Great Years in Film

[slightly biased bias fan]

I recently noticed that 1994 was an amazing year in cinema history.

Here is a list of some of the best movies that 1994 had to offer (in alphabetical order).

- Ace Ventura: Pet Detective

- Bullets Over Broadway

- Clerks

- The Crow

- Dumb and Dumber

- Ed Wood

- Forrest Gump

- Four Weddings and a Funeral

- Interview with the Vampire

- Legends of the Fall

- Leon: The Professional

- The Lion King

- Little Women

- The Mask

- Muriels Wedding

- Natural Born Killers

- Once Were Warriors

- Priscilla: Queen of the Desert

- Pulp Fiction

- The Shawshank Redemption

- Speed

- True Lies

- War of the Buttons

[Roy H.]

You can take Natural Born Killers off the list.  That movie was trash.  But yeah, there are some alltime great movies there.  What a year for both depth and quality.

No surprise, though:  everything was better in the nineties.

[slightly biased bias fan]

No surprise, though: everything was better in the nineties.

Except the Celtics unfortunately lol

Truthfully though, the quality of films has taken a nosedive in the last 10-15 years. Unfortunately it is us the consumer that is at fault. This is due to online pirating movies, which led to the current streaming model. The loss of the secondary movie market (VHS & DVDs) caused production companies to take fewer financial risks.

I also think the fallout from GFC shrunk competition in production companies. It seems like Disney owns everything now.

[Kernewek]

Satantango (CB doesn't like the accented a) deserves to be on the list as well. An absolutely incredible film and an absolute slog - one of the best films I've ever seen, but watching it on the big screen was a full day's work.

There are a lot of interesting (usually fairly bleak) conversations about how portions of the art world are tethered to systems which are mostly built around industrial-sized, repeat background absorption happening at the moment. It's a very different world than it was in the mid-90's, where one hit film (or record) could cover the costs of ten projects that flopped.

Specifically, Will Tavlin wrote a very good essay about Netflix's influence as one of the biggest streaming platforms, which anyone who has any interest in art should read:
https://www.nplusonemag.com/issue-49/essays/casual-viewing/

[Donoghus]

I was always partial to 1982.

-E.T.
-Star Trek II: Wrath of Khan
-Blade Runner
-Poltergeist
-Tron
-Fast Times at Ridgemont High
-Rocky III
-The Thing
-Conan the Barbarian
-Gandhi
-An Officer & A Gentleman
-48 Hrs
-Tootsie

[Big333223]

No surprise, though: everything was better in the nineties.

Except the Celtics unfortunately lol

Truthfully though, the quality of films has taken a nosedive in the last 10-15 years. Unfortunately it is us the consumer that is at fault. This is due to online pirating movies, which led to the current streaming model. The loss of the secondary movie market (VHS & DVDs) caused production companies to take fewer financial risks.

I also think the fallout from GFC shrunk competition in production companies. It seems like Disney owns everything now.

There are still a lot of great movies every year but they're harder to find because studios only put marketing money behind existing IP. Anything actually interesting gets buried quick unless you're really looking for it. Last year was pretty weak but there was Love Lies Bleeding, Challengers, The Fall Guy, Conclave... I loved all of those and I'm still trying to catch up on stuff I missed.

As for great years... You can't go wrong with 1974: Chinatown, Godfather II, The Conversation, Blazing Saddles, Young Frankenstein, Death Wish, Alice Doesn't Live Here Anymore, The Taking of Pelham 123, Texas Chainsaw Massacre, Black Christmas, The Longest Yard, A Woman Under the Influence, The Parallax View, Foxy Brown

[perks-a-beast]

1999, 2007, and 2002 come to mind.

99 was insane.

Fight Club
American Beauty
Office Space
Talented Mr. Ripley
The Matrix
Big Daddy
Eyes Wide Shut
The Sixth Sense
The Blair Witch Project
The Green Mile
Election
Toy Story 2
10 Things I Hate About You
Dogma
Boondock Saints
8 MM
The Insider
South Park Movie

We?ll never see anything like it again, unfortunately.

[Roy H.]

Wikipedia tells me:

The year 1939 in film is widely considered the greatest year in film history. The ten films nominated for Best Picture at the 12th Academy Awards (which honored the best in film for 1939)?Dark Victory, Gone with the Wind, Goodbye, Mr. Chips, Love Affair, Mr. Smith Goes to Washington, Ninotchka, Of Mice and Men, Stagecoach, The Wizard of Oz, and Wuthering Heights?range in genre and are considered classics

Looking through top movies, I'm throwing 1989 out there as a dark horse:

Batman
Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade
Little Mermaid
When Harry Met Sally
Say Anything
Glory
Dead Poet's Society
Do the Right Thing
My Left Foot
Major League
The Abyss
Back to the Future II
National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation
Lethal Weapon 2
Field of Dreams
Driving Ms. Daisy
Born of the Fourth of July
Bill and Ted's Excellent Adventure
Uncle Buck
The Burbs
Honey I Shrunk The Kids
Casualties of War
Roger and Me
Roadhouse
Lean on Me
All Dogs Go To Heaven

... and plenty of other solid movies that you'd recognize.

Downside:  Ghostbusters II

[Donoghus]

Wikipedia tells me:

The year 1939 in film is widely considered the greatest year in film history. The ten films nominated for Best Picture at the 12th Academy Awards (which honored the best in film for 1939)?Dark Victory, Gone with the Wind, Goodbye, Mr. Chips, Love Affair, Mr. Smith Goes to Washington, Ninotchka, Of Mice and Men, Stagecoach, The Wizard of Oz, and Wuthering Heights?range in genre and are considered classics

Looking through top movies, I'm throwing 1989 out there as a dark horse:

Batman
Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade
Little Mermaid
When Harry Met Sally
Say Anything
Glory
Dead Poet's Society
Do the Right Thing
My Left Foot
Major League
The Abyss
Back to the Future II
National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation
Lethal Weapon 2
Field of Dreams
Driving Ms. Daisy
Born of the Fourth of July
Bill and Ted's Excellent Adventure
Uncle Buck
The Burbs
Honey I Shrunk The Kids
Casualties of War
Roger and Me
Roadhouse
Lean on Me
All Dogs Go To Heaven

... and plenty of other solid movies that you'd recognize.

Downside:  Ghostbusters II

Excuse me, you're missing UHF.

[perks-a-beast]

Wikipedia tells me:

The year 1939 in film is widely considered the greatest year in film history. The ten films nominated for Best Picture at the 12th Academy Awards (which honored the best in film for 1939)?Dark Victory, Gone with the Wind, Goodbye, Mr. Chips, Love Affair, Mr. Smith Goes to Washington, Ninotchka, Of Mice and Men, Stagecoach, The Wizard of Oz, and Wuthering Heights?range in genre and are considered classics

Looking through top movies, I'm throwing 1989 out there as a dark horse:

Batman
Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade
Little Mermaid
When Harry Met Sally
Say Anything
Glory
Dead Poet's Society
Do the Right Thing
My Left Foot
Major League
The Abyss
Back to the Future II
National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation
Lethal Weapon 2
Field of Dreams
Driving Ms. Daisy
Born of the Fourth of July
Bill and Ted's Excellent Adventure
Uncle Buck
The Burbs
Honey I Shrunk The Kids
Casualties of War
Roger and Me
Roadhouse
Lean on Me
All Dogs Go To Heaven

... and plenty of other solid movies that you'd recognize.

Downside:  Ghostbusters II

1989 was elite. I would throw Sea Of Love and War Of The Roses in there as well. Those movies both rule.

[President Red]

Wikipedia tells me:



Downside:  Ghostbusters II

Well, in 1989 I was 20, and saw Ghostbusters II -- as well as the similar-quality Star Trek V -- in a movie theater with an absolutely beautiful and nice girl of the same age, so I'm going to give both those terrible movies a pass.

Looking through these movie lists, I note many that I saw and even more that I would have been willing to see, but in recent years I haven't noted more than a few movies a year that even interested me slightly.  I suppose some of that is aging out of the target demo for new movies, but I always have been a movie buff and can pick a dozen movies or more that interest me for just about any year since there started to be talking pictures (and many from before then).  I wasn't in all those target demos, either.  I wonder if there's been an actual change in cinema that explains my disinterest, or if it's just my oldmanedness.