1992: What I've Seen...
Submitted by SteveR on Sat, 06/05/2004 - 02:55
Tags:
- In order of preference:
MASTERPIECE
- Reservoir Dogs (Quentin Tarantino, USA) - Not much to say, except, is it only me that sees this as Tarantino's stage-play? I'm surprised it hasn't been adapted for theater yet, or has it? Anyone know?
- Lessons of Darkness (Werner Herzog, Germany) - I'm just going to have to plead the "This is almost impossibly gorgeous" defense here as there really isn't anything I can say through typical critical remarks to defend such an astronomical rating for 50 minutes of helicopter shots. But fuck man, I mean it when I say this is almost impossibly gorgeous.
NEAR-MASTERPIECE
- Bram Stoker's Dracula (Francis Ford Coppola, USA) - Coppola still firing on all four. Vivid, theatrical, painterly adaptation.
GREAT
- Unforgiven (Clint Eastwood, USA) - An eerie, remote western that views the west as a sad and lonesome place for feeling people. Eastwood's direction is astonishing.
- Raise the Red Lantern (Zhang Yimou, China)
- Hard-Boiled (John Woo, Hong Kong) - The best movie Woo ever made.
REALLY GOOD
- Candyman (Bernard Rose, USA)
- The Last of the Mohicans (Michael Mann, USA)
- Bad Lieutenant (Abel Ferrara, USA)
- Raising Cain (Brian De Palma, USA)
- The Hudsucker Proxy (Joel Coen, USA)
GOOD
- Careful (Guy Maddin, Canada)
- All Night Long (Katsuya Matsumura, Japan)
- Twin Peaks: Fire Walk With Me (David Lynch, USA)
- Wayne's World (Penelope Spheeris, USA) - This movie is really bad, but c'mon, sentimental value counts for something, doesn't it?
NOT RECOMMENDED
- 1492: Conquest of Paradise
- 3 Ninjas
- Aladdin
- Alien 3
- The Babe
- Batman Returns
- Beethoven
- The Bodyguard
- Braindead
- Buffy the Vampire Slayer
- Captain Ron
- The Crying Game
- Death Becomes Her
- Encino Man
- Forever Young
- The Hand that Rocks the Cradle
- Hellraiser 3: Hell on Earth
- Home Alone 2: Lost in New York
- Honey I Blew Up the Kid
- Housesitter
- Kuffs
- Ladybugs
- A League of Their Own
- Leap of Faith
- Love Potion No. 9
- Medicine Man
- The Mighty Ducks
- My Cousin Vinny
- Newsies
- Patriot Games
- Pet Semetary 2
- The Public Eye
- Radio Flyer
- Scent of a Woman
- Single White Female
- Sister Act
- Sleepwalkers
- Sleepers
- Stay Tuned
- Stop! or My Mom Will Shoot
- Strait Talk
- Thunderheart
- Toys
- Unlawful Entry
- White Men Can't Jump
- Wind
- Still need to see from this year:
- Delicatessen
- Glengarry Glen Ross
- Stolen Children
- The Long Day Closes
- The Oak
- A Tale of Winter
- Simple Men
- The Player
- L.627
- Husbands and Wives
- And Life Goes On
Cloned From:
Wow, a third endorsement for Candyman, a movie I wasn't even close to considering just a couple weeks ago. It's pretty high in my queue, thanks to you, stooky, and lbangs, so I should be getting to it soon.
Yeah, Candyman is one of my favorite horror films of the 90s. Then again, I'm a confessed nut for urban legends, so don't take my recommendation too seriously.
Then again, I see I'm not alone in my admiration, so maybe you should take it seriously. :)
Crying Game not recommended? To quote many a dorky beer commercial and Scary Movie...What's Uuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuup?
Explain please.
Tallyho
:?)
To be honest, I need to give Crying Game another shot. It's been many many years since I watched it. I didn't like it when I saw it, but given that I've recently re-evaluated many movies that I watched when I was a youngster (I was eleven, yes, ELEVEN when I saw this movie), this is a logical candidate.
I'd like to know what was wrong with Aladdin. Not important or innovative by any stretch of the imagination, but as solidly-crafted fantasy fun, it's pretty damn good.
My reply to stooky above applies here too. Though I'm fairly sure that I wouldn't like it if I saw it now (I'm not much a fan of Disney's movies from the 90s -- I generally found them shallow and pandering), I'm very skeptical about my opinions of lots of movies I saw in this time period that I haven't re-seen recently. "Aladdin" falls into this category. I wasn't even a teenager when I saw this movie last, but I've seen enough of it over the years on television to be fairly certain it would remain in the Not Recommended category if I were to see it again.
This would probably be a good opportunity to mention that while animation is a genre of film that I love, the musical genre is my least favorite. That's why Disney movies usually walk a fine line ... some work for me, but some definitely don't. Depends on the songs, the story, the quality of animation, etc.
That's about all I can say about this movie right now. Maybe I'll revisit Disney's 90s catalog sometime and re-evaluate, but I sincerely doubt it, at least until I have kids. Heh.
Your 'I wasn't even a teenager' bit begs the question... how old are you? In the interest of equal disclosure, I'm 19 (but only started seriously watching movies 1.5 years ago).
It seems you are a hard-to-please guy like Rosenbaum and others who seem completely disinterested in most derivative, Hollywood work, even if it is executed well enough. My own system is a bit more forgiving - not to say either of us is 'correct,' just an observation. Personally, I hope I don't start to dislike every cliche film that comes down the pipeline or I'll quickly run out of new movies that I actually care to watch.
Unrelated commentary: I haven't even seen it, but I think Shrek 2 seems like the single most mainstream film ever (at the time of its release). What do you think?
I've never really considered myself hard-to-please -- I do have specific tastes, I guess, but I can enjoy big stupid Hollywood movies too. Admittedly, I usually look for certain distinct or interesting things in even the dumbest movies. Though I don't subscribe to the notion completely, there's a little bit of auteurist blood in me I think. :)
Regarding "Shrek 2", I think perhaps the only movie I've seen this year that's worse than it is "Shark Tale" -- those Dreamworks Animations guys are really hittin' the ball outta the park, eh? Hehe. It's so mainstream it hurts.
I'm 22, btw.