The MoFos Top 100 of the 90s Countdown - Redux

Just keep in mind not to get it mixed up with Kazaam and we're golden.

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I've seen both of today's movies.

I watched Home Alone a few times as a kid and I liked it well enough then, though it was never a favorite. I don't think I've ever revisited it as an adult and I have no desire to.

I watched Good Will Hunting once not long after its release. Pretty much all I remember about it is Matt Damon saying "Do you like apples? How do you like them apples?" and the fact that I didn't like it. I have no desire to revisit it either.

Seen: 26/32
My Balllot:
9. Point Break (#79)
12. True Romance (#94)
24. Interview With the Vampire (#92)
25. Untamed Heart (One Pointer)

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"Film is a disease. When it infects your bloodstream it takes over as the number one hormone. It bosses the enzymes, directs the pineal gland, plays Iago to your psyche. As with heroin, the antidote to Film is more Film." - Frank Capra

Home Alone: A pattern's beginning to emerge. Perfectly fine movies ... that didn't make my ballot. When I first saw HA a few decades ago, I brushed it off as egregious silliness. Then a few years ago we watched it again in search of Christmas movies for variety among the traditional favs of A Christmas Story and It's a Wonderful Life and (yes), Wizard of Oz. It's still egregiously silly, but not so off-puttingly so as before, and we've seen it for a couple of Christmases now. We all wait for that moment: "Kevin!". Would not be terribly high on any list of mine, but no argument here.

Good Will Hunting: A really touching, and yes, sentimental, movie, with terrific performances by Robin Williams and Matt Damon, who, after nearly a decade doing bit parts, became an overnight star. Still remember that story Williams tells with that line "gotta go see about a girl" and they bring that back around at the end. Just not enough spots, in a list of 25.



Seen: 20/32
Ballot: 2/25
Sleepless in Seattle: #91 / My #3
Office Space: #95 / My #23

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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.

Two wildly different movies, I love it.

I watched Home Alone a ton as a kid and it still works on me today but in different ways. I loved all the slapstick with the traps as a youngster but now as an adult I think it’s so ****ing funny how outrageously poorly that family treats Kevin at the beginning of the film. Could you imagine calling your own nephew, a child, a “little jerk” to his face? That’s so ****ed up.

I’ve seen Good Will Hunting a couple times and it’s the performances that really carry the film. I can barely recall what the plot or themes are but it’s mostly Robin Williams as the element that stands out the best.

I thought Home Alone was OK, but I think it's over-valued as a Christmas film.

Good Will Hunting is a solid film. Not on my list either.

Seen: 18/32

Home Alone...a perfect film for what it's trying to do. I've seen it a few times and it's better than a lot of Christmas movies, though I'd rather watch Barbara Stanwyck at Christmas time. Worthy of the countdown, it is a landmark movie.

Good Will Hunting, I generally don't care for Robin Williams in movies...though he was a dyanmic guest on late night talk shows. As I kinda expected he was able to play a more troubled, straight role with much veracity. Most talented comedians are able to give a damn fine dramatic accounting of themselves when given half a chance to shed the comedy stuff. But when Robin went into his free form improv, his character belief faded momentarily for me. Luckily he didn't do that much and overall he was solid.

I don't like Ben Affleck, I think he's limited in his characterizations...However I did like Casey Affleck here. Casey was by far the finest actor in the film.

I'm impressed that a young Ben Affleck and Matt Damon won a Best Writing Oscar for the script. That's a big feather in their hats. But truth be told it wasn't a well written script as far as I'm concerned. The scenes were packed with too much repetitive dialogue that was suppose to be deep and or clever. This caused the scenes to loose their punch and end up more as a writing exercise than deeply reflective.

What redeemed the movie were the moments when the truth of the subject matter rang out hard with a harsh truth. Especially the scenes where Minnie Driver is being dumped by Will (Matt Damon) who is to afraid to live and to take a risk.

I've skipped Home Alone and all the noise around it when it came out. I've continued ignoring it until the last years when I caught it on the TV and decided to finally examine this movie. Moreover, I saw it twice in several months period. Well, actually it is a good light comedy indeed but I think it being #70 on the list is a bit too high, considering what great films landed at the lower slots.

As for Good Will Hunting, saw it in a theatre when it was released. I found it greatly manipulative and started ignoring it since then. Nice it was considerably downranked on this 90's redux.

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"Population don't imitate art, population imitate bad television." W.A.
"You can't depend on your eyes when your imagination is out of focus." M.T.

Unfortunately I saw parodies of it before seeing the actual scene so that lessened the impact for me, but it is a good scene.

Agree on both counts. I love that last bit where Casey goes and gets into the front seat.

Alright, catching up from, probably the past week:

78. The Blair Witch Project (1999) - I saw this back in theaters when it first came out. I was in college and was in that period where I managed to basically miss the entire "big marketing campaign" that apparently everyone talks about now. I saw it with a packed audience. I thought it was a solid, little DYI horror movie that made the most with very little, emphasizing the creepiness with naturalistic acting (which in retrospect, was probably just a lot of yelling and screaming at each other). Appreciated that it managed to get under people's skins as well, in terms of, knowing people when they needed to walk through some wooded areas for a job, they'd start to get creeped out because of seeing the movie. Never really got the "greatest horror movie of all time" type of love for it and I never really understood the backlash. I fortunately managed to skip all of the found footage craze that it inspired, so that probably helped on the latter part.
I haven't revisited it since.

77. Beauty and the Beast (1991) - Never seen it. No great desire to.

76. A Moment of Innocence (1996) - Never seen, but I'll mentally catalog this one as at some point, I'd like to correct my general Iranian cinema blindspot. I've seen some, but I also know there's so much more I haven't seen that, even if I'm trying to get a 5,000 foot level view of Iranian cinema, I have a lot I still need to watch.

75. The Remains of the Day (1993) - Haven't seen... "Merchant Ivory production" just conjures images of overly-serious, British dramas from my youth, which might be an incorrect assessment, but it doesn't make me want to run out and see them.

74. Election (1999) - Sort of, "Haven't seen." This is a movie I should probably enjoy, for whatever reason, never attempted to watch it until recently. I know I did start it, but I didn't end it. I think I was just really tired that day. I suspect I would like it if I return to it and actually watch it. I do own it, so that doesn't seem implausible.

73. Close-Up (1990) - I watched this probably a decade ago because it was on the 2012 Sight & Sound Critics' poll. It... did not connect, but also left me with the sense that I was missing stuff. I sort of realized it probably wasn't a good place to start with Kiarostami, so I'll probably return to it at some time.

72. The Fugitive (1993) - Hey! I really enjoyed this in the 90s. I've never really revisted it. I'm sure it's still a fun action thriller. There are other movies from the 90s I also haven't revisited, that I suspect I'd be more interested in though.

71. The Double Life of Véronique (1991) - I don't think this was even on my shortlist, and, tbh, I don't know why. I remember it was being both abstruse and mysterious, it stuck with me. Beautifully shot. I only watched it once over a decade ago. Maybe two decades ago. My only explanation was, mentally thinking if The Three Colors trilogy would be in contention for my ballot, quickly decided it wasn't, and then just nixing this as well because it's the less big Kieslowski, but that'd be kind of odd logic since I think this one stuck with me more than Blue, White, Red.

70. Home Alone (1990) - I think I was 11 when this first came out. I really enjoyed it then. I probably watched it a couple more times over the next few years. I have not watched it since and have no desire to.

69. Good Will Hunting (1997) - I recall knowing someone in college who really liked this movie. I didn't watch it then, I'm still okay with not watching it now.

I've obviously seen Home Alone a bunch of times, but it's never been a favorite. It's fun, but not something I gravitate towards.

Like Double Life of Veronique, Good Will Hunting was one of my last cuts. I had it circling that bottom 5 on my ballot, but eventually chose to favor some more "obscure" ones. I knew it wouldn't need my help to make it, so I'm glad it's there. The whole film is great, but that Robin Williams monologue at the park bench has got to be one of the best monologues ever. I even did a whole episode of my podcast analyzing it. So yeah, didn't vote for it, but could've.


SEEN: 18/32
MY BALLOT: 4/25

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I watched Good Will Hunting before I watched Home Alone, to provide some perspective. I think I would have liked Home Alone more if I watched it when I was a kid. It's entertaining while not being my kind of film. I admit I did like seeing the booby trapped house though.

Good Will Hunting is pretty good. I don't recall much of it standing out. I remember being impressed with the screenplay, Damon, and Williams. It's not on my ballot though.

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I hate insomnia. Oh yeah. Last year I had four cases of it, and each time it lasted three months.

Home Alone didn't quite make my list, but it's always hilarious thanks to the great cast. Of course nostalgia and the holidays add a lot to its popularity, but besides being very funny, it also succeeds by not only nail king the child dialog, but how cousins and siblings talk with each other (at least in my family).

Good Will Hunting was alright. Not a high tier movie, but it has personality and heart. Robin Williams always reminds me of Judd Hirsh from Ordinary People for some reason.

Seen: 21/32
List: 3/25

It's funny to think of John Mulaney and Culkin switching lives. There's some alternate universe where that happened.

Seen both.
Home one is ok. I enjoyed it for the most part.

Good Will Hunting is from my ballot, although had I remembered I’d have probably put The Addiction in its place.
I really like GWH, it’s story of an angry young man with promise who went through years of abuse in foster homes and his inability to connect or trust was well done.
Add to this his co star, Robin Williams, playing as his therapist, who are more alike than they at first realize, and you get one of the better Oscar Winners of the 90’s.

I thought I'd put Home Alone on my ballot but after double-checking I found I was wrong. However I love the movie. It's great fun and never fails to delight me, especially with the "Wet Bandits" showing up. I also liked Roberts Blossom alot as the "scary" neighbor who is not as he seems. It was slapstick, yeah, but in the end, had a lot of heart.

I've only seen Good Will Hunting once but I liked it a quite a bit. I thought Damon did his best acting job to date. And Williams underplayed his heart out. I'm glad he won the Oscar for this. I'm hit-or-miss with Affleck. I tend to think of him as a one-note actor and then he'll surprise me. This ain't one of those times. But still, a fine film.

Nice that both made the list, sorry I didn't include one of them. Zip for me!

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"Miss Jean Louise, Mr. Arthur Radley."

Could the mysterious reason be that they both play sensitive, insightful, sweater-clad therapists who share a cleansing hug with their young male patients after tearful breakthroughs, where each young man in crisis is made to see the issue haunting them wasn't their fault?

Nah, that's probably not it. Probably because they were both sitcom stars in the late 1970s.

I mean, Home Alone is a classic. Not quite great enough to make my list but it’s an entertaining family movie that I’ve watched many times. A Christmas classic.

As for Good Will Hunting, it was on my list at #11.

I love this movie a lot. So human and authentic. I love the young and rebellious touch that Damon and Affleck’s script brings to an otherwise very tender and heartfelt drama. The dialogue is youthful but honest. The acting is top notch. Such an all around great film.

And of course it contains some of if not Robin Williams best work. He is so so great here. I almost feel like watching it again just writing about it.