BEST FILMS OF THE 90'S:
1. Last of the Mohicans – THEY SAID: 98th. I SAY: A wildly underrated movie, all but ignored by the academy due to a mid-year release. I don’t know anyone who has seen this movie who doesn’t love it. Everything about it is perfect. The soundtrack and the villain, as we've established the keys to a good film becoming great, are amongst the best of the decade. The director’s cut currently available on DVD Speilberg-izes the film, bringing the themes into words instead of leaving them as deeds. It is to be ignored. But the film is not. Flawless. I still root for Duncan. I still want Magua to lose the first knife fight.
Sunday, November 22, 2009
2. Terminator 2: Judgment Day – CRITICS SAID: 14th. I SAY: So i do have more to say here. An important film in many ways – the CGI still stands up against today’s standards for the most part, But the big story was troducing the strong female lead to film in a way that is still more real than the anime version routinely foisted upon us today. Compare Linda Hamilton's woman...stripped of her femininity, transformed by the first movie, occasionally outmatched physically, but tough, with Angelina Jolie is Wanted or Uma Thurman in Kill Bill - skinny girls inexplicably able to destroy all competition. Also, in a rarity, the kid isn't unbearable. Then there's the staples - the soundtrack is good and the villain is so memorable that the actor can never play himself clean-shaven again.
3. Miller’s Crossing – CRITICS SAID: 76th. I SAY: Possibly the best written film ever. The best Coen brothers’ movie, a very adult, very intellectual gangster movie that’s secretly a love story. Again, acting great, cinematography great, soundtrack great. I’m tempted to have it first, but I have to factor in that it made no impact. All that said, I love how the movie essentially revolves around a guy who talks...so each scene is almost entirely dialogue. He brings nothing to the table but his head, he's routinely beaten up and he takes it without complaint. All of this only serves to highlight the brief spurts of action. My one complaint is that I've never thought the actress who played Verna was up to the role. OK, one other complaint - Gabriel Byrne occasionally drops the accent.
5. The Hudsucker Proxy – CRITICS SAID: NOT IN THE TOP 100. I SAY: The best movie overlooked in the critics' top 100. One of the true Coen Brothers' classics that strikes the balance between comedy, romance, and drama without getting too Coen-y so as to be inaccessible. Tightly woven, fun to watch, brainy without being too much. The best and fairest movie about business ever made. Oh and, yes, the soundtrack is good and so is the villain.
6. Jerry Maguire – CRITICS SAID: 96th. I SAY: Jerry Maguire starts where most movies end – a fake person becomes real. And it goes from there. Again, like most great movies, it has no real genre. It’s a comedy, it’s a buddy pick, it’s a sports movie, it’s a love story. It has a great villain (Bob Sugar), it has a good soundtrack, it’s well written. It’s just good. Before Cameron Crowe did Vanilla Sky, I really thought he was a genius. Who’s coming with me?
7. Rudy – CRITICS SAID: NOT IN THE TOP 100. I SAY:, While everyone else lauds dull epics like American Beauty…I challenge you. Which movie can you remember more lines from? Which movie more scenes? Rudy’s just a great inspirational movie, it looks good, and it’s as unpretentious as its lead. Heck if I don’t point it out again – great soundtrack.
8. Lock, Stock, and Two Smoking Barrels – CRITICS SAID: NOT IN THE TOP 100. I SAY: It created the lad movie genre, it was witty, stylish, and just fun. Stylistically, it was a pioneer in film techniques. Might I add that the villains are all great and the soundtrack is good? A movie many times copied, but only rarely quite as good (it's pretty much Snatch and that's it).
9. Rushmore – CRITICS SAID: 57th. I SAY: Wes Anderson when he still had an editor was something else. So was Bill Murray when he first began taking stock. At first, the movie is just different. You’ve never seen anything like it, you’ve never heard writing like it…it’s just new. But the more you watch it, the more substance reveals itself. It’s a work of literature. And it’s fun to watch. And buying the soundtrack isn’t the worst investment you could make.
10. Beauty & The Beast – CRITICS SAID: 51st. I SAY: Disney brought back the animation film with The Little Mermaid and won a new generation of fans only to lose them in the late 90’s to the computer animation revolution. I can’t fault the strong if forgettable formula Pixar honed in Toy Story et al – watchable for adults, a flight of fancy for kids. But buried in the revolution was the decade’s best animation film, and it’s only true classic – Beauty & the Beast. Sure the other Disney pics are good, Aladdin overwhelmed by Robin Williams for example, and the Pixar movies are perfectly watchable, but Beauty & the Beast is the only one that warms your heart to remember the way Bambi does. Plus it has 2 key great movie elements: a good villain and a good soundtrack.
11. The Big Lebowski – CRITICS SAID: 39th. I SAY: The cult classic of the 90’s and the only great Coen farce. I can’t tell why I like this movie so much. It’s not THAT funny. It just makes me smile. I know half the movie by heart and I imagine there’s a lot of Achievers out there who know the other half too. It brought back the White Russian. I wrote a paper about this movie's applications to the 90's political sphere and the Gulf War. I have no idea if I was right, but I'm just throwing it out there. I also went bowling at that alley before it was destroyed and pretended to be Liam with my friend playing Jesus.
12. Liar, Liar – CRITICS SAID: NOT IN TOP 100. I say: The funniest movie of the 90’s. Most comedies are uneven. Most great comedies are only kind of funny the first time, and get funnier the more you watch them. Not this one. It was funny the first time, it’ll be funny the last time. Bonus - another appearance by Cary Elwes in a good movie. The guy has been in tons of good movies and he has zero star power. I'm not sure he's been introduced to the paparazzi.
14. The Silence of the Lambs – CRITICS SAID: 3rd. I say: This movie is good. No doubt. But #3? The movie is a compelling thriller with a great villain and a few layers of literature. That’s strong. But #3 in ten years strong? It’s just the best of the 90’s serial thrillers. That'll do Clarice, that'll do.
15. Fargo – CRITICS SAID: 6th. I SAY: This movie bears the collective love of the Coen’s less well-lauded but better films from earlier in the 90’s, plus the weight of an everyman/everywoman theme. Yes, it’s very good. But in the end, it’s not as full of creativity as the Coen movies I put above it. But it does have Jerry Lundegard.
16. Bottle Rocket – CRITICS SAID: NOT IN THE TOP 100. I SAY: I know most people don’t like this movie. I think it’s brilliant. Wes Anderson’s first movie. Owen and Luke Wilson’s first movie. I think it’s funny, it has that Hitchcock element of taking you somewhere completely different every 20 minutes. Sorry.
19. The Usual Suspects CRITICS SAID: 16th. I SAY: For those of us who managed to catch this movie without having the gotcha-twist revealed in advance, all I can say is that if I were coffee drinker in the 90’s, I would have dropped my cup too. Never saw it coming. Besides, this led to several droll paraphrases of this film by yours truly such as, "The greatest trick the Soviet Union ever pulled was convincing 90's social science academics the Cold War didn't happen."
20. Office Space - CRITICS SAID: NOT IN THE TOP 100. I SAY: I celebrate this film's entire catalogue. You may be wondering, "How could Office Space be a better movie than Schindler's List." Ask yourself - which would you rather own? Which would you rather watch? Office Space dabbles in Holocaust awareness, "You know, the Jews had pieces of flare that the Nazis made them wear." But does Schindler's List speak to our office lives? Not at all. Case closed.
Thursday, November 19, 2009
22. Tombstone – CRITICS' RANKING: NOT IN THE TOP 100. I SAY: Let's start out with the negatives - the love story is Dana DeLAME-y. It's so bad that I just used that pun. Also, the bad guy is so thoroughly humiliated by Val Kilmer that he's hard to take seriously. It just always seems clear that these are drunken buffoons. Finally, Jason Priestly? Really? That out of the way, Kurt Russell makes a good cowboy, Sam Elliott was born in the wrong era and should have been in all the great westerns, and Bill Paxton is present. Which leaves us with Kilmer's Doc Holliday, which is what puts this movie on this list. This movie dances circles around Unforgiven's 2+-hours of growling.
23. Forrest Gump – CRITICS' RANKING: 9th. I SAY: Of the 90’s most-famous movies, this is one I feel obligated to include, even if it’s a kitchy nostalgia film, essentially a road trip through history, hiding a surprisingly reactionary message behind a politically correct outlay. When you take the movie apart, at first you think, in typical 90's fashion, all the white guys in the movie are evil except the physically handicapped guy and the mentally handicapped guy. But dig deeper and you see a movie harshly critical of the 60's, one that emphasizes simple faith, fidelity, and hard-work. So in the end, ideologues are left to wonder what they should think, whereas I think most normal people can just accept it as a sweet little collage of Americana, well-timed in coming out at the end of an era.
Wednesday, November 18, 2009
90's In Film...Best Director/Writer, Plus Teaser for my Top 25 Countdown
Best Director/Writer of the Decade - A word of note...I've combined this into a question of end-to-end authorship.:
NOMINEES:
* Tim Burton – (Edward Scissorhands, Batman Returns, Ed Wood, Mars Attacks!, Sleepy Hollow). Tim Burton is the sort of guy who never wins an academy award because he's always just making Tim Burton movies, which is really creative and interesting, but kind of a genre unto itself. Creepy but not scary...he has that nailed.
* James Cameron – (Terminator 2: Judgment Day, True Lies, Titanic) - Three massive directorial undertakings followed by nearly 13 years of silence. Cameron scores high on degree of difficulty. Quality-wise, 2 out of 3 ain't bad.
* Joel & Ethan Coen – (Miller’s Crossing, Barton Fink, The Hudsucker Proxy, Fargo, The Big Lebowski). Re-read that list of movies. 4 of 5 are instant classics and the one that isn't (Barton Fink) is a think piece about writer's block.
* Michael Mann – (The Last of the Mohicans, Heat, The Insider). The no-name of this bunch. I have to admit that I've never seen The Insider. But those other two are taught, strong entries and I've heard the same about The Insider. He barely beat out Wes Anderson and Cameron Crowe, but ultimately, I think his catalogue is deeper.
* Stephen Spielberg – (Hook, Jurassic Park, Schindler’s List, The Lost World: Jurassic Park, Amistad, Saving Private Ryan). I know, I whine about how overrated Spielberg is. And it's true. He picks big topics and then gets credit for not screwing the up. He's not a great artist, and he always works the same theme (reunite the family, Christian redemption). Even with those complaints, he has to be on this list, and he deserves to be. I'll just say it now - the most watchable and most important of his 90's movies was Jurassic Park. Schindler's List, the presumed champ, was just the first movie about The Holocaust. Now that we have several of those, its artistic value can be fairly weighed (and dismissed).
WINNER: The Coens. Was there ever a doubt?
TEASER FOR MY TOP 25 COUNTDOWN:
THE CRITICS' GENERAL CONSENSUS TOP 25 (i.e. HORRIBLY WRONG ACCEPTED WISDOM).
I'll tell you now, no more than 5 of these 'top 25' make the cut.
1. Schindlers List (1)
2. Goodfellas (3)
3. Silence of the Lambs (3.5)
4. Pulp Fiction (3.5)
5. Saving Private Ryan (4.5)
6. Fargo (5.5)
7. Unforgiven (7.5)
8. Shawshank Redemption (8.5)
9. Forrest Gump (9.5)
10. Malcolm X (10)
11. American Beauty (10)
12. Dances With Wolves (11.5)
13. Titanic (13.5)
14. Terminator 2: Judgment day (14)
15. Braveheart (15)
16. The Usual Suspects (16)
17. Barton Fink (18)
18. Reservoir Dogs (18)
19. The Sixth Sense (18.5)
20. Boyz’Nthe Hood (19.5)
21. JFK (20.5)
22. Se7en (21.5)
23. Toy Story (23)
24. Dead Man Walking (23)
25. The Nightmare Before Christmas / The Piano (25)
Best Director/Writer of the Decade - A word of note...I've combined this into a question of end-to-end authorship.:
NOMINEES:
* Tim Burton – (Edward Scissorhands, Batman Returns, Ed Wood, Mars Attacks!, Sleepy Hollow). Tim Burton is the sort of guy who never wins an academy award because he's always just making Tim Burton movies, which is really creative and interesting, but kind of a genre unto itself. Creepy but not scary...he has that nailed.
* James Cameron – (Terminator 2: Judgment Day, True Lies, Titanic) - Three massive directorial undertakings followed by nearly 13 years of silence. Cameron scores high on degree of difficulty. Quality-wise, 2 out of 3 ain't bad.
* Joel & Ethan Coen – (Miller’s Crossing, Barton Fink, The Hudsucker Proxy, Fargo, The Big Lebowski). Re-read that list of movies. 4 of 5 are instant classics and the one that isn't (Barton Fink) is a think piece about writer's block.
* Michael Mann – (The Last of the Mohicans, Heat, The Insider). The no-name of this bunch. I have to admit that I've never seen The Insider. But those other two are taught, strong entries and I've heard the same about The Insider. He barely beat out Wes Anderson and Cameron Crowe, but ultimately, I think his catalogue is deeper.
* Stephen Spielberg – (Hook, Jurassic Park, Schindler’s List, The Lost World: Jurassic Park, Amistad, Saving Private Ryan). I know, I whine about how overrated Spielberg is. And it's true. He picks big topics and then gets credit for not screwing the up. He's not a great artist, and he always works the same theme (reunite the family, Christian redemption). Even with those complaints, he has to be on this list, and he deserves to be. I'll just say it now - the most watchable and most important of his 90's movies was Jurassic Park. Schindler's List, the presumed champ, was just the first movie about The Holocaust. Now that we have several of those, its artistic value can be fairly weighed (and dismissed).
WINNER: The Coens. Was there ever a doubt?
TEASER FOR MY TOP 25 COUNTDOWN:
THE CRITICS' GENERAL CONSENSUS TOP 25 (i.e. HORRIBLY WRONG ACCEPTED WISDOM).
I'll tell you now, no more than 5 of these 'top 25' make the cut.
1. Schindlers List (1)
2. Goodfellas (3)
3. Silence of the Lambs (3.5)
4. Pulp Fiction (3.5)
5. Saving Private Ryan (4.5)
6. Fargo (5.5)
7. Unforgiven (7.5)
8. Shawshank Redemption (8.5)
9. Forrest Gump (9.5)
10. Malcolm X (10)
11. American Beauty (10)
12. Dances With Wolves (11.5)
13. Titanic (13.5)
14. Terminator 2: Judgment day (14)
15. Braveheart (15)
16. The Usual Suspects (16)
17. Barton Fink (18)
18. Reservoir Dogs (18)
19. The Sixth Sense (18.5)
20. Boyz’Nthe Hood (19.5)
21. JFK (20.5)
22. Se7en (21.5)
23. Toy Story (23)
24. Dead Man Walking (23)
25. The Nightmare Before Christmas / The Piano (25)
Tuesday, November 17, 2009
The 90's in Film Review Rolls On: Best Acting Awards
Before we get started, you'll notice the dirth of females. I decided against doing a category for the ladies as I began researching the matter to discover that almost no actress has sustained success. Don't blame me, blame Hollywood. Don't believe me? I looked up a poll of the top actresses of the 90's on the-movie-times.com. The results:
1. Julia Roberts (Notable 90's Films: Pretty Woman, a few middling romcoms, Hook, Notting Hill)
2. Meryl Streep (Notable 90's Films: Postcards from the Edge, The River Wild, Death Becomes Her, The Bridges of Madison County)
3. Jodie Foster (Notable 90's Films: The Silence of the Lambs, Maverick, Nell, Contact, Anna & the King)
4. Sharon Stone (Notable 90's Films: Total Recall, Basic Instinct, Sliver, Last Action Hero, The Specialist, The Quick and the Dead, Casino, Sphere, The Muse)
5. Meg Ryan (Notable 90's Films: Joe Versus the Volcano, The Doors, Sleepless in Seattle, IQ, French Kiss, Courage Under Fire, City of Angels)
Now, that's a fair top 5. But the disparity between those filmographies and those of the best actors is cavernous. If I had to pick, I like Sharon Stone for talent and Meg Ryan for movie quality. And I might substitute Michelle Pfeiffer for Julia Roberts. Anyhow, I just wanted it clear...one of America's most liberal institutions is also one of its most sexist.
On with the show...
Best Supporting Actor of the Decade (CRITERIA: In Everything, Good, Never Used as Much as He Should Be As A Leading Man):
NOMINEES:
- Morgan Freeman (The Bonfire of the Vanities, Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves, Unforgiven, Shawshank Redemption, Outbreak, Se7en, Amistad, Deep Impact)
- Gary Oldman (State of Grace, JFK, Dracula, True Romance, Immortal Beloved, The Fifth Element, Air Force One, Lost in Space)
- Bill Paxton (Predator 2, Tombstone, True Lies, Apollo 13, Twister, Titanic)
- Kevin Spacey (Glengarry Glenn Ross, The Ref, Swimming with Sharks, The Usual Suspects, Outbreak, Se7en, A Time To Kill, LA Confidential, A Bug’s Life, American Beauty)
- Christopher Walken (King of New York, Batman Returns, True Romance, Pulp Fiction, Suicide Kings, Sleepy Hollow)
WINNER: A narrow victory for Kevin Spacey over Morgan Freeman. Please note that I wanted to nominate Samuel L., but he's not acting. He’s in everything, and he’s always the same character - bad-ass brotha'.
Best Comedic Actor of the Decade:
NOMINEES:
- Steve Martin – Highs (L.A. Story, Father of the Bride, Leap of Faith, Prince of Egypt, Bowfinger) Lows (Grand Canyon, Sgt Bilko, Father of the Bride 2)
- Bill Murray – Highs (What About Bob, Groundhog Day, Ed Wood, Kingpin, Wild Things, Rushmore) Lows (The Man Who Knew Too Little)
- Jim Carrey – Highs (Ace Ventura, The Mask, Dumb & Dumber, Ace Ventura 2, Liar, Liar, Truman Show, Man on the Moon) Lows: (Batman Forever, Cable Guy)
- Adam Sandler - Highs (Billy Madison, Happy Gilmore, The Wedding Singer, Dirty Work, Water Boy, Big Daddy), Lows (Coneheads, Airheads, Bulletproof)
- Mike Myers – Highs (Wayne’s World, Austin Powers 1 & 2, Mystery, Alaska) Lows (So I Married an Axe Murderer, Wayne’s World 2, 4-year hiatus between films, messy fight with Dana Carvey)
WINNER: Jim Carrey. I don't think it's close, even with his late decade quest for meaning - he only really got unbearable in the next decade, though he beat Bill Murray there. Oh how we could have used a Fire Marshall Bill movie while the iron was still hot, if only to remind us of the irony that the only successful actors from In Living Color were the white guy (Carey) and the fly girl (Jennifer Lopez)...until Jamie Fox came along and ruined that useful parable on race. (I still heart you Damon Wayans. Homey D. Clown 4-Life). Interestingly, Adam Sandler (a strong candidate) would use the otts to feel out a quest for meaning much like Carey and Murray, only to settle instead for a much more successful quest for mediocrity. Mike Myers' resume is too thin. In the end, I guess we could only really count on Steve Martin to just be funny for the next 10 years as well.
Best Actor of the Decade:
NOMINEES:
- Nicholas Cage – HIGHS (Leaving Las Vegas, The Rock, Con Air, Face/Off), LOWS (Guarding Tess, Innumerable small movies, City of Angels, Snake Eyes, 8MM). Another guy who dilutes his case with tons of bad films. A nice run in the mid-90’s lands him here.
- Tom Cruise – HIGHS (A Few Good Men, Interview with the Vampire, Jerry Maguire, Mission Impossible, Eyes Wide Shut, Magnolia) LOWS (Days of Thunder, The Firm). I think what stands out about Cruise is that he does very few movies comparatively. That list there...that's pretty much it. He does not work for a paycheck.
- Robert DeNiro – HIGHS (Backdraft, Goodfellas, Cape Fear, Casino, Heat, Wag the Dog, Jackie Brown, Ronin, Analyze This) LOWS (Frankenstein, Lots of bad small movies, The Fan, Great Expectations). A great decade, marred by what must be some debilitating addiction that needs feeding through constant roles in bad movies.
- Tom Hanks – HIGHS (The Bonfire of the Vanities, A League of Their Own, Sleepless in Seattle, Philadelphia, Forrest Gump, Apollo 13, Toy Story, Saving Private Ryan, Toy Story 2, The Green Mile), LOWS (Joe Versus the Volcano, Radio Flyer, That Thing You Do). A strong resume…a lot of breadth there.
- Anthony Hopkins – HIGHS (The Silence of the Lambs, Howards End, Dracula, Chaplin, Remains of the Dday, Legends of the Fall, Nixon, Amistad, The Mask of Zorro, Meet Joe Black) LOWS (Numerous small movie tripe) Too much tripe, not enough movies I actually like.
- Brad Pitt – HIGHS (Thelma & Louise, A River Runs Through It, Kalifornia, True Romance, Interview with the Vampire, Legends of the Fall, Se7en, Twelve Monkeys, The Devil’s Own, Seven Years in Tibet, Meet Joe Black, Fight Club) LOWS (Cool World). A strong resume. People pretend he’s not a great actor, but that’s pretty impressive.
- Keanu Reeves – HIGHS (Point Break, Bill & Ted’s Bogus Journey, Dracula, Much Ado About Nothing, Speed, The Devil’s Advocate, The Matrix) LOWS (Johnny Mnemonic, A Walk in the Clouds) A surprisingly strong run. But those lows were low…and it’s Keanu after all, not Laurence Olivier.
- Arnold Schwarzenegger – HIGHS (Total Recall, Kindergarten Cop, Terminator 2: Judgment Day, Last Action Hero, True Lies) LOWS (Junior, Eraser, Jingle All the Way, Batman & Robin, End of Days). Great early decade, but awful last half does him in.
- John Travolta – HIGHS (Pulp Fiction, Get Shorty, Broken Arrow, Face/Off, The Thin Red Line, A Civil Action), LOWS (Look Who’s Talking movies, White Man’s Burden, Phenomenon, Michael, Primary Colors). Nice to have you back…but tone down the social activism.
- Denzel Washington – HIGHS (Mississippi Masala, Malcolm X, Much Ado About Nothing, The Pelican Brief, Philadelphia, Crimson Tide, Courage Under Fire, He Got Game, The Hurricane) LOWS (Devil in a Blue Dress, Virtuosity, The Siege, The Bone Collector)
WINNER: Tom Hanks.
COMMENT: First of all, I included 10 actors just to show you how much deeper their resumes go than the actresses. Secondly, I can't earnestly say that in terms of sheer talent, it's Tom Hanks. Frankly, if Daniel Day-Lewis hadn't spent the decade cobbling shoes somewhere in rural New England, who knows what movies we'd have had? But Hanks carried all of those films, he's a different person in many of them, he's my boy from Sacramento, and ultimately, that is an astoundingly productive decade of Beatles'-esque dimensions. What interests me is that supposed pretty boy Brad Pitt is my number 2. If he's dumb, he sure has a good agent. That said, Keanu really is dumb, and he still put up a strong decade. Perhaps the most interesting thing is that a lot of the real talent, the bright guys like Johnny Depp and Robert Downey Jr., forfeited this decade to a drug-related problems or, at least in Depp's case, playing somebody with drug-related problems in most of his films. I suppose all's well that ends well...if only the same were true of music, we'd still have Biggie and Kurt Kobain to make us music. Instead, they died, we got Creed, Britney, and Sean John, and now a generation is left adrift without knowing what it's like to have music worth loving.
Before we get started, you'll notice the dirth of females. I decided against doing a category for the ladies as I began researching the matter to discover that almost no actress has sustained success. Don't blame me, blame Hollywood. Don't believe me? I looked up a poll of the top actresses of the 90's on the-movie-times.com. The results:
1. Julia Roberts (Notable 90's Films: Pretty Woman, a few middling romcoms, Hook, Notting Hill)
2. Meryl Streep (Notable 90's Films: Postcards from the Edge, The River Wild, Death Becomes Her, The Bridges of Madison County)
3. Jodie Foster (Notable 90's Films: The Silence of the Lambs, Maverick, Nell, Contact, Anna & the King)
4. Sharon Stone (Notable 90's Films: Total Recall, Basic Instinct, Sliver, Last Action Hero, The Specialist, The Quick and the Dead, Casino, Sphere, The Muse)
5. Meg Ryan (Notable 90's Films: Joe Versus the Volcano, The Doors, Sleepless in Seattle, IQ, French Kiss, Courage Under Fire, City of Angels)
Now, that's a fair top 5. But the disparity between those filmographies and those of the best actors is cavernous. If I had to pick, I like Sharon Stone for talent and Meg Ryan for movie quality. And I might substitute Michelle Pfeiffer for Julia Roberts. Anyhow, I just wanted it clear...one of America's most liberal institutions is also one of its most sexist.
On with the show...
Best Supporting Actor of the Decade (CRITERIA: In Everything, Good, Never Used as Much as He Should Be As A Leading Man):
NOMINEES:
- Morgan Freeman (The Bonfire of the Vanities, Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves, Unforgiven, Shawshank Redemption, Outbreak, Se7en, Amistad, Deep Impact)
- Gary Oldman (State of Grace, JFK, Dracula, True Romance, Immortal Beloved, The Fifth Element, Air Force One, Lost in Space)
- Bill Paxton (Predator 2, Tombstone, True Lies, Apollo 13, Twister, Titanic)
- Kevin Spacey (Glengarry Glenn Ross, The Ref, Swimming with Sharks, The Usual Suspects, Outbreak, Se7en, A Time To Kill, LA Confidential, A Bug’s Life, American Beauty)
- Christopher Walken (King of New York, Batman Returns, True Romance, Pulp Fiction, Suicide Kings, Sleepy Hollow)
WINNER: A narrow victory for Kevin Spacey over Morgan Freeman. Please note that I wanted to nominate Samuel L., but he's not acting. He’s in everything, and he’s always the same character - bad-ass brotha'.
Best Comedic Actor of the Decade:
NOMINEES:
- Steve Martin – Highs (L.A. Story, Father of the Bride, Leap of Faith, Prince of Egypt, Bowfinger) Lows (Grand Canyon, Sgt Bilko, Father of the Bride 2)
- Bill Murray – Highs (What About Bob, Groundhog Day, Ed Wood, Kingpin, Wild Things, Rushmore) Lows (The Man Who Knew Too Little)
- Jim Carrey – Highs (Ace Ventura, The Mask, Dumb & Dumber, Ace Ventura 2, Liar, Liar, Truman Show, Man on the Moon) Lows: (Batman Forever, Cable Guy)
- Adam Sandler - Highs (Billy Madison, Happy Gilmore, The Wedding Singer, Dirty Work, Water Boy, Big Daddy), Lows (Coneheads, Airheads, Bulletproof)
- Mike Myers – Highs (Wayne’s World, Austin Powers 1 & 2, Mystery, Alaska) Lows (So I Married an Axe Murderer, Wayne’s World 2, 4-year hiatus between films, messy fight with Dana Carvey)
WINNER: Jim Carrey. I don't think it's close, even with his late decade quest for meaning - he only really got unbearable in the next decade, though he beat Bill Murray there. Oh how we could have used a Fire Marshall Bill movie while the iron was still hot, if only to remind us of the irony that the only successful actors from In Living Color were the white guy (Carey) and the fly girl (Jennifer Lopez)...until Jamie Fox came along and ruined that useful parable on race. (I still heart you Damon Wayans. Homey D. Clown 4-Life). Interestingly, Adam Sandler (a strong candidate) would use the otts to feel out a quest for meaning much like Carey and Murray, only to settle instead for a much more successful quest for mediocrity. Mike Myers' resume is too thin. In the end, I guess we could only really count on Steve Martin to just be funny for the next 10 years as well.
Best Actor of the Decade:
NOMINEES:
- Nicholas Cage – HIGHS (Leaving Las Vegas, The Rock, Con Air, Face/Off), LOWS (Guarding Tess, Innumerable small movies, City of Angels, Snake Eyes, 8MM). Another guy who dilutes his case with tons of bad films. A nice run in the mid-90’s lands him here.
- Tom Cruise – HIGHS (A Few Good Men, Interview with the Vampire, Jerry Maguire, Mission Impossible, Eyes Wide Shut, Magnolia) LOWS (Days of Thunder, The Firm). I think what stands out about Cruise is that he does very few movies comparatively. That list there...that's pretty much it. He does not work for a paycheck.
- Robert DeNiro – HIGHS (Backdraft, Goodfellas, Cape Fear, Casino, Heat, Wag the Dog, Jackie Brown, Ronin, Analyze This) LOWS (Frankenstein, Lots of bad small movies, The Fan, Great Expectations). A great decade, marred by what must be some debilitating addiction that needs feeding through constant roles in bad movies.
- Tom Hanks – HIGHS (The Bonfire of the Vanities, A League of Their Own, Sleepless in Seattle, Philadelphia, Forrest Gump, Apollo 13, Toy Story, Saving Private Ryan, Toy Story 2, The Green Mile), LOWS (Joe Versus the Volcano, Radio Flyer, That Thing You Do). A strong resume…a lot of breadth there.
- Anthony Hopkins – HIGHS (The Silence of the Lambs, Howards End, Dracula, Chaplin, Remains of the Dday, Legends of the Fall, Nixon, Amistad, The Mask of Zorro, Meet Joe Black) LOWS (Numerous small movie tripe) Too much tripe, not enough movies I actually like.
- Brad Pitt – HIGHS (Thelma & Louise, A River Runs Through It, Kalifornia, True Romance, Interview with the Vampire, Legends of the Fall, Se7en, Twelve Monkeys, The Devil’s Own, Seven Years in Tibet, Meet Joe Black, Fight Club) LOWS (Cool World). A strong resume. People pretend he’s not a great actor, but that’s pretty impressive.
- Keanu Reeves – HIGHS (Point Break, Bill & Ted’s Bogus Journey, Dracula, Much Ado About Nothing, Speed, The Devil’s Advocate, The Matrix) LOWS (Johnny Mnemonic, A Walk in the Clouds) A surprisingly strong run. But those lows were low…and it’s Keanu after all, not Laurence Olivier.
- Arnold Schwarzenegger – HIGHS (Total Recall, Kindergarten Cop, Terminator 2: Judgment Day, Last Action Hero, True Lies) LOWS (Junior, Eraser, Jingle All the Way, Batman & Robin, End of Days). Great early decade, but awful last half does him in.
- John Travolta – HIGHS (Pulp Fiction, Get Shorty, Broken Arrow, Face/Off, The Thin Red Line, A Civil Action), LOWS (Look Who’s Talking movies, White Man’s Burden, Phenomenon, Michael, Primary Colors). Nice to have you back…but tone down the social activism.
- Denzel Washington – HIGHS (Mississippi Masala, Malcolm X, Much Ado About Nothing, The Pelican Brief, Philadelphia, Crimson Tide, Courage Under Fire, He Got Game, The Hurricane) LOWS (Devil in a Blue Dress, Virtuosity, The Siege, The Bone Collector)
WINNER: Tom Hanks.
COMMENT: First of all, I included 10 actors just to show you how much deeper their resumes go than the actresses. Secondly, I can't earnestly say that in terms of sheer talent, it's Tom Hanks. Frankly, if Daniel Day-Lewis hadn't spent the decade cobbling shoes somewhere in rural New England, who knows what movies we'd have had? But Hanks carried all of those films, he's a different person in many of them, he's my boy from Sacramento, and ultimately, that is an astoundingly productive decade of Beatles'-esque dimensions. What interests me is that supposed pretty boy Brad Pitt is my number 2. If he's dumb, he sure has a good agent. That said, Keanu really is dumb, and he still put up a strong decade. Perhaps the most interesting thing is that a lot of the real talent, the bright guys like Johnny Depp and Robert Downey Jr., forfeited this decade to a drug-related problems or, at least in Depp's case, playing somebody with drug-related problems in most of his films. I suppose all's well that ends well...if only the same were true of music, we'd still have Biggie and Kurt Kobain to make us music. Instead, they died, we got Creed, Britney, and Sean John, and now a generation is left adrift without knowing what it's like to have music worth loving.
Monday, November 16, 2009
90's In Film Continued: Worst High-Grossing Films and Ten Most Wasted Talents
Worst Movie Over 500 Million World-Wide Gross: Ghost
Worst Movie of the Top 50 Grossing Movies: The Flinstones
10 MOST WASTED TALENTS OF THE 90’S (Alphabetical):
• Dana Carvey – He was funnier than Mike Myers, who tried to write him out of Wayne’s World until the producers decided the same thing (Carvey > Myers) and wrote him back in (hence all of the scenes with Garth by himself). Cancer, Wayne’s World 2, and dissing your sponsors in the first episode of your TV show though…that’s a lot to overcome.
• Robert Downey Jr. – “Quitting drugs is easy, I’ve done it hundreds of times.” A lost decade in his prime. Good to have him back.
• Angelica Houston – Between Addam’s Family and being rediscovered by Wes Anderson in the otts, nothing. It’s not a kind business to an aging woman.
• Jennifer Jason Leigh – After being the energy of The Hudsucker Proxy, essentially nothing. It’s not a kind business for a younger woman either.
• Dennis Leary – I admit it. I liked The Ref. Every time you see a hack like Dane Cook get another part, you have to wonder why a real comedian like Leary didn’t get more parts.
• Norm MacDonald – Another guy I think is hysterical who had no movie career of note.
• Tim Roth – After Reservoir Dogs and a dominant performance in Rob Roy, he sat the bench. I have no clue why. Maybe he has a bad agent.
• Marisa Tomei – One has to wonder if the story that she was blackballed after a semi-senile Jack Palance read the wrong name and gave her the Best Supporting Actress award is true. There’s really no other way to explain how a beautiful, funny actress with an academy award in a popular movie falls of the face of the earth.
• Denzel Washington – I know. It’s hard to say Washington ‘wasted’ his talent. But, to me, Denzel is the best actor of his generation. He should be making classics. Instead, this was his 90’s post-his epic 1989 performance in Glory: Heart Condition, Mo’ Better Blues, Mississippi Masala, Ricochet, Malcolm X, Much Ado About Nothing, The Pelican Brief, Philadelphia, Crimson Tide, Virtuosity, Devil in a Blue Dress, Courage Under Fire, The Preacher’s Wife, Fallen, He Got Game, The Seige, The Bone Collector, The Hurricane. Some of those are good movies. But that’s not the line-up of the best actor of his generation. He wanders between African-American social issues roles and bizarrely tame scripts. Is/was America not ready for a black leading man in a race-less role or is/was it just Hollywood that wasn’t ready? Was no one willing to cast him, or were the great writers and directors unwilling to write for him? Or does he limit himself…is this the career he wanted? An unanswered shame.
• James Woods – Few people know this, but in Sylvester Stallone’s long decline, The Specialist was the movie that could have put him back on top. It had Sharon Stone, it had Antonio Banderas, and it had James Woods playing a terrific bad guy. Instead, Woods’ film-stealing bad-guy was left on the cutting room floor due to Stallone’s ego. As a result, Woods’ rounded out the 90’s playing bit parts in should-have-been movies like Casino, Nixon, Ghosts of the Mississippi, and Any Given Sunday plus starring in one of the great 90s HBO features – Indictment: The McMartin Trial. James Woods is a truly talented actor. But this is Hollywood.
Worst Movie Over 500 Million World-Wide Gross: Ghost
Worst Movie of the Top 50 Grossing Movies: The Flinstones
10 MOST WASTED TALENTS OF THE 90’S (Alphabetical):
• Dana Carvey – He was funnier than Mike Myers, who tried to write him out of Wayne’s World until the producers decided the same thing (Carvey > Myers) and wrote him back in (hence all of the scenes with Garth by himself). Cancer, Wayne’s World 2, and dissing your sponsors in the first episode of your TV show though…that’s a lot to overcome.
• Robert Downey Jr. – “Quitting drugs is easy, I’ve done it hundreds of times.” A lost decade in his prime. Good to have him back.
• Angelica Houston – Between Addam’s Family and being rediscovered by Wes Anderson in the otts, nothing. It’s not a kind business to an aging woman.
• Jennifer Jason Leigh – After being the energy of The Hudsucker Proxy, essentially nothing. It’s not a kind business for a younger woman either.
• Dennis Leary – I admit it. I liked The Ref. Every time you see a hack like Dane Cook get another part, you have to wonder why a real comedian like Leary didn’t get more parts.
• Norm MacDonald – Another guy I think is hysterical who had no movie career of note.
• Tim Roth – After Reservoir Dogs and a dominant performance in Rob Roy, he sat the bench. I have no clue why. Maybe he has a bad agent.
• Marisa Tomei – One has to wonder if the story that she was blackballed after a semi-senile Jack Palance read the wrong name and gave her the Best Supporting Actress award is true. There’s really no other way to explain how a beautiful, funny actress with an academy award in a popular movie falls of the face of the earth.
• Denzel Washington – I know. It’s hard to say Washington ‘wasted’ his talent. But, to me, Denzel is the best actor of his generation. He should be making classics. Instead, this was his 90’s post-his epic 1989 performance in Glory: Heart Condition, Mo’ Better Blues, Mississippi Masala, Ricochet, Malcolm X, Much Ado About Nothing, The Pelican Brief, Philadelphia, Crimson Tide, Virtuosity, Devil in a Blue Dress, Courage Under Fire, The Preacher’s Wife, Fallen, He Got Game, The Seige, The Bone Collector, The Hurricane. Some of those are good movies. But that’s not the line-up of the best actor of his generation. He wanders between African-American social issues roles and bizarrely tame scripts. Is/was America not ready for a black leading man in a race-less role or is/was it just Hollywood that wasn’t ready? Was no one willing to cast him, or were the great writers and directors unwilling to write for him? Or does he limit himself…is this the career he wanted? An unanswered shame.
• James Woods – Few people know this, but in Sylvester Stallone’s long decline, The Specialist was the movie that could have put him back on top. It had Sharon Stone, it had Antonio Banderas, and it had James Woods playing a terrific bad guy. Instead, Woods’ film-stealing bad-guy was left on the cutting room floor due to Stallone’s ego. As a result, Woods’ rounded out the 90’s playing bit parts in should-have-been movies like Casino, Nixon, Ghosts of the Mississippi, and Any Given Sunday plus starring in one of the great 90s HBO features – Indictment: The McMartin Trial. James Woods is a truly talented actor. But this is Hollywood.
Sunday, November 15, 2009
90's in Film Review Cont. - Rounding Out the Genres - Best Action/Sci-Fi, Best Comedy, Best and Worst of the Best Picture Winners.
And now, the moneymakers:
Best Action/Sci-Fi Movie of the Decade:
NOMINEES:
Jurassic Park
The Matrix
Speed
Terminator 2: Judgment Day
Total Recall
WINNER: Terminator 2: Judgment Day. Argue if you can.
Best Comedy of the Decade (CRITERIA - Can't have any real art, message, or focus on a love story.):
NOMINEES:
Happy Gilmore
Liar, Liar
Office Space
Tommy Boy
Wayne’s World
WINNER: Liar, Liar. All of the movies are really funny. I just chose Liar, Liar because it's that rare comedy that's funny the first time and funny on repeated watching.
Best of the ‘Best Picture’ Winners (Nominees, winner in BOLD):
1. The Silence of the Lambs (1991)
2. Forrest Gump (1994)
3. Shakespeare in Love (1998)
4. Unforgiven (1992)
5. Braveheart (1995)
Worst of the ‘Best Picture’ Winners (Nominees, winner in Bold):
6. Schindler’s List (1993)
7. American Beauty (1999)
8. Titanic (1997)
9. Dances With Wolves (1990)
10. The English Patient (1996)
Personally, I think the top 3 are truly good, the next 4 are OK movies that got over-hyped based on the names connected to them and the serious subject matter, #8 is a major directorial achievement but a tedious film, and the last 2 have no business winning any awards for anything other than their uses as a substitute for valerian root.
And now, the moneymakers:
Best Action/Sci-Fi Movie of the Decade:
NOMINEES:
Jurassic Park
The Matrix
Speed
Terminator 2: Judgment Day
Total Recall
WINNER: Terminator 2: Judgment Day. Argue if you can.
Best Comedy of the Decade (CRITERIA - Can't have any real art, message, or focus on a love story.):
NOMINEES:
Happy Gilmore
Liar, Liar
Office Space
Tommy Boy
Wayne’s World
WINNER: Liar, Liar. All of the movies are really funny. I just chose Liar, Liar because it's that rare comedy that's funny the first time and funny on repeated watching.
Best of the ‘Best Picture’ Winners (Nominees, winner in BOLD):
1. The Silence of the Lambs (1991)
2. Forrest Gump (1994)
3. Shakespeare in Love (1998)
4. Unforgiven (1992)
5. Braveheart (1995)
Worst of the ‘Best Picture’ Winners (Nominees, winner in Bold):
6. Schindler’s List (1993)
7. American Beauty (1999)
8. Titanic (1997)
9. Dances With Wolves (1990)
10. The English Patient (1996)
Personally, I think the top 3 are truly good, the next 4 are OK movies that got over-hyped based on the names connected to them and the serious subject matter, #8 is a major directorial achievement but a tedious film, and the last 2 have no business winning any awards for anything other than their uses as a substitute for valerian root.
Saturday, November 14, 2009
Day 7 of the 90's Review: Most Tolerable Rom-Com/Love Story, Best Horror Pic, Best Western. 2 Genres I don't like that exploded in the 90's into cash cows, 1 that's almost dead that I do like.
Most Tolerable Romance/Romantic Comedy of the Decade:
NOMINEES:
French Kiss
Jerry Maguire
Shakespeare In Love
There’s Something About Mary
The Wedding Singer
WINNER: Jerry Maguire. Gosh, these movies are downright watchable. Maybe I shouldn't bag on this genre so much.
Best Horror Pic of the Decade:
The Blair Witch Project
I Know What You Did Last Summer
Scream
Sleepy Hollow
Tremors
WINNER: Scream. Sleepy Hollow isn't scary, just Tim Burton weird.
Best Western of the Decade:
NOMINEES:
City Slickers
Maverick
The Quick and the Dead
Tombstone
Unforgiven
WINNER: Tombstone. No contest. I love westerns, it's a shame there's so few good ones these days. Of these films, 2-3 are comedies. I know we're supposed to sacrifice our first born before Clint Eastwood making a western, but really, Tombstone is a much better movie, even factoring in the lame love story. Kurt Russell had a pretty solid 90's for a guy who doesn't really seem like a star.
Most Tolerable Romance/Romantic Comedy of the Decade:
NOMINEES:
French Kiss
Jerry Maguire
Shakespeare In Love
There’s Something About Mary
The Wedding Singer
WINNER: Jerry Maguire. Gosh, these movies are downright watchable. Maybe I shouldn't bag on this genre so much.
Best Horror Pic of the Decade:
The Blair Witch Project
I Know What You Did Last Summer
Scream
Sleepy Hollow
Tremors
WINNER: Scream. Sleepy Hollow isn't scary, just Tim Burton weird.
Best Western of the Decade:
NOMINEES:
City Slickers
Maverick
The Quick and the Dead
Tombstone
Unforgiven
WINNER: Tombstone. No contest. I love westerns, it's a shame there's so few good ones these days. Of these films, 2-3 are comedies. I know we're supposed to sacrifice our first born before Clint Eastwood making a western, but really, Tombstone is a much better movie, even factoring in the lame love story. Kurt Russell had a pretty solid 90's for a guy who doesn't really seem like a star.
Friday, November 13, 2009
Day 6 of the 90's Movie Review: Best Sports Movie, Best Gangster Movie, Best Social Issues Movie.
Best Sports Movie of the Decade (CRITERIA - best sports scenes, makes you love/hate/appreciate the sport):
NOMINEES:
Diggstown
Hoop Dreams
Jerry Maguire
Rudy
White Men Can’t Jump
WINNER: Rudy. Jerry Maguire is a better movie. But Rudy has those Rocky inspirational scenes and achieves the rare feat of making you like Notre Dame football for 2 hours. Jerry Maguire and Hoop Dreams are great movies for something more than the sports. White Men Can't Jump knows its role. Diggstown is one of my 90's guilty pleasures. Three underused actors (James Woods, Louis Gosset Jr., Bruce Dern) team up to make a movie about an underused sport (boxing).
Best Gangster Movie of the Decade:
NOMINEES:
Goodfellas
Lock, Stock, and Two Smoking Barrels
Miller’s Crossing
Reservoir Dogs
The Usual Suspects
WINNER: Miller's Crossing. Lock, Stock, Reservoir Dogs, and The Usual Suspects aren't gangster movies proper - more caper pics. That leaves Goodfellas and Miller's Crossing, which came out the same year. Miller's Crossing is better acted, better written, and better directed. If you switched the names of who did it, Miller's Crossing would be Scorcese's crowning achievement and Goodfellas would be one of those 'eh' Coen brothers movies from the otts.
Best Social Issues Movie of the Decade:
NOMINEES:
Courage Under Fire
Dangerous Minds
Falling Down
Forrest Gump
Philadelphia
WINNER: Philadelphia. Forrest Gump kind of wanders across issues, even if it's more enjoyable than Philadelphia. Philadelphia I like because it really went after 1-2 social issues, it did it at a time when it was relevant rather than chasing the issue down, it made the bad guys believable, but mostly because Denzel's character doesn't learn some lesson about embracing gay. Instead, he learns a more basic and bracing lesson about tolerance and humanity in living with a prejudice and respecting someone's humanity rather than changing his normative views.
Best Sports Movie of the Decade (CRITERIA - best sports scenes, makes you love/hate/appreciate the sport):
NOMINEES:
Diggstown
Hoop Dreams
Jerry Maguire
Rudy
White Men Can’t Jump
WINNER: Rudy. Jerry Maguire is a better movie. But Rudy has those Rocky inspirational scenes and achieves the rare feat of making you like Notre Dame football for 2 hours. Jerry Maguire and Hoop Dreams are great movies for something more than the sports. White Men Can't Jump knows its role. Diggstown is one of my 90's guilty pleasures. Three underused actors (James Woods, Louis Gosset Jr., Bruce Dern) team up to make a movie about an underused sport (boxing).
Best Gangster Movie of the Decade:
NOMINEES:
Goodfellas
Lock, Stock, and Two Smoking Barrels
Miller’s Crossing
Reservoir Dogs
The Usual Suspects
WINNER: Miller's Crossing. Lock, Stock, Reservoir Dogs, and The Usual Suspects aren't gangster movies proper - more caper pics. That leaves Goodfellas and Miller's Crossing, which came out the same year. Miller's Crossing is better acted, better written, and better directed. If you switched the names of who did it, Miller's Crossing would be Scorcese's crowning achievement and Goodfellas would be one of those 'eh' Coen brothers movies from the otts.
Best Social Issues Movie of the Decade:
NOMINEES:
Courage Under Fire
Dangerous Minds
Falling Down
Forrest Gump
Philadelphia
WINNER: Philadelphia. Forrest Gump kind of wanders across issues, even if it's more enjoyable than Philadelphia. Philadelphia I like because it really went after 1-2 social issues, it did it at a time when it was relevant rather than chasing the issue down, it made the bad guys believable, but mostly because Denzel's character doesn't learn some lesson about embracing gay. Instead, he learns a more basic and bracing lesson about tolerance and humanity in living with a prejudice and respecting someone's humanity rather than changing his normative views.
Thursday, November 12, 2009
90's Movie Review Day 4/5
I skipped a day so I'm doubling up. 6 categories: Best Movie About Lawyers, Best Documentary, Best War Movie, Best Animated Film, Best Parody of the Decade, Best Cult Hit of the Decade.
Best Movie About Lawyers (CRITERIA: Movie about lawyers, features court room drama, rampantly ignores due process):
NOMINEES:
A Civil Action
A Few Good Men
Liar, Liar
My Cousin Vinnie
Philadelphia
WINNER: Liar, Liar. First of all, I haven't seen A Time to Kill so I still don't know what might have become of Matthew McConaughey's shirt-wearing career. I think all of these movies are to a varying degree good. I go with Liar, Liar, despite its weakness as a court room drama, because it spends a healthy amount of time in court room nonetheless. A Few Good Men, the worst of the movies, should be credited for this being a genre. In fact, one of Liar, Liar's great services was to destroy the disturbing Clarence Darrow notion that lawyers are nothing but crusading do-gooders. Which is what ultimately puts the 'huh?' choice (A Civil Action) on this list - our hero is actually something of scumbag, but he's a scumbag in behaving like a crusading do-gooder,
Best Documentary:
NOMINEES:
Hoop Dreams
WINNER: Hoop Dreams. Sorry, I'm not taking any other applicants. Best documentary ever. Back before Michael Moore created the drive-by crusader self-promotion vehicle, people actually made gritty documentaries about things like urban dreamers. The documentary was about the subject matter, not the film maker. It was painstaking work, it was desperately honest, and it made no money. In perhaps the most ridiculous outcome of Academy Award history, this film was not nominated in the Best Documentary category because it was considered 'too good' for a documentary, but didn't make the final cut for best picture. Which it could rightfully have won.
Best War Movie:
NOMINEES:
Braveheart
Courage Under Fire
Last of the Mohicans
Saving Private Ryan
Starship Troopers
WINNER: Last of the Mohicans. Having safely covered the Vietnam topic backwards and forwards, Hollywood had a strange decade of war films. Most of them are historical in nature, so that we can attribute heroism in war to some lost era, like a costume ball or travel by sail. So we have William Wallace and the unnecessarily ahistorical rendering of blue faced scots. I must say that with most of Mel Gibson's post-lethal weapon films, I find myself wondering, "Why was this made?" even if they're pretty good. Saving Private Ryan began the 'we weren't so much heroes as just scared witless' trend which builds on a lot of social history but is sort of like making a western where people just herd cows. Courage Under Fire decided at least women could be combat heroes. Starship Troopers decided to mock the whole business with a quasi-facist, stylized send-up that featured the much under-used Dina Meyer and brought Doogie back from the dead. But all this was child's play to the classic Last of the Mohicans, a movie about one of the most obscure wars in American history which somehow eschews modern politics entirely to get the historical era right without seeming to lecture. Make sure to avoid the director's cut, which adds some preachy sections, and stick to the original theatrical version.
Best Animated Film of the Decade:
NOMINEES:
Aladdin
Beauty & The Beast
The Lion King
The Nightmare Before Christmas
Toy Story
WINNER: Beauty & the Beast. Look, all of these are good movies. I'm routinely shocked at how good kids' movies are given that they're so excited to be at the theater that you could show them anything a step up from a baby giggling in the sun and they'd watch it. What's that? Tele-who-now? Huh. Anyway, special points for the inexplicable Nightmare Before Christmas for having the smallest target audience of a decent movie in cinema history - the 13 year old experimenting-with-Goth. With respect to the best, these and several more were all worthwhile animation films, but Beauty & the Beast is the only one that touches a nerve of nostalgia, even in this hard heart. Also, it has the best bad guy. So, yes, welcome Pixar, you'll have your millenium yet, but Beauty & the Beast wins this one for Disney...before they bought Pixar.
Best Parody of the Decade:
NOMINEES
Austin Powers: The Spy Who Shagged Me
The Freshman
Hotshots!
Robin Hood: Men in Tights
Scream
WINNER: Scream. You probably looked at this category and thought 'those movies stink.' Yes, Adventure Movie stinks. But look at that list...those are a lot of good movies. Ultimately, The Freshman isn't enough of a parody, and Austin Powers just misses out for stealing the idea from Dana Carvey. Robin Hood is probably my favorite of the traditional-style parody films. But Scream, to me, distances itself by taking the parody idea and turning it into an homage to its genre, and a classic of its genre, all at the same time. Neat trick that.
Best Cult Hit of the Decade (Criteria: Came Out of Nowhere, Bizarre Loyalty and Re-Enactment Ritual, Not Popular on Initial Release, More Enjoyable with Each Re-Watching, Not Originally Marketed as a Cult Movie):
NOMINEES:
The Big Lebowski
The Blair Witch Project
Bottle Rocket
The Full Monty
Office Space
WINNER: The Big Lebowski. The Blair Witch Project was marketed as a cult movie, and it's extremely tedious on repeated watching. The Full Monty isn't so much a cult movie as much as it was just independent and British. And it's disappeared with-a-quickness. I have to acknowledge that, although i hear tell of other people liking Bottle Rocket, I notice more-and-more that almost no one else seems to like it besides me. Which leaves us with Office Space. It hits all the categories out of the park, but hasn't really drawn that Rocky Horror type following to it. It needs more printer smashing parties and Oh face contests before it can compete withe The Big Lebowski. I will always regret how few scenes we got with the oh-face guy. As for the champ, there's just no avoiding it. It resurrected the White Russian, it has an annual fest with arcane rituals, if you're in the know, you'll see plenty of achiever paraphernalia out-and-about. The last time I went, the movie started, and people on both sides of me just started talking, line-by-line, with the movie. I looked to my left and my right, and everyone just had a big smile on their face. This movie's just got it.
I skipped a day so I'm doubling up. 6 categories: Best Movie About Lawyers, Best Documentary, Best War Movie, Best Animated Film, Best Parody of the Decade, Best Cult Hit of the Decade.
Best Movie About Lawyers (CRITERIA: Movie about lawyers, features court room drama, rampantly ignores due process):
NOMINEES:
A Civil Action
A Few Good Men
Liar, Liar
My Cousin Vinnie
Philadelphia
WINNER: Liar, Liar. First of all, I haven't seen A Time to Kill so I still don't know what might have become of Matthew McConaughey's shirt-wearing career. I think all of these movies are to a varying degree good. I go with Liar, Liar, despite its weakness as a court room drama, because it spends a healthy amount of time in court room nonetheless. A Few Good Men, the worst of the movies, should be credited for this being a genre. In fact, one of Liar, Liar's great services was to destroy the disturbing Clarence Darrow notion that lawyers are nothing but crusading do-gooders. Which is what ultimately puts the 'huh?' choice (A Civil Action) on this list - our hero is actually something of scumbag, but he's a scumbag in behaving like a crusading do-gooder,
Best Documentary:
NOMINEES:
Hoop Dreams
WINNER: Hoop Dreams. Sorry, I'm not taking any other applicants. Best documentary ever. Back before Michael Moore created the drive-by crusader self-promotion vehicle, people actually made gritty documentaries about things like urban dreamers. The documentary was about the subject matter, not the film maker. It was painstaking work, it was desperately honest, and it made no money. In perhaps the most ridiculous outcome of Academy Award history, this film was not nominated in the Best Documentary category because it was considered 'too good' for a documentary, but didn't make the final cut for best picture. Which it could rightfully have won.
Best War Movie:
NOMINEES:
Braveheart
Courage Under Fire
Last of the Mohicans
Saving Private Ryan
Starship Troopers
WINNER: Last of the Mohicans. Having safely covered the Vietnam topic backwards and forwards, Hollywood had a strange decade of war films. Most of them are historical in nature, so that we can attribute heroism in war to some lost era, like a costume ball or travel by sail. So we have William Wallace and the unnecessarily ahistorical rendering of blue faced scots. I must say that with most of Mel Gibson's post-lethal weapon films, I find myself wondering, "Why was this made?" even if they're pretty good. Saving Private Ryan began the 'we weren't so much heroes as just scared witless' trend which builds on a lot of social history but is sort of like making a western where people just herd cows. Courage Under Fire decided at least women could be combat heroes. Starship Troopers decided to mock the whole business with a quasi-facist, stylized send-up that featured the much under-used Dina Meyer and brought Doogie back from the dead. But all this was child's play to the classic Last of the Mohicans, a movie about one of the most obscure wars in American history which somehow eschews modern politics entirely to get the historical era right without seeming to lecture. Make sure to avoid the director's cut, which adds some preachy sections, and stick to the original theatrical version.
Best Animated Film of the Decade:
NOMINEES:
Aladdin
Beauty & The Beast
The Lion King
The Nightmare Before Christmas
Toy Story
WINNER: Beauty & the Beast. Look, all of these are good movies. I'm routinely shocked at how good kids' movies are given that they're so excited to be at the theater that you could show them anything a step up from a baby giggling in the sun and they'd watch it. What's that? Tele-who-now? Huh. Anyway, special points for the inexplicable Nightmare Before Christmas for having the smallest target audience of a decent movie in cinema history - the 13 year old experimenting-with-Goth. With respect to the best, these and several more were all worthwhile animation films, but Beauty & the Beast is the only one that touches a nerve of nostalgia, even in this hard heart. Also, it has the best bad guy. So, yes, welcome Pixar, you'll have your millenium yet, but Beauty & the Beast wins this one for Disney...before they bought Pixar.
Best Parody of the Decade:
NOMINEES
Austin Powers: The Spy Who Shagged Me
The Freshman
Hotshots!
Robin Hood: Men in Tights
Scream
WINNER: Scream. You probably looked at this category and thought 'those movies stink.' Yes, Adventure Movie stinks. But look at that list...those are a lot of good movies. Ultimately, The Freshman isn't enough of a parody, and Austin Powers just misses out for stealing the idea from Dana Carvey. Robin Hood is probably my favorite of the traditional-style parody films. But Scream, to me, distances itself by taking the parody idea and turning it into an homage to its genre, and a classic of its genre, all at the same time. Neat trick that.
Best Cult Hit of the Decade (Criteria: Came Out of Nowhere, Bizarre Loyalty and Re-Enactment Ritual, Not Popular on Initial Release, More Enjoyable with Each Re-Watching, Not Originally Marketed as a Cult Movie):
NOMINEES:
The Big Lebowski
The Blair Witch Project
Bottle Rocket
The Full Monty
Office Space
WINNER: The Big Lebowski. The Blair Witch Project was marketed as a cult movie, and it's extremely tedious on repeated watching. The Full Monty isn't so much a cult movie as much as it was just independent and British. And it's disappeared with-a-quickness. I have to acknowledge that, although i hear tell of other people liking Bottle Rocket, I notice more-and-more that almost no one else seems to like it besides me. Which leaves us with Office Space. It hits all the categories out of the park, but hasn't really drawn that Rocky Horror type following to it. It needs more printer smashing parties and Oh face contests before it can compete withe The Big Lebowski. I will always regret how few scenes we got with the oh-face guy. As for the champ, there's just no avoiding it. It resurrected the White Russian, it has an annual fest with arcane rituals, if you're in the know, you'll see plenty of achiever paraphernalia out-and-about. The last time I went, the movie started, and people on both sides of me just started talking, line-by-line, with the movie. I looked to my left and my right, and everyone just had a big smile on their face. This movie's just got it.
Tuesday, November 10, 2009
Day 3 of the 90's Review: Most Over-Rated Movie of the Decade, Most Important/Influential Movie of the Decade, and the 10 Best Inadvertent Porn Titles
Most Over-Rated Movie of the Decade (Criteria - Won awards it didn't deserve, doesn't stand up to repeated viewings, generally liked, considered artistic but is actually a lame mainstream Hollywood idea of what artistic should be, purports to be revolutionary but is actually quite derivative):
NOMINEES:
American Beauty
Saving Private Ryan
Schindler’s List
Titanic
The Truman Show
WINNER: American Beauty. Spielberg is involved with 3 of these movies. That comes from his capacity to lend his name to something and have it taken more seriously than it deserves. All 3 of those first 3 films are above average movies which have come to be regarded as classics because of a) subject matter and b) attachment to Spielberg. American Beauty I have written on at length but suffice to say that it is Spielberg's (or Spielberg produced) movie on materialism and gayness. Two well-covered topics, getting the mainstream Hollywood treatment. Saving Private Ryan was 15 minutes of revolutionary war footage followed by 2 hours of tripe based on undergraduate social history classes and borrowed scenes from better war movies. Schindler's List was about the Holocaust. Apparently, it's impossible to make a bad Holocaust movie. By comparison, Titanic was panned by many reviewers, but the sheer weight of the directorial effort plus the huge popularity of the film mean it qualifies for this category. The Truman Show...all I can say is that we should have just given Jim Carrey the Oscar so that he could feel 'taken seriously' and go back to making us laugh. I blame his sub-par otts on this ultimately somewhat tedious 'high concept' movie being fawned over.
Most Important/Influential Movie of the Decade (Criteria - truly insightful, changed the way people think/behave, introduced new film techniques, created new genres):
NOMINEES:
Fight Club
Jurassic Park
Pulp Fiction
Scream
Toy Story
WINNER: Fight Club. Let's get the ones that weren't close out of the way first. Toy Story and Jurassic Park had a huge impact on film technique and the business of film. But they didn't have much to say, so they can't compete across the board. Scream created/revolutionized the horror genre but again, it was not socially important in any way. That leaves Pulp Fiction, which is a strong contender. Half of Hollywood wanted to be Tarantino almost overnight. He had a Nirvana-esque impact on the way scripts were written. He also has a true appreciation for the craft of film technique and many have mimicked his camera angles, etc as well. And in a sense, the elevation of style over substance, of homage over meaning, is itself socially important and relevant to a decade of irony and cynical detachment in love with self-reference. But ultimately, I think Fight Club is more important. Fight Club has had fewer copy cats...it's too unique to re-do. And it has also influenced film technique in the way it was shot and spliced. But the real key is that it hits a nerve with a broad segment. The funny thing is that reviewers don't have that nerve; they're not the audience. But to 18-to-25 year-old men of the 90's, this movie was on the tip of our tongues, this movie just gave it a name. It's American Beauty sans gay and plus balls. The fact that fight clubs sprung up all over the country is just icing on the cake. Also, this movie is just a better movie than Pulp Fiction.
Best Inadvertant Porn Title of the 90's:
I CANNOT PICK A CHAMP. YOU DECIDE:
The Bone Collector
Double Impact
Get Shorty
Free Willy
Mad Dog & Glory
Much Ado About Nothing
The Nutty Professor
Quigley Down Under
Sister Act
While You Were Sleeping
COMMENT: I have to say, I'm partial to Mad Dog & Glory, Much Ado About Nothing, and While You Were Sleeping.
Most Over-Rated Movie of the Decade (Criteria - Won awards it didn't deserve, doesn't stand up to repeated viewings, generally liked, considered artistic but is actually a lame mainstream Hollywood idea of what artistic should be, purports to be revolutionary but is actually quite derivative):
NOMINEES:
American Beauty
Saving Private Ryan
Schindler’s List
Titanic
The Truman Show
WINNER: American Beauty. Spielberg is involved with 3 of these movies. That comes from his capacity to lend his name to something and have it taken more seriously than it deserves. All 3 of those first 3 films are above average movies which have come to be regarded as classics because of a) subject matter and b) attachment to Spielberg. American Beauty I have written on at length but suffice to say that it is Spielberg's (or Spielberg produced) movie on materialism and gayness. Two well-covered topics, getting the mainstream Hollywood treatment. Saving Private Ryan was 15 minutes of revolutionary war footage followed by 2 hours of tripe based on undergraduate social history classes and borrowed scenes from better war movies. Schindler's List was about the Holocaust. Apparently, it's impossible to make a bad Holocaust movie. By comparison, Titanic was panned by many reviewers, but the sheer weight of the directorial effort plus the huge popularity of the film mean it qualifies for this category. The Truman Show...all I can say is that we should have just given Jim Carrey the Oscar so that he could feel 'taken seriously' and go back to making us laugh. I blame his sub-par otts on this ultimately somewhat tedious 'high concept' movie being fawned over.
Most Important/Influential Movie of the Decade (Criteria - truly insightful, changed the way people think/behave, introduced new film techniques, created new genres):
NOMINEES:
Fight Club
Jurassic Park
Pulp Fiction
Scream
Toy Story
WINNER: Fight Club. Let's get the ones that weren't close out of the way first. Toy Story and Jurassic Park had a huge impact on film technique and the business of film. But they didn't have much to say, so they can't compete across the board. Scream created/revolutionized the horror genre but again, it was not socially important in any way. That leaves Pulp Fiction, which is a strong contender. Half of Hollywood wanted to be Tarantino almost overnight. He had a Nirvana-esque impact on the way scripts were written. He also has a true appreciation for the craft of film technique and many have mimicked his camera angles, etc as well. And in a sense, the elevation of style over substance, of homage over meaning, is itself socially important and relevant to a decade of irony and cynical detachment in love with self-reference. But ultimately, I think Fight Club is more important. Fight Club has had fewer copy cats...it's too unique to re-do. And it has also influenced film technique in the way it was shot and spliced. But the real key is that it hits a nerve with a broad segment. The funny thing is that reviewers don't have that nerve; they're not the audience. But to 18-to-25 year-old men of the 90's, this movie was on the tip of our tongues, this movie just gave it a name. It's American Beauty sans gay and plus balls. The fact that fight clubs sprung up all over the country is just icing on the cake. Also, this movie is just a better movie than Pulp Fiction.
Best Inadvertant Porn Title of the 90's:
I CANNOT PICK A CHAMP. YOU DECIDE:
The Bone Collector
Double Impact
Get Shorty
Free Willy
Mad Dog & Glory
Much Ado About Nothing
The Nutty Professor
Quigley Down Under
Sister Act
While You Were Sleeping
COMMENT: I have to say, I'm partial to Mad Dog & Glory, Much Ado About Nothing, and While You Were Sleeping.
Monday, November 09, 2009
Day 2 of the Round-Up: Worst Sequel of the 90's, Best Sequel of the 90's, Most 90's Movie.
Worst Sequel of the 90’s (CRITERIA - crushing lack of originality, high expectations from source movie, series/career killing):
NOMINEES:
* City Slickers 2: The Legend of Curly’s Gold. The legend was that more Jack Palance would make this movie better than the first...even though he died in the last movie. The reality - I crap bigger than this movie dreams.
* Honey, I Blew Up The Kids. Of course, at least there was no other direction to go. "Honey, I made the kids 2D"? Of, perhaps the more appropriate, "Honey, I made the kids morbidly obese."
* The Lost World: Jurassic Park 2. Take the first film, remove any sense of wonder, have one suspenseful scene (the car window cracking while they're over the cliff), farm the rest out to the interns. This world was best left virgin territory.
* Speed 2: Cruise Control. It's never a good sign when one of the stars won't sign on for round 2. Even Keanu was smart enough to see this coming. But then, to give it a subtitle that a) points out a gaping plot hole (why not just set it to cruise control) and b) suggests your action movie is proceeding at a leisurely pace...well, let's just hope Sandra Bullock needed the money.
* Wayne’s World 2. This was one of those 'grown up' moment movies where I realized that sometimes, it wasn't enough to just be at the theater. Maybe it's because I watched this on VCR. I literally was astounded at how un-funny this movie was. I was a pretty serious kid.
WINNER: Wayne's World 2. If I told you that Mike Myers, Dana Carvey, Christopher Walken, and Chris Farley had top billing in a comedy with a cameo by Aerosmith and Charleton Heston, plus Tia Carrere, Heather Locklear, Kim Basinger, Drew Barrymore, and the funniest guy from Scurbs, you'd have high expectations. Wayne's World was funny. This movie was not. It's as though they forgot to film the funny scenes and just left the set-up in. This movie destroyed Dana Carvey's career and nearly ended Mike Myers' as well. Wow.
BEST SEQUEL OF THE 90's (CRITERIA - Good stand alone movie, better than the original):
NOMINEES:
Austin Powers 2: The Spy Who Shagged Me
Die Hard With A Vengeance (The Samuel L/Jeremy Irons one)
Scream 2
Terminator 2: Judgment Day
Toy Story 2
WINNER: Terminator 2: Judgment Day. Not a contest. I will say that I think you can argue that Toy Story 2 is better than the first, and that it's very easy to argue that Austin Powers 2 was better than the first (Mini-me). And Die Hard gets 'best series of the 90's' status by default. But Terminator 2 is the quintessential sequel. It takes everything from the first movie, turns it on its head, and makes it better. The first movie was a B-movie Iliad. This movie was an epic Cyber-Odyssey.
MOST 90'S MOVIE (CRITERIA - Reflects attitudes prevalent only in the 90's, audience would only be 90's audience, plot devices only relevant to 90's, has that 90's feel):
NOMINEES:
American Beauty - The standard 'non-standard' thought of the 90's.
Clueless - If historians called the 90's the 'Clueless Decade'...would you argue?
Dangerous Minds - Ah, the heroic teacher in the inner city epic. A generation inspired to spend 2 years in Teach for America before beating a hasty retreat to suburbia.
Space Jam - You might not know this, but Michael Jordan and Bugs Bunny used to be big. Like i-phone big.
You’ve Got Mail - Perhaps never has a rom-com been so prisoner to a company and technology so swiftly irrelevant. A sad comment on the demise of AOL that the "You've Got Mail" notification's era was about as lengthy as the relatability of a film about e-mail being unfamiliar. The Coen Brothers should redo this movie as a send-up of the 90's. Then you're have something.
WINNER: Clueless. Smack dab in the middle of the decade, the film hits right at the notion that the 90's became the decade in which adolescence led the culture. Technically, we learn 'that there's more to life than clothes and popularity,'...but not much. In the end, it's better err on the side of pretty and blonde. This movie is less of an anachronism than its competitors, but it just seems more right. And, by teeny-bopper standards of our time, it's hopelessly innocent.
Worst Sequel of the 90’s (CRITERIA - crushing lack of originality, high expectations from source movie, series/career killing):
NOMINEES:
* City Slickers 2: The Legend of Curly’s Gold. The legend was that more Jack Palance would make this movie better than the first...even though he died in the last movie. The reality - I crap bigger than this movie dreams.
* Honey, I Blew Up The Kids. Of course, at least there was no other direction to go. "Honey, I made the kids 2D"? Of, perhaps the more appropriate, "Honey, I made the kids morbidly obese."
* The Lost World: Jurassic Park 2. Take the first film, remove any sense of wonder, have one suspenseful scene (the car window cracking while they're over the cliff), farm the rest out to the interns. This world was best left virgin territory.
* Speed 2: Cruise Control. It's never a good sign when one of the stars won't sign on for round 2. Even Keanu was smart enough to see this coming. But then, to give it a subtitle that a) points out a gaping plot hole (why not just set it to cruise control) and b) suggests your action movie is proceeding at a leisurely pace...well, let's just hope Sandra Bullock needed the money.
* Wayne’s World 2. This was one of those 'grown up' moment movies where I realized that sometimes, it wasn't enough to just be at the theater. Maybe it's because I watched this on VCR. I literally was astounded at how un-funny this movie was. I was a pretty serious kid.
WINNER: Wayne's World 2. If I told you that Mike Myers, Dana Carvey, Christopher Walken, and Chris Farley had top billing in a comedy with a cameo by Aerosmith and Charleton Heston, plus Tia Carrere, Heather Locklear, Kim Basinger, Drew Barrymore, and the funniest guy from Scurbs, you'd have high expectations. Wayne's World was funny. This movie was not. It's as though they forgot to film the funny scenes and just left the set-up in. This movie destroyed Dana Carvey's career and nearly ended Mike Myers' as well. Wow.
BEST SEQUEL OF THE 90's (CRITERIA - Good stand alone movie, better than the original):
NOMINEES:
Austin Powers 2: The Spy Who Shagged Me
Die Hard With A Vengeance (The Samuel L/Jeremy Irons one)
Scream 2
Terminator 2: Judgment Day
Toy Story 2
WINNER: Terminator 2: Judgment Day. Not a contest. I will say that I think you can argue that Toy Story 2 is better than the first, and that it's very easy to argue that Austin Powers 2 was better than the first (Mini-me). And Die Hard gets 'best series of the 90's' status by default. But Terminator 2 is the quintessential sequel. It takes everything from the first movie, turns it on its head, and makes it better. The first movie was a B-movie Iliad. This movie was an epic Cyber-Odyssey.
MOST 90'S MOVIE (CRITERIA - Reflects attitudes prevalent only in the 90's, audience would only be 90's audience, plot devices only relevant to 90's, has that 90's feel):
NOMINEES:
American Beauty - The standard 'non-standard' thought of the 90's.
Clueless - If historians called the 90's the 'Clueless Decade'...would you argue?
Dangerous Minds - Ah, the heroic teacher in the inner city epic. A generation inspired to spend 2 years in Teach for America before beating a hasty retreat to suburbia.
Space Jam - You might not know this, but Michael Jordan and Bugs Bunny used to be big. Like i-phone big.
You’ve Got Mail - Perhaps never has a rom-com been so prisoner to a company and technology so swiftly irrelevant. A sad comment on the demise of AOL that the "You've Got Mail" notification's era was about as lengthy as the relatability of a film about e-mail being unfamiliar. The Coen Brothers should redo this movie as a send-up of the 90's. Then you're have something.
WINNER: Clueless. Smack dab in the middle of the decade, the film hits right at the notion that the 90's became the decade in which adolescence led the culture. Technically, we learn 'that there's more to life than clothes and popularity,'...but not much. In the end, it's better err on the side of pretty and blonde. This movie is less of an anachronism than its competitors, but it just seems more right. And, by teeny-bopper standards of our time, it's hopelessly innocent.
Sunday, November 08, 2009
Rolling Out the FULL 90's REVIEW:
I've been hard at work on the full 90's review. I'll roll out a few categories every day, leading up to our actual top 25 movies of the decade.
Today: The Top 10 Bad Guys of the 90's, The Top 25 Scenes, and the award for best soundtrack of the 90's.
Top 10 Bad Guys of the 90's:
1. Hannibal Lecter – The Silence of the Lambs
2. Magua – Last of the Mohicans
3. Dr. Evil – Austin Powers/Austin Powers 2
4. The Scream Guy – Scream
5. Bob Sugar – Jerry Maguire
6. Evil T-1000 – Terminator 2
7. Lumberg – Office Space
8. The Dane – Miller’s Crossing
9. Shooter McGavin – Happy Gilmore
10. Castor Troy – Face/Off
The Top 25 Scenes of the 90's:
1. Christopher Walken vs Dennis Hopper – True Romance
2. The Hoola-Hoop – The Hudsucker Proxy
3. Look In Your Heart - Miller’s Crossing
4. Normandy – Saving Private Ryan
5. Verbal Kent = Kaiser Soze – The Usual Suspects
6. Happy Gilmore vs. Bob Barker – Happy Gilmore
7. You Can’t Handle The Truth! – A Few Good Men
8. You Had Me At Hello – Jerry Maguire
9. Pacino v. DeNiro – Heat
10. T-Rex Comes - Jurassic Park
11. Do You Like Scary Movies? – Scream
12. Are You Sure? I’m Positive – My Cousin Vinny
13. The Lobby Fight – The Matrix
14. Rudy’s Sack – Rudy
15. Doc Holliday Mocks Gun Acrobatics – Tombstone
16. Who’s Coming With Me – Jerry Maguire
17. Mercutio’s Death – Romeo + Juliet
18. Specks Kisses Wendy Peffercorn – Sandlot
19. Magua Cuts Out Greyhair’s Heart – Last of the Mohicans
20. The Final Heist – Bottle Rocket
21. JFK Assassination Explanation – JFK
22. Woody Harrelson Throws It Down – White Men Can’t Jump
23. Motorcycle Chase – Terminator 2: Judgment Day
24. I Killed My Sale – Tommy Boy
25. The Aliens Blow Up the White House – Independence Day / The Aliens Attack – Mars Attacks
The Award for Best Soundtrack (music had to be created for movie)
Dragon: The Bruce Lee Story
Good Will Hunting
The Hudsucker Proxy
Last of the Mohicans
Rudy
THE WINNER: Last of the Mohicans
I've been hard at work on the full 90's review. I'll roll out a few categories every day, leading up to our actual top 25 movies of the decade.
Today: The Top 10 Bad Guys of the 90's, The Top 25 Scenes, and the award for best soundtrack of the 90's.
Top 10 Bad Guys of the 90's:
1. Hannibal Lecter – The Silence of the Lambs
2. Magua – Last of the Mohicans
3. Dr. Evil – Austin Powers/Austin Powers 2
4. The Scream Guy – Scream
5. Bob Sugar – Jerry Maguire
6. Evil T-1000 – Terminator 2
7. Lumberg – Office Space
8. The Dane – Miller’s Crossing
9. Shooter McGavin – Happy Gilmore
10. Castor Troy – Face/Off
The Top 25 Scenes of the 90's:
1. Christopher Walken vs Dennis Hopper – True Romance
2. The Hoola-Hoop – The Hudsucker Proxy
3. Look In Your Heart - Miller’s Crossing
4. Normandy – Saving Private Ryan
5. Verbal Kent = Kaiser Soze – The Usual Suspects
6. Happy Gilmore vs. Bob Barker – Happy Gilmore
7. You Can’t Handle The Truth! – A Few Good Men
8. You Had Me At Hello – Jerry Maguire
9. Pacino v. DeNiro – Heat
10. T-Rex Comes - Jurassic Park
11. Do You Like Scary Movies? – Scream
12. Are You Sure? I’m Positive – My Cousin Vinny
13. The Lobby Fight – The Matrix
14. Rudy’s Sack – Rudy
15. Doc Holliday Mocks Gun Acrobatics – Tombstone
16. Who’s Coming With Me – Jerry Maguire
17. Mercutio’s Death – Romeo + Juliet
18. Specks Kisses Wendy Peffercorn – Sandlot
19. Magua Cuts Out Greyhair’s Heart – Last of the Mohicans
20. The Final Heist – Bottle Rocket
21. JFK Assassination Explanation – JFK
22. Woody Harrelson Throws It Down – White Men Can’t Jump
23. Motorcycle Chase – Terminator 2: Judgment Day
24. I Killed My Sale – Tommy Boy
25. The Aliens Blow Up the White House – Independence Day / The Aliens Attack – Mars Attacks
The Award for Best Soundtrack (music had to be created for movie)
Dragon: The Bruce Lee Story
Good Will Hunting
The Hudsucker Proxy
Last of the Mohicans
Rudy
THE WINNER: Last of the Mohicans
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)