The MoFos Top 100 of the 90s Countdown - Redux

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Wow genuinely surprised that Raise the Red Lantern made the list this high. And while it's a good movie, although I haven't seen it for a long time, I gotta do it right?


I had The Player at #22. I liked it so much I even read the book! Speaking of insider Hollywood, I'm liking The Studio. Check it out. The episode The Oner is pretty cool. Gotta love a good oner.

1. Close-Up (1990)
8. JFK (1991)
12. A Moment of Innocence (1996)
17. The Thin Red Line (1998)
18. Apollo 13 (1995)
20. Sonatine (1993)
22. The Player (1992)
23. Three Colors: Blue (1993)

Also what the heck that other forum copying our countdown idea. Watch they'll do a sports one next too.
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My ballot so far...

1. My top pick may show, but if it does, it had better show soon, as I can't imagine a lot of people will be voting for it. I know it does have a couple of fans on this message board, but it's going to take more than my 25 points to get it to appear. If I had to put money on it, at this point, I'd say it won't show.

2. This film is a lock. I hope it will make the top 10, but I'd bet money it will place in the top 20s.

3. If this film makes the list at this point, Hell will freeze over, pigs will fly, and I'll pay for tickets for a showing of Hamilton

4. Raise the Red Lantern

5. Not likely. I figured it would show in the top 90's or top 80's, but not this far up the list.

6. A lock to make the list, hopefully a top 10, but likely a top 20s

7. Another lock and I think this film WILL be in the top 10.

8. This film will make the list and will likely show very VERY soon

9. Zero chance.


10. Dead Man

11. A lock, probably in the top 30's

12. Another lock, probably in the top 40's and will show very soon.

13. Zero chance at this point, if it was going to show it would have shown in the 90's or 80's


14. Glengarry Glenn Ross

15. Will probably show up soon, but there's a possibility it might not make the list, but I'd be shocked if it didn't.

16. Should make the list and show up very soon, another film that would be a shock, but a possibility to not make the list.


17. A Perfect World

18. Probably would have shown up at this point. I know a couple people, like me, are big fans of this criminally underrated film.


19. Close-Up

20. Zero chance.

21. Very small chance to make this list. I'd bet against it showing at this point.

22. If this one is going to show, it had better show soon. I think it will make it somehow.

23. A lock and possibly top 10

24. Could show up still, but I'd bet against it showing at this point.


25. Beauty and the Beast
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It's been a while since I saw The Player, but here's what I wrote when it made it on the Neo-noir countdown:



I haven't seen Raise the Red Lantern. The only Zhang films I've seen are Hero () and The Great Wall ()

So once again, no votes from me.


SEEN: 32/50
MY BALLOT: 4/25

My ballot  
Can't say I was a particularly big fan of Hero. He was still visually interesting, but he seemed to just stop doing movies that seemed to portray people acting like human beings, which I guess is just me saying, I wish he didn't stop making dramas.



Oh, the other films:

The Thin Red Line: Mallick seemed to operate in a different voice over mode in his recent phase compared to his earlier two films. I preferred his earlier two films, which I think is fairly conventional. However, I still liked his newer films (well, I never got into The Tree of Life, and admittedly stopped after To the Wonder, since all the critics started to get more and more negative on his subsequent films). Still, I think The Thin Red Line is pretty great. It worked for me.
(EDIT) - Forgot to say, #21 on my ballot.

Cure - I heard about Pulse forever, but somehow completely never heard of this one until a two or three years ago. It's pretty solid and was in consideration for my ballot. Glad it made it. I can't remember if it was immediately after seeing this one or his other one about the guy breeding the poisonous jellyfish later on that I realized, "oh, yeah, late 90s... this is directly thinking about the Tokyo subway sarin cult attack... Which made it all a lot more dark. Somehow I also found out googling after the jellyfish movie that Murakami's 19Q4 was also influenced by that. Crazy realizing roughly 30 years after international news you haven't thought about in nearly as long, some media you're consuming was talking about how it really ****ed with their heads and not immediately realizing it.

The Player - was on my shortlist/consideration for my ballot, but ultimately cut it. Like Barton Fink, I enjoy a movie that pokes fun at young mean who think they know the inner depths of the human soul and can express it as art, because they know in real life.... people.... die.... Though, Barton having that as its primary character has a much more complex relation with such an individual.



Well, at mid-point, it's like this with me:

My list:
#18 The Fifth Element list proper #56
#25 Apollo 13 list proper #68

Not doing too hot. Here's hoping the downhill run to the finale will be more productive.

The Player is one Altman I haven't seen and the trailer and previews of it never changed that. However, thanks to @Holden Pike and his Altman profiles and interviews, I am more than intrigued to give it a try. The video about his style brought out one thing I find irritating about certain movies of his---the zoom. A few of his movies annoyed me to no end with what I thought were totally unecessary zooms...like in Brewster McCloud, one of his films I liked, we see Shelly Duvall vomiting over a railing in the Astrodome, then a man walks up right after and they suddenly kiss (yuck, vomit!) and instead of just leaving the camera on that image, Altman zooms in on their kiss as if to tell the ignorant masses, "Look, they're kissing right after she puked!" I saw a few zooms in the trailer I saw for The Player and I wasn't interested, thinking he's doing the same thing. But Holden's videos helped me out a bit, especially when they covered Nashville (another Altman I liked) and explained Altman's reasoning for some of his zooms. Okay, I got that and respected it. So, my reasoning for being wiliing to give The Player a shot. Haven't seen it obviously but looking forward to it now.

I did see Raise the Red Lantern on cable way back when. And I loved it. Gong Li being in it certainly helps! But the cinematography is beyond beautiful and it's a totally engrossing movie. But have you ever loved a movie and then totally forgot you've seen it? That's what happened here. I can't believe that I forgot this existed. Now I want to see it again. Super film.
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50
10lists115points
Director

Terry Gilliam, 1995

Starring

Bruce Willis, Madeleine Stowe, Brad Pitt, Christopher Plummer





49
6lists116points
Director

Ang Lee, 1995

Starring

Emma Thompson, Kate Winslet, Alan Rickman, Hugh Grant




3-way tie between S&S and tomorrows entries was broken up by total ballots (9, 8, and 6)

With the first write-up, I'll just paraphrase myself, from something I wrote years ago...



1995 was big on Jane Austen – There was the previously ranked Clueless, which was based on Emma (interestingly in the next year, 1996, we'd get 2 more Emma's, one for the small, the other for the big screen). There were also prime BBC television adaptations of Persuasion (which played in theaters in the States), and a remarkable Pride and Prejudice miniseries.

In addition, Ang Lee and screenwriter Emma Thompson offered up Sense and Sensibility. Thompson tightens up the story, takes out a few characters and situations while still retaining Austen’s voice. She does ramp up the romance (these were not romantic men), but you get the drama, the humor (though it's not as incisive), the sadness, the stifling decorum and uptight people of privilege who make life a misery for those they see beneath them. Lee's direction is picturesque, as you’d expect in a period piece like this. But it's his eye for composition makes his work distinct and memorable.

12 Monkeys is our first to find its way on 10 Ballots - Terry Gilliam had not seen La Jetée before making this film - however it was a passion for executive producer Robert Kosberg, who was fan of the experimental short. Kosberg persuaded that film's director, Chris Marker, to let him pitch the project to Universal Pictures as a full-length science fiction film. Universal agreed to purchase the remake rights and hired David and Janet Peoples to write the screenplay. Producer Charles Roven chose Terry Gilliam to direct, because he believed the filmmaker's style was perfect for 12 Monkeys' nonlinear storyline and time travel subplot.

The film earned Brad Pitt his first Oscar nomination, and Golden Globe win.

S&S was previously unranked, Monkey's was #61





12 Monkeys was #61 the first time we MoFoed around the 1990s, as well as #14 on the MoFo Top 100 Science Fiction Films. Sense & Sensibility's only other appearance was #41 on the first MoFo Top 100 back in 2010.
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Twelve Monkeys is one of my favorite Sci-Fi films of all time and yet I totally forgot it when compiling this list. Arghh! The acting is great and the visuals are fantastic. One of my favorite Gilliam films.

My wife went to the theater alone to see Sense and Sensibility (ya know, I didn't want to see some chick flick!) and guaranteed me I'd love it. I was dubious but we went back and I saw it with her and sure enough I loved it. I was not hip to Jane Austen or any adaptations at the time (I'm sure a few had at least been made for television by then, hadn't they?), so I didn't know what to expect, but the cast was enough to get me there and I wasn't disappointed.

Neither made my list.

My list:
#18 The Fifth Element list proper #56
#25 Apollo 13 list proper #68



2022 Mofo Fantasy Football Champ
Twelve Monkeys.......zzzzzz..........

Sense and Sensibility...........double zzzzzzz...........

I don't care, bring out the gongs Harry!

Haven't seen Sense and Sensibility........


***Runs and hides*****



I forgot the opening line.
50. Twelve Monkeys (1995) - The old me would have probably had this in his Top 10, and even so it was still an outside chance to make my ballot. I don't know what's happened - over time I've kind of drifted on Twelve Monkeys, although I still like it quite a lot. I don't think I've sat down and watched it from start to finish for many a year, and keep catching 20 minutes here, half the movie there. When it came out, I was a big Terry Gilliam fan and I was nuts about this movie, but his latter-day career output has soured me to some extent. Perhaps he should have retired while the going was good. Anyway, I think Brad Pitt is fantastic and that this is one of those movies where Bruce Willis comes out well cast and looking good. It's time I sat down for a quiet couple of hours to really give this old favourite my undivided attention. It deserves it. Nice to see it squeak into the Top 50.

49. Sense and Sensibility (1995) - When I finally got around to seeing Sense and Sensibility I gave it a rating of 4.5/5 and had this to say on letterboxd : "Well, here's another Jane Austin novel I have to read - Ang Lee's Sense and Sensibility deserves all the love I've been hearing for it over the years, and I deserve all of the derision for not watching it until now. What a golden era the 1990s were for Emma Thompson - she's marvelous in this, and of course she wrote the screenplay making for what could have been an amazing double on Oscars night. She won one for that screenplay, but her performance lost out to Susan Sarandon for her role in Dead Man Walking. It's hard to argue with that. Anyway, I loved this movie - it's overflowing with greatness in every aspect of filmmaking. There are wonderful recreations of life in 19th Century England, and of course Alan Rickman, Kate Winslet, Hugh Grant, Hugh Laurie, Tom Wilkinson - which makes it very easy to like. A very emotionally testing story for the Dashwood sisters, Elinor and Marianne - and who among us hasn't been through the wringer of unrequited love or the belief you were set for a future with someone only for things to crumble to pieces. My empathy to anyone going through that. Anyway - a great big tick beside Sense and Sensibility, for it was great and a film I'm going to hold in very high esteem from this point onwards." What prompted me to watch it was catching Pride and Prejudice and becoming interested in Jane Austin adaptations. This is one of the best, for sure.

Seen : 51/52
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52. The Player (1992) Another Altman, another not seen, another on the watchlist…

51. Raise the Red Lantern (1991) also on the watchlist (of course). Looks great.

50. Twelve Monkey's (1995) Terry Gilliam makes some crazy movies. I remember enjoying this but I’ve only seen it once over a decade ago.

49. Sense and Sensibility (1995) This was #8 on my list. Absolute peak period drama. It ticks all the boxes for me. Great costumes, great sets and it just has the right feel about it. It’s a wonderful film to disappear into and the script and especially dialogue is off the charts.





"Who cares what psychiatrists write on walls?!?" Brazil (1985) is Terry Gilliam's masterpiece, but in genre terms 12 Monkeys is his best Sci-Fi film. For my money, anyway. As well as one of the very best films of the 1990s. This is the first movie I ever saw in the theater where afterwards I exited and then immediately bought another ticket to see it again at the next screening. I was already familiar with and liked Chris Marker's experimental classic La Jetée and loved how screenwriter David Webb Peoples (Unforgiven, Blade Runner) and his wife Janet's screenplay expanded on the theme, adding layers of complexity to the central premise of a man witnessing his own death. When Gilliam enhanced it all with his own humor and visual strengths, the resulting cinematic journey was perfection. "Well, if you ask me, I think that monkey is gonna eat that goddamn sandwich himself."

I gave 12 Monkeys thirteen points as my thirteenth choice. That gives me six, up on the big board.

Holden Pike: 1990s Part Deux
5. The Thin Red Line (#53)
8. A Perfect World (#61)
9. Short Cuts (#55)
12. Barton Fink (#57)
13. 12 Monkeys (#50)
23. Dead Man (#85)




No surprise to see 12 Monkeys in this Countdown Redux list and I even had considered it a top 30 winner.
Perhaps I should have rewatched it before submitting my ballot.

Sense & Sensibility is not the kind of film that would make me run to the cinema, but with Ang Lee and that cast involved I might add it to my watchlist anyway.

Obviously it's impossible to agree with all the winners in this thread (not to mention the ranking) but more importantly it has given me a lot of inspiration.
I hope there's going to be more Decade Countdowns.



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Registered User
I like Twelve Monkeys a lot, but didn't have room for it on my ballot. If I could have expanded my ballot to a top 50, then it would have been there. Sense and Sensibility was just alright for me and I didn't consider it for my ballot.

Seen: 52/52



I like 12 Monkeys, though I haven't watched it in a long time. I don't have a sense of how large our ballot would actually have to be for me to put it on there, since there were a lot of movies I liked from the decade, but it feels like a proverbial 30-50 range in my head.


I haven't seen Sense & Sensibility. Nor Eat, Drink, Man, Woman, come to think about it. Which is to say, I've only seen a couple Ang Lee movies despite him waxing into and out of critical acclaim over the years, so I actually don't know how I feel about him as a filmmaker. I guess some vague, degree of confidence of possibility or curiosity if I see his name on the credits.



1. Sense and Sensibility (1995) (#49)
3. Apollo 13 (1995) (#68)
5. A Few Good Men (1992) (#84)
6. The Fifth Element (1997) (#56)
25. Beautiful Dreamers (1990) (1 pointer)

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