My Pick - 147 90s Movies

My nineties in film

     Film can be, and normally is, a very personal medium. One person can love a film and another can despise it, two people can love the very same film for completely different reasons. An Oscar winner can astound critics but bore the next patron of the cinema and while some people see very few films others deliver constant barrages of film into their brain and love even the ones that were never going to win awards for their originality, style or dialogue.

     Film can be a great divider but it can also bring people together. It truly is a wondrous thing, in my eyes. But I have to say I was listening to a radio station the other week and on it they read out the top ten nineties films, as voted by the public. I was fairly stunned to hear that Goodfellas wasn’t on the list. Hey, Pulp Fiction was, but Reservoir Dogs wasn’t. It stuck with me. It stuck with me that many of the films voted for were kids films, and hey, there were some amazing animated features throughout that decade, but better than Goodfellas?!

     Anyway, I got to thinking - what would a film list I put together look like? Would I even be able to put together a ‘top ten’ knowing that Goodfellas would have to go up against Toy Story, or Good Will Hunting would have to battle for my affections with Unforgiven. The answer was clearly ‘no’. No, I can’t give you a top ten. I can’t give you a top twenty or even thirty.

     No.

     I figured the best thing to do was go through a list of all the Hollywood release dates for each year and write down the ones that mattered to me. Then I would put a ring around the ones that REALLY mattered to me.

     Turns out there were a lot of films that I just couldn’t do without having seen.

     What follows is a list of nineties movies that I love. Some have notes on them about why. Some have excuses. There are many Oscar winners that aren’t on the list. There are many foreign films that I haven’t tracked down the names off, because I’m busy, and also I watch far more Hollywood films than I do world cinema. So sue me.

     They aren't in any order of greatness and I don't think I can argue the impact Jurassic Park had on me in relation to my near obsession with Reservoir Dogs, so don't try and find my favourite, just see if some of yours are on here. I hope this doesn’t get annoying/confusing/down right terrifying…

Brain Dead – Amazing gore and bizarre action. The Zombies…the lawnmower…

Tremors – Come on! It’s a must!

The Hunt For Red October – Still the best Jack Ryan film by a country mile.

Total Recall – Arnie doing what he does best. Plus, look! No arms!

Another 48 Hrs – Perfect antagonistic buddy action.

Ghost – Did you love this film? Dito.

Young Guns 2 – That gang is my favourite and watching them fall was heart-breaking.

Flatliners – Billy Mahoney? One of the most evil villains ever. Loved it.

Pump Up The Volume – My favourite teenage angst film of all time. Slater is amazing.

Goodfellas – My Favourite gangster film of all time and probably the best ever made.

Pacific Heights – Keaton was brilliant in this. Sinister and enthralling.

Predator 2 – I love this film. Glover does a great job and it feels like the next step.

Misery – I will always have nightmares that Annie is coming to take my feet.

Awakenings – Somewhere inside I’m still sobbing over this film. Williams is amazing.

Edward Scissorhands – Undoubtedly a Burton classic.

Sleeping With The Enemy – Tins in cupboards. The terror. Scary film.

Silence Of The Lambs – Hopkins and Foster at their best.

New Jack City – Snipes heads a cast that show grit and real aggression.

The Hard Way – ‘Not if you tied me naked to the back of a truck and dragged me through a field of broken glass!’ Woods and Fox made this something silly and special.

Backdraft – A brilliant cast, with a tight story and a great director’s flair. Loved it!

Hudson Hawk – I know it isn’t very good. I don’t care. If I want to see this then ONLY this will do.

Thelma and Louise – Geena and Susan. What a ride!

Robin Hood : Prince of Thieves – Infectious, silly, Rickman is endlessly quotable.

Terminator 2 – Annoying kid wasn’t that annoying. Great sci -fi action.

Boyz In The Hood – Brilliant and shocking.

Point Break – I don’t care that it’s wooden and silly. Reeves and Swayze are ace.

Bill And Ted’s Bogus Journey – Death, Station, evil robot us’s.

The Commitments – Band film is a hit on every level.

The Fisher King – Bridges and Williams. Wow. Heart-breaking.

Cape Fear – Deniro as the tattooed monster.

Star Trek 6 : The Undiscovered Country – Shakespeare. Assassinations. Captain Sulu.

The Last Boy Scout – Funny, fast, in your face and violent. Loved Willis in this.

JFK – Back, and to the left.

Rush – Jenifer Jason Leigh and Jason Patric get in over their heads in a narc op.

Kuffs – Christian Slater and Milla Jovovitch in light hearted action comedy. Loved it. Also, trying picking up a region 2 dvd of this? No. Neither can I. Bugger.

Wayne’s World – Schwing.

Alien 3 – I loved this one. Full on horror and I loved the prison. Charles S Dutton is great. Weaver is bloody brilliant.

A League Of Their Own – Baseball women prove they have what it takes. We knew it all along.

Universal Soldier – Lundgren and Van Damme really do make great enemies.

Unforgiven – Perfect film for me. The whole cast are great but Hackman and Eastwood are a step above.

The Last Of The Mohicans – Amazing soundtrack, incredible cinematography, gobsmacking film. The end chase? Uncas? Perfect third act.

Reservoir Dogs – Saw it in the cinema so many times. A 10/10. Tarantino explodes into the spotlight.

Bram Stokers Dracula – You can watch it if feeling silly or serious. Great film. Soundtrack? Brilliant.

Bad Lieutenant – Keitel does horrible things and I can’t stop watching.

Aladdin – A Disney classic made even more dear with the passing of Robin Williams.

A Few Good Men – I WANT THE TRUTH! – YOU CAN’T HANDLE THE TRUTH!

Muppets Christmas Carol – The perfect Christmas movie.

Groundhog Day – Bill Murray on fire. I love this film.

Jurassic Park – The CGI dinosaurs….OMG.

Sleepless In Seattle – Not a big rom com fan but this had heart and character.

In The Line of Fire – Malkovitch, Russo and Eastwood together are great.

Kalifornia – Brad Pitt and Juliet Lewis terrify Mulder and Leone, and me.

Undercover Blues – Turner and Quaid get effortless laughs and ooze charm.

Demolition Man -Snipes and Stallone are unstoppable. Awesome action. Bullock has comedic timing that smashes every joke out of the park. Great film.

Nightmare Before Christmas – Dark and yet the songs are so catchy. Visual treat.

Carlito’s Way – Pacino is astounding in this. One of my favourite gangster films.

The Piano – Mesmerising.

Schindler’s List – Obviously. A hard film to watch.

Tombstone - Western with an amazing cast. BEST. DOC. HOLLYWOOD. EVER.

Philidelphia – Hanks at his best. Banderas is so real.

The Crow – Brandon Lee. Visually stunning. A tragedy.

Lion King – OF COURSE!

True Lies – ‘They were all bad…’

The Mask – Jim Carey wows, as does Cameron Diaz.

Killing Zoe – Crime in Paris.

Natural Born Killers – Woody gets evil! A visual assault on your brain.

Pulp Fiction – Storytelling doesn’t get any better. Incredible cast, incredible performances.

Shawshank Redemption – Freeman and Robbins are perfect. A classic film.

Stargate – The cinema doesn’t get any more fun than this.

Interview With A Vampire – Brilliant, moody, Louis always moaning.

Leon – 10/10. Reno, Oldman and Portman are dynamite.

Star Trek: Generations – Two crews, two times, the death of Kirk. Arggghhh!

The Last Super – Would you kill Hitler?

Crimson Tide – One of the best soundtracks of all time. Hackman and Washington battle.

Braveheart – Accurate? No. Amazing? Yes.

Apollo 13 – A great film. Tension that shreds the nerves.

The Usual Suspects – Brian Singer makes his mark. Keiser Sozey!

Desperado – Banderas and Hayek are the best looking killers ever. Superb action.

Seven – 10/10 thriller. Pitt, Freeman and Spacey are jaw dropping. The box…

Strange Days – Strangely forgotten. A great film.

Leaving Las Vegas – A depressing but engaging descent into darkness.

Goldeneye – One of the best Bond films.

Casino – The band back together to shoot and stab people in the desert.

Toy Story – A masterpiece. 10/10.

Things To Do In Denver When Your Dead – Garcia’s Jimmy the Saint is legendarily smooth.

Heat – Pacino vs DeNiro. Crew v crew. The coffee shop. The gun fight in the street.

12 Monkeys – Sci fi that delivers. Pitt, Willis and Stowe are brilliant.

Fargo – Eh? Woodchipper.

Heaven’s Prisoner – Baldwin’s alcoholism is a thing to terrify.

Mission Impossible – Cruise leads a cast that updates the old show with style.

Dragonheart -Dennis Quaid. Connery. Dragons. YAY!

The Rock – Connery, Cage and Harris give us big action.

Hunchback of Notre Dame – Dark Disney with even darker villain.

Independence Day – HUGE SILLY ACTION! BLOW UP MONUMENTS! YAY!

Kingpin – Bowling comedy. Buckets of spunk. Rubber hands.

Bound – Dark, sinister and gripping. Plus, quite rude.

The Ghost and The Darkness – Killer lions. Love it!

The Long Kiss Goodnight – Davis and Jackson are amazing. Action and laughs abound!

Sleepers – Big heavy weight cast. Nasty subject matter. Bacon is all the creepy.

Romeo and Juliet – Cool.

Ransom – GIVE-ME-BACK-MY-SON!

The English Patient – Beautiful film.

Jerry Maguire – All the feels. Uplifting drama that soared.

Mars Attacks! – Ack! ACK! Ack-ack!

Scream – Rewrote the rules.

Grosse Point Blank – Cussack’s awkward hitman is brilliant.

The Fifth Element – Of course!

Con Air – BIG! STUPID! FUN!

Hercules – A departure in visual and musical style and a great film. HADES!

Face/Off – Woo. Cage. Travolta. Stupid action that is as entertaining as it is silly.

Copland – One of my favourite cop films. Stallone reminds me why he’s so great.

L.A Confidential – Great cast, brilliant film, perfect thriller.

The Peacemaker – Kidman and Clooney fight terrorists and it is damn good.

Donnie Brasco – Depp is unforgettable in this.

Fallen – Washington fights a demon and it fights back.

The Big Lebowski – Bridges delivers to us The Dude, and The Dude was good.

The Truman Show – Carey is captivating.

The Man In The Iron Mask – Great cast lead an entertaining romp.

Mulan – Disney get it right, again.

Out Of Sight – Clooney and Lopez have the most sex appeal ever.

Pi – Aronofski arrives.

There’s Something About Mary – Jizz hair.

Ronin – Action film with truly fantastic car chases.

Saving Private Ryan – Obviously.

Rounders – Norton and Damon play cards and sometimes win.

Apt Pupil – Nazi in suburbia.

America History X – Incredible film. Full force. Bite the curb.

The Siege – Washington, Azari, Benning, Willis, terrorism, complicated thriller.

Very Bad Things – Slater is a psycho, the party goes WRONG!

Shakespeare In Love – Great film. Paltrow was brilliant.

The Prince Of Egypt – The Visualisation of Passover? Shudders.

The Thin Red Line – Huge cast, tough subject matter, beautiful but brutal.

Starship Troopers – Violent, in your face, always goes over the top.

8MM – Cage investigates snuff films. It gets really horrible. Brilliant.

The Matrix – The first and the best by far!

Star Wars: Phantom Menace – At points it’s a jaw dropping space opera.

Arlington Road – Bridges and Robbins are great. A fabulous thriller.

The Blair Witch Project – What it achieved is astounding. The end is terrifying.

The Sixth Sense – Another great film that brings fear and a killer ending.

The Thomas Crown Affair – Effortlessly cool.

The 13^th Warrior – Viking action film. I love it.

American Beauty – 10/10.

Fight Club – Unforgettable cinema.

Toy Story 2 – When somebody loves you…

Galaxy Quest – Silly sci fi comedy that really does show it loves the source of its laughter.

The Talented Mr Ripley – Brilliant.

The Hurricane – Washington is brilliant.

The Iron Giant – Heart breaking kids film.

 

See, now you have seen there are probably at least thirty of your favourites that I didn’t go for. Forrest Gump and Three Kings, You’ve Got Mail and Dogma. Little Voice, Any Given Sunday, Joe Versus The Volcano, The Addams Family! They are there for you to go and find. Yours to look at and say ‘hey, that would be on my list!’.

That was 147 (or so) films that I couldn’t not have on the list. It doesn’t mean they were the best, or the most financially successful, or even the coolest. They didn’t stick to a neat top 10, or even an expansive top 100, no, they needed to be there, each and every one, and so the 147 is spot on for me.

Did you see many of these, am I mad, do I have great taste? Doesn’t matter what anyone else thinks really, even if I was told they were awful I would still love them. They make up part of what makes me love cinema. It isn’t confined to what’s brilliant, or what is silly, or what is worthy, it’s an odd mix of just what works for me.

     Thanks for reading.

     And yes. I did do the eighties and naughties too…

     Maybe I’ll post then up next?

P.s If you want to let me know where I went horribly wrong then just put the words in the box thing at the bottom. Bet you take issue with the Hudson Hawk thing, right? Yeah, figured you would.