For further background on the year in film, please refer to the Some Other Movies From 1994 entry.
The following things happened in 1994:
- Figure skater Nancy Kerrigan was attacked at the U.S. Figure Skating Championship. Refer to the movie I, Tonya for details.
- Schindler's List won the Oscar for Best Picture.
- The Rwandan genocide took place.
- Nelson Mandela was sworn in as the first democratically elected President of South Africa.
- The Channel Tunnel between England and France opened.
- The O.J. Simpson trial took place.
- Jeff Bezos founded Amazon.
- Construction of the Three Gorges Dam began in China.
- America Online went... online.
- Kurt Cobain committed suicide.
Some Good Ones
1. Night of the Demons 2
Boobies and demons and more boobies and demons melting into puddles. The red-haired actress is FINE, and the script is humorous enough to keep the story interesting. Sure, it rips off Sam Raimi's Evil Dead franchise at times, but so do a lot of other horror movies.
Fun Fact 1: The actress who plays the demonic presence in this movie is now a "professional psychic pet communicator." What qualifications and/or experience would make one a professional psychic pet communicator? I have no idea.
Fun Fact 2: If the blonde schoolgirl looks familiar, it's because that's Christine Taylor, who would go on to appear in Zoolander and Dodgeball: A True Underdog Story. She was also married to Ben Stiller for several years.
2. To Live
"We're two bullets short of liberating Taiwan!"
70 years later, and those "two bullets" seem farther away than ever.
Zhang Yimou directed this look at life in communist China in the decades following the expulsion of the KMT. It's a movie full of great scenes - especially that shot of the communist troops charging down the hill in the snow - but it felt a bit disjointed to me, and the ending wasn't satisfying.
Due to its controversial portrayal of communist policies, this movie was never shown theatrically in China.
3. Muriel's Wedding
Hold up - Toni Collette is Australian? I had no idea!
In Muriel's Wedding two friends desperately try to escape the town they were born into. It sounds corny - and this movie definitely ventures into rom-com territory - but this movie's about loving yourself no matter what others tell you. In other words it's fucking adorable, and even though the second half is too convoluted it's still one of the better movies I've seen lately.
4. Hoop Dreams
Documentary about two boys who receive basketball scholarships to a private school. My biggest complaint about this movie is that it's way, way too long. It was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Editing, and the struggles of its two protagonists are indeed compelling, but cutting an hour out of this film would have made it much better.
5. Shallow Grave
After one of their roommates (read: flatmates) dies, three people come into some money they didn't earn. This was Danny Boyle's first movie, and also his first collaboration with Ewan McGregor. The characters in Shallow Grave are unlikable, but they become more interesting after the first body's disposed of.
6. Heavenly Creatures
Two girls form an unhealthy bond in a New Zealand Catholic school. It's not perfect, but Heavenly Creatures is a glance at the Peter Jackson yet to be. The fantasy elements, the unconventional storytelling, the use of lesser known actors and actresses, New Zealand as a set piece - it's all there. This was also Kate Winslet's first movie. She'd go on to widespread acclaim in Titanic three years later.
Fun Fact: Jackson wrote a script for a Nightmare on Elm Street sequel. Unfortunately this movie was never made.
7. It Could Happen to You
The Brighter Take: A cop (Nicolas Cage) decides to share his lottery winnings with a waitress (Bridget Fonda). The Darker Take: A millionaire who enjoys the company of young boys cheats on his wife with a failed actress. In its celebration of New York it reminded me of Ghostbusters, though of course it's not nearly that good.
8. Maverick
This movie doesn't have much of a plot. The card scene at the end is great though, and Mel Gibson, Jodie Foster and James Garner are as charming as you'd expect. Is it a work of cinematic art? No, but it's fun and never wears out its welcome.
9. The Adventures of Priscilla, Queen of the Desert
Two drag queens and a transgender woman travel into the Australian Outback. Its message of acceptance is still timely, even if that ping pong ball scene trades in certain stereotypes. This movie introduced Hugo Weaving and Guy Pearce to worldwide audiences, and Terence Stamp steals the show as their transgender companion.
10. Chungking Express
From the standpoint of images on film this movie is brilliant. On the other hand the characters in it are so hopelessly romantic (and occasionally creepy) that it's hard to sympathize with them. It was interesting seeing Takeshi Kaneshiro, Tony Leung and Faye Wong so early in their careers, and Wong Kar-wai is an indisputably good director, but I just didn't love this one as much as I thought I would.
11. Stargate
When you think about it, this movie could bridge every biblical movie ever made, the Indiana Jones movies, and the Dune universe. What if the "slave race" Kurt Russell and James Spader encounter on the other side of the gate are actually the Fremen? What if a lot of the mythology surrounding Paul Atreides stretches back to ancient Egypt? Anyway, it's fun to think about.
In Stargate a portal to the other side of the universe is discovered, and a group of Terran explorers learn some unpleasant truths about the origin of our species. This movie doesn't make a lot of sense if you consider it more carefully, but it's a fun action movie regardless. It's also my favorite of director Roland Emmerich's films.
Fun Fact: Whatever happened to Jaye Davidson? He grew tired of the attention he was receiving as a movie star and retired from acting.
12. Once Were Warriors
Definitely the best movie listed here. I want to put it in the "Excellent" category but it's a bit heavy-handed. Just the same, it's a gripping story of a Maori woman's struggles with an abusive husband, and the performances are all about as good as you can get. Rena Owen, the star of this film, deserved an Oscar, but of course Once Were Warriors wasn't high profile enough to earn that kind of accolade.
Fun Fact 1: Lee Tamahori, the director of this movie, would go on to direct the Bond film Die Another Day.
Fun Fact 2: Temuera Morrison, the actor who played the abusive husband in this movie, would go on to play Jason Momoa's father in Aquaman.
Some Bad Ones
1. Baby's Day Out
You could have a lot of fun inserting scenes from this movie into 1996's Ransom. On the one hand a lighthearted attempt to cash in on the popularity of the Home Alone franchise, on the other a dark, brooding study of how a family deals with a kidnapping.
In Baby's Day Out producer John Hughes de-ages Kevin McAllister by about eight years, has a trio of mentally challenged (if superhumanly resilient) kidnappers show up, and it all grows increasingly improbable from there. Thing is, I always found Mcaulay Culkin's character in Home Alone extremely annoying, and substituting him with a baby worked better for me. I'm not saying I loved it, I'm not even saying I liked it, but I get why this movie is so strangely popular in India.
2. Above the Rim
Hoop Dreams it ain't, but it is a lot shorter. Some guy who's name I'm forgetting stars as a high school student with college basketball dreams, with Leon as his mentor and Tupac as the local drug dealer. The weirdest thing about this movie is the fact that the basketball scenes are the least interesting part.
Fun Fact: This movie is the final film in screenwriter Barry Michael Cooper's "Harlem Trilogy," which includes New Jack City, Sugar Hill and this film.
3. Drop Zone
"Always bet on black!" Oh, sorry. Wrong movie.
Wesley Snipes stars as a U.S. Marshal infiltrating the world of skydiving. The skydiving scenes look super fake, and it's obvious which characters are going to die from the beginning.
4. Junior
After Kindergarten Cop and Twins this movie made a certain kind of sense, but impregnating Arnold Schwarzenegger was a cringe too far. More damning still is the fact that this movie just isn't funny. Director Ivan Reitman, Schwarzenegger and DeVito were game enough, but the script hits emotional beats at the expense of laughs.
5. Stephen King's The Stand
I remember reading the novel in high school and finding it boring. This TV miniseries is even worse in that it gives little sense of scale, choosing instead to focus on smaller, interior sets that make the low budget more obvious. Even if they'd had the money to make it look better, there are much better movies exploring similar themes. For the most part critics loved it, but I just wasn't feeling this one.
Fun Fact: In the late 70s and early 80s Stephen King and George Romero worked together on another film adaptation of The Stand. The project was abandoned after films adapted from King's stories declined in popularity toward the end of the 80s.
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