1999: The Best Year for Movies

[Josephus]

1994:

Pulp Fiction
Shawsank Redemption
Forrest Gump
Ed Wood
Lion King

Good list. Maybe I'll change my novel date to 1994. I was thinking of Guns n Roses Use Your Illusion 1 and 2 as the tail end of civilization as I knew it (Breakfast Club being the starting point) but Pulp Fiction might be a good end date too.

[celedhring]

I was in high school in 1994. I will wager and say that Tamas was in high school in 1999. So ultimately a lot of this will go down to "what year had a lot of good movies while I still was in my formative years". A lot of those movies in 1994 still dominated the conversation when I was in film school in the late 1990s, so they are etched in my personal history.

The Matrix was indeed the most imitated/parodied American film made in the 1990s... after Pulp Fiction 

[Tamas]

I was in high school in 1994. I will wager and say that Tamas was in high school in 1999. So ultimately a lot of this will go down to "what year had a lot of good movies while I still was in my formative years". A lot of those movies in 1994 still dominated the conversation when I was in film school in the late 1990s, so they are etched in my personal history.

I was just after high school in 1999

But of course this inevitably depends on once's formative years. But just look at the top 50 list linked a few posts from here. Show me another year when so many well-known movies were made.

[Duque de Bragança]

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.

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

1977 has also Slap Shot.  One of the best sports movie ever!
And a Bridge too far is not exactly a classic WWII Hollywood epic, it's British (too). Major film, of course.
Points though for naming Street Fighter the Movie for 1994. 

[Duque de Bragança]

I was in high school in 1994. I will wager and say that Tamas was in high school in 1999. So ultimately a lot of this will go down to "what year had a lot of good movies while I still was in my formative years". A lot of those movies in 1994 still dominated the conversation when I was in film school in the late 1990s, so they are etched in my personal history.

I was just after high school in 1999

But of course this inevitably depends on once's formative years. But just look at the top 50 list linked a few posts from here. Show me another year when so many well-known movies were made.

Just read this thread, try 1982 or 1977. I mean for 1999, the Mummy?  Eyes Wide Shut, a minor Kubrick?  Talented Mr Ripley? Plein Soleil, another take on the same story is better, despite being way older. OTOH, for 1999 you forgot Bridge of Dragons with Dolph Lungren and Hiroyuki Cary-Tagawa, a hilarious at time action vehicle. First Nu Image film shot in Bulgaria, talk about a milestone! 

[katmai]

Tamas you ignorant slut. You are wrong.

[Tamas]

Tamas you ignorant slut. You are wrong.

What do you know about films?!

[The Brain]

1999? lolwtf

[Tamas]

1999? lolwtf

You suck.

[viper37]

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

of course it was.  Lots of people thought the world would end on January 1st 2000, so they figured they released their best movies before that.

[Valmy]

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

of course it was.  Lots of people thought the world would end on January 1st 2000, so they figured they released their best movies before that.

How ridiculous. Everybody knows the world ended December 21, 2012.

[crazy canuck]

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

of course it was.  Lots of people thought the world would end on January 1st 2000, so they figured they released their best movies before that.

And we were not too far wrong.  The world as we knew it ended on September 11, 2001.

[frunk]

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...

I like 1994, but I think it gets crushed by 1999.  There are at least 4 animated movies in 1999 better than Lion King (Princess Mononoke, Toy Story 2, Iron Giant, South Park) and Forrest Gump is terrible.  Pulp Fiction is fantastic but that's the only one that arguably could be considered better than any other movie from 1999.  Shawshank is great but I wouldn't put it above Fight Club, Office Space or Princess Mononoke.  Ed Wood is also great but we aren't just rating based on the best movies from given filmmakers.

Other great 1994 movies:

Legend of Drunken Master
Hudsucker Proxy
Shallow Grave
True Lies
Clerks
Amateur
Cabin Boy (psyche!)

Still doesn't measure up.

[Duque de Bragança]

Other great 1994 movies:

Legend of Drunken Master

1994 in HK, years later in the West (2000 in the US?), as with HK movies back then, so arguably not 1994.

[frunk]

1994 in HK, years later in the West (2000 in the US?), as with HK movies back then, so arguably not 1994.

Fair enough.  I think I saw it in 2000.