After reviewieng subsequent posts, I’m gonna have to amend my list to include Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels (thanks ruadh) and Rushmore. I can’t believe I left those out. Rushmore has to be among my three favorite films of the past decade or so.
I also want to throw The Last of the Mohicans (1992) into the mix.
The Trois Colours trilogy was released in 1993-94 (Bleu in '93, and Blanc and Rouge in '94).
I already nominated Rouge earlier in this thread.
Men With Guns, I liked it, thought it had some amazing scenes. Worth adding to this list.
**Miller’s Crossing
Usual Suspects **
Are two of my all time favorites.
For your edification, since no one else put them here, I heartily recommend for your dining and dancing pleasure:
From England:
**Billy Elliott ** This boys acting is absolutely amazing and the man who plays his dad was astounding. Very real life. The boy was nominated for Best Actor. I thought the dad should have been nominated for supporting actor.
** Waking Ned Divine ** The stars are two old irish men and it is refreshingly funny without being Adam Sandlerish.
Both films you could watch with your grandmother sitting next to you too.
**East is East **
While not a best film catagory, If you can find it, it is worth a watch. Telling the story of a family of six or seven kids who are half White (british) and half pakistani in england in the early 70’s and how they don’t fit in with the white side and they don’t fit in with their muslim roots either (take your standard glazed over catholic school kid look and change it to glazed over islamic school kid) and the father is desperately trying to cling to the old ways and his wife walks a fine line letting her kids eat bacon and do british things. One son wants to be an artist and he produces, in the end, some rather interesting peice of art that is rather humorous. There are some funny parts, and some “oh god, that’s awful” mental stuff parts. I wish I could find this locally, because I really want to see it again.
**Clay Pigeons ** This indie flick, IMHO, is outstanding. Writing is excellent and the acting is just superb. It is the first Indie I watched and made me really pay attention to the industry. Great plot twists.
**Best in show ** Outstanding performances in this indie comedy by everyone. Especially Eugene Levy and Catherine O’Hara.
**Payback **This is not oscar caliber stuff, but I just thought the art direction, characters, acting (hey it has Mel Gibson in it and Lucy Lui as a dominatrix in it) and a great well done plot made it worthy of a mention. Nicely packaged.
I really liked The Usual Suspects (1995). It had Kevin Spacey when he was still dangerous and not smarmy.
Also Stephen Baldwin, Kevin Pollak, Chazz Palminteri
American Beauty, no question. I’ve seen most of the movies already mentioned, but this one stands far above the rest. Unbelievably realistic, heart-wrencing, hilarious, and incredible acting from Spacey and Benning. I love that the good guy gets it in the end, and the last scene is wonderful:
I have nothing but gratitude for every moment of my stupid little life. You have no idea what I’m talking about, of course, but you will someday.
It’s smart, funny, tragic, and has the best ending of any movie I’ve ever seen, ever. I know some people who hate the paper bag scenes, but to me, that’s the symbol that makes the movie. Wow. I can’t wait to watch it again.
Methinks some people took the easy way out, the question was what movie (singular) was the best of the 90s. Ya gotta narrow your choice to one movie.
I’ve gotta say Pulp Fiction. To start with, it’s the only movie I’ve ever dragged people to while saying, “Just trust me, you HAVE to see this” and had everybody (including the future Lady Vor, on our first date) agree that it was worthy of the praise I was heaping on it. I must have paid to see it 5 or 6 times.
Then you add in how a ton of derivative movies that followed it (including Lock, Stock and Two Smoking barrels) were able to achieve moderate to good success, and you see how influential it was.
I still can’t believe it lost the Oscar to Forest F’n Gump.
LV
My favorites since 1990, starting with the best
*The Silence of the Lambs, L.A. Confidential, Titanic, The Usual Suspects, The Sixth Sense, Dark City, * and Tombstone are all very fine films that would probably be in my top 12 if the 12 above had not been made.
As for The Matrix, Forrest Gump, Pulp Fiction, True Romance, Payback, and The Last of the Mohicans, I would not put them in my top 200.
Not quite. He flat out refuses the order. He says he’s not leaving because it doesn’t make sense, that he’s not any more valuable than any of the other men there. Miller says something along the lines of, “Is that what they should tell your mother when they hand her a another folded American flag?” And Ryan responds, “Tell her I fought by the side of the only brothers I have left.” (Paraphrasing) But he does refuse the order and Miller then asks the Sergeant’s opinion on what to do about the situation. Miller decides on his own to stay, not because of any reasoned argument from Ryan. The convincing actually came from the Sergeant.
As for the other scenes being necessary or not, that’s just opinion and we’re going to differ. I think the scene when Miller gets his assignment from Dennis Farrina could’ve served to explain that Ryan’s brothers are dead and the Chief of Staff has ordered ryan home much faster and more efficiently than the scene with the secretaries and reading of the Lincoln letter. The bookends, as are, bug me but I admit they serve a purpose. Had the old man actually been one of the people who were there to remember everything that happened (which we are lead to believe at the beginning as his eyes became Tom Hanks’s eyes) I wouldn’t mention them as being so poorly written.
You’re not remembering the scene correctly; the cut transitions from the old man’s eyes to a static shot of the beach, with a tank obstacle on the right side of the frame. The words “June 6, 1944, Omaha Beach, Dog Green Sector” appear. We then cut to a shot of Captain Miller in the landing boat, with his head down, fumbling with his water bottle.
The fact that it seemed like a flashback, but actually wasn’t, didn’t bother me at all. I just realized, “Ah, it wasn’t a flashback.”
I’ll have to check that again. I remember the camera zooming in on the old man’s eyes, then pulling back and we see Tom Hanks. But, as you say, I may be misremembering that bit (I have it on DVD, but I usually skip the opening scene and go straight to the storming of Omaha beach). If so, then the bookends aren’t as deliberately misleading as I’ve bitched about.
Poor choice of words on my behalf - you can replace argued with pleaded. You may have seen it differently, of course, but you should bear in mind that military orders are much more flexible matters than they seem from the outside. Ryan may not have appealed to Miller’s logic, but he did appeal to his emotions; Miller listened, searched his soul, evaluted his priorities (as RickJay so eloquently described it) and made his decision. What do “reasoned arguments” have to do with it?
The sergeant, by the way, did not convince him, but rather said: “I know what you’re thinking; you think we should stay, and I agree with you”. He was merely backing a man who’d made up his mind.
Besides, even if Ryan had refused to go, what could they have done - bound him, gagged him and carried him back to HQ? Hardly; and the threat of a tribunal means little to a man preparing to die in battle.
And it wasn’t bad writing - it was done on purpose, to help hide the true identity of the old man.
I just want to say how happy I am to see so many people picking Miller’s Crossing. A genius Cohen Brothers movie that somehow got lost in the shuffle. Saw it in the theater and was blown away.
Another virtually unknown movie by a major director was Steven Soderberg’s Schizopolis. Definitely not for everyone; in fact, for almost no one. I thought it was brilliant.
Sign me on for American Beauty too.
Also Rushmore. When I first saw it in theaters I was sorely disappointed. It wasn’t what I’d been expecting at all. However, having re-watched it a couple times since then, I’ve found I now enjoy it more with each viewing.
In the comedy category, where significance and filmmaking genius isn’t nearly as much of an issue, I really like Swingers. Also (and I’m sure everyone’s gonna give me no end of crap about this one), I really liked Go, TV heartthrobs and all.
Was Problem Child 2 made in the 90s? 'Cause then I may have to change my picks.
Well, I went home and checked that again, RickJay was right and I was misremembering the beginning of the movie. My fault, everyone, sorry for the whole Saving Private Ryan hijack going on. (Although some of us are just going to have to agree to disagree on the quality of bits of the screenplay.)
Exotica: It feels like a thriller, and it unfolds like a mystery. Its timeline is a little less complex than Pulp Fiction and Memento, but not by much. But it’s really about the relationships between a group of characters who should be casual aquaintences, but aren’t. And it has the best “final scene that happened first chronologially” in cinema history.
Ok, now that I’ve named the best movie of the 90’s, on to “Saving Private Ryan” The bookends, though unnecessary, don’t bother me. I love the movie (see my list), but the reasoning for staying has always bothered me a little. They stay to prevent the Germans from crossing the bridge, which is the only intact one over the river for miles either way. Fine. Part of the plan is if things go badly, they’ll retreat and blow the bridge. So, why don’t they just blow the bridge up, and get the hell out of Dodge before the Germans show up? Everyone’s life is saved, and the German’s are stopped; mission accomplished with no loss of life. This sets up the final battle scenes, which are nearly the equal of the opening sequence IMO. I just can’t help thinking that nobody had to die at the bridge to reach their goal. However, if they do blow the bridge and leave, the final section doesn’t happen, and we have a lesser movie.
My Top 25, in Order:
IIRC (and we’ve already seen how faulty my memory is regarding this film, so take that for what it’s worth), the Allies need the bridges also to cross deeper into France. Both sides need the bridges, and the Americans there are trying to hold the bridge for the Allies to use, but will blow it up only as a last resort to keep the Germans from getting it.
Hey speaking of “Pi” my parents actually know someone who was in it. And here I was thinking it was a random independent film. 
In no particular order:
Pulp Fiction (1994)
I loved it and it’s one of my fave films of all time. Maybe it’s not too original to put this one down, but I have to. Great acting, soundtrack, screenplay…etc.
Heavenly Creatures (1994)
Yeah, I’m a big fan, as you can probably see from my other thread. It’s disturbing, and involving, and filmed in an unusual, but fascinating, manner.
Flashback (1990)
I know it was made in 1990, but I figure it’s close enough to cut it. No, it’s not necessarily a “great” movie, but it’s a lot of fun to watch, and it’s, IMO, original. Random, too. Sort of like filming one long adventure. And it had Kiefer Sutherland in it, that really helped it.
Jurassic Park (1993)
Sure, maybe the robot dinosaurs stole the show, but that’s because they were terrifyingly scary. Or just awe inspiring. And science was combined well with entertainment- the explanations with the amber and the tree frogs and all were really good- though that’s really from the book. Acting was good, it was funny in all the right places…great movie.
Reservoir Dogs (1992)
Very much like “Pulp Fiction,” but it holds its own. I’m sure whatever I could say has been said before…again, great writing.
Tous Les Matins Du Monde (1991)
A French flick. Slow going at times and rather dull, even, it ends with a real bang (well, maybe that’s not the word). It’s also intense and pretty moving, I must say, considering we saw it in French class…
Indochine (1992)
Another French one. I’m not usually one for symbolism, but I liked the bonds between the main character and her adopted daugher, sort of paralleling the bond between France and Vietnam. Plus the emotional aspect of it. A great movie.
Hannibal (2001)
Sure, not too popular on the boards, but Van Gogh wasn’t appreciated until after his death…so I don’t feel too bad about including it. Still not as good as the book, it had cintemography (sp?), good acting, nice themes, etc., and well, was fun to watch, which is pretty definitive of good.
I always assumed that was the reason. If it’s the only intact bridge for a long way, it would be important to preserve it. But I’m pretty sure all they ever say is that they must prevent the Germans from crossing. I guess what I wanted is for someone in the film to articulate the importance of controlling the bridge for the allies. They are outmanned and outgunned, so by staying they are actively sacrificing lives to save the bridge. It may be important enough in the larger scheme of things to sacrifice lives, but I want to know why it’s that important. Again, I think it’s a small narrative flaw in a masterpiece of visual storytelling.