Still More 90s Movies 3: 1995-1997

1. Sense and Sensibility (1995)

A sumptuous retelling of Jane Austen's novel from Taiwanese director Ang Lee.  It might sound boring but give it a chance.  I'm not a big fan of Austen's novel but this adaptation brings its characters and their struggles into sharp focus.

Fun Fact 1: Star Emma Thompson also wrote the screenplay.  It took her five years to do so.

Fun Fact 2: This was Lee's first Western movie.  His style of filmmaking was universally praised at the time, but his method of filmmaking was a frequent source of tension between himself and the mostly British cast.

2. Donnie Brasco (1997)

Full Disclosure: I've seen Donnie Brasco many, many times.  It was on Netflix, it hit theaters in 1997, and I decided to watch it again.  When people discuss gangster movies they often forget about Donnie Brasco and I can't blame them.  It's a decidedly lower key affair, lacking the gruesome deaths and explosive performances seen in other examples of the genre.  But for all that its more subdued take on the Mafia really works for me.  It feels more real.

Al Pacino, by the way, delivers one of his more overlooked performances in Donnie Brasco.  He doesn't rage here, neither does he shout, but he does smolder.  His character is, after all, the guy passed over for every promotion, and also the guy everyone else looks to when things get bad.

Further Reading: Anne Heche, you know?  She's great in this.  If you're looking for a fascinating (if depressing) read, consult her Wikipedia entry.  Her life reads like a novel someone has yet to write.

3. The Juror (1996)

Demi Moore is great in this movie.  She plays a juror coerced into delivering a "not guilty" verdict, and the scenes between her and costar Alex Baldwin are riveting.  The ending is a little implausible, but it's solid overall.

Give it a chance?  Critics despised it, but in my opinion it's very overlooked.  The director, Brian Gibson, helmed What's Love Got to Do with It three years before.

4. Boys on the Side (1995)

Half derivative road movie, half enjoyably eccentric take on three women coming to know one another in Tucson.  Goldberg, Louise Parker and Barrymore are all excellent in their respective roles, with Goldberg being the standout given her nuanced portrayal of a woman struggling against an unrequited love.

5. Beautiful Thing (1996)

Coming out and coming of age story set in the UK.  The script was well written and the actors do an excellent job.  My favorite part is the ending, which is both heartwarming and 180 degrees removed from how Hollywood would have concluded the same story.

6. The Nature of the Beast (1995)

Predictable, yeah, but anchored by great performances from Eric Roberts and Lance Henriksen.  This one's a noir picture, and despite its unsurprising twists and turns it was nicely done.

7. The Devil's Own (1997)

Brad Pitt stars as an IRA agent sent to the States, with Harrison Ford as a New York City cop who discovers Pitt's tragic history.  The two halves of this movie don't quite make a whole, and cutting down Pitt's screen time would have made for a much better movie.

This was director Alan J. Pakula's last film.  Listed in his filmography are classics such as Klute, All The President's Men and Sophie's Choice.  He was killed in a freak accident the following year.  The Devil's Own was his second film with Harrison Ford, the first being Presumed Innocent.

8. Eddie (1996)

Say what you will, Whoopi Goldberg could carry a movie.  Eddie is an extremely forgettable vehicle for her, but she remains convincing throughout and the story, although predictable, clips along easily enough.  You'll probably forget the plot aside from "Whoopi Goldberg coaches the New York Knicks" seconds after watching it, but as sports movies go I'd give it a passing grade.

Briefly Disconcerting Fact: Donald Trump is in this for a second.  Eddie was the fifth film he appeared in.  His Atlantic City hotel and casino also appears in Empire Records (below).

9. Waiting to Exhale (1995)

Forest Whitaker shows himself an indifferent first-time director.  This movie fails to walk a line between drama and comedy, the result being a decidedly lopsided film with a couple funny moments and a couple scenes that make more dramatic impact.

I'm guessing the book was better?

To make matters worse, Angela Bassett, two years past What's Love Got to Do With It, easily outshines every other actor she shares scenes with, with the possible exception of Wesley Snipes.  Whitney Houston never manages even half of Bassett's screen presence, and we're instead left with vignettes of a very pretty woman who struggles to find love in a vaguely defined context.  Lela Rochon does a competent job, but she's not in much of the movie.

I walked away from this film feeling unsatisfied for another reason, this being the question of what the film's three (or four) protagonists really want.  Why seek a lasting, committed relationship in the arms of men who are so clearly not ready for that?  In the end you can only wonder at these three (or four) women's judgement, given that the men they so often choose to bed down with are so obviously lacking in the qualities they desire.

Do they all live happily ever after?  I suppose they do, but happiness in the hands of such fickle people can only ever be fleeting.

10. Ace Ventura: When Nature Calls (1995)

Jim Carrey delivers a characteristically restrained performance.  Early 90s Jim Carrey was all about subtlety.  If you've seen the first one you'll know what to expect.

11. The Last Time I Committed Suicide (1997)

Thomas Jane, that movie star that almost was, stars as the noted Beat author Neal Cassady.  The camerawork is interesting, but most of the characters are annoying and it's hard to care about the protagonist one way or the other.

Fun Fact: Keanu Reeves is in this.  It was filmed in that weird period between Speed and The Matrix.

12. Fast Money (1996)

Yancy Butler, remember her?  She went on to do the Witchblade TV show.  After that?  Years of substance abuse.

The plot of this movie is complete nonsense, but one gets a sense of why Butler got hired onto Witchblade.

13. DNA (1996)*

Mark Dacascos plays a lower rent version of Indiana Jones.  Something something serum beetle monster something.  I enjoyed watching Jurgen Prochnow ham it up as the villain.

Fun Fact: The formula on the blackboard is actually the formula for KFC's "11 herbs and spices."  So... there's beetle juice in the KFC chicken?  What happens if we order it three times?

14. Empire Records (1995)

Really wasn't feeling this one.  I get that it's a cult movie, but I have no desire to join that cult.

Empire Records follows the employees of a music (CD) store for a day, with their personal dramas playing out against the backdrop of the store's imminent closure.

Younger viewers (those not old enough to remember the 90s) will probably recognize Liv Tyler and Renee Zellweger, but the rest of the cast didn't go on to anything particularly noteworthy.

For someone my age (I was 15 to 25 in the 90s) there's a certain nostalgia in this trip through the aisles of the local CD emporium, but in my opinion the script was only a step away from Friends.  It's not even close to the worst movie I've seen lately, but I had trouble focusing on it for any length of time.

15. Solo (1996)

Mario Van Peebles somehow seems absent from a movie in which he's the star.  Never before or since has an actor delivered lines so lifelessly.  Never before or since has a distinguished roster of character actors so definitively failed to elevate a subpar Robocop/Universal Soldier ripoff.

This movie cost $19 million and only made $5 million.  It currently has an 8% score on Rotten Tomatoes.  It's not good enough to be good, and it's not bad enough to be good.  The highlight of Van Peebles' career would remain New Jack City, and since Solo his filmography consists, for the most part, of movies you've never heard of.

16. Hologram Man (1995)

I'm guessing this was some kind of passion project for villain (and screenwriter) Evan Lurie?  Action hero and Christlike co-star Joe Lara certainly didn't seem to be a motivating factor.  

There are so, so many movies like this: the earnestly produced, sparsely budgeted film that someone thought would make them a star.  So many of them end up on YouTube, and so many of them find new life one that platform, serving as testaments to good intentions gone bad.

Demolition Man is the easy comparison here, but there's also The Lawnmower Man to consider.  This dialogue is wretched, the special effects aren't special, and the whole thing is often unintentionally hilarious.  Give it a go if you're in the mood.  You might be able to make more sense of it than I did.

17. The Ex (1996)

Yancy Butler again!  Double points!

The Ex could have been... OK, but it's seriously hampered by terrible editing and a lukewarm performance by the actor playing opposite Butler.  There are also some truly ridiculous death/murder scenes.  None of it makes a lot of sense, but I appreciated the shots of Vancouver B.C. in the late 90s.

18. Trial and Error (1997)

Rip Torn deserved a gold star for almost redeeming this movie.  The scene where he takes the stand almost makes up for the rest of the film.

Emphasis on "almost."  The rest of this one is agonizingly unfunny, with Jeff Daniels mugging and Michael Richards doing lame bits of physical comedy throughout.  Charlize Theron, then at peak hotness, is a momentary reprieve from this slog of a movie, but for every bit of screen time she's given there are all the far from hilarious gags to contend with.

19. The Stupids (1996)

This movie makes a certain kind of sense given the release of Dumb and Dumber two years earlier, but it is in most other respects a baffling creation.  A John Landis-directed comedy starring Tom Arnold?  A running joke about a homeowner chasing a garbage truck?  Hilarity ensues... or does it?

No big surprise - The Stupids bombed hard.  I will say, however, that it seems like the kind of movie that'd go over big in foreign markets.  It was too early to bank on China, but a decade or so later it might have done really well there.

Fun Fact: David Cronenberg has a cameo in this.

20. The Final Cut (1995)

Not nearly as bad as Hologram Man (above), but much poorer for it.  The Final Cut finds bomb specialist Sam Elliot contending with a serial bomber, and if you haven't anticipated the ending long before Sam Elliot does you just haven't seen enough movies.

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*Wikipedia says 1997, not 1996.  IMDb's date agrees with YouTube.

"Lies and Weddings" by Kevin Kwan (2024)

"Bea glanced at Solene.  'Didn't you just have a big show in Miami?'

"'She sure did!'  I bought one of her paintings,' Freddy proudly declared.

"Solene looked surprised.  'Did you really?  Which one?'

"'Just Shut Up and Blow Me.'

"'That's a bit rude, Freddy!' Bea scolded.

"'No, no, that's the name of her painting,' Freddy explained.

"Solene nodded.  'Yes, it's part of my latest series.  It's my examination of toxic masculinity, based on actual words my exes would say to me.'"

Kevin Kwan's books have been discussed here several times already.  He's the author of Crazy Rich Asians and its two sequels, and also Sex and Vanity, which is the one book by him I haven't read.  He's something of a latter-day Anthony Trollope, poking fun at the rich, famous and powerful while at the same time bringing his fiction into a very modern context.

If you've read his other books you won't find Lies and Weddings that surprising, though it is one of his funnier books.  In this contemporary fairy tale a young female doctor becomes romantically entangled with a wealthy British family's only son, and even though the ending's extremely predictable both the humor and characterization are flawless.

I'm assuming I missed Sex and Vanity because of COVID.  I've never even seen it for sale in a bookstore.  If I ever come across it I'll be sure to give it a go.  Lies and Weddings was a very enjoyable read, and I'd be glad to say that I read all of Kevin Kwan's books.

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Still More 90s Movies 2: 1992-1994

A lot of these movies were direct-to-video.  It was the early- to mid- 90s after all, and Blockbuster was still king.  YouTube just isn't as reliable for this time period due to a combination of factors.  Below is what I could find, make of this selection what you will.

1993, by the way, was the year I graduated high school.

1. LA 92 (2007)

Not a 90s movie but a powerful documentary very relevant to the time period.  Rodney King's beating at the hands of L.A. police and the subsequent L.A. Riots are both pivotal events in recent history, and this still-cogent analysis of what led to those two events offers many insights which remain, for the most part, outside of public discussion.

2. Little Women (1994)

Pitch perfect adaptation of Louisa May Alcott's novel.  As evidenced by the movie selections in these entries I'm a dude who likes dude things, but just the same Little Women had me tearing up at certain points.  It deserved its three Oscar nominations.

3. Short Cuts (1993)

Some of the scenes are implausible and some of the characters' motivations are a mystery, but this movie's been on my mind a while now.  Robert Altman directed this after The Player, and like that earlier film it was something of a return to form for him.

It's hard to describe the plot aside from "things happening in L.A. before a momentous event," but don't let the intricacy of this film (or its length) put you off.  Despite its occasional obscurity it's still worth the effort.

My favorite scene has to be the argument between Julianne Moore and Matthew Modine near the end.  I don't want to give too much away, but the juxtaposition of her vulnerable state and the kind of conversation they're having is very arresting.

4. Gladiator (1992)

No, not that Gladiator!  The other one, from 1992!

It's a fairly derivative boxing movie in which a white boy battles his way through the hood, but the performances are solid and the screenplay was watertight.  The only puzzling thing about it is the montage near the end, which consists of a series of scenes which feel like they should have been the most important parts of the movie.

Fun Fact: Star James Marshall would appear in A Few Good Men the same year.

5. Sleepless in Seattle (1993)

I'd seen this movie, but as I was scrolling through Netflix one day I realized that I couldn't remember a single thing about it.

In case there's somehow someone on this Earth that doesn't know already, Sleepless in Seattle is a romantic comedy set in - you guessed it - Seattle.  I watched it for views of my hometown in the early 90s, but taken on its own merits it still holds up.

6. Boiling Point (1993)

Surprisingly... not a bad movie.  Or at least the screenplay was good, with indifferent direction and bad editing.  The only question is whether Wesley Snipes is really the lead in this movie, given that Dennis Hopper has as much, if not more screen time as Snipes does.

It was fun seeing Valerie Perrine and Viggo Mortenson in Boiling Point, and Lolita Davidovich brought back a lot of memories.  In the hands of a better director this movie could have been amazing, but as it is I'd only give it a passing grade.  Wesley Snipes would appear in both Rising Sun and Demolition Man the same year, so this one quite naturally fell by the wayside.

7. Excessive Force (1993)

On par with Boiling Point above, though I'd give a slight edge to Boiling Point on account of Dennis Hopper.

In Excessive Force Thomas Ian Griffith front kicks, side kicks, spin kicks and jump kicks his way through a host of bad guys, while Burt Young, Tony Todd, James Earl Jones and Lance Henriksen handle most of the acting.  If someone had given the lead role to a more polished, less kick-happy actor this movie would have been something else altogether, but as it is Excessive Force is very comfortable within its chosen genre.

I like to imagine a trilogy of Excessive Force films, each worse than the one before it.  Excessive Force would spawn Unreasonable Force, and by the time they got around to Ridonkulous Force they'd be filming in some formerly communist country, where people drink far too much soup and smoke cigarettes with unpronounceable brand names.

Fun Fact: Griffith's first movie role was "Terry Silver" in The Karate Kid Part III.  He later revisited this role in the Cobra Kai TV show.

8. Ordinary Magic (1993)

Hey, it's Ryan Reynolds!  This was his first movie ever.

Ordinary Magic is about a Canadian boy raised in India returning to his home country.  Once established in the Great White North this boy discovers that an evil land developer (played by Paul Anka!) has designs on his family estate.  What's our yoga-practicing hero to do?

I kind of enjoyed this one.  Reynold's accent is not awesome, and the recreations of India look very staged, but Paul Anka hams it up nicely and the ending, despite a failure to demonstrate why the townspeople are so affected by Reynold's character, does manage to make an impression.

9. Ladybugs (1992)

Rodney Dangerfield coaches a girls' soccer team.

1992 was probably the height of both Dangerfield and costar Jonathan Brandis' careers.  After Ladybugs (and in Brandis' case, Sidekicks) followed a series of movies that few remember.

Director Sidney J. Furie also helmed classics such as The Ipcress File and The Boys in Company C in the 70s, as well as The Entity and Iron Eagle in the 80s, but by 1992 he was just glad to have another movie.

I'd put Ladybugs very far down in Dangerfield's filmography.  By 1992 movies like Back to School and Easy Money were distant memories, and he'd spend most of Ladybugs "doing standup at people" rather than acting.

Fun Fact: Jonathan Brandis won his role over Leonardo DiCaprio, whom the producers passed on because he was too convincing as a girl.

10. Monolith (1993)

Not so much a movie as a cry for help, but hey, at least it's not as boring as some of the movies below.

Whatever happened with this movie, mistakes were clearly made, and one can only feel sorry for Bill Paxton, Louis Gossett Jr. and John Hurt, three actors who probably regretted their involvement in this film later on.

The weirdest thing about Monolith aside from its somewhat nonsensical sci-fi premise is the scenes wherein a minor character is clearly carrying on a conversation with no one at all.  I'm guessing that by that point the principal actors had all fled to safety, and that these connecting scenes were only added to make the film slightly more coherent.

11. A.P.E.X. (1994)

Watchably awful Terminator ripoff involving no one who went on to fame and fortune afterward.  It features some truly primitive CGI and a killer robot that wasn't fooling anyone.  If you can make sense of the ending you were paying much, much more attention than I was.

12. Zero Tolerance (1994)

FBI agent Robert Patrick (minus his liquid metal shapeshifting ability) escorts a friendly cartel member back to the loving arms of the U.S. of A.  The somersault count in this movie is off the charts, it makes almost no sense, and whatever reason Miles "Tarzan" O'Keefe is in it.

I was very drunk off rum when I watched this.  Its sheer ridiculousness was very welcome.

13. Airborne (1993)

A laid back California surfer dude brings the exotic sport of "rollerblading" to the Midwest.  Or something.  I wasn't paying that much attention.  Seth Green was an industry veteran by this point, but Airborne was Jack Black's second movie following a brief appearance in Bob Roberts the year before.

14. T-Force (1994)

The only actors I recognized in this were "Bennett" (!) from Commando, "Malibu" from the American Gladiators TV show and Erin Gray from the Buck Rogers film and TV show.  The plot is buddy cop movie meets Universal Soldier and the budget was LOW.

15. Dark Angel: The Ascent (1994)

A smokin' hot demon fresh from hell dispenses justice on the streets of... Romania?  It's about as "direct-to-video" as you can get.

The theology employed by this movie is somewhat interesting.  Would demons pray?  And what would that even mean?  This movie is a far cry from Paradise Lost, but it does offer a couple interesting ideas of the relations between heaven and hell.

I just can't help but wonder whether the humor is intentional or otherwise.  They had to have known what the protagonist's fake wings would look like on camera, but then again there's an earnestness to some of the performances that seems to belie that fact.  Fearless Vampire Killers it's definitely isn't, but it did have me thinking.

16. Martial Outlaw (1993)

Don't ask me what the title means.  I guess they thought the words "martial" and "outlaw" sounded cool together.

I have nothing positive to say about this movie aside from the fact that it's not nearly as excruciating as Peter's Friends below.  Two brothers in law enforcement part ways over Russian mobsters operating in Los Angeles.

17. The Stand (1994)

Life imitates art.  Art imitates life.  Around and around we go.

Stephen King's book wasn't the first novel centered around a virus, but it was the first novel to put both the virus and its aftermath into a more epic context, something more akin to J.R.R. Tolkein that Robin Cook or Michael Crichton.

And while I'm a big fan of some of Stephen King's books, I can't say that I'm a big fan of The Stand, a book I read in high school.  In my opinion the 1000+ page tome doesn't have enough of a plot to justify its length, and its ending has to be one of the most frustrating things ever.

All of the problems present in the novel are also present in this 6-hour long TV miniseries, and on top of that there's both its relatively low budget and its soap opera-level dialogue to consider.  I can remember people liking it at the time, but it didn't do much for me.

18. Lightning Jack (1994)

Cuba Gooding Jr. learns how to be an outlaw from Australian Paul Hogan.  The ending of this movie is a complete nonevent, with the two protagonists sneaking out of town without ever really encountering the men chasing them.  I'll give it a few points for Beverly D'Angelo, but for the most part it's painfully unfunny.

19. Only You (1994)

One of the more nauseating rom-coms I've seen lately.  Marisa Tomei and Robert Downey Jr. were dating at the time, having met on the set of Chaplin a couple years earlier.

The ending of this movie is completely and utterly unconvincing, even by rom-com standards.

Fun Fact: Marisa Tomei's first movie was 1984's The Toxic Avenger.

20. Peter's Friends (1992)

Insufferable British people (plus one American) gather at a manor to celebrate New Year's Eve.  This film only further confirmed my strong dislike for Kenneth Branagh.  Yes, he's been in a few good movies, but I am, overall, not a fan.

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