Greatest Film(s) of the 1990s

[Heliodorus]

I wonder what do people consider to be the best film or films of the 1990s. I was talking about it with A Face and he was considering putting up a poll about it if posters want to nominate some films from that decade for consideration. I thought about the subject for a little while and a few films pooped into my head from that decade like Schindlers List, The Three Colours Trilogy, Toy Story (surely one of the greatest animated movies ever), American Beauty, Groundhog Day and The Usual Suspects but if I were to pick one film from that decade it would be Fargo from the Coen Brothers.

Just as a reminder heres the trailer from youtube

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Info about the movie from IMDB http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0116282/

[sligofan4ever]

The Shawshank Redemption and SavingPrivate Ryan would be up there with the best too.

[dfx-]

The Ghost and the Darkness for me

[Bluebeard]

I notice a rather American slant in the film selection. Here are a few crackers from the mainland that I would rate over any already mentioned.

Le Femme Nikita (Besson, Fr, 1990)
Delicatessen (Jeunet & Caro, Fr 1991)
Three Colours: Blue (Kieślowski, Fr, 1993)
La Reine Margot (Chereau, Fr, 1994)
Underground (Kusturica, Yugo, 1995)
Breaking The Waves (Von Trier, Den, 1996)
Insomnia (Skjoldbjærg, Nor, 1997)
Festen (Vinterberg, Den, 1998)
Lola Rennt / Run Lola Run (Tykwer, Ger, 1998)
Sitcom (Ozon, Fr, 1998)
All About My Mother (Almodovar, Sp, 1999)

And those are just some of the ones I've seen, naming eeach director only once. And I left out Taxi!

Has nobody else thought to mention The Butcher Boy?

NB: Written over the space of several hours, so I've prolly missed loads

[jebus]

Thin Red Line, Life Is Beautiful, Big Lebowski, True Romance and Aladdin would be my nominations

[dfx-]

Lola Rennt / Run Lola Run (Tykwer, Ger, 1998)
All About My Mother (Almodovar, Sp, 1999)


Two very good further shouts...would add Europa Europa (1990)

[Bluebeard]

Two very good further shouts...would add Europa Europa (1990)

Wanted to, but I never got to see all of it, owing to a rather rubbish reception I lived in when last it was on the box. I do rate Underground higher than the others though.

[pete]

Since non-US films mentioned i'll add The Downfall (Oliver Hirschbiegel, 2004)

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[Bluebeard]

Since non-US films mentioned i'll add The Downfall (Oliver Hirschbiegel, 2004)

Downfall? I would rate that as one of the weakest films of the 1990s. Indeed, so weak it was that it was little more than a number of books and diaries, not a remote degree of cinematic sense. The film was greatly enhanced by being made, in the following decade.

[osarusan]

I'm only mentioning those I think have a real chance of being the very best films of the decade - in no particular order -

Three Colours White (and White only, not Red or Blue)
Silence of the Lambs
Cyrano De Bergerac
Unforgiven
Howards End
Raise the Red Lantern*

I'm sure I've forgotten some classics as well.

*Despite the fact that I said "in no particular order", Raise the Red Lantern was the best film of the decade.

[Lionel Ritchie]

Goodfellahs (USA 1990)
South Park -Bigger Longer Uncut (USA 1999)
Trainspotting (UK 1995)
Coneheads (USA 1994)

[awiseman]

Ghost,Swayze was brilliant in that and Top Gun.......pure genius

[DolansWaistcoat]

forrest gump
schindlers list
event horizon
The lion king
A perfect world

[Closed Account 2]

Probably La Haine (around 1995) a surreal film decades ahead of it's time....

[Bluebeard]

Ghost,Swayze was brilliant in that and Top Gun.......pure genius

Godamit! Top Gun was 1986 - what part of the 1990s is 1986? Use the incredibly powerful research tool if necessary there at your fingers:rolleyes:

[noby]

Wasn't Pulp Fiction in the mid '90s? So why did no one mention it?
It would be an easy winner but for the fact there's stuff like Goodfellas, Fargo, and Silence of the Lambs in the mix.

[Lionel Ritchie]

Godamit! Top Gun was 1986 - what part of the 1990s is 1986? Use the incredibly powerful research tool if necessary there at your fingers:rolleyes:

I THINK he might have been taking the ****. :D

Either that or he's a high profile presenter of a flagship digest show on TV3. :cool:

[Heliodorus]

Since non-US films mentioned i'll add The Downfall (Oliver Hirschbiegel, 2004)

R42gsGBWNkg

Pete, that film is from the 2000's not the 1990's :confused:

[gustavo]

Some of my favourites

Fargo
Barton Fink
Magnolia
American Beauty
Trainspotting
Dumb and Dumber
The Mask
Buffalo 66
Shawshank
Truman Show
Usual Suspects

[paul_oshea]

Fargo was crap.

Dumb and Dumber.

[stann]

Was just about to post La Haine too (1995 I think).

Winner must be Pulp Fiction.

Honourable mentions for Fargo, Shawshank, I Went Down, Nil By Mouth and Secrets And Lies.

[pete]

Pete, that film is from the 2000's not the 1990's :confused:

Doh! No excuse given I even wrote down the year :o

[HarpoJoyce]

A fish called wanda
The crying game.


(Hav't thought about, just want to mention films no-one else has.)

[Lionel Ritchie]

A fish called wanda
The crying game.


(Hav't thought about, just want to mention films no-one else has.)

...not a 90's movie. Released in 1988.

[Lionel Ritchie]

Some of my favourites

Fargo
Barton Fink
Magnolia
American Beauty
Trainspotting
Dumb and Dumber
The Mask
Buffalo 66
Shawshank
Truman Show
Usual Suspects

Movies I have not seen yet. ah The Mask ...my first viewing of Cameron Diaz and my subsequent arrest for lewd conduct having unwittingly dragged myself clean out of the cinema. What a day that was...

[dfx-]

Downfall? I would rate that as one of the weakest films of the 1990s. Indeed, so weak it was that it was little more than a number of books and diaries, not a remote degree of cinematic sense. The film was greatly enhanced by being made, in the following decade.

Weaker than Titanic? :eek:

The Mask :cool:

[Neish]

Weaker than Titanic? :eek:

Not much weaker the Titanic, except prehaps Pearl Harbour but I hear Australia has the potential to steal the crown


The Mask :cool:

Well the mask did gives us Cameron Diaz, worthy of a few brownie points

[SaucyJack]

Seven
There's something about Mary
Resevoir dogs
The last of the mohicans
The last Boy scout

[Bluebeard]

Weaker than Titanic? :eek:

In terms of Downfall as a film of the 1990s, it is rubbish - it didn't exist in a cinematic sense until mid 2003, when storyboards and rushes were being cobbled together.

And are you suggesting that Titanic is weaker than Showgirls, Striptease or Mannequin on the Move? And that isn't considering Z grade tat like Bram Stoker's Legend of the Mummy, Jason Goes to Hell, The Neighbor, etc.

[gustavo]

I enjoyed Titanic , not bad at all

[Neish]

I enjoyed Titanic , not bad at all


I really hope you are being sarcastic

[Lionel Ritchie]

Titanic and Pearl Harbour have massive amounts in common actually in terms of their structure, bloatedness, fluff and the fact that you can join either with only 20 minutes left and miss absolutely nothing of substantial import to the core story.

[Neish]

In terms of Downfall as a film of the 1990s, it is rubbish - it didn't exist in a cinematic sense until mid 2003, when storyboards and rushes were being cobbled together.

And are you suggesting that Titanic is weaker than Showgirls, Striptease or Mannequin on the Move? And that isn't considering Z grade tat like Bram Stoker's Legend of the Mummy, Jason Goes to Hell, The Neighbor, etc.

No but it wasn't much better. Titanic was just an average long drawn out love story with a big special effects budget

[Bluebeard]

No but it wasn't much better. Titanic was just an average long drawn out love story with a big special effects budget

Economically, and in terms of waste of human time on a grand scale, probably the worst film of the 1990s alright. However, remove the context of feeling ripped off, and Titanic is not nearly as bad as Mannequin on the Move, for example, it was better made, even if indulgently written and shot, and certainly more watchable. And then look at Bram Stoker's Legend of the Mummy. About 15 minutes should be enough...

That said Titanic is a dreadfully bland film, and certainly not one I care for. For the record, I'd rather have a tooth removed than have to watch Titanic again. Unless I was getting my end away as a result, in which case, I'll buy the DVD.

And while I'm here, I will controversially name Die Hard 2 as one of the best American flicks of the 1990s...

[Closed Account 2]

yippie kay yay to that

[HarpoJoyce]

The Grifters

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eUHS5KfDmxg

[Heliodorus]

Any chance a mod would set up a poll?

[eamo1]

Great decade for films.
A Bronx Tale.
Forrest Gump.(cant believe none of ye mentioned that one yet,a classic).
Shawshank Redemption.
Those 3 are my top 3 favourite movies ever and are all from that decade.

[noby]

Titanic wasn't weak, per se. It's just that they left the bulkhead doors open.

Throwing that much time and effort at it (not to mention money) they had the potential to make a great movie about the Titanic - instead they went for this schmuck of a love story. It didn't even feel like a love story; more like two annoying kids running around on a ship.

[Bluebeard]

Titanic wasn't weak, per se. It's just that they left the bulkhead doors open.

Throwing that much time and effort at it (not to mention money) they had the potential to make a great movie about the Titanic - instead they went for this schmuck of a love story. It didn't even feel like a love story; more like two annoying kids running around on a ship.

The best moment in it was that love scene in a car, if I correctly recall, for two reasons:
1. The way the hand reaches out against the steamy window - a shot straight out of Cameron's other films Aliens and one of the Terminators, possibly 1.
2. It was a Saturday in Savoy one, and the place was jammed - it was early in the run and I had no idea what I had naively agreed to. We got the tickets early in the day for that evening. I only got a hint of it when we arrived and the telltale signs were to be had by looking at the crowd - teenies, tweenies, couples with a bloke looking either mildly irritated at missing Match of the Day or with a bloke looking like he was desperately hoping that this would guarantee him getting his hole that night. We sat down, and from before the trailers, the crowd of teenage girls in the row behind me and my mot of the time were talking sixty to the dozen, about how "Jacinta was a duuuuuuuuurty prossey, talkin' ta Sharrr'n's Way-un", and the like. This generally continued the whole time, with short breaks, when they switched from irritatingly gossiping to irritatingly simpering every time di Caprio appeared on screen (nearly said "came on screen" there - people might get the wrong idea:eek:).

Anyway, when the love scene is on the cards, there was that standard moment in the mainstream cinema of "We're an adult audience, and we are now going to pretend that we can watch this film with a critical eye, so instead of giggling, we'll be silent". It was complete silence. Things developed, everyone knew what was next, and then, from behind me, this low, but owing to the silence, incredibly clear teenage voice said "Sllllluuuut!". Needless to say, the place errupted. Best damn thing to happen in the whole film.

I'd still do Kate Winslet all the same though.

[Heliodorus]

Two other films worth mentioning are "The Player"from 1992 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dwnhRRRQtaI

and for some reasons a film that never made a major impact at the box office, (in fact Ive never even seen it on TV) "Before the Rain" http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4uJkStUpB0M a film which deals with Macedonian and Albanian ethnic strife -but dont let that put you off it.

[A face]

Any chance a mod would set up a poll?

Guys, i can only put 15 options in a poll. Can we try and whittle it down to that? I cant help but feel we are missing a few fairly important films from this thread still though.

[HarpoJoyce]

Guys, i can only put 15 options in a poll. Can we try and whittle it down to that? I cant help but feel we are missing a few fairly important films from this thread still though.

We could put them into groups like
Summer Blockbuster,
Sleeper Movie (did they have them back then),
Irish Filum pre-Michael Collins (1996),
Irish Filum post-Michael Collins (1996) ...etc.

[gustavo]

or just do the years one , maybe instead of years you could have decades

[A face]

We could put them into groups like
Summer Blockbuster,
Sleeper Movie (did they have them back then),
Irish Filum pre-Michael Collins (1996),
Irish Filum post-Michael Collins (1996) ...etc.

Ahhh that would be a tough one i'd say.

[jebus]

Doing years would probably be easiest, decades is too broad

[SkStu]

agreed - year by year since, i dunno, the seventies?

[Heliodorus]

Thin Red Line

Great Film


I hate it but I suppose it has to be mentioned is "The Blair Witch Project".

[noby]

agreed - year by year since, i dunno, the seventies?


The '60s, surely.

http://ia.media-imdb.com/images/M/MV5BMTI0Njc4NzQxMl5BMl5BanBnXkFtZTcwNzAxNTA1MQ@@._ V1._SX100_SY136_.jpg

[Heliodorus]

The '60s, surely.

http://ia.media-imdb.com/images/M/MV5BMTI0Njc4NzQxMl5BMl5BanBnXkFtZTcwNzAxNTA1MQ@@._ V1._SX100_SY136_.jpg

Personally, I consider the 40's the greatest decade for movie making. But surely thats a debate for another thread?