1993, by the way, was the year I graduated high school.
.png)
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.
_poster.jpg)
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.
_Film_Poster.jpg)
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.
.jpg)
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.
Related Entries:
沒有留言:
張貼留言