The MoFo Top 100 of the Nineties Countdown
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Just stick a movie (an actual '90s movie, that is) you feel should have made the list into one of these empty spaces. Everything listed here -- I'm okay with it being on here. To some degree. They pass my '90s test. But the films removed don't.
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I had Magnolia at #3 but having just finished rewatching it, I have to say that it's about 2 places too low. It's even more extraordinary than I remembered.
Last edited by Skepsis93; 08-27-13 at 03:20 AM.
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Magnolia...It's even more extraordinary that I remembered.
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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."
"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."
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Top Ten of the 90's based on Box Office takings. Just for kicks.
10. Armageddon
9. Men in Black
8. Jurassic Park: The Lost World
7. The Sixth Sense
6. Forrest Gump
5. The Lion King
4. Independence Day
3. Jurassic Park
2. The Phantom Menace
1. Titanic
10. Armageddon
9. Men in Black
8. Jurassic Park: The Lost World
7. The Sixth Sense
6. Forrest Gump
5. The Lion King
4. Independence Day
3. Jurassic Park
2. The Phantom Menace
1. Titanic
Magnolia? People are creaming over it so much I have to give it another chance. I turned it off after 30 minutes, because the person I was watching the movie with didn't like it, while I was indifferent. I didn't like its style, though.
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Look, I'm not judging you - after all, I'm posting here myself, but maybe, just maybe, if you spent less time here and more time watching films, maybe, and I stress, maybe your taste would be of some value. Just a thought, ya know.
Look, I'm not judging you - after all, I'm posting here myself, but maybe, just maybe, if you spent less time here and more time watching films, maybe, and I stress, maybe your taste would be of some value. Just a thought, ya know.
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Magnolia, ugh!!! 
I watched it a couple of weeks ago and kind of hated it. So for anyone who didn't see my review, and to further annoy those who did (hi Skepsis!), here's what I wrote about it. A little counterbalance to all the people raving about it
I watched it a couple of weeks ago and kind of hated it. So for anyone who didn't see my review, and to further annoy those who did (hi Skepsis!
), here's what I wrote about it. A little counterbalance to all the people raving about it
This has got to be one of the toughest and longest viewing experiences I've had in some time. At one point as I was struggling I checked the running time, hoping to see I was at least half way though and was dismayed that I had only managed to slog my way through 45 minutes of it. I couldn't believe it! I felt like I had been there for weeks! And yet I had barely made a dent.
The best way I can think to describe it is that I felt like Magnolia was the work of a magician, but not in a positive way. I felt like I was being treated to a case of misdirection, that Anderson was attempting to convince me I was seeing something that wasn't really there. With its epic 3 hour running time, countless number of characters and its numerous inter-weaving story threads it felt like it was trying to create the sense that you were watching something deep, profound, exceptional and unprecedented. Except that personally I didn't really find that to be the case. Instead I found it to be bloated, pretentious, convoluted, contrived and self indulgent. To me the film just felt extremely smug and oh so pleased with itself. This was particularly true of its opening sequences which depict 3 urban legends which apparently prove that sometimes the seemingly impossible does actually open; basically freeing the film from any duty to adhere to logic. These resulting breaks from reality feel tonally ridiculous and just plain silly; I'm looking at you, frogs that fall from the sky! And the moment that the characters all came together for a big sing-a-long?
For me it again felt like an attempt to manipulate my feelings towards the film, that by merely making it weird and different it aims to convince me that means it's artistic or beautiful. The whole thing just felt oh so self-aware.
While I know that many people adore Anderson's direction I actually find that it can be quite irritating, especially when it comes to his trademark, Scorsese-aping, long tracking shots which don't seem to serve any purpose to the actual film itself except to show off his technical proficiency with a camera. I know that many people feel Anderson is the voice of his generation but I've got to say that outside of There Will Be Blood (which I thought was fantastic) I don't really feel like his films speak to me personally. And quite often I feel that his stylised direction just overwhelms what he is actually attempting to say.
I was able to identify and appreciate the themes that the film was attempting to touch on - guilt, remorse, loneliness, fate, coincidence, the sins of the father and the lasting effect it has on the children etc and its obvious religious/biblical connotations but I don't really see how it needed 3 hours to muse on them. Some stories do undoubtedly need such immense running times to cover everything they want to, but I didn't think this was one of them. So many of the characters and their stories seemed to be similar that it became repetitive and redundant. I imagine you could easily have trimmed some of the characters and stories, and left a good deal on the cutting room floor and still been able to tell the exact same story. You could argue that its point is relevant in portraying how so many of us are linked by these identical emotions and experiences but for a piece of cinema much of it just felt superfluous to me. And so often I just felt that the scenes went on so much longer than was really necessary. And even with its mammoth running time the film still manages to leave some unresolved threads.
I will concede to a couple of things in the film's favour. I'll give it that its a very ambitious undertaking, even if I felt it rather crumbled under the weight of such ambition. But I'll never level out severe criticism to a film-maker for being ambitious. I think it's a good thing for Hollywood to have distinctive voices such as Anderson and Tarantino, even if I don't always appreciate their efforts. And the other point I'll concede is that across the board it is superbly acted. That is especially true in the case of Tom Cruise and Philip Seymour Hoffman who were both superb in portraying quite disparate characters. Cruise was amazing as the spectacularly arrogant and despicable Frank T.J. Mackie who is eventually revealed to be hiding a deep pain. He is tremendous in the scene where he is confronted by the reporter about the truth regarding his past, saying so much with just his facial expressions as opposed to words. It's got to be one of his best performances. Cruise's scenes were a joy because they had by far the most energy and life about them. Imagine that, making something interesting. The other top performance would be Hoffman's, who is as impressive as ever as male nurse, Paul. Other impressive showings amongst the ensemble are delivered by the likes of William H. Macy, Jason Robards, Philip Baker Hall and Melora Walters. The one performance I had some reservations about was Julianne Moore's. At times I thought she was good but when expressing her grief I felt that on occasion she went way too big with it to cringingly hysterical effect.
So there you have it. I'm sure a lot of you will not agree with what I've said, and perhaps even be quite wound up by it. I only have one favour to ask - please come at me one at a time instead of joining together for a big group attack!
I know this film is much-loved around these parts, including by a number of people around here I consider friends who have contributed a lot of support and appreciation for my reviews (Skepsis, Daniel, Brodinski, seanc etc) and to them I apologise. I certainly didn't set out with the intention of laying into this film that you love so much. Neither am I claiming that I have seen the truth of the film that you have failed to spot. You guys love it, and that's great. I'm just delivering my own uneducated viewpoint on the matter.
Conclusion - I can imagine Magnolia easily being a film that you don't really 'get' if you're not in the exact right frame of mind for it. So taking that into account along with the efforts of its cast and the reputation it has amongst film fans means that I probably will give it another go someday. Although at the moment I am struggling to imagine how I'll force myself to sit down for 3 hours to watch this again. It may be very impressive in numerous technical terms, and that's extremely true of the acting, but overall I just found it an overwrought experience which was over written, over directed and too often approached the depths of a soap opera.
The best way I can think to describe it is that I felt like Magnolia was the work of a magician, but not in a positive way. I felt like I was being treated to a case of misdirection, that Anderson was attempting to convince me I was seeing something that wasn't really there. With its epic 3 hour running time, countless number of characters and its numerous inter-weaving story threads it felt like it was trying to create the sense that you were watching something deep, profound, exceptional and unprecedented. Except that personally I didn't really find that to be the case. Instead I found it to be bloated, pretentious, convoluted, contrived and self indulgent. To me the film just felt extremely smug and oh so pleased with itself. This was particularly true of its opening sequences which depict 3 urban legends which apparently prove that sometimes the seemingly impossible does actually open; basically freeing the film from any duty to adhere to logic. These resulting breaks from reality feel tonally ridiculous and just plain silly; I'm looking at you, frogs that fall from the sky! And the moment that the characters all came together for a big sing-a-long?
For me it again felt like an attempt to manipulate my feelings towards the film, that by merely making it weird and different it aims to convince me that means it's artistic or beautiful. The whole thing just felt oh so self-aware. While I know that many people adore Anderson's direction I actually find that it can be quite irritating, especially when it comes to his trademark, Scorsese-aping, long tracking shots which don't seem to serve any purpose to the actual film itself except to show off his technical proficiency with a camera. I know that many people feel Anderson is the voice of his generation but I've got to say that outside of There Will Be Blood (which I thought was fantastic) I don't really feel like his films speak to me personally. And quite often I feel that his stylised direction just overwhelms what he is actually attempting to say.
I was able to identify and appreciate the themes that the film was attempting to touch on - guilt, remorse, loneliness, fate, coincidence, the sins of the father and the lasting effect it has on the children etc and its obvious religious/biblical connotations but I don't really see how it needed 3 hours to muse on them. Some stories do undoubtedly need such immense running times to cover everything they want to, but I didn't think this was one of them. So many of the characters and their stories seemed to be similar that it became repetitive and redundant. I imagine you could easily have trimmed some of the characters and stories, and left a good deal on the cutting room floor and still been able to tell the exact same story. You could argue that its point is relevant in portraying how so many of us are linked by these identical emotions and experiences but for a piece of cinema much of it just felt superfluous to me. And so often I just felt that the scenes went on so much longer than was really necessary. And even with its mammoth running time the film still manages to leave some unresolved threads.
I will concede to a couple of things in the film's favour. I'll give it that its a very ambitious undertaking, even if I felt it rather crumbled under the weight of such ambition. But I'll never level out severe criticism to a film-maker for being ambitious. I think it's a good thing for Hollywood to have distinctive voices such as Anderson and Tarantino, even if I don't always appreciate their efforts. And the other point I'll concede is that across the board it is superbly acted. That is especially true in the case of Tom Cruise and Philip Seymour Hoffman who were both superb in portraying quite disparate characters. Cruise was amazing as the spectacularly arrogant and despicable Frank T.J. Mackie who is eventually revealed to be hiding a deep pain. He is tremendous in the scene where he is confronted by the reporter about the truth regarding his past, saying so much with just his facial expressions as opposed to words. It's got to be one of his best performances. Cruise's scenes were a joy because they had by far the most energy and life about them. Imagine that, making something interesting. The other top performance would be Hoffman's, who is as impressive as ever as male nurse, Paul. Other impressive showings amongst the ensemble are delivered by the likes of William H. Macy, Jason Robards, Philip Baker Hall and Melora Walters. The one performance I had some reservations about was Julianne Moore's. At times I thought she was good but when expressing her grief I felt that on occasion she went way too big with it to cringingly hysterical effect.
So there you have it. I'm sure a lot of you will not agree with what I've said, and perhaps even be quite wound up by it. I only have one favour to ask - please come at me one at a time instead of joining together for a big group attack!
I know this film is much-loved around these parts, including by a number of people around here I consider friends who have contributed a lot of support and appreciation for my reviews (Skepsis, Daniel, Brodinski, seanc etc) and to them I apologise. I certainly didn't set out with the intention of laying into this film that you love so much. Neither am I claiming that I have seen the truth of the film that you have failed to spot. You guys love it, and that's great. I'm just delivering my own uneducated viewpoint on the matter. Conclusion - I can imagine Magnolia easily being a film that you don't really 'get' if you're not in the exact right frame of mind for it. So taking that into account along with the efforts of its cast and the reputation it has amongst film fans means that I probably will give it another go someday. Although at the moment I am struggling to imagine how I'll force myself to sit down for 3 hours to watch this again. It may be very impressive in numerous technical terms, and that's extremely true of the acting, but overall I just found it an overwrought experience which was over written, over directed and too often approached the depths of a soap opera.
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JayDee's Movie Musings (Reviews - Frailty / Total Recall / Lone Ranger / Nightcrawler / Whiplash / Imitation Game / Birdman / Avengers: Age of Ultron / Mad Max: Fury Road)
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Magnolia, meh.
Disappointed Thelma and Louise, The Crying Game and Strange Days won't make it (although Strange Days never had much of a chance). I guess I should have had them higher up.
Disappointed Thelma and Louise, The Crying Game and Strange Days won't make it (although Strange Days never had much of a chance). I guess I should have had them higher up.
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This makes no sense!
How can the voting habits of members change so radically in 3 years?
MoFo Top 100, Summer/Fall 2010
100. The Crow
99. Mystic River
98. Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom
97. Being John Malkovich
96. Double Indemnity
95. Spirited Away
94. Million Dollar Baby
93. Black Hawk Down
92. Moulin Rouge!
91. Leon (The Professional)
90. Good Will Hunting
89. Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?
88. American Beauty
87. Raging Bull
86. Schindler's List
85. Signs
84. Sonatine
83. Magnolia
82. Requiem for a Dream
81. Titanic
80. The Royal Tenenbaums
79. Cabaret
78. Quills
77. Cool Hand Luke
76. The Breakfast Club
75. Monty Python and the Holy Grail
74. Midnight Cowboy
73. To Kill a Mockingbird
72. Dances with Wolves
71. Lawrence of Arabia
70. Superman: The Movie
69. Dark City
68. Psycho
67. Back to the Future
66. The Princess Bride
65. Naked
64. All About Eve
63. The Wild Bunch
62. In the Mood for Love
61. The Shining
60. Fargo
59. The Blues Brothers
58. The Searchers
57. Withnail & I
56. It's a Wonderful Life
55. Aliens
54. City of God
53. North By Northwest
52. Singin' in the Rain
51. One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest
50. Silence of the Lambs
49. The Third Man
48. Heat
47. Reservoir Dogs
46. The Dark Knight
45. Seven Samurai
44. Rear Window
43. Lost in Translation
42. The Last of the Mohicans
41. Sense and Sensibility
40. Die Hard
39. 12 Angry Men
38. Once Upon a Time in the West
37. Saving Private Ryan
36. Ghostbusters
35. Memento
34. Amelie
33. Forrest Gump
32. American History X
31. Gladiator
30. The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly
29. Vertigo
28. Terminator 2: Judgement Day
27. Dr. Strangelove: Or How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb
26. A Clockwork Orange
25. The Lord of the Rings
24. Se7en
23. Star Wars: Episode V- The Empire Strikes Back
22. Citizen Kane
21. Braveheart
20. Blade Runner
19. Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind
18. Chinatown
17. Casablanca
16. 2001: A Space Odyssey
15. Goodfellas
14. Apocalypse Now
13. Unforgiven
12. The Godfather, Part II
11. The Shawshank Redemption
10. The Matrix
9. Jaws
8. The Big Lebowski
7. The Departed
6. Fight Club
5. Taxi Driver
4. Raiders of the Lost Ark
3. Star Wars
2. Pulp Fiction
1. The Godfather
100. The Crow
99. Mystic River
98. Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom
97. Being John Malkovich
96. Double Indemnity
95. Spirited Away
94. Million Dollar Baby
93. Black Hawk Down
92. Moulin Rouge!
91. Leon (The Professional)
90. Good Will Hunting
89. Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?
88. American Beauty
87. Raging Bull
86. Schindler's List
85. Signs
84. Sonatine
83. Magnolia
82. Requiem for a Dream
81. Titanic
80. The Royal Tenenbaums
79. Cabaret
78. Quills
77. Cool Hand Luke
76. The Breakfast Club
75. Monty Python and the Holy Grail
74. Midnight Cowboy
73. To Kill a Mockingbird
72. Dances with Wolves
71. Lawrence of Arabia
70. Superman: The Movie
69. Dark City
68. Psycho
67. Back to the Future
66. The Princess Bride
65. Naked
64. All About Eve
63. The Wild Bunch
62. In the Mood for Love
61. The Shining
60. Fargo
59. The Blues Brothers
58. The Searchers
57. Withnail & I
56. It's a Wonderful Life
55. Aliens
54. City of God
53. North By Northwest
52. Singin' in the Rain
51. One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest
50. Silence of the Lambs
49. The Third Man
48. Heat
47. Reservoir Dogs
46. The Dark Knight
45. Seven Samurai
44. Rear Window
43. Lost in Translation
42. The Last of the Mohicans
41. Sense and Sensibility
40. Die Hard
39. 12 Angry Men
38. Once Upon a Time in the West
37. Saving Private Ryan
36. Ghostbusters
35. Memento
34. Amelie
33. Forrest Gump
32. American History X
31. Gladiator
30. The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly
29. Vertigo
28. Terminator 2: Judgement Day
27. Dr. Strangelove: Or How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb
26. A Clockwork Orange
25. The Lord of the Rings
24. Se7en
23. Star Wars: Episode V- The Empire Strikes Back
22. Citizen Kane
21. Braveheart
20. Blade Runner
19. Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind
18. Chinatown
17. Casablanca
16. 2001: A Space Odyssey
15. Goodfellas
14. Apocalypse Now
13. Unforgiven
12. The Godfather, Part II
11. The Shawshank Redemption
10. The Matrix
9. Jaws
8. The Big Lebowski
7. The Departed
6. Fight Club
5. Taxi Driver
4. Raiders of the Lost Ark
3. Star Wars
2. Pulp Fiction
1. The Godfather
Because a lot of the voting members are different.
Thing is, voting for an all time list and voting for a 90s list... or voting for an 80s list etc...
The choices will vary by quite a large way.
I made my 90s list... yet it has little bearing to 90s films that appear in my own Personal Top 100. The ones that appear in both are also in a different order.
The choices will vary by quite a large way.
I made my 90s list... yet it has little bearing to 90s films that appear in my own Personal Top 100. The ones that appear in both are also in a different order.
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Resident Evil: Retribution was my one-pointer
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That's exactly why we need a new All-Time Top 100. That, and it would be absolutely epic.
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"Puns are the highest form of literature." -Alfred Hitchcock
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It's a modest sample size, and I'm guessing over half the people voting are different. So yeah, not too weird. If more people participated you'd see less of that, but 3 years is quite a long time, too. Lots of forum turnover.
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Also the same members change their tastes over a 3 year period. Notice also that Terminator 2 was in 28th place in general and only in the 19th place here. The Matrix was higher at that poll than in this one!
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For the most part I haven't been crying, but I think it's perfectly all right for people to express disappointment when their choices aren't recognized. It's at least as normally human as high-fiving your compatriots about how well your movie has done. Of course it's possible to take both emotions too far, as well as making peanut gallery comments or maybe even what you imagine are thoughtful comments. 
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I still maintain that the variation between this list (and the Milennium list) and the most recent All Time Top 100 has to do with it being a different set of voters rather than a change in taste. Also the age of the voters seems to be getting younger. It could be a false impression, but I feel like we have a lot more teens and twenty-somethings voting this time.
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