Equilibrium

This is one of those cult movies that folks either know about and love, or haven't really heard about.  Released in the shadow of "The Matrix", it has as deep a story and at least as many awesome fight scenes.  Christian Bale and Taye Diggs turn in some fantastic performances in this film, as well as a tragically short one by Sean Bean.  The film focuses on a futuristic dystopian society where human emotion and feeling has become the great boogie-man of society.  Being blamed as the cause of wars and injustice it is suppressed by most people by a drug regimen and enforced by a societal arm called the Tetragrammeton.  These are the basics... but the film has so much more than just a great sci-fi story and action.  This movie was my introduction to Kurt Wimmer, a film writer and director with a huge sense of visual style.  He also helped pen Street Kings, an incredibly violent cop actioner, that's still one of my guilty pleasures and Law Abiding Citizen, a movie I really enjoyed until the last 4 minutes just seemed to fall apart...
Equilibrium has all the best parts of story throughout it, which is why I often find myself recommending it to friends.  There's hope, tragedy, familial drama, espionage, sacrifice... and brilliant use of imagery.  It's one of my favorite films of the past decade... and I highly suggest you check it out.  But do yourself a favor and stay away from Ultraviolet (Wimmer's next directorial piece)... the story is too uneven and not nearly so solid as his last outing, though the visuals of it are intense and inventive.