Top 25 films of 1997 (Top two will be unveiled tonight) The final two revealed on page 12

[That One Girl]

THAT FUCKING LOW?

 

YOU HAD ONE JOB BOT.

[MrGamer]

DOVES BITCHES!!!!

 

 

[baumer]

#8

 

Princess Mononoke

 

Written and Directed by Hayao Miyazaki

Starring:  Billy Crudup, Billy Bob Thornton, Minnie Driver (English version voices)

WW Box office:  159.3 million

 

 

 

 

While protecting his village from rampaging boar-god/demon, a confident young warrior, Ashitaka, is stricken by a deadly curse. To save his life, he must journey to the forests of the west. Once there, he's embroiled in a fierce campaign that humans were waging on the forest. The ambitious Lady Eboshi and her loyal clan use their guns against the gods of the forest and a brave young woman, Princess Mononoke, who was raised by a wolf-god. Ashitaka sees the good in both sides and tries to stem the flood of blood. This is met be animosity by both sides as they each see him as supporting the enemy.

 

Director Hayao Miyazaki personally corrected or redrew more than 80,000 of the film's 144,000 animation cells.   Mononoke means angry or vengeful spirit. Hime is the Japanese honorific word that means princess, which, in the rules of Japanese grammar, is placed after a person's name instead of before, as is the custom in many Western languages. When the film's title was translated into English, it was decided that Mononoke would be left as a name rather than translated literally. This also explains why Ashitaka mostly calls the princess by her real name 'San' instead of Mononoke.

 

Number of First Place Votes:  5

 

Number of Lists:  9

 

Academy Awards:  0

 

Random Critic Comment:  This handsome, beautifully designed Japanese animated film has the size -- though not the clarity -- of a great Japanese film epic....David Denby The New Yorker

 

Forum User Comment:  Holy mother of fuck is this good. @cookie

[baumer]

Top Seven will start tomorrow at around 1PM EST.  

 

[baumer]

I think if more people had seen Princess Mononoke, it might have challenged for first place.  It had almost as many first place votes as the winner, but only appeared on about a third of the lists that the winner did.

[Tower]

Face/Off is the only film in the top 10 to not get any first place votes, but made up for it by being in the third most lists.

Mononoke was actually first place for a while, but in the last day a bunch of casuals submitted lists that left Mononoke out entirely, causing it to plummet. In fact the last list that was technically submitted after the deadline, caused it to drop another spot, and pushed up a far inferior film.

[Tower]

The next ten that almost made it, including my number 3 Eve's Bayou:

30	Scream 2	56.5
31	Open Your Eyes	55
32	Romy & Michelle's High School Reunion	52
32	Happy Together	52
34	Eve's Bayou	49
35	In The Company Of Men	48
36	Anaconda	43.5
37	Kundun	42.5
38	The Rainmaker	40
38	The Cube	40

[cannastop]

via GIPHY

Edited November 29, 2017 by cannastop

[Tower]

BTW, Mononoke isn't in the top 20 in terms of the number of lists it made but most people who had it on their list, put it at number 1. Mononoke and scream 2 were both on 9 lists, but Mononoke made 8th and Scream was 30th.

[dxmatrixdt]

wow, reading that post about Face/Off and they should get Nic Cage and Travolta together for an action thriller like this.

 

 

[dxmatrixdt]

4 hours ago, Tower said:

The next ten that almost made it, including my number 3 Eve's Bayou:

30	Scream 2	56.5
31	Open Your Eyes	55
32	Romy & Michelle's High School Reunion	52
32	Happy Together	52
34	Eve's Bayou	49
35	In The Company Of Men	48
36	Anaconda	43.5
37	Kundun	42.5
38	The Rainmaker	40
38	The Cube	40

Scream 2 requires many rewatches from different POVs

Spoiler

IMO

Open Your Eyes - Tom Cruise saw this foreign language film starring Penelope Cruz and bought the rights = Vanilla Sky

The Rainmaker will be around

I do not think Cube would make my 1998 list

Anaconda has its fans.  I recommend Mimic Directors Cut.

I cannot believe Spawn is going to make the top 30!

Edited November 29, 2017 by Matrix4You

[baumer]

#7

 

Starship Troopers

 

Written by:  Edward Neumeier 

Directed by:  Paul Verhoeven

Starring:  Casper VanDien, Denise Richards, Michael Ironside, Clancy Brown, Neil Patrick Harris

WW Box office:  121.2 million

 

 

 

 

Everyone fights...no one quits:  Jean Rasczak

 

Earth is united under militaristic organization called "Federation". Even in 4school students like Johnny Rico are thought about importance of serving to the Federation. On the surface atmosphere looks pretty relaxed, Johnny is dating beautiful Carmen, he has successful high school football career, loyal friends and rich parents. In the background Federation is in war with highly intelligent insectoid population that has colonized many worlds and are now trying to exterminate humans. Carmen decides to go to a school for a pilot in hope of commanding her own space ship one day and Johnny follows her not wanting to separate, but they eventually get separated in the line of duty when Johnny ends up in the Infantry and Carmen in the Fleet. When tragedy obliterates their home city of Buenos Aires, Johnny gets determined more than ever to put an end to the insectoid aggressor. Driven by hatred of the insectoids, and jealousy for Carmen's new boyfriend, Johnny strives to become one of the best soldiers Federation has ever seen... But "bugs" prove to be smarter and more resilient than he originally thought...

 

Starship Troopers has a top notch cast and two of those cast members are Michael Ironside and Clancy Brown, who ten years ago starred in one of the under rated films of 1987, Walter Hills Extreme Prejudice.  This is another film the forum members were urged to see after the 1987 list came out.

 

Number of First place votes:  1

 

Number of lists:  16

 

Academy Awards: 1 nomination and 0 wins

 

Random Critic Comment:  A jaw-dropping experience, so rigorously one-dimensional and free from even the pretense of intelligence it's hard not to be astonished and even mesmerized by what is on the screen....Kenneth Turan:  LA Times

 

Forum member comment:  Perfection. @Brainbug

[baumer]

11 hours ago, Tower said:

Face/Off is the only film in the top 10 to not get any first place votes, but made up for it by being in the third most lists.

Mononoke was actually first place for a while, but in the last day a bunch of casuals submitted lists that left Mononoke out entirely, causing it to plummet. In fact the last list that was technically submitted after the deadline, caused it to drop another spot, and pushed up a far inferior film.

 

Yes, the one at number six is just baffling to me.  Its a fine film, but top ten of the year?  Blech.

[baumer]

Face/Off is good fun.

Con Air is much better.

[baumer]

I can do one more and then the top 5 will be revealed tonight starting at 8:30 EST.

 

 

[baumer]

#6

 

Men In Black

 

Written by Lowell Cunningham, Ed Solomon

Directed by:  Barry Sonnenfeld

Starring:  Tommy Lee Jones, Will Smith, Rip Torn, Vincent D'Onofrio

WW Box office:  589 million (Third highest of the year)

 

 

 

 

They are the best-kept secret in the universe. Working for a highly funded yet unofficial government agency, Kay and Jay are the Men in Black, providers of immigration services and regulators of all things alien on Earth. While investigating a series of unregistered close encounters, the MIB agents uncover the deadly plot of an intergalactic terrorist who is on a mission to assassinate two ambassadors from opposing galaxies currently in residence in New York City.

 

Will Smith didn't believe it was really Steven Spielberg on the other end of the line when the Executive Producer first called to talk to him about Men in Black (1997).  Tommy Lee Jones only accepted the role of K after Steven Spielberg promised the script would improve. He had been disappointed with the first draft, which he felt did not capture the tone of the comic. Vincent D'Onofrio researched his role as Edgar, by watching a lot of bug documentaries. In order to achieve his character's distinctive walk, he put on knee braces so he couldn't bend his legs, and taped up his ankles.  Rick Baker claims his work on this film was his most complex to date, as he had to have approval on his alien designs from both Barry Sonnenfeld and Steven Spielberg: "It was like, 'Steven likes the head on this one and Barry really likes the body on this one, so why don't you do a mix and match?' And I'd say, because it wouldn't make any sense."

 

Number of First Place Votes:  2

 

Number of Lists:  17

 

Academy Awards:  1 win (Rick Baker best makeup) and three nominations

 

Random Critic Comment:  A smart, funny and hip adventure film in a summer of car wrecks and explosions...Gene Siskel:  Chicago Tribune

 

Forum Member Comment:  I just watched this movie again not too long ago and it's still great. @filmlover

 

 

[Brainbug]

Starship Troopers is the definition of genius in every possible way.

[Jake Gittes]

38 minutes ago, Christmas baumer said:

#7

 

Starship Troopers

 

Random Critic Comment:  A jaw-dropping experience, so rigorously one-dimensional and free from even the pretense of intelligence it's hard not to be astonished and even mesmerized by what is on the screen....Kenneth Turan:  LA Times

What's jaw-dropping is how oblivious even supposedly intelligent people could be to the movie's satire when it came out. Today if anything it seems too obvious. 

[SLAM!]

With Gattaca at 10 and Princess Mononoke at 8, I can't complain. Those films definitely deserve to be on the list, and I'm thankful that both of them cracked the top ten.

[John Marston]

with its 105 million budget, Starship Troopers was like a Blade Runner 2049 type movie for its day.