While I'm busily not seeing a film . . .

[omorka]

Stolen from bassfingers: The Top 100 Overlooked Films of the '90s. The ones I've seen are bolded, and given between 1 and 5 stars as a very subjective rating. (Unlike him, I'm not linking to the reviews.)



The Online Film Critics Society's Top 100 Overlooked Films of the 1990s

1. Miller's Crossing
2. Safe
3. The Sweet Hereafter
4. Lone Star
5. Heavenly Creatures (I wanted to see this when it came out, but still haven't gotten around to it)
6. Waiting for Guffman
7. The Hudsucker Proxy *** (One of the few Coen Brothers movies I actually liked)
8. Babe: Pig in the City
9. Dead Man
10. Fearless
11. Bound
12. Chungking Express
13. The Straight Story
14. Searching for Bobby Fischer
15. Ghost Dog: Way of the Samurai
16. That Thing You Do! (the Spouse will eventually pick this up on DVD, and when he does, I'll watch it)
17. Dead Again
18. Sneakers *****
19. Zero Effect
20. The Butcher Boy
21. Truly, Madly, Deeply **** (Alan Rickman plays a cellist. What's not to like?)
22. In the Company of Men
23. Devil in a Blue Dress
24. The Red Violin
25. Cemetery Man
26. Hamlet
27. Breakdown
28. Welcome to the Dollhouse
29. The Apostle
30. Eve's Bayou
31. Hard Eight
32. Defending Your Life
33. A Little Princess
34. Bringing Out the Dead
35. Hana-Bi (Fireworks)
36. Jacob's Ladder * (Great acting. Hated it.)
37. The Spanish Prisoner
38. Pump Up the Volume **** (The quintessential Gen13 movie)
39. Beautiful Girls
40. The Double Life of Veronique
41. Very Bad Things
42. Richard III
43. October Sky ***** (One of my Teacher's Triplet)
44. Strange Days
45. My Neighbor Totoro *** (Not my favorite Miyazaki film, but cute beyond all measure)
46. L.A. Story *** (The story's been told better, and even told better by Martin, but there's something very gentle and sweet about this version)
47. Twin Peaks: Fire Walk with Me
48. A Bronx Tale
49. The Limey
50. A Perfect World
51, Before Sunrise
52. Bob Roberts (We have this; I just haven't watched it yet)
53. Dick
54. Raise the Red Lantern
55. One False Move
56. The Ref
57. Exotica
58. Sonatine
59. Joe Versus the Volcano *** (The first, and best, of the Meg Ryan/Tom Hanks romcoms - plus "I'm sorry - I forgot")
60. Matinee
61. The Ice Storm **** (Miserable and twisted and all too true. Fantastic acting from a truly stellar cast.)
62. The Adventures of Priscilla, Queen of the Desert (I think we own this one . . . somewhere . . .)
63. Croupier ***
64. The Winslow Boy
65. Girl on the Bridge
66. Bullet in the Head
67. Darkman (I've seen about half of this, and liked what I saw)
68. Cannibal! The Musical
69. Fast, Cheap & Out of Control
70. Smoke
71. The Last Days of Disco
72. Fresh
73. Eye of God
74. Flirting with Disaster
75. Bottle Rocket (This director tends to be impressive but not enjoyable, for me)
76. Ashes of Time
77. Fallen Angels
78. Great Expectations
79. Kundun
80. A Midnight Clear
81. Deep Cover
82. Ravenous
83. Twin Falls, Idaho
84. The People vs. Larry Flynt
85. Quick Change
86. The Secret of Roan Inish (Why don't we own this?)
87. Beloved
88. Big Night
89. Topsy-Turvy
90. Living in Oblivion
91. Jesus' Son
92. Glengarry Glen Ross
93. Chaplin
94. Dead Alive
95. Jude
96. Cradle Will Rock
97. Proof
98. The Wonderful, Horrible Life of Leni Riefenstahl
99. Titus
100. Mystery Men (Skipped this because the trailer was terrible; I now regret the decision)

And, as a bonus, Bassfingers' list, although I agree with quantumduck that a couple of these weren't really overlooked in any real sense:

101. The Imposters ***** (Fantastic film. Go see it.)
102. Basquiat
103. The Linguini Incident *** (I'm not as enamored of this film as the rest of the group, but it's fun)
104. Twenty Bucks **** (Another fantastic cast, plus circular storytelling!)
105. Wild Things
106. Still Crazy ***** (Beautiful, and the music is rockin', too.)
107. The Player
108. Léon
109. Lock, Stock & Two Smoking Barrels *** (Fun script; I think I would have preferred to read this than watch it. I don't think it was overlooked, though - certainly not critically.)
110. eXistenZ

Comments

[faxpaladin.livejournal.com]

I haven't actually seen very many of these at all; I loved Mystery Men, and part of the reason was a joke set up in the trailer and paid off in the movie itself. The trailer has the shot all Superhero Team Movie trailers have (and in that category I include movies like The Untouchables) -- the team walking toward the camera, usually in slow motion, either in a straight line or with the lead actor at the point of the V, to demonstrate their unity and resolve. The payoff was when, just after the point where the trailer cut away from the scene, Mr. Furious lost his resolve and turned to go back, and was caught at the elbows by the two on either side of him and carried forward...

[bassfingers.livejournal.com]

On the "overlookedness" of Lock/Stock, according to IMDB, it only grossed $3,650,677 in the US (Granted, it did much better in the UK). Compare that to the Ice Storm which grossed $7,837,632 in the US, or Branagh's Hamlet which grossed $4,414,535, both of which were on the original list. And I realize that box office shouldn't be the only vector in a film's success, but it is certainly a marker.

[starcat-jewel.livejournal.com]

To my great surprise, I've actually seen one of these -- two, if #26 is either the Mel Gibson or the Branagh Hamlet. The other one is Priscilla, Queen of the Desert, which I didn't see until I had moved down here; one of Russ' friends has it, and we watched it there one evening.