1999 was the year I moved to Taiwan. I'm still here, almost 26 years later.
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1. Eye of God (1997)
Those who enjoy Cormac McCarthy's novels will probably also enjoy this movie. Kevin Anderson stars as a religious man in small town Oklahoma looking to make a new start after prison, with Martha Plimpton as his trusting if damaged wife.
Tim Blake Nelson is a good director, and I'm sure the script he wrote was impressive by anyone's standards. Eye of God won several indie awards upon its initial festival run, and in my opinion these awards were all richly deserved.
2. Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas (1998)
Fear and Loathing or Where the Buffalo Roam? For me it's no contest: Fear and Loathing is far better. Terry Gilliam's interpretation of the book is far closer in spirit to the source material, and both Johnny Depp and Benicio del Toro are excellent in the lead roles.
Watching this from the vantage point of 2026, it definitely seems a lot less weird than it did when it first hit theaters. The surreal parts are still effective, but in more recent years we've seen far stranger cinematic takes on drugs and those who love them. I think Fear and Loathing losing some of its "shine" in this regard is a good thing, in that it allows the more serious/political overtones of Hunter S. Thompson's journey their proper place in the story.
Fun Fact: That maid they accost in their hotel room? That's Jenette Goldstein, who played "Vasquez" in Aliens.
3. Snake Eyes (1998)
Nicolas Cage stars in this Brian De Palma-directed bit of film noir. The characters in this film (including Cage's) are hard to sympathize with, but I think its virtues far outweigh its faults. It's an inventive film and a bold attempt at storytelling.
Fun Fact 1: Snake Eyes originally had a completely different ending. This ending was cut at the last minute and replaced with the standoff between Cage's and Sinise's characters.
Sobering (?) Fact: The assassination which takes place near the beginning of this movie bears several similarities to the assassination of Charlie Kirk.
4. Cube (1997)
I'd seen it before, but it had been a while.
In my opinion this is one of the more inventive horror movies, though I'm deducting points for the "drama class scenes" placed throughout the film. Maybe they'd be confronting each other in that manner after hours and hours of walking through a giant puzzle box, but those moments needed to be earned. As it is they feel like exchanges ripped from any number of disaster movies.
Fun Fact: There was a Japanese remake of this film in 2021. The original was a huge hit in that country.
5. The Blair Witch Project (1999)
Anyone remember The Bare Wench Project? The porn version? I never actually saw that movie, but I remember seeing it displayed somewhere not long after The Blair Witch Project's theatrical run.
I saw The Blair Witch Project in the theater, by the way. I remember thinking that it wasn't very good, but having watched it again from the vantage point of 2026 I'd now say that it's aged very well. It's certainly better than Paranormal Activity, another film that helped establish the found footage genre.
In Blair Witch a group of young people set out into the woods to document a local legend. You can probably guess the rest - let's just say it doesn't end well for them. The Blair Witch Project remains one of the most successful independent movies of all time ($250 million worldwide against a budget of several hundred thousand) and has spawned many imitations.
6. But I'm a Cheerleader (1999)
A comedic take on conversion therapy. I can get how this film went over a lot of people's heads at the time, but it's very funny and deserves to be seen. I also appreciated the presence of Mink Stole, whom some may remember from several John Waters' films.
7. Who Am I (1998)
Medium-grade Jackie Chan. In this one he falls out of a helicopter and loses his memory. By 1998 Chan was far from his Hong Kong glory days and the Chinese takeover of Hong Kong was imminent. These days he's more of a CCP apologist and someone whose newer films I avoid.
8. Oxygen (1999)
Adrien Brody pulls a Hannibal Lecter whilst Maura Tierney sorts through both her own conflicting feelings and Brody's conflicting accounts of where he may or may not have buried someone alive. It's definitely not the most original movie ever made, but the two leads do a lot with what they're given.
9. Random Hearts (1999)
It was probably a much better, more cohesive novel. As it is director Sydney Pollack's adaptation leaves a lot to be desired. It's not bad up until Kristen Scott Thomas and Harrison Ford start fondling each other in the airport parking lot, but after that point their respective actions don't make a lot of sense.
10. Deceiver (1997)
Tarantino-adjacent noir picture featuring Tim Roth as an epileptic man accused of murder. The first 3/4 is pretty good, but the last 1/4 gets a little silly.
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11. The Rat Pack (1998)
I got excited when I saw Ray Liotta and Don Cheadle in the opening credits, but this film misses the point. Nobody really wanted to see Frank Sinatra, Sammy Davis Jr., Dean Martin and the other guy in some off-center political thriller, and the leads aren't all that convincing in their respective roles anyway. It was the good times that were interesting, and for this reason I'd recommend 1960's Ocean's 11 over this clumsily written TV movie.
This said, the dinner table scene featuring Marilyn Monroe and JFK is pretty good.
12. Desperate Measures (1998)
Michael Keaton does a good psychopath, but this movie gets real dumb real fast. Toward the end of it I was having trouble figuring out why Andy Garcia isn't the film's villain, given the unreasonable lengths to which he goes to "save" his son. Honestly, who endangers more people in the course of this movie, the convict or the rogue cop?
I will say, however, that the second half of this movie encroaches upon "so bad it's good status." As we neared the end credits we were actively making fun of it, and this made for a pretty enjoyable evening.
13. Limit Risk (a.k.a. "One Tough Cop") (1998)
Stephen Baldwin, one of the lesser (if non-lethal) Baldwins, stars alongside Chris Penn, the other Penn. As cop movies go it couldn't be more derivative if it tried, but at least Gina Gershon is very easy on the eyes.
Fun Fact: Justin Bieber is Stephen Baldwin's son-in-law.
14. Silent Predators (1999)
Featuring Harry Hamlin, star of Clash of the Titans and husband of Lisa Rinna, one of The Real Housewives of Beverly Hills! Judge me if you will, but I've seen more than a few episodes of that show.
Silent Predators? It's basically Jaws with rattlesnakes instead of a shark. Near the end some real estate developer has the brilliant idea of blowing up the cave where the snakes hang out with dynamite. You can guess how that turns out.
Fun Fact: This movie was based on a script John Carpenter wrote in the 70s, and was filmed in both Los Angeles and Queensland, Australia.
15. Ravager (1997)
Yancy Butler a third time! Triple points!
In this one she's a frustrated pilot aboard a... spaceship? Aircraft of some kind? I'm really not sure. Anyway, there's a virus aboard ship and she does a terrible job of avoiding the infected.
If you bother to watch it it'll remind you a lot of Alien. The scientific jargon employed by the characters is sometimes amusing, and the CGI is extremely primitive.
Fun Fact: Butler's costar Juliet Landau is Martin Landau's daughter.
16. Woo (1998)
Remember when Jada Pinkett Smith was known for her personal hotness and NOT her unsettling creepiness? Those were the days.
Tommy Davidson deserved a better movie. He spends most of this one in the grip of Smith's questionable charms, all the while mouthing dialogue he probably didn't believe in. Woo is a lot like some of the black-oriented sitcoms of the era, with the addition of swear words and sexual innuendo.
17. Beyond Paradise (1998)
A California boy adjusts to life in Hawaii. The lead actor couldn't act his way out of a paper bag, and the story isn't interesting. Apparently many native Hawaiians see it as a decent reflection of their way of life, but it sure wasn't doing anything for me.
18. R.E.M.: Falls to Climb (1999)
Documentary on the making of R.E.M.'s album Up. I've never been a big fan of the band and this short tour of their history and discography did nothing to change my mind. I'll always like "Orange Crush," but even among pretentious rock stars Michael Stipe stands out for his ability to take himself seriously.
19. Survivor (a.k.a. "Nightworld: Survivor") (1999)
Alien, The Thing, Predator... take your pick. This one will remind you of any other number of other, better sci fi/horror outings, and in the end it won't matter because this TV movie is more sleep-inducing than a Russian film retrospective on tranquilizers.
Hey, what's this bluish goo seeping up from the bottom of the ocean? Let me just rub it all over my skin and find out!
20. Kiss Toledo Goodbye (1999)
Few things are worse than unfunny comedies. I can sit through a scary movie that's not scary, I can watch action movies that aren't particularly exciting, but unfunny comedies are the worst. I have no idea what Christopher Walken's doing in this film, but hopefully he fired his agent afterward.
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