AV Club's top 50 movies of the 90s

[CountDeMoney]

10. Being John Malkovich
9. Rushmore
8. Unforgiven
7. Reservoir Dogs
6. Out Of Sight
5. Chungking Express
4. Dazed And Confused
3. Toy Story 2
2. Pulp Fiction
1. Goodfellas

Out of Sight is the one that strikes me as weirdest in that part of the list, good but not that good.

Yeah, I don't really understand their reasoning behind that one--"Soderbergh proved that sometimes the most experimental thing a filmmaker can do it try to make a commercial movie" 
I enjoyed Dazed and Confused, but I never understand its elevated "Big Lebowski-like" cult status;  I could appreciate it landing in the Top 50, but not the Top Ten.
Being John Malkovich, I can understand;  that's a Hollywooder's movie--appreciated more by the insiders than the outsiders.  I bet Kat's been to more than one wrap party where it's been raved about incessantly by the chablis-sipper industry types.

I know multiple people have mentioned Silence of the Lambs and 12 Monkeys, and they're good, but Silence is robust but not revolutionary, and 12 Monkeys isn't even Gilliam's best work of the decade, wedged between the better works of The Fisher King and Fear & Loathing.

Glad to see Rushmore made it, though.

Tomorrow: The list of orphans and outliers, where the cinema writers each champion four of their favorite films that didn't get enough votes to make the master list.

That should be interesting.  I'd like to think Man Bites Dog and Jacob's Ladder are wandering out there somewhere.

[CountDeMoney]

Did you ever watch Vera Drake CdM?  With your love of women's rights () I think you'd find it very interesting.

I will definitely check it out now. 

[frunk]

Yeah, I don't really understand their reasoning behind that one--"Soderbergh proved that sometimes the most experimental thing a filmmaker can do it try to make a commercial movie" 
I enjoyed Dazed and Confused, but I never understand its elevated "Big Lebowski-like" cult status;  I could appreciate it landing in the Top 50, but not the Top Ten.
Being John Malkovich, I can understand;  that's a Hollywooder's movie--appreciated more by the insiders than the outsiders.  I bet Kat's been to more than one wrap party where it's been raved about incessantly by the chablis-sipper industry types.

I know multiple people have mentioned Silence of the Lambs and 12 Monkeys, and they're good, but Silence is robust but not revolutionary, and 12 Monkeys isn't even Gilliam's best work of the decade, wedged between the better works of The Fisher King and Fear & Loathing.

I don't see a problem with Out of Sight.  It really is a great movie with one memorable scene after another.  Dazed and Confused I don't get.  I should have thought of Chungking Express though.  I like Being John Malkovich but I thought it had enough flaws that it would be overshadowed by Kaufman's better films from the 2000s.

I can see Silence not being in the top 10, I don't know how it didn't make the top 50.  I consider 12 Monkeys better than Fisher King or Fear & Loathing.  Fisher King tames some of Gilliam's wilder impulses and just isn't as crazy as I'd like, and Fear & Loathing is great at capturing the source material but the source material is a mostly incoherent mess so it isn't that interesting to me.

[Razgovory]

and I believe Fight Club should be in the Top Ten, if not damned near the top.  Revolutionary
I can see Gattaca making it, for a variety of reasons, from design to direction, to characters to the bigger picture of societal ethics and the human spirit
same with Shawshank Redemption (pure storytelling) and GoodFellas (archetypal mob flick)
I hope Man Bites Dog makes it;  goddamned, that movie is fucking hilarious on so many fucking levels
The Crossing Guard (a superb work in the two types of pain--guilt and loss--and ultimately in forgiveness)
Bad Lieutenant (pure character study and one of the greatest leaps for an actor, ever)
Rushmore, for obvious reasons
Dances With Wolves will be in there, probably, simply because it did "sprawling" so well, as well as Unforgiven, for reinvigorating the Western

See it's things like this that make me think you have soul after all.

[Eddie Teach]

I don't see a problem with Out of Sight.  It really is a great movie with one memorable scene after another.

The one with Clooney and J Lo? I've forgotten just about the whole thing. /shrug

[Queequeg]

I like The Game a lot more than Fight Club, but Game is basically Parallax View and The Magus in a blender, so I'm probably biased. 

American Beauty

That movie has aged worse than the peach I left in my lunchbag in my backpack for 6 weeks.   

The only thing Boogie Nights does better than Pulp Fiction is show off Heather Graham's body.

Any of Boogie's minor characters are more human than a central figure in Pulp. 

[Eddie Teach]

Any of Boogie's minor characters are more human than a central figure in Pulp.

Yes and Talladega Nights: the Legend of Ricky Bobby is funnier than The Godfather. So what?

[Queequeg]

Pulp Fiction is completely heartless.  It fails in it's one attempt at romance.  Can't be said of Boogie. 

[Eddie Teach]

I dunno, Pumpkin and Honey Bunny seem pretty cozy. 

But it's not that sort of movie. That's like faulting The Godfather for not being funny enough.

[Syt]

Pulp Fiction holds the distinction of being the only movie that, when I saw it for the first time, I had to watch it again right afterwards.

[frunk]

I don't see a problem with Out of Sight.  It really is a great movie with one memorable scene after another.

The one with Clooney and J Lo? I've forgotten just about the whole thing. /shrug

I've seen it enough times that I could probably reproduce the order of scenes pretty well, despite it jumping forward and backward through time.  It's a low key heist flick that's more about the circumstances leading up to the heist than the event itself.

[CountDeMoney]

I dunno, Pumpkin and Honey Bunny seem pretty cozy. 

I made the "any of you pricks move" line into a ringtone.   

[Josephus]

I see they mention that a single filmmaker has two movies in the top 10.  I'm guessing that Tarantino might be that filmmaker for Pulp Fiction and Reservoir Dogs.  Toy Story, Shawshank, even Gump are probably good bets.

Kudos for guessing Toy Story (albeit they picked the sequel in the top 10)

[Josephus]

The shaky camera, pseudo-documentary style really isn't done anymore.

No, it's not, but Blair Witch was still the genesis of the "You Are There" genre of horror that Paranormal and its ilk have followed.  There's a direct connection.

That Apollo 18 thing kinda had the same idea.

[Josephus]

Resevoir Dogs would be up in the top 20.  Pulp Fiction gets really dull in parts.

The Bruce Willis thing in the middle gets very boring

[yes I'm getting into this thread late.]