The MoFo 1990s Countdown pt II - Preliminary Thread

Registered User

03-15-25

Originally Posted by Citizen Rules

Oh you're from my neck of the woods. I didn't know you were from Seattle or is that you moved from Seattle? BTW I've been wearing flannel since the late 1970s

It's a way of life in rural Western Washington.

I've been in and out of Seattle several times. I used to move around a lot, lived in various states, but always seem to find myself back there.

And yeah, heavy clothing, big beard - not a fashion statement, it just gets cold in the winters. (In the south I cut it all off, all the facial hair, shaved my head bald because the humidity was a bear)

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Thursday Next

I never could get the hang of Thursdays.

03-16-25

Ballot tool issue - a couple of 1999 films are unexpectedly showing as 2000 films and won't let me add them BUT if I then paste in the link from imdb it changes the year back to 1999 and it will let me add them. So...do we need to go strictly by the tmdb year and they are ineligible? If so, there is an issue with the ballot tool in that people adding films via imdb link might not realise they are ineligible.

Captain Quint

Registered User

03-16-25

Ah gee whiz, really? I tested out the edge cases months ago and it refused to take those either from IMDB or TMDB, and today they are?

It's too late in the game to change it, ballots have arrived and we're just weeks away. So, stick with TMDB release dates per the rules and enter by titles - I'm going to PM you and get the movies you are trying and see if those were the ones I was testing, or if something else is happening.

Edit - I'll @Yoda so he's aware. But I tested the ones I tested 3 months ago, and the tool still won't accept titles directly, but will via the way you described. I'll wait for your PM, see if they are the same ones I was testing or if this is a brand-new wrinkle.

Ah well, as the late great Gilda said...

Last edited by Captain Quint; 03-17-25 at 02:40 AM.

Yoda

Administrator

03-17-25

Thanks for the heads-up. Off the top of my head I can't think of why or how that should happen, but I'll take a look today.

Robert the List

Registered User

03-17-25

I got room for only 1 of these:

Edward Scissorhands 1990 USA
Double Life Of Veronique 1991 France Krzysztof Kieślowski
The Long Day Closes 1992 UK Terence Davies
Chungking Express 1994 Hong Kong Wong Kar-Wai
A Moment of Innocence 1996 Iran Mohsen Makhmalbaf
Trees Lounge 1996 USA Steve Buschemi
Taste of Cherry 1997 Iran Abbas Kiarostami
Straight Story 1999 USA David Lynch

Yoda

Administrator

03-18-25

Originally Posted by Thief

Gattaca - It probably won't make my list, but I think it deserves a spot in the countdown. It is thought-provoking and well acted, even if it drops the ball in some parts.

Seconding. I'm not seeing a lot of talk about this, which is really surprising. It's a great film with a lot of layered symbolism, and some deeply powerful metaphors. It's also the rare sci-fi cautionary tale that seems to be warning about a real, actually inevitable thing, on the medium-term horizon, rather than the usual thing where they extrapolate some current trend beyond all reason.

It's also the subject of one of the better podcasts we did for the Movie Club back in the day.

Direct link on YouTube Music: https://music.youtube.com/watch?v=qvZdVQg5Rto

Thief

Master of None

03-18-25

Originally Posted by Robert the List

Ooof, I know I struggled with Double Life of Veronique as well. I know I had it on my short list and was on the chopping block, so to speak, towards the end but I don't remember now if it made the cut. Still, it definitely deserves to come up on the list. Powerful movie.

I didn't even remember The Straight Story when I made my list, which would've been a nice Lynch representation. I think it might still make the countdown, probably in the 80s-90s range, but I wouldn't have minded giving it an extra push.

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Holden Pike

One Ornery Sumbitch

03-18-25

Just put up an extensive love letter to Joe versus the Volcano (1990) in my review thread Pike's Peak Picks...

Originally Posted by Holden Pike

Directed by John Patrick Shanley Screenplay by John Patrick Shanley Cinematography by Stephen Goldblatt Cast: Tom Hanks, Meg Ryan, Dan Hedaya, Ossie Davis, Abe Vigoda, Lloyd Bridges, Robert Stack, Amanda Plummer, Barry McGovern, David Burton, Nathan Lane, Carol Kane
1990 / approximately 102 minutes

Joe versus the Volcano is a romantic fairy tale about the power of taking chances, an existential comedy with elements of high adventure and true love. Since its release it has seemed to be a divisive cinematic experience, transfixing some and angering others, but those of us who adore it have turned it into a beloved cult flick.

Tom Hanks stars as Joseph Banks. Joe has a truly lousy job, working in the advertising library of a large company that manufactures medical equipment. But that description doesn�t do it justice. It is a huge, dark, industrial plant, Joe one of the many shift workers slowly walking to their stations like zombies. Joe has an office off the plant floor, but it is not much more inviting than the industrial Hell around it. It is essentially a coffin lit by buzzing, blinking fluorescent lights. Joe has just three co-workers in his immediate area: the boss, Mr. Waturi (Dan Hedaya), a nameless male zombie, and a mousey secretary named Didi (Meg Ryan). Joe is even cut off from those folks in a dark room with exposed pipes and shelves. This is the so-called library that is his domain, mailing catalogs to potential customers and sales reps. He does have one item to try and personalize the space: an ornate little lamp he keeps squirreled away in a filing cabinet, with a dancing hula girl for a base and a colorful shade that spins to a tinkling lullaby.

CLICK THIS LINK FOR MORE...

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Thief

Master of None

03-18-25

That was a relatively recent watch for me and I was surprised by how much I enjoyed it. Surprisingly surreal, deep, and profound.

TheManBehindTheCurtain

Pay no attention to that man behind the curtain

03-18-25

OK ... I'm in. First one of these I've participated in. Very hard for me. My "all time favorite" list just goes to 20. Then there's my "5" movies in alpha order, my "4" movies in alpha, etc. Classic thing I dither over: Movie A is not a 5 but it's fun and we rewatch once or twice a year. Movie B is a 5, better artistically, but I don't have any motivation to rewatch. How do I order them? Usually Movie A first! Hope I'm not dragging down anyone's favorites!

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Citizen Rules

Trouble with a capitial 'T'

03-18-25

Originally Posted by TheManBehindTheCurtain

People decide what movies should go where by different criteria. But just know that your #1 movie will receive the maximum points possible which is 25. The more points a movie receives from the total of all list sent in, the better chance it has of making the countdown and placing higher than lower.

TheManBehindTheCurtain

Pay no attention to that man behind the curtain

03-19-25

Originally Posted by Citizen Rules

Just in case I misled you: I did rank my top 25 for this countdown. I just mentioned the alpha order thing to reinforce that it's a challenge for me to do that sort of ranking. They're all "5" movies for me, so weighing "Chasing Amy" against, say, "Schindler's List" sometimes requires a quarter.

Captain Quint

Registered User

03-19-25

Two weeks to go, and ballots are starting to come in at a faster rate.

The ineligible movies issue has been corrected on Yoda's end - so just continue to use TMDB as your guide (they tend to go wide releases as their primary, so that can be where you find discrepancies. I prefer what they do, release wise, to how IMDB does it, and since the tool here is connected to TMDB, that's what I wanted to use as our ultimate decider. And this was established in the rules from day one - so this late in the game we'll stick to it)

Dates can be wishy washy sometimes, which is normally not an issue with a decade's list like this (95 or 96, who cares), unless it's on the edge, 1999 being the problem child here. We now have 4 of those.

Last edited by Captain Quint; 03-19-25 at 08:22 PM.

Captain Quint

Registered User

03-19-25

Oh, and to be clear, all existing ballots are good - I went through them as they arrived, and finished going through them again, just in case, and didn't find anything that doesn't belong there. If you sent a ballot, it's good, it's set, your gold.

Citizen Rules

Trouble with a capitial 'T'

03-20-25

What's Eating Gilbert Grape....vote for it! It deserves to make the countdown. If you haven't seen it, watch it, then vote for it.

Thief

Master of None

03-20-25

Originally Posted by Citizen Rules

What's Eating Gilbert Grape....vote for it! It deserves to make the countdown. If you haven't seen it, watch it, then vote for it.

I haven't seen it in decades so I didn't vote for it, but I remember liking it quite a bit. I'm sure it will make the countdown, though. 60-70 range maybe?

Citizen Rules

Trouble with a capitial 'T'

03-20-25

Originally Posted by Thief

I haven't seen it in decades so I didn't vote for it, but I remember liking it quite a bit. I'm sure it will make the countdown, though. 60-70 range maybe?

I should've campaigned hard for What's Eating Gilbert Grape?...weeks ago but like you hadn't seen it in decades and it was only the other night that I rewatched it and was impressed!

Holden Pike

One Ornery Sumbitch

03-20-25

Originally Posted by Thief

I haven't seen it in decades so I didn't vote for it, but I remember liking it quite a bit. I'm sure it will make the countdown, though. 60-70 range maybe?

What's Eating Gibert Grape? didn't make it last time.

I find it far too maudlin in its sentimentality and the overall tone is just off, for me. Quirky for quirk's sake, but using real disabilities in service of pretty slight material. I thought Lasse Hallstr�m missed on bringing it to life, but I find that true with just about all of his movies in that they're never real enough to involve me nor inventive or stylized enough to amuse me.

Depp had five films make the first 1990s list: Dead Man (#35), Fear & Loathing in Las Vegas (#46), Ed Wood (#49), Donnie Brasco (#72), and Edward Scissorhands (#96). Will What's Eating Gilbert Grape? rise to or above them this time? Possible, but it ain't gonna be easy, even just on the scale of films starring Depp.

Robert the List

Registered User

03-20-25

Without rechecking where they came last time, I'm going to predict the following results for the films in my ballot (my position followed by the MoFo 2025 chart position):

1. 94
2. 40
3. 15
4. -
5. 90
6. -
7. 95
8. 92
9. 52
10. 68
11. 10
12. 88
13. 75
14. 30
15. 6
16. 24
17. 99
18. -
19. -
20. -
21. -3
22. -
23. 70
24. -
25. 15

Last edited by Robert the List; 03-20-25 at 05:42 PM.

Captain Quint