Top 30 has finally resumed. We are up to the top ten....which will be revealed later today!

[TalismanRing]

1 hour ago, baumer said:

 

You're crazy. Seriously. Shawshank is as far from over rated as possible. 

It's $#1 on IMDB with a 9.2 rating. 

 

I'm not sure how it could possibly be as far from overrated as possible there.

 

It's a very good movie but yeah it's overrated on IMDB.  Lots of movies are.  Especially movies that appeal more to men of a certain age group who do most of the voting.

[cannastop]

1 hour ago, baumer said:

Besides, who's to say that Shawshank Redemption actually made this list?

Quite right! Wasn't on mine.

[Cap]

12 hours ago, baumer said:

#26

The Adventures of Priscilla, Queen of the Desert

 

User Opinion:  N/A

My opinion:  N/A

 

 

 

I think sometimes Priscilla gets overshadowed by To Wong Foo or The Birdcage.  It shouldn't.  It's got such a punk rock, 90 indie vibe that allows for some really honest and beautiful character work.  Berenadette Bassenger is glorious.  Even watching the film in 2018 her character feels like a breakthrough in representation (even if she's played by a cisgender man; but it was the 1990s).  I love how the film never shies away from the prejudice and homophobia the characters face, but it refuses to wallow in it.  It's not about Suffering TM.  It's about two middle aged people, and their annoying Eve Harrington youth, on a road trip trying to figure out their lives.  That's beautiful.  Add in some fabulous costumes and great music, and you have one of my favorites not only of the year, but the decade.

 

 

 

Edited September 29, 2019 by captainwondyful

[Kthuxi]

1994 was such a great year.  We were on a roll and had a lot of great films, not just the first one in a long, long time.  It was great to be able to do a movie that I hadn't done before, with all these people, just to get to experience it with all our best friends.  It helped that we all were going so well at the time. I had never seen a movie that didn't have an ending, so I kind of knew what was going on, and I was like, "This is how it ends, right?  If you don't really come back to see it, then it's kinda over.  You go to the cinema and you can't see it, you have to go home."  I had never heard a film come out that did something like that.  

[baumer]

hey guys....so sorry this has been left on the side of the road for the last 24 hours.....life has gotten to me.  I will start this up again tomorrow and have it finished by Tuesday.  

[EarlyDeadlinePredictions]

[baumer]

All right guys I sincerely apologize for not getting this done. This is just been a crazy week in my personal life and with work. Just a perfect storm of transgressions I guess you could say. I will be working on this on my break today and when I get home from work tonight. I will seriously try to have this done by tonight but if not it will 100% be done by tomorrow night.

[nghtvsn]

Top 30 was a bit too much. Anything past #7 and I don't think I ever watch or haven't watched in years but my Top 5 would have been: 

 

1. PULP FICTION
2. SHAWSHANK REDEMPTION
3. FORREST GUMP 
4. INTERVIEW WITH THE VAMPIRE
5. SPEED

[The Stingray]

Yeah, I've lost interest in this. Empty promises, empty apologies.

 

[baumer]

I'll get this done today...starting now.  

 

The only thing is I am not going to be as long winded with all of the write ups......I'll truncate everything so I get this done expeditiously.

 

Again, I am really sorry I couldn't get to it this week....I just had everything happen at once.  The guys on my whats app group can attest to this....I didn't even check in with them more than a half dozen times this week.  So very sorry....but life kicks your butt sometimes.

[baumer]

#23 

Maverick

Starring Mel Gibson, Jodie Foster, James Garner

Directed by Richard Donner

Box office:  183 million

 

 

Number of lists:  10

Top 5: 0

Number one:  0

Quick synopsis:  Bret Maverick, needing money for a poker tournament, faces various comic mishaps and challenges, including a charming woman thief.

Critic opinion:  

How the West was fun: "Maverick" is affectionate, amiable, eager-to-please, in a TV-movieish sort of way. You'll want to call it "Mav," for short, the way everyone in this Mild West spoof casually calls Mel Gibson, as frontier hero Bret Maverick.

It's Mel's movie, no question about that. He green-lighted it, his Icon company produced it and he got his "Lethal Weapon" director Richard Donner to ride herd. The names above the title also include James Garner, who played Maverick in the 1957 TV series, and Jodie Foster in a role originally pitched to Meg Ryan, but they are mostly stuck sitting on the fence.

Gibson's Maverick is a charming, somewhat goofy and garrulous card sharp on his way to a half-million dollar all-night poker tournament aboard a riverboat. All he needs is the $25,000 entry fee -- everyone west of the Mississippi owes him money and he sets out to collect.

He crosses paths with Annabelle Bransford (Foster), a coy con-woman with the hokiest Southern accent east of the Pacific, who also has her cheatin' heart set on that big kitty. This pair of jokers becomes three of a kind when they run into retired lawman Zane Cooper (Garner). Sharing a stagecoach, these three cards take turns fleecing, endangering and rescuing each other before the (anti-)climactic poker game and the suspense-free "surprise ending."

"Mav" makes grand use of its wide-screen Western locations -- pastel canyons, dusty frontier towns, riverboats churning down muddy rivers. It was scripted by William Goldman, who wrote "Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid," but the whole enterprise has an ad-libbed, stars-just-want-to-have-fun feeling.

Gibson, who has perfected his light comic touch as the highly flappable Maverick, does his own stunts, and takes off his shirt faster than he draws his six-shooter. Foster, on the other hand, is tucked and tied in all manner of lacy and frilly corsets and bustiers, as befits a flirtatious frontier gal. Her character is overdressed but underwritten; she simpers and flutters in a mighty bad Vivien Leigh impression.

Half the fun of "Maverick" is keeping an eye peeled for celebrity cameos. Danny Glover, Gibson's "Lethal" co-star, shows up as a bank robber and even gets his standard line: "I'm getting too old for this {expletive}." (Washington Post)

My thoughts:  I love this movie!  Gibson has never been better and small appearances by guys like Danny Glover and Graham Greene make this so much fun.  The final poker game aboard the river boat is a lot of fun and who knew Alfred Molina could be such a great villain?  

 

 

 

[baumer]

#22 

Little Women

Starring Winona Ryder, Gabriel Byrne, Samantha Mathis

Directed by Gillian Armstorng

Box office: 50 million

 

 

Number of lists: 6

Top 5: 2

Number 1:  1

 

Quick synopsis:  Louisa May Alcott's autobiographical account of her life with her three sisters in Concord, Massachusetts in the 1860s. With their father fighting in the American Civil War, sisters Jo, Meg, Amy and Beth are at home with their mother, a very outspoken women for her time. The story tells of how the sisters grow up, find love and find their place in the world.

Critic opinion:  Meticulously crafted, and warmly acted by a cast that includes Winona Ryder as Jo and Susan Sarandon as her mother, the devoted Marmee, "Little Women" is one of the rare Hollywood studio films that invites your attention, slowly and elegantly, rather than propelling your interest with effects and easy manipulation.

Largely autobiographical, "Little Women," now available on home video, takes place in Concord, Mass., during and after the Civil War. When it opens in 1864, Mr. March is away at war and his wife and daughters are left at home.  

In addition to passionate, self- doubting Jo, there's Meg (Trini Alvarado), the oldest and strongest; Beth (Claire Danes), the sickly one who never dreams of leaving home; and Amy (played by Kirsten Dunst as a 12-year-old, and Samantha Mathis as a 16-year-old), the youngest and most determined to marry rich.

The family may be hard- pressed during the war -- poor Meg has to borrow a friend's dress to attend a coming-out ball, and cadge a pair of fancy shoes from a free box -- but the love that the sisters draw from their mother is a rare luxury.

A font of wisdom and kindness, Marmee is the mother every girl dreams of having: a model of composure and insight, an early feminist who encourages her daughters to develop their intellect, humor and moral courage, to "embrace their liberty."  (SF Chronicle)

My thoughts:  I liked the fact that this movie was very true to the book. The cast brought the characters to life....nice seeing a young Christian Bale.

 

 

 

 

 

[baumer]

#21 Hoop Dreams

Starring:  William Gates, Arthur Agee, Emma Gates

Directed by:  Steve James

Box office:  11.8 million

 

Number of lists:  6

Top 5: 2

Number one:  1

 

Quick Synopsis:  A film following the lives of two inner-city Chicago boys who struggle to become college basketball players on the road to going professional.

Critic Opinion:  Hoop Dreams is an amazing documentary, nearly three hours long, that follows five years in the lives of two promising high school basketball players from Chicago. Filmmaker James, along with producers Frederick Marx and Peter Gilbert, have crafted a genuinely remarkable film that has as much to do with the trials and tribulations of growing up young and black in this country as it does with the sport of basketball. William Gates and Arthur Agee are the two young men in question. Hoop Dreams opens with them in their freshmen year of high school. When famed talent scout Earl Smith spies Agee tearing up the neighborhood court one day, he makes the suggestion to the boys' guidance counselor that Agee might have what it takes to make it out of the shadows of Cabrini-Green and into pro ball. Atheletic scholarship in hand, Agee is bussed to St. Joseph's High School, home of the legendary coach Gene Pingatore and the same school that produced Isiah Thomas. Gates also receives a scholarship. Agee, however, finds it difficult to adjust to his new surroundings, commenting that this is the first time he's attended a school that was anything other than all-black. To top it off, he's a cocksure player on the court, badly in need of essential teamwork skills, still laboring under the anarchic mindset of neighborhood b-ball. There's so much going on in James' documentary that bears commenting on, but it's a film best discovered -- frame by frame, joy by tragedy -- on its own terms. More of an extended, rousing sociology lesson than anything else, it's also the single most remarkable documentary to come down the pike in a long while. And I'm not even a basektball fan.

My thoughts:  Never saw this one.

 

[Jake Gittes]

35 minutes ago, baumer said:

I'll get this done today...starting now.  

 

The only thing is I am not going to be as long winded with all of the write ups......I'll truncate everything so I get this done expeditiously.

 

Again, I am really sorry I couldn't get to it this week....I just had everything happen at once.  The guys on my whats app group can attest to this....I didn't even check in with them more than a half dozen times this week.  So very sorry....but life kicks your butt sometimes.

'Sall good man don't sweat it.

[Jake Gittes]

1 minute ago, baumer said:

Number of lists:  6

Top 5: 6

Was #7 on my list 

[baumer]

#20 Stargate

Starring:  James Spader, Kurt Russell, Jaye Davidson

Directed by Roland Emmerich

Box office:  198 million

 

Number of lists:  9

Number one:  0

Top 5:  2

 

Quick synopsis:  An interstellar teleportation device, found in Egypt, leads to a planet with humans resembling ancient Egyptians who worship the god Ra.

Critic Opinion:  

What begins as an enjoyable romp degenerates into a tired retread of the age-old good-versus evil battle pitting a group of overachieving mortals against a ruthless god-like being. It's Luke against the Emperor from Return of the Jedi without the malevolent, charismatic presence of Darth Vader. Ultimately, the final battle, aside from being inexplicably rushed, is dull and lacking in genuine suspense.

The first half of the film, which includes the setup, Jackson's intense struggle to break the stargate's code, the expedition to Ra's world, and humankind's first contact with an alien culture, is handled reasonably well. Things only start to fall apart with Ra's appearance. Then it's all shoot-outs and fight scenes, with action taking precedence over intelligence.

The cast members do their best with sketchy roles. Kurt Russell makes an effective no-nonsense military man who doesn't overplay his grief at a recent personal tragedy. Not for the first time, James Spader is believable as a dweeb forced into a heroic act or two. And Jaye Davidson, despite never speaking a word of English, has a commanding presence as the androgynous Ra.

My thoughts:  I enjoyed this movie. It captured my attention quickly and kept it throughout the movie.  It's a great ensemble cast and the special effects add to the movie's appeal, rather than BEING the appeal.  The premise is engaging, and gives some very plausible explanations for mysteries that have stumped man for thousands of years. The bad guys are just as engaging and interesting as the good guys and that makes the movie all that much more enjoyable.

 

[baumer]

8 minutes ago, Jake Gittes said:

Was #7 on my list 

 

Mistake...corrected...sorry

[baumer]

#19 Clerks

Starring:  Brian O'Halloran, Jeff Anderson, Kevin Smith

Directed by Kevin Smith

Box office:  3.15 million

 

Number of lists:  11

Top 5:  1

Number one:  0

 

 

Quick Synopsis:  A day in the lives of two convenience clerks named Dante and Randal as they annoy customers, discuss movies, and play hockey on the store roof.

Critic Opinion:  

Considering that Smith shot the entire movie in and around the convenience store, he shows ingenuity in finding fresh set-ups.

There's a danger that the movie could reduce itself to a series of people standing around talking, but look at the way he handles the conversation between Dante and Veronica, who paints her nails while they talk. Or consider the hockey game, which is finally played on the store roof.

"Clerks," which contains no nudity or violence, was originally classified NC-17 by the MPAA just on the basis of its language - which includes the kind of graphic descriptions of improbable sex acts that guys sometimes indulge in while killing vast amounts of celibate time. (One sexual encounter does take place during the movie, off screen, and after it becomes clear exactly what happened, we are all pretty much in agreement, I think, that offscreen is where it belongs.) Quentin Tarantino has become famous as a video store clerk who watched all the movies in his store, and then went out and directed "Reservoir Dogs" and "Pulp Fiction." Kevin Smith has done him one better, by working behind the counter and then making a movie about the store itself. Within the limitations of his bare-bones production, Smith shows great invention, a natural feel for human comedy, and a knack for writing weird, sometimes brilliant, dialogue.

Much has been written about Generation X and the films about it.

"Clerks" is so utterly authentic that its heroes have never heard of their generation. When they think of "X," it's on the way to the video store. (Roger Ebert)

My thoughts:  The film was made for $27,000 and Smith used several of his own credit cards to finance the film.  And imho, it's one of the best films of 1994.  A sharp eye is displayed here.  Smith has some brilliant lines and he manages to keep everything fresh and fairly exciting.  Plus they play road hockey on the roof and that has to count for something.    And just remember, just because they serve you, doesn't mean they like  you.

 

[baumer]

#18 Heavenly Creatures

Starring:  Melanie Lynskey, Kate Winslet, Peter Elliot

Directed by Peter Jackson

Box office:  3 million

 

Number of lists:  9

Top 5:  1

Number one:  0

 

 

Quick synopsis:  Two teenage girls share a unique bond; their parents, concerned that the friendship is too intense, separate them, and the girls take revenge.

Critic Opinion:  

Sexual hysteria that drives two 15-year-old schoolgirls to murder is the subject of this wildly hypnotic thriller based on a real case that rocked New Zealand in 1954. Writer-director Peter Jackson, known on the horror circuit for the chilling Dead Alive, moves to the main arena with this spellbinder about the obsession that gripped Pauline Parker (Melanie Lynskey) and her English friend Juliet Hulme (Kate Winslet).

Jackson opens his hyperkinetic film with a documentary clip detailing the sedate city of Christchurch, where the events took place. It’s the only chance to catch your breath before Jackson jump-cuts to the immediate aftermath of the crime, with a bloody Pauline and Juliet running through Victoria Park after bludgeoning Pauline’s mother, Honora (a memorably poignant Sarah Peirse), with a rock wrapped in a stocking.

Jackson and co-writer Frances Walsh tell the rest of the story in flashback with the help of voice-overs from Pauline’s diary that explain how her dull life changed with the arrival of Juliet. Barbed wit isn’t the only trait the two share. Both vent their feverish imaginations in writing, inventing a mythical world called Borovnia where creatures avenge any slight the girls perceived in reality. Juliet’s wealthy parents, Hilda (Diana Kent) and Henry (Clive Merrison), are guilty of neglect. Pauline’s mother is judged a worse offender. Seeing a closeness she finds unnatural in the girls, Honora contrives to keep them apart.

My thoughts:  Not my favourite film of the year, but no one really cares about my opinion for this film anyway.

 

[baumer]

#17 Ace Ventura Pet Detective

Starring Jim Carrey, Courtney Cox, Sean Young

Directed by:  Tom Shadyac

Box office:  107 million

 

Number of lists:  9

Top 5:  3

Number one:  0

 

Quick synopsis:  A goofy detective specializing in animals goes in search of the missing mascot of the Miami Dolphins.

Critic Opinion:  (Is it really worth it to post anything here from a critic?...I'll try to find something positive)  FOUND ONE!!  Bless you Rita Kempley from the Washington Post.

 

Jim Carrey stoops to new highs in low comedy: Actually he bends over, flaps his cheeks and introduces the world to butt ventriloquism in "Ace Ventura: Pet Detective." A riot from start to finish, Carrey's first feature comedy is as cheerfully bawdy as it is idiotically inventive.

Carrey's physical clowning and mad brand of humor will be familiar to fans of TV's "In Living Color," for which he created such uniquely insane characters as the pyromaniacal Fire Marshal Bill and the steroid-stuffed bodybuilder Vera de Milo. While Ace Ventura has some attributes in common with Bill and Vera, he is much more endearing than either of those two pucksters. For one thing, he really, really cares about animals.

Ace's apartment resembles a petting zoo, with a skunk in the hamper, an otter in the toilet bowl and two penguins in the refrigerator in addition to squirrels, lizards, raccoons and a variety of more commonplace domestic animals. "I don't do people," explains Ace, who is hired to solve the kidnapping of the Miami Dolphins' mascot, Snowflake, which is followed by the disappearance of quarterback Dan Marino (looking embarrassed and uncomfortable). Ace agrees to locate Snowflake, but he leaves the finding of Marino to his nemesis, the mean-spirited and mysterious police Lt. Einhorn (Sean "What Career?" Young).

My thoughts:  Jim Carrey was relatively unknown before he did this.  Yes he was the only white guy on In Living Color so he made a name for himself that way, but that still could not prepare the rest of us for the year he was about to have.  Starting with Ace Ventura, he would end the year as the most sought after comedic actor.  From talking out of his ass, to dawning a mask to making the most annoying sound in the world, Carrey owned 1994.  Ace is just pure hilarity from start to finish.