The MoFos Top 100 of the 90s Countdown - Redux

I'm not a particularly hardcore fan of The Nightmare Before Christmas but I like it quite a bit. I've seen it often, more lately than before because of my kids. It's fun and all that but not one I love.


Like many of the entries so far, Lock, Stock, and Two Smoking Barrels is a film I saw a good while ago, loved it, but I don't think I've seen it after; maybe once more, if at all. Fun film, but not one I think of often.

So once again, no votes from me.


SEEN: 36/54
MY BALLOT: 4/25

You should try The Indian Runner (1991) directed by Sean Penn. I noticed none of my mofo friends on letterboxd has seen it. The film can be a bit uncomfortable and disturbing at times but the performances are really good. Especially Viggo Mortensen was outstanding.

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A couple of movies that I think are good but nothing great, each with long titles, so long that they block the number that they ranked in template, and that should have been in the previous 50 and not the top 50, and in the bottom half of that bottom 50 at that, but here they are in all their decent and just above average glory, causing me to write this long sentence about what amounts to a little more than nothing...it's really how I feel about these two.

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"Don't be so gloomy. After all it's not that awful. Like the fella says, in Italy for 30 years under the Borgias they had warfare, terror, murder, and bloodshed, but they produced Michelangelo, Leonardo da Vinci, and the Renaissance. In Switzerland they had brotherly love - they had 500 years of democracy and peace, and what did that produce? The cuckoo clock."

Glad to see some love for Tim Burton's films. I previously wrote this:

Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels...not my kind of movie but I can understand the love for it. I previously wrote this:


Director Guy Ritchie delivers up one of the more stylish and unique films that I've seen...Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels brilliantly succeeds as a louder, faster, badder-ass version of Ocean's 11 (1960) type crime caper film. So I don't have any criticisms of the film maker's intentions. The healthy doses of Tarantino style humor, mixed with less than serious violence is actually a plus for me.

But...I found the film too confusing to follow. Which is not surprising as I suck at figuring out detailed plot lines and often finish a movie without knowing one damn name of any of the characters. And as it was a fast paced film with British accents that were hard for me to understand, I often was lost as to who was who. Not the films fault. I found myself thinking I was watching a scene with one group of characters only to realize it was a different group that was in the current scene. Once I lost my place in the film I lost interest out of utter confusion.

Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrelswas way too hyper for me, with all the kinetic energy and the LOUD rock music track and yelling all the time. I'm not a big action fan and I do need to feel a connection or emotion to some of the characters or story line, and I didn't. After the movie was over I felt the need to mediate.

I've always loved Lock Stock and may have had it on my first 90's ballot. These days the movies more likely to stand out to me usually impact me in some way or I can relate to them. Don't get me wrong, pure entertainment is still awesome.

I did not care for Nightmare Before Christmas.

The Nightmare Before Christmas. A unique and fascinating animation technique for that era. I think Danny Elman's contributions as composer and as the voice of Jack shouldn't be underestimated. I still have Oingo Boingo's "Dead Man's Party" (released in 1986, by the way) on my phone's playlist.

Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels. Another one of those movies that had a unique feel for the time. Remember being surprised by how much I liked it. It might have been an unfortunate start for Guy Richie, hitting big with something that had such a singular approach and tone. He never could quite recapture that magic -- who could? -- and that's what people continued to want from him, or at least remembered him for.

Two entertaining movies that didn't find a place on my eccentric list.

Seen: 39/54
Ballot: 4/25

My predictions of how my picks will place:

Good Chance: 0/12
Fair Chance: 3/10
-- Sense and Sensibility #49 / My #2
-- Clueless: #58 / My #5
-- Sleepless in Seattle: #91 / My #3
-- Office Space: #95 / My #23
No Chance: 0/3

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Scarecrow: I haven't got a brain ... only straw. Dorothy: How can you talk if you haven't got a brain? Scarecrow: I don't know. But some people without brains do an awful lot of talking, don't they? Dorothy: Yes, I guess you're right.

Well this would be the perfect 90s movie poster. Perfect.

Lock Stock is probably the worst movie to show so far. Shame on you, Mofo. Shame shame shame.
Plenty of better gong picks that's for sure.

Nightmare Before Christmas is one of my favorite movies! How could I forget to include it on my list?? *Homer Simpson voice* Aww I’m such an idiot.

But that’s the strength of the ‘90s I guess. You can just forget about Nightmare Before Christmas.


I’ve seen Lock Stock and Two Smoking barrels but can’t tell it apart from the other Guy Ritchie movies of that era. He’s not really my thing.

I've seen both of today's reveals, but didn't vote for either. I only watched A Nightmare Before Christmas because a few of my friends at the time really enjoyed it, but I had trouble sitting through the entire thing. I'm not really a Tim Burton fan in general, though I do actually have one of his films on my list.

Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels would've made my ballot 10 years ago, but I didn't even have it on my short list for this Countdown. It's the kind of film I used to really enjoy, but have fallen out of love with over the years. I don't really remember much about it other than the ending though. Perhaps I should've revisited it?

Seen: 34/54

My List: 9

04. Barton Fink (1991) - #57
05. Raise the Red Lantern (1991) - #51
07. Strange Days (1995) - #82
10. Cure (1997) - #54
11. Gattaca (1997) - #86
13. Princess Mononoke (1997) - #65
18. Total Recall (1990) - #87
22. 12 Monkeys (1995) - #50
23. Perfect Blue (1997) - #63

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I guess someone should explicitly state that Henry Selick directed The Nightmare Before Christmas, not Tim Burton.


I think we all knew that, but when people refer to it as a Tim Burton movie, because of all the Tim Burton aspects/parts, the overlap between it and the movies he did direct are high, etc. I just want to make sure we don't get too much Henry Selick erasure there (which he basically got instantly on its release).

If Nightmare Before Christmas is the one with that horrific bugs creature then I don't want to see it.

Also haven't seen the other one but I recognised the title. I guess it sort of blended into the mix of 1990s Nouveau Violence courtesy of Tarantino and the likes.
I got nothing more to say so I'll just wait for the next reveals

i've seen both of these but it's been one trillion years

I've never even heard of Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels. I've added it to my barrel list - I mean bucket list.

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Boldly going.

Yeah, I've heard good things about it.

Yeah I think a lot of the confusion comes from it being technically called Tim Burton’s The Nightmare Before Christmas too.

In my ballot so far:
75. The Remains of the Day (1993) (14) TOP 200
71. The Double Life of Véronique (1991) (13) TOP 200
55. Short Cuts (1993) (10) TOP 200
52. The Player (1992) (7) TOP 100

Other films I enjoy or respect:
94. True Romance (1993)
79. Point Break (1991)
76. A Moment of Innocence (1996) TOP 200
73. Close-Up (1990)
69. Good Will Hunting (1997)
53. The Thin Red Line (1998)

I predict that the following from my ballot will not now be in the top 100:
1.
3.
5.
6.
8.
9.
11.
19.
20.
21.
22.

Monty Python have used smash cuts, verbal handoffs, 4th wall breaks to announce the next skits... it has not all been Gilliam, and frankly, when I watch a movie like And Now For Something Completely Different, whose title even lampshades the fact that it's a sketch comedy movie, I can't help but feel that the funny skits are routinely interrupted by decidedly unfunny, nonsensical, and frequently grotesque clipart animations, courtesy of Gilliam.


When people quote Grail, or reference the Dead Parrot, or the Spanish Inquisition, or The Society of Silly Walks, or Every Sperm is Sacred, or mention literally any of their favorite moments from Monty Python history... it consistently has almost nothing to do, or absolutely nothing to do, with Terry Gilliam.

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