Favoritest Movies of 1994

My father and I used to keep a list throughout the year of movies we saw in the theater on the refrigerator with ratings on them.  He'd give me crap about seeing more movies than him.  But, considering that essentially every weekend I was seeing a movie with him (we'd miss a few weekends in this period due to going to a Cardinal game, or a show at the Fox, or the St. Louis Symphony), I'd go to the movies fairly often with my girlfriend at the time, and once a week my friend Verne and I would ditch class to go see a movie at Crestwood Mall.  Until we saw it... A movie that was, to us, just disgustingly unenjoyable.  Our weekly skip to the movies was killed dead by Natural Born Killers.  I was a little surprised to see it placed only third from the bottom on this list.

I was more surprised that Stargate is my favorite 1994 movie.  I really had no idea what would come out on top.  Maybe I haven't been clear about this before, but I've been using (a slightly modified) Condorcet method to rank each year of movies.  But there were so many movies that I saw at the time and since, either on video or cable that I did enjoy; how did Stargate win? When I saw Stargate for the first time, at Keller 8 Cine; 1) I thought it was one of the most predictable movies I've ever seen, but 2) I really wanted to see a sequel.  It was co-opting Erich von Däniken and the rest of the ancient astronaut mini industry of books you'd find in the metaphysical / new-age section of any Waldenbooks, without being tacky.  I really wished for a second movie where they went to Atlantis.  Other gods in addition to the Egyptians would have been nice to see as well.  But, If I had made this list in 1994, not only would it have been a lot shorter.  Stargate wouldn't have passed Forest Gump, Pulp Fiction, or Leon.  It probably would have been just above the middle.    

"Never underestimate your audience. They're generally
sensitive, intelligent people who respond positively
to quality entertainment." - STARGΛTE SG·1

So why so much love now for a truly ridiculous movie?  Ridiculous I say?  The premise is this; If you find an old safe, and have the first 6 numbers of a 7 number combination, how many experts does it take to open it?  But, that's what Alfred Hitchcock would call a "Refrigerator Moment", so it's forgiven.  Now, my wife and her brother dig on Stargate, but that's not enough alone.  Star Trek The Next Generation is my favorite TV series ever, and that probably helped Generations to the second spot (tied with The Lion King).  Heck, Generations isn't even that great, Why didn't Tolian Sorin just get himself a shuttlecraft and one of those thruster suits Spock had in The Motion Picture and fly into the Nexus, save all the people on Veridian 3 the trouble of dying... by the way, if you kill an entire planetary civilization in a movie these days, you don't gewt a pass like Generations or New Hope, we need to see cities crumble and families crushed or engulfed in flame... Go Roland Emmerich on their sorry carbon based bottoms!  Say, aside from 2012, didn't he make... Stargate?  Stargate got to the top of this list with Ten seasons of clawing it's way into my heart.  As much as I loved Richard Dead Anderson, and I still as of the writing of this, I need to watch all of Farscape.  But, Ben Browder and Claudia Black joining the show, made SG·1 some serious family time TV viewing.  It's a conceptual high tide, and I'm probably not the first person to enjoy the original film more, thanks to the series.  So, it's on to the next round for twenty movies from the class of 1994, here's the list of how everyone stacked up in the end.

1. Stargate
2. (Tie) Star Trek Generations
3. (Tie) The Lion King
4. Interview with the Vampire
5. Pulp Fiction
6. Léon
7. Forrest Gump
8. Clerks
9. Maverick
10. The Crow
11. Mary Shelley's Frankenstein
12. True Lies
13. The Shawshank Redemption
14. Radioland Murders
15. Street Fighter
16. Ed Wood
17. Love Affair
18. The Flintstones
19. The Hudsucker Proxy
20. Timecop
21. The Next Karate Kid
22. The Shadow
23. Speechless
24. The Paper
25. Quiz Show
26. The Mask
27. Reality Bites
28. Richie Rich
29. Godzilla vs. Space Godzilla
30. Major League II
31. Naked Gun 33⅓: The Final Insult
32. Threesome
33. Three Colors: Red
34. Heavenly Creatures
35. Color of Night
36. Speed
37. The Ref
38. I.Q.
39. Bad Girls
40. Highlander III: The Final Dimension
41. Nobody's Fool
42. Sirens
43. The Madness of King George
44. Ace Ventura: Pet Detective
45. Backbeat
46. Mixed Nuts
47. Three Colors: White
48. Africa: The Serengeti
49. Lightning Jack
50. Greedy
51. Cobb
52. With Honors
53. The Adventures of Priscilla, Queen of the Desert
54. Disclosure
55. Guarding Tess
56. Police Academy: Mission to Moscow
57. North
58. Clear and Present Danger
59. Legends of the Fall
60. Nell
61. Little Women
62. The Getaway
63. Blown Away
64. Dream Lover
65. The Scout
66. Four Weddings and a Funeral
67. No Escape
68. The Specialist
69. Shallow Grave
70. The Return of Jafar
71. City Slickers II: The Legend of Curly's Gold
72. On Deadly Ground
73. Renaissance Man
74. Wes Craven's New Nightmare
75. The Chase
76. I Love Trouble
77. Only You
78. Wyatt Earp
79. Terminal Velocity
80. Immortal Beloved
81. Double Dragon
82. Gunmen
83. Wolf
84. Black Beauty
85. The Santa Clause
86. The Cowboy Way
87. Intersection
88. Miracle on 34th Street
89. Exit to Eden
90. Lassie
91. The Jungle Book
92. The Client
93. Beverly Hills Cop III
94. Drop Zone
95. It Could Happen To You
96. The Puppet Masters
97. Junior
98. Muriel's Wedding
99. The Little Rascals
100. Angels in the Outfield
101. When a Man Loves a Woman
102. The Swan Princess
103. Baby's Day Out
104. Serial Mom
105. A Troll in Central Park
106. My Girl 2
107. PCU
108. Natural Born Killers
109. Dumb and Dumber
110. It's Pat

Legend: Onto the next Round! ( >/= .8) In the middle. I do NOT enjoy. (< / = .2)

"This page would look so much cooler if I were at the top" -- Pulp Fiction Movie poster, squatting here in it's own coolness protesting the movies loss.

Favoritest Movies of 1995

 

We see twin movies in almost every year it seems, 1995 had  Kevin Spacey interrogated by cops TWICE on this list, French Kiss, meet Forget Paris, and of course Rob Roy and Braveheart!  But, there are SIX Cyberpunkish movies in this year;  Russell Crowe became real, Keanu had an 80G storage capacity, and Sandra was able to begin boring me with everything she'll ever do in perpetuity, we got to see Angelina Jolie for the first time (no, I saw Cyborg 2!) and did I mention Strange Days?  The only one to get to the next round was the anime.

I was the guy doing the layouts on our college paper that year, and there were two big benefits to that; an all expense paid trip to the collegiate journalists conference in Washington DC and demanding that I got to go to the press screening of Goldeneye.  The sound was a bit screwed up, and when Brosnan fires that grapple gun at the start of the movie, it was physically shocking to everyone in attendance... just way too loud, just a few minutes later the sound was turned down to less than deafening, but I could have cared less.  Bond was back, and back then a six year absence felt near enough to eternal.  

But, the winner of the year.  That movie poster hangs above my living room couch.  It was one of, if not completely, my fathers favorite movie.  We saw it at Ronnies 8 on a screen that we were making fun of for being only slightly larger than our 46" TV at home.  I swear he didn't initially love it, but later he practically wore the VHS copy out.  As for me, I still think Aaron Sorkin is the best dialogue writer in Hollywood; he has every other screenwriter asking each other how to spell erudite.

1. The American President
2. GoldenEye
3. Mallrats
4. Ghost in the Shell
5. The Usual Suspects
6. Ninja Scroll
7. Babe
8. Bad Boys
9. Se7en
10. Mortal Kombat
11. Nixon
12. The Quick and the Dead
13. Toy Story
14. Braveheart
15. Apollo 13
16. Judge Dredd
17. Grumpier Old Men
18. Die Hard with a Vengeance
19. The City of Lost Children
20. Desperado
21. Tank Girl
22. Batman Forever
23. Strange Days
24. Twelve Monkeys
25. The Brady Bunch Movie
26. Congo
27. Rob Roy
28. A Little Princess
29. Casper
30. Species
31. Assassins
32. The Indian in the Cupboard
33. Waterworld
34. Nine Months
35. The Prophecy
36. Sabrina
37. Outbreak
38. Circle of Friends
39. Shanghai Triad
40. Empire Records
41. Four Rooms
42. Clueless
43. Mighty Morphin Power Rangers: The Movie
44. Crimson Tide
45. Hackers
46. Sense and Sensibility
47. Johnny Mnemonic
48. The Last Supper
49. Police Story 4: First Strike
50. Powder
51. First Knight
52. Jumanji
53. Nick of Time
54. Showgirls
55. Cutthroat Island
56. Screamers
57. Dracula: Dead and Loving It
58. Get Shorty
59. Ace Ventura: When Nature Calls
60. Virtuosity
61. Lord of Illusions
62. Othello
63. Dangerous Minds
64. Heat
65. Under Siege 2: Dark Territory
66. French Kiss
67. A Goofy Movie
68. Operation Dumbo Drop
69. The Bridges of Madison County
70. The Brothers McMullen
71. Billy Madison
72. Fair Game
73. Father of the Bride Part II
74. Something to Talk About
75. Forget Paris
76. Pocahontas
77. Sudden Death
78. Balto
79. Casino
80. Iron Eagle IV
81. Just Cause
82. While You Were Sleeping
83. Don Juan DeMarco
84. Money Train
85. To Die For
86. The Net
87. Murder in the First
88. Jury Duty
89. Never Talk to Strangers
90. Vampire in Brooklyn
91. The Scarlet Letter
92. Jade
93. Tommy Boy
94. Kids
95. The Basketball Diaries

Legend: Onto the next Round! ( >/= .8) In the middle. I do NOT enjoy. (< / = .2)