" and his tv-star daughter finally discover the world's largest ice cream cone, the centerpiece for an old gold-rush town struggling to stay ... See full summary »
Director: Morgan J. Freeman | Stars: Casey Affleck, Brendan Sexton III, Kate Hudson, Christina Ricci
Votes: 2,502 | Gross: $0.10M
4. Just Add Water (I) (2008)
R | 95 min | Comedy, Romance
An offbeat romantic comedy about a decent guy, Ray Tuckby, with a dead-end life in the dead-end town of Trona, CA. After encouragement from a stranger whom he happens upon, Ray begins to dream again. He sheds the parasites in his life, musters the nerve to pursue his childhood love, and finally takes back his community by toppling the local teenage Meth-baron.
Director: Hart Bochner | Stars: Dylan Walsh, Jonah Hill, Justin Long, Danny DeVito
Votes: 3,207
5. Welcome to Woop Woop (1997)
R | 106 min | Adventure, Comedy, Fantasy
A con artist escapes a deal gone wrong in New York and winds up in the Aussie outback in a strange town whose inhabitants are an oddball collection of misfits.
Director: Stephan Elliott | Stars: Johnathon Schaech, Rod Taylor, Susie Porter, Dee Smart
Votes: 2,086 | Gross: $0.04M
6. Tremors (1990)
PG-13 | 96 min | Comedy, Horror
Natives of a small isolated town defend themselves against strange underground creatures which are killing them one by one.
Director: Ron Underwood | Stars: Kevin Bacon, Fred Ward, Finn Carter, Michael Gross
Votes: 150,458 | Gross: $16.67M
7. Far from Home (1989)
R | 86 min | Crime, Drama, Mystery
A teenage girl and her father driving cross-country become stranded when their car runs out of gas in a remote Nevada desert town and they're forced to stay in a dilapidated trailer park where a serial killer lurks.
Director: Meiert Avis | Stars: Matt Frewer, Drew Barrymore, Richard Masur, Karen Austin
Votes: 2,342
8. Mojave Moon (1996)
R | 95 min | Comedy, Romance, Thriller
Sexy, young Ellie picks up Al, 53, in a diner in LA to get a ride to her mom in the Mojave desert. Ellie leaves Al there with the pretty mom, her crazy, violent boyfriend and a body in his car trunk.
Director: Kevin Dowling | Stars: Danny Aiello, Anne Archer, Michael Biehn, Angelina Jolie
Votes: 2,746
9. Feast (2005)
R | 95 min | Action, Comedy, Horror
Patrons locked inside a bar are forced to fight monsters.
Director: John Gulager | Stars: Navi Rawat, Krista Allen, Balthazar Getty, Judah Friedlander
Votes: 33,843 | Gross: $0.05M
10. Clay Pigeons (1998)
R | 104 min | Comedy, Crime
After hearing that his wife sleeps with Clay, Earl kills himself, making it look like Clay shot him. The widow doesn't like it when Clay starts sees another woman instead. Bodies start piling up.
Director: David Dobkin | Stars: Joaquin Phoenix, Vince Vaughn, Janeane Garofalo, Gregory Sporleder
Votes: 12,137 | Gross: $1.79M
11. The Big Empty (2003)
R | 94 min | Comedy, Drama, Mystery
John Person is an actor with little work, and no money, who suddenly finds himself with an opportunity to make some quick cash by delivering a suitcase to the middle of nowhere.
Director: Steve Anderson | Stars: Jon Favreau, Joey Lauren Adams, Kelsey Grammer, Daryl Hannah
Votes: 4,289
12. Rubin and Ed (1991)
PG-13 | 82 min | Comedy, Drama
An unsuccessful, nervous businessman gradually comes to befriend an eccentric, asocial nerd on a trip to Utah to bury a deceased cat.
Director: Trent Harris | Stars: Crispin Glover, Howard Hesseman, Karen Black, Michael Greene
Votes: 2,003
13. Identity (2003)
R | 90 min | Mystery, Thriller
Stranded at a desolate Nevada motel during a nasty rain storm, ten strangers become acquainted with each other when they realize that they're being killed off one by one.
Director: James Mangold | Stars: John Cusack, Ray Liotta, Amanda Peet, John Hawkes
Votes: 267,101 | Gross: $52.16M
14. Posse (1993)
R | 111 min | Western
In 1898 Cuba, five Buffalo Soldiers find a gold cache, desert and return to America where they help defend a black town from the KKK, all the while trying to avoid capture by lawmen and military authorities alike.
Director: Mario Van Peebles | Stars: Mario Van Peebles, Stephen Baldwin, Charles Lane, Paul Bartel
Votes: 4,872 | Gross: $18.29M
15. Gunless (2010)
89 min | Action, Comedy, Drama
A hardened American gunslinger is repeatedly thwarted in his attempts to mount a showdown in a friendly town in Canada where no one seems to understand or appreciate the brutal code of the American Wild West.
Director: William Phillips | Stars: Paul Gross, Sienna Guillory, Dustin Milligan, Melody B. Choi
Votes: 3,968
16. Renegade (2004)
R | 124 min | Adventure, Fantasy, Western
In 1870, after a brutal run-in with an outlaw in a brothel, Mike Blueberry becomes marshal in Arizona where he keeps the peace between whites and Apaches, but an influx of gold-hunters threatens to lead to violence.
Director: Jan Kounen | Stars: Vincent Cassel, Michael Madsen, Juliette Lewis, Temuera Morrison
Votes: 12,331
17. Bandidas (2006)
PG-13 | 93 min | Action, Comedy, Crime
In turn-of-the-century Mexico, two very different women become a bank-robbing duo in an effort to combat a ruthless enforcer terrorizing their town.
Directors: Joachim Rønning, Espen Sandberg | Stars: Penélope Cruz, Salma Hayek, Steve Zahn, Dwight Yoakam
Votes: 37,287
18. The Three Burials of Melquiades Estrada (2005)
R | 121 min | Adventure, Crime, Drama
Ranch foreman Pete Perkins looks to fulfill the promise to his recently deceased best friend by burying him in his hometown in Mexico.
Director: Tommy Lee Jones | Stars: Tommy Lee Jones, Barry Pepper, Dwight Yoakam, January Jones
Votes: 41,878 | Gross: $5.02M
19. The Burrowers (2008)
R | 96 min | Horror, Thriller, Western
In the Wild West a rescue party sets out to find a family of settlers that has vanished from their home under mysterious circumstances.
Director: J.T. Petty | Stars: Clancy Brown, David Busse, Harley Coriz, Jocelin Donahue
Votes: 9,269
20. Undead or Alive: A Zombedy (2007)
R | 91 min | Comedy, Horror, Western
Elmer Winslow is a soldier on the run from the Union Army, and Luke Budd is a cowboy with a broken heart. When the two misfits rob the corrupt sheriff of an old west town, they have no idea that a plague of zombies is sweeping the country, or that Geronimo's sexy niece may be their only hope of survival.
Director: Glasgow Phillips | Stars: Lew Alexander, Todd Anderson, Matt Besser, Chris Coppola
Votes: 2,162
21. Last Man Standing (1996)
R | 101 min | Action, Crime, Drama
A drifting gunslinger-for-hire finds himself in the middle of an ongoing war between the Irish and Italian mafia in a Prohibition era ghost town.
Director: Walter Hill | Stars: Bruce Willis, Bruce Dern, William Sanderson, Christopher Walken
Votes: 60,988 | Gross: $17.60M
22. Oblivion (1994)
PG-13 | 94 min | Adventure, Comedy, Crime
On another planet which resembles the Old West, a die-hard pacifist is forced to re-examine his ways after an evil alien bandit and his gang murder his estranged sheriff father, take over his home town, and threaten his friends.
Director: Sam Irvin | Stars: Richard Joseph Paul, Jackie Swanson, Andrew Divoff, Meg Foster
Votes: 1,628
23. Oblivion 2: Backlash (1996)
PG-13 | 83 min | Adventure, Comedy, Sci-Fi
On another planet, in the futuristic wild west town called Oblivion, the pacifist sheriff Stone, dandy alien bounty hunter Sweeney, and the lizard-like alien Jaggar are all after Lash, the sexy villainies from the previous movie.
Director: Sam Irvin | Stars: Richard Joseph Paul, Jackie Swanson, Andrew Divoff, Meg Foster
Votes: 707
24. Cowboys & Aliens (2011)
PG-13 | 119 min | Action, Drama, Sci-Fi
A spaceship arrives in 1873 Arizona to take over the Earth, starting with the Wild West region. All that stands in their way: a posse of cowboys and natives.
Director: Jon Favreau | Stars: Daniel Craig, Harrison Ford, Olivia Wilde, Abigail Spencer
Votes: 232,446 | Gross: $100.24M
25. Seraphim Falls (2006)
R | 115 min | Action, Drama, Thriller
After the end of the American Civil War, a former Confederate colonel hunts down a former Yankee officer with whom he has a grudge.
Director: David Von Ancken | Stars: Pierce Brosnan, Liam Neeson, Anjelica Huston, Michael Wincott
Votes: 34,508 | Gross: $0.42M
26. Swerve (2011)
R | 86 min | Crime, Drama, Thriller
Colin happens upon a road accident where he finds a dead man, a beautiful woman, and a suitcase full of money. After trying to do the right thing he soon finds himself caught up in a dangerous scheme.
Director: Craig Lahiff | Stars: Jason Clarke, Emma Booth, David Lyons, Travis McMahon
Votes: 2,006
27. Siam Sunset (1999)
Not Rated | 91 min | Adventure, Comedy, Romance
A British man with a peculiar curse goes on a low-rent bus tour in Australia.
Director: John Polson | Stars: Linus Roache, Danielle Cormack, Ian Bliss, Roy Billing
Votes: 1,264
28. Cactus (I) (2008)
84 min | Crime, Drama, Mystery
A man is kidnapped from his city home in the quiet hours of the night and, the kidnapper, John Kelly, embarks on a journey into the Australian Outback towards the place where his hostage is... See full summary »
Director: Jasmine Yuen Carrucan | Stars: Travis McMahon, David Lyons, Bryan Brown, Shane Jacobson
Votes: 586
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