The following things happened in 1999:
- The euro currency was established.
- Bill Clinton was acquitted after impeachment proceedings.
- Shakespeare in Love won the Oscar for Best Picture.
- Nunavut became Canada's third territory.
- Bill Gates became the richest man in the world.
- The Columbine shootings took place in Colorado.
- Napster appeared.
- Falun Gong was banned in China.
- The 9-21 Earthquake struck Taiwan.
- Boris Yeltsin resigned as Prime Minister of Russia, leaving Vladimir Putin as acting president.*
Underlined entries were viewed on Netflix.
Linked entries can be viewed in their entirety on YouTube.
Disclaimer: I was scraping the bottom of the YouTube barrel with this one. The "Excellent" category aside, "Good" in this context is relative. Is a movie like Aftershock: Earthquake in New York REALLY good? No, definitely not.
Excellent
1. American Beauty
Yes, we all hate Kevin Spacey now, but once upon a time he was one of the best actors in the business. American Beauty is excellent regardless of his tarnished reputation, and it's still one of the most heartfelt movies ever made.
What's it about? I suppose you could boil it down to the dangers of conformity, and of being so invested in the rat race that you overlook the simple joys of life. Besides Spacey, the supporting cast is also great. Especially Annette Bening, as Spacey's controlling wife.
Fun Fact: This was director Sam Mendes' very first movie. He'd go on to direct Road to Perdition, Skyfall and Spectre.
2. The Matrix
One thing American Beauty and The Matrix have in common: they both end with the perfect song. American Beauty ends with an Elliot Smith tune, and The Matrix ends with Rage Against the Machine. Those two songs both capture the moods of their respective movies perfectly.
Every so often I feel the need to revisit the first Matrix. In my opinion it's a perfectly executed science fiction movie, and those revisiting it in 2021 will find it hasn't aged a day. It's also a perfect synthesis of trends in science fiction up until that point - the existential depth of anime like Ghost in the Shell, Hong Kong-style gunplay and martial arts, trends in virtual reality and gaming, and a host of actors and actresses who would become much bigger names as the 2000s wore on. In essence it does just what a movie like Jaws did before it: it encapsulates what came before, and also offers us a glimpse of what's to come.
Of course I realize that Jupiter Ascending was terrible, but I'm still a bit sad that it's not the Wachowskis directing the Dune adaptation. Plot elements from Dune Messiah were almost certainly incorporated into The Matrix Revolutions, and a more direct adaptation of Dune by the Wachowskis would have been a great ride. Nothing against Denis Villeneuve - he's one of the great directors working today - but yeah, the Wachowskis doing Dune would have been epic.
And can we talk about how Laurence Fishburne almost carries this entire film? Or how awesome Hugo Weaving is? I could watch those guys do their thing all day.
Fun Fact 1: The Wachowskis originally wanted Will Smith for Neo and Val Kilmer (!) for Morpheus. Will Smith turned down the movie in favor of Wild, Wild West.
Fun Fact 2: That rooftop set in the beginning was constructed for Dark City, which had just finished filming. Both Dark City and The Matrix came out the same year, and share many themes in common.
Fun Fact 3: The fourth installment in The Matrix franchise will be released at the end of this year. Keanu Reeves and Carrie-Anne Moss will be the only cast members retained from the first movie.
Tom Sizemore, Mary Elizabeth Mastrantonio and Forrest Whitaker star in this movie about a family entering the witness protection program. It's miles better than Don't Look Behind You (below), and offers a lot of insight into problems encountered by families in that situation.
Some Good Ones
Shades of 9-11. There's even a part where Erika Eleniak tells Tom Skerritt that "the Twin Towers are still standing." Not for long though...
It's slow to get going, but as disaster movies go it's much better than the recently seen Volcano and Deep Impact. Tom Skerritt stars as the obligatory disaster relief guy, with Jennifer Garner and Charles S. Dutton in supporting roles. A big budget spectacle? Not exactly, but you don't always need a big budget to make disasters convincing.
Fun Fact 1: This entire movie was filmed in Vancouver, Canada. All the shots of New York are either stock footage or models.
Fun Fact 2: Speaking of Erika Eleniak, her first movie was 1982's E.T.: the Extra-Terrestrial.
2. Primal Force
Ron Perlman leads a group of would-be victims around an island infested with killer baboons. It reminded me of 1996's The Island of Dr. Moreau, though of course it lacks the big ideas present in that earlier movie. The baboons look fake at times, but given the budget I think those responsible did a good job.
No, not the 70s disaster movie. This one's about a group of adolescents sneaking into an abandoned amusement park. It's very angsty, and also very representative of the time period. Anyone else remember all those introspective, guitar-driven songs of the late 90s?
Some Bad Ones
1. Big Daddy
Brought to you by McDonald's and Hooters! It's occasionally funny but overall rather mean-spirited. Adam Sandler stars as a man burdened with an abandoned child.
2. Silver Wolf
What, you ask, were Michael Biehn and Roy Scheider doing in 1999? Ok, maybe you weren't asking, but the answer lies in this kid-friendly movie about a young boy befriending a wolf. I guess if you were into snow boarding you might like it.
Yasmine Bleeth, remember her? And... James Earl Jones? Casey Kasem? It's a bewildering mix of actors and actresses.
In Undercover Angel an aspiring writer is asked to watch a friend's daughter for several days. The daughter in question displays the level of precociousness which inspired the creation of Zyklon B. And why the fuck is that guy using a typewriter? In 1999 even struggling artists had word processors!
Weird Fact 1: Jim Varney was scheduled to appear in this, but Yasmine Bleeth's agent refused to allow Varney to appear in the same movie as his client. Why? I have no idea!
Weird Fact 2: Bleeth was addicted to cocaine during the filming of this movie.
It's impossible to sympathize with this family. And if I've learned anything from the internet, it's that YOU DON'T FUCK WITH THE CARTEL. And if you do, you better vanish right quick.
Yet instead of vanishing right quick, this family spends a lot of time whining about the witness relocation program. "Oh, why can't I call my boyfriend! So unfair!" By the time this move's over you actually feel a bit sorry for the cartel, who at least had their shit together.
Seeing Patrick Duffy and Pam Dawber subjected to a slow death at the hands of cartel enforcers would have been much better than the way this movie actually ends.
5. Survivor
Crewmen in the arctic drill too deep and discover an ancient extraterrestrial threat. Half of this low budget made-for-TV movie is so dark it's hard to see what's going on, and the other half utilizes some of the worst special effects I've ever seen. Really, even compared to some of the lower budget 80s movies this one looks bad. A lot of it reminded me of John Carpenter's The Thing, though of course it's not nearly that good.
6. Komodo
I suppose after the success of Anaconda a movie like Komodo was inevitable. It was either that or Iguana, which for all I know was also a thing.
The only thing I liked about this movie was the ridiculous "happy" ending. All those deaths? Not a big deal, now that we've all learned to be more resourceful and the boy has overcome his childhood trauma. Aren't a few horrific deaths justifiable when a therapist is trying to "reach" a young boy?
I once stayed at a resort in Malaysia which kept an adult Komodo dragon as a pet. Once you've seen one of those things eat a live chicken you learn to keep your distance.
7. Killer Deal
It's the future - or sometime after 2009 anyway - and the rich are harvesting the organs of the poor. Has this happened? Is it happening? I suppose it depends on who you ask.
8. Cleopatra
Pretty much unwatchable. The actress playing Cleopatra is beautiful, but she can't act worth a damn. Even Timothy Dalton, who probably has some background in Shakespeare, is terrible in this one. Lines which should have force come off sounding like something from a car commercial.
There are a few things that TV movies - at least until the advent of Netflix and other streaming services - did better than movies. Chief among these things is telling a longer, more complex story with a greater depth of characterization. Grand, meticulously staged battle scenes? Leave that to Hollywood.
9. Animal Farm
Like Cleopatra another Hallmark movie. The acting in Animal Farm is much better, but the animatronic animals look incredibly fake. Even worse is the cgi applied to actual animals.
Like many others, I was compelled to read Orwell's novel in high school. As much as I will always love 1984, I found Animal Farm to be both heavy-handed and extremely obvious. The TV movie adds more human drama to the story (i.e. the humans are better fleshed out and more obviously evil), but the story does not benefit from this addition.
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*Putin has been in and out of office several times. No, he hasn't been overseeing Russia since 1999.
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