The MoFos Top 100 of the 90s Countdown - Redux

This is kinda sorta where I stand with The Sixth Sense. Saw it in theaters back in the day, guessed the twist halfway through, and was left underwhelmed by the end. More power to those that experienced the whole *gasp* thing, but it just wasn't me. I haven't felt like revisiting it ever, even though I've thought about giving it that second chance. Meh...

The Lion King is probably on my Top 5 Disney. I think it's great. However, I had another Disney animated film on my list and limited myself to one.


So again, no votes from me.


SEEN: 48/68
MY BALLOT: 5/25

I saw The Sixth Sense back when it was new and got meme'd to death, a full decade before "meme" even entered into popular usage. I don't have particularly strong feelings on it, and as a horror movie I'm implicitly averse to it.

Probably the best Shyamalan movie, but definitely did not make my list.

I am privately annoyed, however, that when Haley Joel Osment appears in the news these days for getting wasted on a mountain and saying something antisemitic, news outlets report his celebrity status as "the child actor from The Sixth Sense".

BITCH, The Sixth Sense grossed what, like 670 million dollars? Haley went on just a couple years later to voice the main character in Kingdom Hearts which has shipped like 37 million games. At 60 bucks a pop that's like 2.6 billion dollars.


He was practically an adult when KH2 (the best game) came out in '06, and has voiced nearly all of them since! These uncultured Hollywood swine.


Anyway The Lion King was my #17.

1. The Nightmare Before Christmas (1993)
[...]
12. Edward Scissorhands (1990)
13. Strange Days (1995)
[...]
17. The Lion King (1994)
[...]
22. The Crow (1994)
[...]
25.

My criticisms of it from the Top 100 Musicals Countdown remain. I just hate the explicit acknowledgement of the food chain and the rationalization by the protagonists for why it's acceptable and essentially bootstraps the lion's authority.

It's an evil hegemony, but it's presented as moral because "our bodies become the grass and the antelope eat the grass", except that this implies that primary consumers like antelope, zebra, wildebeast, meercats, and boars are all complicit in this arrangement, when it is very clearly shown that they are not.

"No Worries" is a darkly appropriate theme song for characters hypocritically disregarding the interests of other animals in favor of their own.


Despite all that, I will agree that it's a quintessential Golden Age Disney movie.

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TIL that Haley Joel Osment got work after The Sixth Sense and that Lions are gangster. Thanks Omni! I was also going to post and say these two were "mid" but then thought better because that would have been embarrassing. Thanks viddy!

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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."

41. Ed Wood (1994) Not seen it but want to.

40. Braveheart (1995) Okay, I actually think this is really great. Only seen it once but absolutely loved it. However, I didn’t vote for it because it’s been so long and only a one time watch. I made room for movies I was more sure about.

39. Chungking Express (1994) Not seen it but want to.

38. Galaxy Quest (1999) Not seen it and not really all that interested.

37. Dazed and Confused (1993) Not seen it and semi-interested.

36. Dances with Wolves (1990) Another great film that I didn’t vote for. Seen it once or twice and it’s been very long.

35. Léon: The Professional (1994) I regret not voting for this because I remember loving it. But it’s another one that’s just been too long for me.

34. The Sixth Sense (1999) It’s a good movie but was never a contender for my list.

33. The Lion King (1994) was my #12. I’m honestly surprised it isn’t higher. Perhaps Disney’s finest hour and universally loved and known as a huge milestone for the studio. And even many years later as an adult it’s still great. Top tier stuff.

Sixth Sense is good. I've seen it once, and that was fifteen or twenty years ago. I have no desire to watch it again. Now that I know the twist, I can't imagine the film having the same impact, so I haven't rewatched it.

Lion King is all right. I've honestly fallen out of love with those 1990s Disney animated films for a variety of reasons. One is I can barely tell them apart anymore. They all look the same and sound the same. I'd also rather watch a real version of Hamlet. I also don't watch many young-people movies anymore, unless my kiddos want me to see the movie with them.

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I agree on Lion King, although I also still love it. They present Scar as evil, and he definitely is, but Mufasa it's no 'good king' like they suggest. Mufasa's every bit a tyrant as Scar. Scar's also a backstabbing traitor, but as far as the movie's concerned his main crime appears to be incompetence regarding resource management.


Then again, I always argued that Hamlet's father must have done things equally as bad as his brother during his time, and the main motivation appears to be love, as he and Hamlet's mom wasted zero time getting remarried.


Makes you wonder if the brother and the wife were already a couple before the old king died. Makes you wonder if she was in on the murder.

I misinterpeted this as you criticizing forum poster/filmmaker MKS for a second and got confused for a second.

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The Sixth Sense was #11 on my ballot. I already knew about the twist ending upon going into it, but there's a lot more thought put into the ending other than Shyamalan simply trying to surprise us. It's able to bridge the gaps on Willis/Osment's character arcs, particularly with Willis's wish to help one last kid to make up for how he failed the kid in the opening, in addition to Osment struggling with his fear of his uncontrollable ability to see ghosts. Due to this, when you rewatch the film, it's not just a case of going "Aha, I'm picking up on all the clues I missed the first time" so much as realizing the emotional resonance of the character arcs are improved by the ending. That's how you do plot twists correctly.

The Lion King is good, but it's been years since I've seen it. I haven't felt an urge to rewatch it though. Maybe someday.

1. Gummo (#97)
2. A Moment of Innocece (#76)
3. Raise the Red Lantern (#51)
4.
5.
6.
7.
8. Carlito's Way (#62)
9. Sonatine (#99)
10. The Celebration (#98)
11. The Sixth Sense (#34)
12.
13.
14. Perfect Blue (#67)
15. The Thin Red Line (#53)
16.
17.
18.
19.
20.
21.
22.
23.
24.
25.

I generally go into a movie prepared. I like to be fairly sure I am going to like it. But I will turn it off it's boring me. I will even leave the theater for the same reason, but that is rare. Here are the three times I left a movie in the middle in Cinerama.
I bailed on a locally made horror movie that had been blown up in the local media. The young man who made this awful film was big in our local film scene. I ain't in Hollywood so being big in our local film scene doesn't mean [b]much.
The second one was a Mike Figgis' film called The Loss of Sexual Innocence. I left a friend in the theater and snuck into The Winslow Boy, which was fantastic.
The third was Inherent Vice. My friend wasn't feeling it so we left. I wasn't enjoying it enough to ever check it out again.
Now let's see If I remember the movies that have come up on our list since I last posted. I think I have seen all of them, but I don't like all of them.
@crumbsroom almost convinced me to watch Dazed and Confused again. But I talked myself out of that foolish notion. Crummy, you are a convincing writer. But I'm fairly sure I had a good reason to bail on that movie. I like other Linklater movies and enjoy many a film that just meanders. So nice try buddy, but no dice.
I like Galaxy Quest a lot. I believe, as many do, that it is the best Star Trek movie.
I like Dances with Wolves. The Sixth Sense was pretty good and it's a local movie with Toni Collette (who is one of those people that I love to watch.) I liked The Lion King.
I have never seen Leon, the Professional. Luc Besson was not on my radar until The Family. But what I liked about that was the scene where Michelle Pfeiffer and De Niro are getting frisky on the coach. It felt like two people who had a real connection. I was probably just admiring those two professionals at work rather than the director.
Anyhoo, let me get to my stats. I have seen 42/67 and six of them have made it to the list.

Up to 34 for 68 seen.

And what'd ya know, both entries today were on my list!

The Sixth Sense was my '#19. More than "the twist", the film is a good example of creating characters thanks to a strong screenplay. Malcolm (Bruce Willis) is looking for redemption after a home invasion by a previous patient. Cole (Haley Joel Osment) is looking for validation after being able to see ghosts. Lynn (Toni Collette) is looking for connection as she struggles to deal with Cole as she worries about him. But by the end, everything is wrapped up and the characters have all grown even as Malcolm can't connect with Anna.

And The Lion King was my #16. Outside of the actors who play Simba (sorry JTT and Matthew), a very strong cast leads the way in this animated film that plays like a Shakespearean play. Jeremy Irons gives a great performance as the greedy, treacherous Scar. James Earl Jones makes for a very regal Mufasa. And Nathan Lane and Ernie Sabella make for a funny Timon and Pumbaa which proves to be good comic relief, necessary to take the break from the drama. And the animation is well done for the time. And throw in some catchy Tim Rice/Alan Menken/Elton John songs and you got a Disney animated film that was a smash for me back in the day.

LIST:

16. The Lion King (33rd)
19. The Sixth Sense (34th)
21. JFK (59th)
25. Hurricane Streets (1 pointer)

I loved The Sixth Sense and still do. I saw it at the cinema when it was first released and therefore knew nothing about it except that it was supposed to be a superior suspense/scare film. Love Bruce Willis so that got me into the theater mostly. I was blown away by the ending but the entire film was so well made that I still dig it. Willis showing Osment how he can help "people" was a big thing in the movie for me, especially when he helps the girl who keeps visiting him, and he shows up at her family's home and produces the tape. I think I discussed that without giving anything away for those who still haven't seen it. BTW, that girl was played by Misca Barton (most famous for TV's The O.C.). I like almost all of Shyamalan's films and like @Captain Quint and his Ellery Queen explanation, I try to go into a movie I'm interested in without knowing a whole lot about it. I don't want to know the twist, if there is one, or how it ends. And I never guess the end. On purpose, because I don't try. I'm seemingly one of the few who didn't guess the ending to Shyamalan's The Village. I just like to be carried along with the film and not play guessing games all the way through, What fun is that? Anyway, SS showed up as #13 on my list.

The Lion King is great Disney. I loved the whole movie and it worked for this adult as much as it did for any kid, IMO. Beautiful stuff. I never bothered to watch any made-for-home-video sequels or any live-action versions of this classic. I've only ever bothered with one live-action remake of a Disney film and that was Jon Favreau's version of The Jungle Book and I went to see that because of Favreau, whom I generally like---plus the trailer helped sell me. Since then, I haven't bothered with Disney's cynical money machine. But LK is definitely a classic. Didn't get a vote from me, though.

My list:
#1 Leon: The Professional #35
#5 Braveheart list proper #40
#6 Dances With Wolves #36
#12 Dazed and Confused list proper #37
#13 The Sixth Sense list proper #34
#18 The Fifth Element list proper #56
#20 Galaxy Quest list proper #38
#25 Apollo 13 list proper #68

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I don't know if the original concept shown in The Sixth Sense goes back any further or not, but as far I can tell the whole idea of a story around a character who is dead, but doesn't quite know it and the audience is limited in point of view to the first person of the character was done beautifully in the iconic short story "An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge" and then that of course was made into a great "Twilight Zone" episode, but perhaps most well and notoriously done with the cult favorite Carnival of Souls, which is amazing. Worth checking out if you liked the twist ending of The Sixth Sense.

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Carnival of Souls was meh...

Sorry you didn't like it. It certainly is a low budget film but well done and a great adaptation of a retelling of Owl Creek Bridge.

Did you see the original version or the colorized? The original B&W works a LOT better.


I liked it.

Happy Mother's Day!

There's also the hitchhiker episode of Twilight Zone that deals with such a subject. I can't remember what it's called (I'm bad at remembering Twilight Zone episode names), but a young woman goes on a cross-country trip and keeps seeing the same hitchhiker everywhere, and it turns out

That reminds me of how, in his schooling, my younger brother read the short story off of which that episode is based, and at the end of the short story, in the text his class had, it said something about it being adapted into a Twilight Zone episode, and his class freaked out with positive energy. I found his story amusing.

Damn, yo, I forgot. In a literature course I took in undergrad, we read Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge, and then watched the short that Rod Serling put into Twilight Zone. I don't know that I had watched it before then, although I had read the short story in three separate classes by then so I knew the story really well. I was, not to boast, able to pick up more because I kept reading the story in so many classes.

He showed up recently in Blink Twice - it's always nice to see people who were once child stars out there surviving.

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The concept of "child actor" and "burnout" (or worse) seem to go hand in hand, so much so that I think we tend to forget how young so many of today's (and yesteryear's) actors were when they first began. I'd say the majority might have had pressures growing up "in the business" and into adulthood, but many of them seem to come through largely undamaged.

There's virtually the entire main student cast of the Harry Potter films. The Fanning sisters. Classics like Ron Howard and Fred Savage, making transitions to producing and acting (with mixed success for Savage). We tend to forget that Leonardo DiCaprio. and Jodie Foster were very young. Earlier in this thread: Natalie Portman.

Some did go through rough times but came through, like Drew Barrymore and Kieran Culkin (brother Macaulay of course being the poster boy for the ones who've struggled more, though he still does work).

Guess I could go on ad nauseam ... Elizabeth Taylor, Mickey Roonie, Shirley Temple, Jackie Cooper, Roddy McDowall, Natalie Wood, Brooke Shields, Kirsten Dunst, Anna Paquin, Elijah Wood ... I'm not deeply into the biographical details, but I'm feeling like there's a stereotype about child actors that gets repeated mostly because bad news ("child star caught shoplifting bubble gum") sells better than no news ("child star makes B on trigonometry test").

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