The Best Movie of the 90s

...the main reason why "Titanic" made that much money was because alot of VERY lonely women (overweight girls who have been told "They look like Rose", lonely housewives who are regretting their decision to marry, etc.) went to see the movie 10 times (literally!)..

You must give kudos to Jim Cameron: He was able to unlock a new market via the creation of Jack: Aka the man who every girl wished existed... (But trust me, he does not)

Prognosis: I don't really have one, here.. Sometimes i despair for the species known as human..But i'll just plug on, doing what medical droids do...At least until the vulcans come and invade the planet

 

Has anyone mentioned Silence of the Lambs and Se7en?

Two very disturbing chillers that our in their own league

 

Really, cause I was sure that when I went to see it 8 times, there were just as many men as women. Its a good movie that over the past 2-3 years as been handed to the phenomenon known as bashers, lowly little 12 year old boys who are making up for penial deficines by spreading their ego on the internet to bash films that are made by people who have about 1 million times more imagination than the people who bash their films. Oh yeah, Im male if that matters and yes I saw Titanic 8 times in theaters and I still think its a great magical film!

 

Yeah, ok, so I just saw Se7en yesterday for the first time

*****SPOILERS!!!!*****
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Ok, it's been a long time since a movie has scared me or even freaked me out. I saw Signs, The Exorcist, Thir13en Ghosts, and I was just like *yawn* not scary. But this movie, despite the fact that I basically knew everything about it, had me on the edge of my seat and still has me thoroughly freaked out!

Even though I had been told about what happens, the crimes were still shocking. I think the worst was the Sloth one Uuuuhg, how could someone deal with that for a year???

I knew that David killed John because John killed David's wife, but I hadn't been told how they were the 6th and 7th victims, and I thought that was a really brilliant ending. I don't think it's one anyone could really see coming.

I don't think I really have much to add about this film, because I'm pretty sure everyone recognizes it's great qualities. Great acting, all around and all that jazz...

Oh, I would like to notw for the record that I knew John Doe was the photographer on the staircase because I recognized Kevin's voice I'm a freak!
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-sj loves kevin spacey

 

Retro Puppet Masters.

 

I still think its a great magical film

I don't think i'd call a movie where over 80% of the cast dies 'magical'.

Prognosis: A steady diet of actual quality cinema is required. If Titanic is magical for you, i recommend checking out "Deliverance"....


EDIT: I just noticed, a few threads over, that you chose "The Thin Red Line" over "Saving Private Ryan" and "Blackhawk Down".. Perhaps there is hope for us, yet

 

It was a masterpiece of film, for reasons I have said time and again on the JC.

 

...i disagree.. Quite vehemently...It's quite cheesy and cliche, with characters that are quite unrealistic, and at times quite annoying and stupid...

Technically speaking, it's a well-made film..The boat IS almost worth the price of admission alone.. And the recreation of the sinking is pretty spectacular..But the film isn't exactly a masterpiece.. There are blatant flaws that would prevent it from achieving such a qualification...

 

The story is just as compelling as the technical aspects, if not more so.

Quite vehemently...It's quite cheesy and cliche, with characters that are quite unrealistic, and at times quite annoying and stupid...

I completely disagree.

I probably have an essay written up by now if I were to combine all my posts on the JC regarding Titanic.

 

Ok, bub, you think I dont know anything about cinema. Look at my DVD collection:

My DVD's

I see some classics, some cult classics, some of everything. I know cinema and I dont own Deliverance, its on my to buy list for about a year. I need to buy it. And I really like Titanic.

 

There are tribes in the Amazon untouched by civilisation that can come up with a better film than Titanic if given all the recources that film had in its pocket.

A monstrosity of biblical prportions, it is a project of greed and vanity and is a dirty mark on Hollywood's history.

 

I think it's quite possible that someone could have a knowledge of cinema and still like Titanic.

Titanic is far from the worst epic in Hollywood history. Dr. Zhivago and The Ten Commandments spring immediatly to mind as epics that are worse than Titanic.

Titanic was a very entertaining film. It didn't feel long to me and it flowed nicely. I've only seen it once. I liked it. Try not to kill me.

Okay, I'm just going to continue that whole thing I was doing earlier about the American Film Institute:

Nominated films beginning with the letter 'I':

In and Out--never seen it.

In the Line of Fire--excellent thriller. Eastwood is excellent and Malkovich is one of the best villians of the nineties, for sure. By turns, tense, touching and hilarious, this film manages to suceed marvelously well.

Independence Day--not exactly a fan of this film. The action sequences are pretty darn good, most especially the actual dogfights between aliens and fighter jets, but, well, the rest of it, um, isn't really any good at all.

Thoughts on those films?

 

Titanic is far from the worst epic in Hollywood history. Dr. Zhivago and The Ten Commandments spring immediatly to mind as epics that are worse than Titanic.

What? That is one of the most preposterous comments I have heard on film. The Ten Commandments (both versions) are definetely not masterpieces of literary cinema but they are far greater epics thanks to the technical wizardry of Cecil B. DeMille and his perfect understanding of the source material and his format. There is not one scene in Titanic that can even approach the fantastic slaying of the first born sequences in both of the versions.

Dr. Zhivago may also be one of Lean's slightly underwhleming achievements but it is a far greater love story than Titanic. It is directed by a genius whose flashes of brilliance are still present in the film, it has better writing, grandiose acting and a truly classical score to boot.

Titanic does not deserve to be mentioned in the same breat as those three films.

In and Out-- There are occasional snippets of inspired humour but on the whole, this is a very pedestrian vehicle for all the remarkable talent involved.

In the Line of Fire-- Enjoyable on a superficial level, a milieu which this film tries to break vehemently, mainly thanks to Malkovich's annoying killer a picture of which features next to both "hammy" and "overacting" in the Oxford English Dictionary. Needless to say, it does not succeed. Nonetheless, fun, if mainly for Clint.

Independence Day-- My favourite bad film of the nineties. Unadultarated fun with a pastiche of jingoistic pax-Americana to boot.

 

Sorry for making such a 'preposterous comment.'

As a Christian, I'm often maligned for not liking The Ten Commandments. Granted, I have not seen the original version, but as for the second version, I was very underwhelmed by it.

Nothing in the film approaches the tension of the sinking of the Titanic in my opinion and I'm sorry, but Edward G. Robinson and Vincent Price hamming it up madly in robes do not make a great film. Dashes of genius, yes, but I just don't feel that it's as good as Titanic.

As for Doctor Zhivago, yes, dashes of genius, but as I just mentioned via PM with another film fan, Zhivago never held my interest. He wasn't an interesting character. Courtenay and Guiness darn near redeem the movie entirely, with they stellar performances and beautiful character development, but all to often the camera turns back to Sharif's bland Zhivago or Steiger's huffing and puffing, scenery chewing villian. On the plus side, Julie Christie is gorgeous and it's totally believable the effect she has on Zhivago, not like some other films where the women that inspire obsession are flat and uninteresting. The score is fantastic, but it's Jarre, so no surprise.

Perhaps I mistated slightly. When I say 'worse' I don't even mean that the above films are really bad. Zhivago is a grand epic and like I say, the positives nearly redeem it entirely to make me call it a 'great film.' I'm less enthusiastic about The Ten Commandments, but even there I recognize the occasional bit of genius in the writing and direction. They're both worth watching certainly, but bottom line, if I had to pick between the three of them as to what film I'm going to watch when I get home tonight, I'd take Titanic.

 

Sorry, I'm siding with AL on this one. There's NO WAY that the Hollywood fluff that is Titanic can even compare to Zhivago or The Ten Commandments.

Concerning the former, Geraldine Chaplin had a wonderful breakthrough peformance and the pathos-evoking Julie Christie was acheingly beautiful in her performance as Lara. Add the sensitive and demure performance of Omar Sharif (in direct contrast to the hot-headed character he played in hislast Lean film) to the mix and the sum of this love triangle provides a much more ingaging and heartfelt love story than the "two against the world" dynamic in Titanic.

Another stroke of brilliance was that while this was a love story between Lara and Zhivago, the two don't really meet until maybe 45 minuets into the film! Also, the sets and locations are breathtaking (the ice palace, anyone?) Which is only to be expected in a lean film.

Lean even shows up James Cameron on the technical level. While Cameron's trademark special effects bonanza provides lovely colours and pretty eye candy, Lean uses the camera and everything it captures with a poetic clarity. He literaly re-constructed Moscow in Spain. He purposly made it so that all the love scenes where in bleak and forboading settings and juxtaposed it against the death scenes which were all filmed in ethereal lighting like when all the boys are murdered in the wheat fields. The editing is superb,just take a look at the scene where Lara and Steiger are dancing and the camera uses the momenteum of their movements to cut to them sitting at the table. Also, the beginning of pt. 2 after the intermission, where we are subjectively traveling through a dark tunnel with the train is one of the greatests entrances I can think of.

I could go on, but I think you get the picture.

~PAd

 

I grant all your points. Lean's direction is excellent, but that goes without saying. It's just that I wish he had more to direct around, if you get my drift. Zhivago's story is too predictable. We know from the get go that he'll fall for Lara and mope around for most of the film, occasionally getting together with her, etc, etc. The only really interesting character arcs belong, as I said earlier, to Courtenay and Guiness.

Sharif's performance is good, I suppose, but it's just not interesting. I don't think I'd really care to know Zhivago. He's just a tad flat, you know.

Score, direction, supporting actors (except Steiger) and even supporting story arcs are all stellar, but the main story and the central figure leave much to be desired. In my opinion.

Like I say, just an opinion. I do plan to watch it again eventually and my mind has been known to change. Still, everybody has a few films that are generally thought of as great that they dislike, right?

 

Still, everybody has a few films that are generally thought of as great that they dislike, right?

Heck yeah, after multiple viewings, I'm still trying to find out why the Entertainment top 100 films decided to rank Raging Bull as #5. I just don't think I get that film, each time I watched it I was baffled as to why it's held in a higher regard than Goodfellas and Taxi Driver. I feel the same way, to a lesser extent, with On The Waterfront. (Which is kind of fitting since they both have the "it wuz you, Cha-lie" speech. )

People claim that those two films showcase the two best performances by a lead actor but I say give me Brando in Streetcar and Deniro in Taxi Driver over those two anyday. The same could be said of either's portryal of Vito Corleone. I just think the performance goes way above and beyond that of the mentioned two films.

~PAd

 

As for Doctor Zhivago, yes, dashes of genius, but as I just mentioned via PM with another film fan, Zhivago never held my interest.

Just wanted to comment on Zhivago. I found that movie to be amazing! I don't like romantic movies, but Zhivago was about more than romance, it was about the birth of the USSR. I thought it did a spectular job of capturing the struggles and hardships of that era, and of the class struggle. The cinematography is some of the best I've ever seen, and the acting was great. When I saw it for the first time, I had no idea the actor playing Zhivago was really from the middle east (of course, much of that credit goes to the make up artist). I put Zhivago down as one of the best movies ever made, not my personal favorite (I'll always be ANH man), but a great work of art.

OK, I shall return to talk about 1990s a bit later...

 

Titanic was a masterful film, both for the story and for the technical aspects. I loved it the first time I saw it, and the couple times I've seen it since have both captured me the same way it did then, and moved me emotionally for multiple reasons. I get transported back to December of 1997 when I see that film (and I haven't seen it in some time now), with all the emotions and memories that come with it. I've been of the opinion that it is an amazing, excellent film since the day I saw it, which was opening day. I had no bias toward it, because I knew nothing about it until I saw it.

 

After much research and soul searching, I have come to the conclusion that AL hates every movie ever made.

 

Actually, he likes Dave. I think that's about it.

Okay, glad we got that whole thing settled. I hate saying I don't like a film that other people love, really.

 

Well, I don't think there's really any movie that everyone can agree is great or everyone can agree is horrible.

-sj loves kevin spacey

 

Agreed. It was a big moment when I realized there were people who didn't like Casablanca. It solidified in my mind the fact that we, as a race, will never be able to come together about anything.

 

Casablanca sucks!





















~PAd

 

Excuse me, I'm going to go kill someone . . .