1999: The Best Year for Movies

[Tamas]

The Matrix, Fight Club, Magnolia, Being John Malkovic, Sixth Sense, Office Space, Man on the Moon, American Beauty, The Talented Mr. Ripley, Boys Don't Cry, American Pie. The Green Mile, Eyes Wide Shut, The Mummy. And yes, the Phantom Menace and other things.

Lots of actors had their true Hollywood breakthrough: Hugh Jackman, Amy Adams, James Franco, Colin Farrell, Russel Crowe. And more wide-spread fame for people like Angelina Jolie and Jude Law, Reese Whiterspoon, or Heath Ledger.

In 1999, 3 sequels were in the Top10 movies (for income): Star Wars Episode I, Austing Powers 2, and Toy Story 2. In 2019, you have 1 (one!) non-sequel in the same Top 10: the Freddy Mercury movie.

Take Tom Cruise. In 1999 you could see him in Magnolia and Eyes Wide Shut. In 2019, you'll be able to see him (or at least he is working on) Top Gun 2, and Mission Impossible 7 & 8.


Now tell me I am wrong!

[Grey Fox]

I cannot. All around Y2K-1 was just awesome.

[Duque de Bragança]

1999? Episode 1 so a tainted year.

[Grinning_Colossus]

It was a high point for a lot of pop culture, to say nothing of the economy and world politics. Agent Smith was right when he told Neo that he was living in the height of his civilization. 

[Josephus]

Pop culture died in 1992. The year I turned 26. Everything since has been shit.

Been thinking about writing a novel about that sometime.

[Tamas]

Pop culture died in 1992. The year I turned 26. Everything since has been shit.

Been thinking about writing a novel about that sometime.

You should, it is a very original thought.

[celedhring]

Common wisdom is that 1939 was the best year in Hollywood history:

Gone with the wind
Wizard of Oz
Stagecoach
Of Mice and Men
Ninotchka
Wuthering Heights
Mr Smith Goes to Washington
The Roaring Twenties
Only Angels Have Wings
Good Bye Mr Chips
Dark Victory

Just the 3 first films are some of the most influential movies ever made in America. Then a bunch of classics and very good films. And if we look outside America that's also when La Regle du Jeu was made. Another timeless classic. I think 1939 still has every other year beat.

Then 1977 has:

Star Wars
Annie Hall
Eraserhead
Close Encounters
Cross of Iron

Top 3 films are both landmarks in their genres/styles. Heck, Star Wars is one of the most influential films ever made.

There's also Saturday Night Fever that while being a crappy movie has had a profound cultural footprint. And The American Friend in Germany, which is one of my favorite films of all time. And some small horror classics in Demon Seed or The Hills Have Eyes. Plus A Bridge Too Far if you like those big classic WWII Hollywood epics. Smokey and the Bandit came out that year too. Just a perfect mix of entertaining/great/influential movies.

1994:

Pulp Fiction
Shawsank Redemption
Forrest Gump
Ed Wood
Lion King

Pulp Fiction is the most influential film made in America in the 1990s. 1994 is pretty much the year that made Quentin Tarantino, with Natural Born Killers also coming out. Heck he also contributed to the boom of Asian cinema in the West when he personally recommended Chungquing Express (released in 1994 in the West) and he got droves of people to watch it. Ed Wood is the best Tim Burton film. Lion King is the most successful Disney classically animated movie since the 1960s.

Also: Street Fighter The Movie

I would probably put 1999 under 1939 and 1977. Maybe it beats 1994 but still, Pulp Fiction...

[celedhring]

Oh, and 1979 has:

Apocalypse Now
Alien
All That Jazz
Manhattan
Life of Brian
The Warriors
Being There
Mad Max
The Jerk


Yeah, that beats 1999 too.

[Syt]

For fantastic (sci-fi/fantasy/horror) movies I contend 1982 was the best year:

Blade Runner
Poltergeist
Tron
The Thing
Star Trek II: Wrath of Khan
E.T.
The Secret of NIMH
The Dark Crystal
Conan the Barbarian
The Last Unicorn


Outside the genre you still have Tootsie, 48 Hrs, First Blood, Gandhi, Fitzcarraldo, and more.

[Duque de Bragança]

Seventies have the new Hollywood vibe so great contenders.

I like 1982 for pop and/or genre cinema though with:

- The Thing (flop then, seen as a masterpiece now)
- E.T
- First Blood (Rambo) Beginning of the '80s action craze?
- Conan the Barbarian
- Blade Runner
- The Dark Crystal
- Star Trek II: the Wrath of Khan
- Tron (first use of CGI but stylised so ages well)
- The Dark Crystal
- Tootsie
- Fitzcarraldo
- Fanny And Alexander

Not all exactly pop culture, which is actually a plus in my book, as with Bergman's Fanny and Alexander, Bergman's final movie or Herzog's Fitzcarraldo.

Plus lots of decent genre movies such as 48 Hours.
Plus the B-movies were not so bad and pretty much enjoyable as with the Beastmaster or the Sword and the Sorcerer (Matt Houston inside)
Plus so-bad-it's good masterpieces such as Megaforce. 

PS: Syt beat me to it, maybe a generation thing, so I added a few ones.

[Tamas]

You can  point to individual genres, or to milestone movies like Pulp Fiction but OVERALL a blanket year... it has to be 1999. Especially if you consider movies for our generation. I am sure 1939 was great but those movies were not formative (anymore) to the pop culture of our lifetime.

[frunk]

My comments on a Top 50 List of 1999 Movies

Part 1
Part 2

[Tamas]

My comments on a Top 50 List of 1999 Movies

Part 1
Part 2

Galaxy Quest!

I also liked Bowfinger. What a year!

[Tamas]

Ghost Dog was good too.

[Tamas]

Any Given Sunday!

"I don't know what to say, really. Three minutes to the biggest battle of our professional lives. All comes down to today, and either, we heal as a team, or we're gonna crumble. Inch by inch, play by play. Until we're finished. We're in hell right now, gentlemen. Believe me. And, we can stay here, get the shit kicked out of us, or we can fight our way back into the light. We can climb outta hell... one inch at a time.

Now I can't do it for you, I'm too old. I look around, I see these young faces and I think, I mean, I've made every wrong choice a middle-aged man can make. I, uh, I've pissed away all my money, believe it or not. I chased off anyone who's ever loved me. And lately, I can't even stand the face I see in the mirror.

You know, when you get old, in life, things get taken from you. I mean, that's... that's... that's a part of life. But, you only learn that when you start losin' stuff. You find out life's this game of inches, so is football. Because in either game – life or football – the margin for error is so small. I mean, one half a step too late or too early and you don't quite make it. One half second too slow, too fast and you don't quite catch it. The inches we need are everywhere around us. They're in every break of the game, every minute, every second.

On this team we fight for that inch. On this team we tear ourselves and everyone else around us to pieces for that inch. We claw with our fingernails for that inch. Because we know when we add up all those inches that's gonna make the f****** difference between WINNING and LOSING, between LIVING and DYING!

I'll tell you this, in any fight it's the guy whose willing to die whose gonna win that inch. And I know, if I'm gonna have any life anymore it's because I'm still willing to fight and die for that inch, because that's what living is, the six inches in front of your face. Now I can't make you do it. You've got to look at the guy next to you, look into his eyes. Now I think you going to see a guy who will go that inch with you. Your gonna see a guy who will sacrifice himself for this team, because he knows when it comes down to it your gonna do the same for him. That's a team, gentlemen, and either, we heal, now, as a team, or we will die as individuals. That's football guys, that's all it is. Now, what are you gonna do?"