For further background on the year in film please refer to the Some Other Movies From 1993 entry.
The following things happened in 1993:
- Czechoslovakia split apart to form the Czech Republic and Slovakia.
- The European single market was created.
- Bill Clinton was sworn in as President of the U.S.
- Brian Mulroney, the Prime Minister of Canada resigned.
- U.S. law enforcement beseiged the Branch Davidians in Waco, Texas.
- Jiang Zemin became the President of China.
- Unforgiven won Best Picture at the Oscars.
- Eritrea declared independence from Ethiopia.
- Sexual abuse allegations were leveled against Michael Jackson.
- Ariana Grande was born.
- The computer game Doom was released.
- Mick Ronson, one of my favorite guitar players, died.
Linked entries can be viewed in their entirety on YouTube.
Excellent
1. What's Eating Gilbert Grape
Man, just look at Leonardo DiCaprio. 1993 was a LONG time ago.
Swedish director Lasse Hallstrom directed Johnny Depp, Juliette Lewis, Crispin Glover, John C. Reilly and many others in this look at life in small town U.S.A. Depp is of course the star of the film, but aside from him this movie was perfectly cast, and every scene feels necessary. It's one of the best movies of the early 90s, if not one of the best films of the decade.
Fun Fact 1: Lasse Hallstrom began his career directing videos for ABBA.
Fun Fact 2: This was DiCaprio's 3rd movie, following the straight-to-VHS Critters 3 and the underrated This Boy's Life with Robert DeNiro.
Uncomfortable Reflection: That thing Depp has going in this movie with Mary Steenburgen? I've been there. It's not necessarily a good place to be.
2. Farewell My Concubine
The most wonderfully subversive thing about this movie is that there's a gay man, hiding right in the middle of it. Would such a movie get past the censors in China today? I highly doubt it, but filmmakers in China would do well to remember that movies like this gave birth to their industry. Sure, films like Wolf Warrior II and The Wandering Earth might rake in billions - mostly due to a captive audience - but it's movies like Farewell My Concubine that first got the world's attention.
In the film two boys grow up to be Chinese opera stars in the 1930s, with the rise of communism and the struggle against Japanese imperialism serving as a backdrop. The opera that the male leads continually reenact serves as both a symbol of their relationship and the struggles China was engaged in at the time.
Chen Kaige's best movie? I'm torn between this one and The Emperor and the Assassin, but they're both excellent.
Some Good Ones
1. Cool Runnings
R.I.P. John Candy. In my opinion this was the best performance of his career. He's wonderful as an ex-coach accused of cheating. And, for that matter, the supporting cast is great too. Leon carries the movie well, and Doug E. Doug (remember him?) shows his versatility as Leon's best friend and teammate. Sure, it's a Disney movie about the Jamaican bobsled team, and sure, it probably didn't happen that way, but just the same the script was well written and the director knew just when to cut away to the next scene.
Fun Fact: As with Hard Target below, this movie has a Kurt Russell connection. Disney wanted Russell (who has a long history with Disney) for the role of coach, but relented after John Candy insisted on playing the part.
2. Iron Monkey
Robin Hood + kung fu. Fans of the two Kill Bill movies will probably enjoy this film. Yuen Wo Ping served as fight choreographer on Iron Monkey too, and Quentin Tarantino co-produced. The fight at the end is memorable, even though I disliked the way they sped up the film during fight scenes.
Fun Fact: Tsui Hark, the director of this movie, would go on to direct Jean-Claude Van Damme in Double Team and Knock Off. In doing so he was following the lead of John Woo, who'd directed Van Damme in Hard Target. Hark produced John Woo's A Better Tomorrow while both were still involved in the Hong Kong film industry.
3. Free Willy
A troubled boy befriends a captive whale. And check out the Seattle Supersonics hat on his Native American mentor! Yeah, 1993 was a while back. Simon Wincer, the director of this movie, has a lot of memorably bad films to his (dis)credit, but this is one of the better ones. Relative to his filmography, he really knocked this one out of the park.
Not-So-Fun Fact: Keiko, the whale that "played" Willy in this movie, was set free off the coast of Iceland in 2002. He died of pneumonia a year later.
4. Philadelphia
Tom Hanks stars as a lawyer dying of AIDS, unjustly fired from his law firm. Denzel Washington costars as another lawyer tasked with representing him. Hanks and Washington are both excellent in Philadelphia, though it felt a bit heavy-handed to me. It's also really hard to believe that someone as prejudiced as Washington's character would have taken the case in the first place, and that scene where Hanks discusses opera is hard to swallow.
It also feels like there are scenes missing from this movie. Who's that guy that Washington nods to in the end? It's a mystery. All in all a solid film, but not as airtight as I remember it being.
Fun Fact: This movie earned Tom Hanks his first of two Oscars. He'd go on to win a second the following year for Forrest Gump.
Cause for Optimism: People are living with AIDS now.
5. Sniper
Tom Berenger stars as the titular sniper, charged with escorting agent Billy Zane through an idyllic South American forest. The tension between Berenger and Zane's characters is enough to keep this movie chugging along, even if the story's a bit thin.
My opinion? Berenger never quite hit his stride as a leading man. He had some memorable roles in movies like The Dogs of War, Platoon and The Substitute, but he - like costar Billy Zane - never really found his niche.
Eh...
1. Hocus Pocus
A brother and sister find themselves at the center of a centuries-old plot involving witches. The plot of Hocus Pocus or Hereditary? Both, actually. It's obviously for kids, so I won't comment on its badness or goodness.
Completely Unrelated Trivia: The phrase "hocus pocus" has an interesting history. Check out the article on Wikipedia.
Incompletely Unrelated Trivia: Bette Midler, who stars in this movie, began her career singing in a gay bathhouse. Her piano accompanist at the bathhouse was none other than Barry Manilow, who produced her first two albums.
Some Bad Ones
1. Arizona Dream
Johnny Depp has been in his share of irritatingly whimsical/arty movies, and this is yet another one. And as sexy as I find Faye Dunaway, I just couldn't sit through this story of a young man torn between two mentally disturbed women. Worse still, it brought to mind The Hotel New Hampshire, another pretentious movie I despise. I enjoyed the director's previous two films, but this was doing nothing for me.
An Officer and a Gentleman director Taylor Hackford's attempt at a Chicano Godfather. Is it terrible? Not quite. It is, however really long, Benjamin Bratt's character is never developed, and the ending is far from satisfying. It tries very hard to create drama, but it often feels more like a Mexican soap opera than anything Scorsese would have directed.
Fun Fact 1: Edward James Olmos was originally set to star in this. American Me, which he starred in the year before, is a much better movie.
Fun Fact 2: Billy Bob Thornton appears in this for a few minutes. Blood In Blood Out hit theaters three years before Sling Blade.
3. RoboCop 3
"What, have you gone war-wacky?"
In this one Robocop gets a jetpack. Oh, and there are robo-ninjas. And OCP is run by a Japanese conglomerate. And Robocop has a detachable gun arm. The scene in the church ventures into "so bad it's good" territory, but overall it's very boring. As with Robocop 2, comics legend Frank Miller was involved with the script, and I'm certain the robo-ninjas were his idea.
Fun Fact: In this movie RoboCop is played by Robert Burke.
4. The Sandlot
A group of young boys bond over baseball. The performances are solid, but the junkyard dog subplot really brings the movie down. Not even prepubescent boys are that impressionable, and their weird mixture of smart and stupid is hard to buy into.
Tamil movie about a guy whose girlfriend gets killed, who joins some kind of gang, who's framed for the murder of 25 children, who gets plastic surgery, who fakes his own death, who starts a new life in Madras, who falls in love, who becomes a general in the Indian army, who has a son, whose son discovers that his father was once a member of a gang, and who watches his father blow himself and the boss of his old gang up on a boat. There, that's the whole movie. Saved you the two hours.
Just As Bad As You Knew It Was Going To Be
1. Super Mario Bros.
A movie? Or a series of compromises? Super Mario Bros. features a cast of great actors who've appeared in A LOT of bad movies, and it's based on a video game whose backstory nobody needed. John Leguizamo and Bob Hoskins (continuing his post-Who Framed Roger Rabbit? shame spiral) pair up as the famously jumpy brothers, with Dennis Hopper as King Koopa.
Fun Fact 1: If "The King" at the end looks familiar, it's because he's played by Lance Henriksen, who also features in Hard Target below.
Fun Fact 2: There's an animated reboot of this coming in 2022.
Fun Fact 3: Can you believe it? The studio in charge of this thing actually passed over Tom Hanks for the role of Mario. Up until Philadelphia his career wasn't going that well.
The Most Van Dammaging Movie Ever?
1. Hard Target
Ridiculous? Yes. A fun ride? Oh hell yes. John Woo, fresh off the plane from Hong Kong, directs Van Damme as Cajun ex-Marine Chance Boudreaux. And how great is Lance Henriksen in this movie? Just as he did in Stone Cold, he steals every scene he's in.
Fun Fact 1: This is both the first American movie directed by John Woo AND the first big budget American film directed by a Chinese person. John Woo beat Ang Lee to the punch by two years.
Fun Fact 2: The studio was nervous about handing an American film over to a Hong Kong director, so they called in Sam Raimi to oversee the project. If you look real close you can see his brother, Ted Raimi, about halfway through the film.
Fun Fact 3: John Woo originally wanted Kurt Russell for the lead, but Russell was busy filming Tombstone.
Fun Fact 4: The guy hunted in the beginning of this movie is also the guy who wrote the script.
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