1990: Movies Sorted By Tier

Submitted by jim on Tue, 10/19/2004 - 10:54
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  • Loved

  • Dances with Wolves

  • Edward Scissorhands

  • Goodfellas

  • Ju Dou

  • Really Liked

  • Awakenings

  • Cyrano de Bergerac

  • Europa Europa

  • La Femme Nikita

  • Home Alone

  • The Hunt for Red October

  • Miller's Crossing

    ... It's alarming to me that I've seen this movie within the past 10 years, and must have liked it quite a bit (based on how much I liked it this time) but remembered it so poorly. All the scenes were familiar to me as the movie unfolded, but I could at no point tell you what was going to come next. I couldn't even remember if Tom shot Bernie during the famous titular scene! Maybe I had some kind of brain fever at the time, like West Nile or something, although you think I'd remember *that* even more than the movie. In any case, leave it to the Coens to create one of the more unique gangster pictures out there. It's not so much about the hail of bullets as it is about honor, loyalty, friendship, control, and power, all conveyed via the story of Gabriel Byrne and him losing what little soul he started with. Byrne is good, of course, but Albert Finney is perfect, swaggering and bold with a tommy gun in a manner I wouldn't have expected from him. An odd thing though, I look at this movie, which is very good, and The Man Who Wasn't There, which sucked, and I'm hard-pressed to define why one works so well and the other fails so miserably. Good thing I don't get paid for these reviews, as any critic worth his salt should be able to answer such a question.

  • Misery

  • Total Recall

  • Glad I Saw

  • The Exorcist III

  • The Freshman

  • Ghost

  • Hamlet

  • Jacob's Ladder

  • Miami Blues

    ... Badlands-lite. Or is it Bonnie & Clyde-lite? Either way, it's still pretty good, if less filling. The remarkable thing though is what a good job Alec Baldwin does being simultaneously charismatic AND completely unlikeable. Neither Martin Sheen nor Warren Beatty pulled this off in their movies (perhaps they weren't trying), as they can't keep from being likeable. There are a few odd moments where you wonder why Fred Ward (having a grand time as the denture-wearing cop) doesn't arrest Baldwin or call for backup, but he must know he's in the Chinese food equivalent of the lovers on the lam tale.

  • Mo' Better Blues

  • Pretty Woman

  • Quick Change

  • The Rescuers Down Under

  • Wild at Heart

    ... David Lynch's lovers-on-the-run movie. While he doesn't reach the same heights of creepy weirdness he achieved with Blue Velvet, it's still a fairly bizarre ride, and Nicholas Cage and Laura Dern largely make it work. It's always fun when you give Cage an opportunity to channel Elvis. Why folks don't just immediately run for the hills at the appearance of Willem Dafoe (or Dennis Hopper in Blue Velvet) is a mystery.

  • Guilty Pleasures

  • Darkman

  • Flatliners

  • Green Card

  • Kindergarten Cop

    ... "It's not a tooo-mah."

  • Predator 2

  • Quigley Down Under

  • Robocop 2

    ... It's been awhile, but I recall this as a worthy sequel with lighter comedy and action (which isn't necessarily a criticism if you are repelled by Verhoeven's splatterfest approach).

  • Tremors

  • Could Have Missed

  • Air America

  • Back to the Future Part III

  • Should Have Missed

  • Bird on a Wire

  • El Sucko Grande

  • Cadillac Man

  • Dick Tracy

  • Hard to Kill

  • Rocky V

  • Unranked

  • Arachnophobia

  • Die Hard 2

  • The Godfather: Part III

  • Gremlins 2: The New Batch

  • The Grifters

  • Joe Versus the Volcano

  • Pacific Heights

  • Presumed Innocent

  • Pump Up the Volume

  • Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead

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1991: Movies Sorted By Tier