30 From 96: My Favorite Films From 1996
Donāt get me wrong, I do like me a so-called āpopcorn movieā every once in a while. Everybody does. But letās face it, Hollywood cranks out these kinds of poorly scripted action bloated blockbusters at a rate that demonstrates that, if they could, this would be the only kind of lazily written crud they make. Strictly for the purpose of making money.Ā
And I know that there are some of you out there reading this that are defending them by saying āWell, making movies is a business ā. To which I say āYes, but it is the business of making movies first. If money was the first priority, then get into the financial business, which is the business of making money. The motion picture industry is about making movies, with the hope of making money. I understand that every once in a while, a film with less integrity will have to be released but shouldnāt be at the expense of the integrity of the entire medium.Ā
Ā I know that itās just my opinion, but people like Bay, who obviously make movies just for sake of making money (although he would twist it to say that they are made for āfunā), tend to hurt the foundation for creating cinema much more than they do anything positive for it.
Ā But, as the saying goes, I digress. Time for me to get off this high horse and focus on the fact that this is the entry for The Rock, one of Bayās earlier works in the action-adventure genre, and as a result, he wasnāt yet completely immersed in the fixed formula of making box office returns the absolute priority. Therefore, despite the sacrificed script, there is still enough fun in this flick to make the process of eating popcorn worth watching it.
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Ā So, in 1968, the ever competitive and Fab Four "evil" counterparts, the Rolling Stones decided to counter the Mystery Tour with a Rock And Roll Circus.
Featuring acts like Marianne Faithfull, Jethro Tull, Taj Mahal and the only appearance of the super group known as Dirty Mac. Originally meant to be shown on the BBC, the airing of this show was pulled by the Rolling Stones themselves, citing their own mediocre performance, however many believe that it may have been due to the Who, who's turn on the center stage upstaged the production.
The footage for this event was finally released in 1996 and provides a look into a slice of time that represents the beginnings of a shift in rock'n'roll history.
Whether it be John Lennon's foray into music outside of the Beatles, the Stones' separation from psychedelia or the Who's "changing of the guard", it was clear that the times they were a'changing.
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*Spoiler Alert*
Just like with Michael Bay, I'm don't find myself enjoyong too many of Steven Seagl's movies. Executive Decision is easily one of the few exceptions. And I think that maybe a large reason for that is because Steven surprisingly gets killed off pretty early in this flick.
Which made it alot more bearable for me to stay in my seat for the rest of the "flight". Not to mention that, despite the plot's standard premise and follow-up, ED is a pretty entertaining thriller. Decision is the rare type of formula flick that shows that even if Hollywood has pretty much run into a wall when it comes to this type of movie, they can still be escapingly enjoyable.
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In this one, Woody Harrelson plays a bowling prodigy who has been dealt a "bad hand", and sees within an Amish bowler (Randy Quaid) the kind of "lucky strike" that can put him back in the game. Hitting the road to Reno for a tournament with a big cash pot, their trip ends up encountering the kind of traversing troubles that make picking up a 7-10 split look like child's play.
And even though that might sound weird, the truth is, it's a pretty common occurence whenever a live-action person enters a peach the size of a house.
And if you don't believe, next time you see a giant piece of fruit, try it. See what happens.
In the meantime, I'll be here, logged on this site, waiting to tell you "See? I told you so".
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ladies and gentlemen....
Ā Selma Hayek.
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Ā Ā Okay, in all seriousness, I gotta upfront and honest here with you guysā¦
Ā IMHO, this movie is a tad bit overrated. Even on a B-movie level. And the main reason is because, we all know that this is not a B-movie. It is an A -level movie that is trying to capture the aesthetics that make a B-movie āsuccessful ā. And the truth is, what makes a B-movie successful is the fact that its aesthetics are a natural result of its lack of funding. When you have a budget that allows you to make the movie the way that you envision, the aesthetics are not really gonna be natural. In other words, From Dusk TILL Dawn is a movie that is trying to be something that it isnāt. At least, thatās the way I see it.
Ā So then, why do I include it on this list?
Ā Simply put, overrated does not mean that itās not good. For my own personal tastes, FDTD is good, just not great. Ā The combination of it manufactured aesthetics combined with the obvious clunky half & half genre mixing is what keeps it from reaching the heights of cult classicism thatās itās trying to achieve, but that said, itās still got the kind heart that makes its love for B level style cinema apparent. Its two separate halves, on their own, had the potential to be more than they were, but were hampered by the clumsy transition that separated the duo sides and left each story falling just short of reaching the payoff that is expected from each of the respective genres.
Ā But at least both the serial killing angle and the vampiric one were plots that were handled with the quality and care that can come from the Hollywood heavyweights (Clooney, Tarantino, Keitel, Rodriguez, etc.) that were involved in making this picture.
Ā As a balanced hybrid, Dusk is a mess. But as a Pulp Fiction crime story that gets rudely interrupted by a bloodsucking gore fest, itās full of popcorn laden entertainment that is topped off with theĀ sangre seductiveĀ allureĀ that is the sexy snake charmer known as Selma Hayek.
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Now those are the kinds of cats that I wanna see in a catfight.
MeOOOW!
along comes Wes Craven's Scream. It was an update to the genre that revealed that the murdering masked megamaniac is not so easily slayed.
Unfortunately, on the flip side, the sequel to this film is also what began the massive resurgence of the endless multitude of horror sequels that tend to crank themselves out in numbers more than the body count of victims.
The slasher franchises have suffered from such an over-used formula, that, when a feature like Scream comes along, with it's twist of self-reference and send-up, it has a feeling as though there is now new blood to be vigorously spilt.
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despite what Elaine says about this film,
The English Patient is definitely worth see worthing. At least, even more so than Sack Lunch, that's for sure. That movie was pure trash.
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My apologies to anyone who is not a Seinfeld fan and therefore hasn't got a clue as to what this entry is talking about.
Trees Lounge is a film that portrays an alcoholic (Steve Buscemi, who also makes his directorial debut here) and the kind of comfortable slide that prevents the drinker from seeing himself in the gutter that his habit is wading him into. Lounge effectively takes a more subdued look at the gradual deterioration that is the existence of someone who drinks too much and the end result is a more honest view at the slow downhill life that the demons in a bottle tend to inflict on the world of the steadily inebriated.
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After a series of life experiences which include unforeseen twists of fates, a young Frenchman (played by the always interesting John Malkovich) ends up as a soldier on the side of the Nazis at the outbreak of World War two.
After an additional set of turns that he would never have anticipated, he unexpectedly finds himself in a position in which he recruits children for the German cause. Thinking that by doing this, he is somehow protecting the young boys, he soon learns that the locals are of the opposite opinion, and instead of a protector, they regard him more as an "ogre" who steals their children away.
this list will self-destruct.
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With the release of That Thing That You Do, he was out to prove that he could direct too. And with an over-all 93% rating on that one spoiled fruit site that rates movies based on critics and audiences, he proved that he could.
You go, Tom Hanks! You do that thing that you do!
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Living "the life" means "la familia" of the mob gets priority over the family of your blood.
And making the life of "la familia" a family bizaness usually translates into the idea that the family that shoots together, dies together.
Next thing you know, whenever a big event that involves the relatives comes along, you won't be able to tell whether you're at a family reunion or at a family funeral.
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I guess, it's kinda like creating a fictional universe within a fictional universe.
With robots.
And when you think about it,
a science fiction flick probably couldn't get any more science fictiony than that.
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I was a big fan of MST3K from the beginning when it just a small TV show that came outta the Minneapolis area. And while this big sreen version didn't make much of an impact at the box office, the few weeks that it was showing at the local Cineplex, it was great to be able to laugh with with a movie theater full of fellow fans.
And while MST3K in no longer around, I still make it an effort today to catch it's "descendant" show, RiffTrax Live, whenever it hits the theater (which it does about three times a year).
It something that I look forward to just as much, and sometimes, even more so, than whatever big budget blockbuster event is going on for that month.
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Actually, as a courtroom drama, Primal Fear is just a so-so movie that gets pushed up a notch or two on the quality scale based almost exclusively on Edward Norton's stand-out debut performance. His switch on a dime acting, combined with his fresh unfamiliarity with the viewing audience is what primarily drives the twist ending of the plot's "proceedings", allowing the peripeteia* to achieve it's intended purpose of elemental surprise.
* Yes, that is actually a word. Look it up.
And as usual, it's the porn that wins.
![](https://list.lisimg.com/image/7378288/500full.jpg)
This is the rags to filthy x-rated riches story of adult magazine magnate and spokesman, Larry Claxton Flynt, Jr..
TPvLF follows his journey as he goes from the bootleggin' "backwoods" of Kentucky to the multi-million empire of smut-rags, and continues from his brief stint into religion to his wheelchair-bound transition to Beverly Hills (the city, not the porn-star with the same name).
With acting well above average from everyone involved, this is a sharp biopic that maybe lionizes it's lead character a bit too much but brings home the point of one's right to private satisfaction.
Free speech never felt so "wrong" and yet, so right.
![](https://list.lisimg.com/image/7382217/500full.jpg)
1996 was the year when Paul Anderson came onto the Hollywood field with Hard Eight. Three years earlier, in 1993, he had made a short 20 minute film called Cigarettes and Coffee. The story portrays the various results that can happen as a $20 dollar bill gets passed around to different people.
The film became a hit in the independent circuit and as result, Anderson was given the opportunity to direct his first feature film, which obviously, was this one.
Which goes to show, sometimes, you just gotta make your own luck.
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Mark Renton, played by Ewan McGregor in a breakthrough role, is a young opioid dependent living in the capital city of Scotland along with his motley crew of fellow addicts. Deciding to finally seek the path of a drug free life, he quickly comes to realize that sometimes, spotting trains can be funny, while at other times, it can be just downright dirt-grudgingly ugly.
And that "getting clean" is never easy, never quick and rarely does it last.
Yep, that's back when these two up and comers were both doing their thing as swingers.
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Ahnold as an "actioneer" with an intelligence that offsets the "simplicity" of his slanted pronunciation, and with a caring heart that belies the intimidation of his massive "terminator" physique. A story whose concept of a secret ring of do-gooders who were once do-badders has the potential, IMO, to be just as rich and far-reaching as any plot-lines based on a time-traveling, death-dealing uber-robot.
![](https://list.lisimg.com/image/2118858/500full.jpg)
As a result of that, each of my favorite 90's films lists so far includes at least one or more (most often more) movies that was made outside of the U.S. border and language.
That is, until I started compiling a list for the year 1996. I originally had a list of 30 movies, none of which featured non-English speaking scripts. So, before I made a final decision of putting that list up, I did some double checking on the internet, to make sure that I hadn't missed any. Turns out that I did.
La Promesse, a "small" Belgian movie about a boy who comes of age as he comes into his own moral identity, is not only the best foreign film that I watched back in 1996, but also, one of the best foreign films of the whole decade.
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A backwater murder mystery with outlying consequences in a remote spot of the big state of Texas, Lone Star is a shining moment in the long career of writer and director John Sayles.
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A trio of stop-motion shorts, each with a lighthearted British flavor that doesn't try to whack you over the head with it's look, humor or more importantly, with any kind of "universal life-lesson".
The adventures of Wallace & Gromit have a distinction from other stop-motion films that comes off much more subtle, yet, IMO, are more evenly consistent than their clay composed "competition". And as a result, these featurettes always tend to leave me not so much with a roaring laughter that other animated features try to shoot for, but more with a satisfying smile that is firmly set in place from beginning to end.
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Now while most 'em tend to teach through the use of a narrator, Microcosmos achieves this more through the use of special lenses which zoom into the world of insects with groundbreaking clarity. The focus is so sharp in this film, that all the usually unnoticeable tiny details ranging from the spikes on a mantis' claws to the massive looking drops of dew water take on a size and weight as to appear monstrous and/or alien.
To the point where I almost included this film on my Favorite Sci-Fi Films list.
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Following the build up that led to the famous "Rumble in the Jungle" heavyweight championship match between Muhammad Ali and George Foreman, it wasn't just the unique manner in which Ali strategically approached the bout that makes this movie stand out in it's category, but also the way Kings shows the kind of promotional heights, some good (the black Woodstock taking place in Zaire), some bad (Don King's rise as a promoter in the field), that were starting to result from the hype machines that lie behind these kinds of international events.
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God@mn.
Now, those are my kind of lesbians.
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A made man's "goomar" and a "Jane of all trades" meet, fall in love, and decide that they're gonna run away together. But before they do, there's some mob money lying around that could be easy pickins. So they formulate a plan. And as we all know by now, in the movies, plans never go according to plan.
That is, if, well, y'know....
her car doesn't need a jump or somethin'.
![](https://list.lisimg.com/image/1950050/500full.jpg)
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For my money, Billy Bob Thornton's break out performance, the portrayal of the mentally handicapped Karl Childers, is one of the most unique characters to come onto the silver screen in a long time.
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And BTW, after watching Sling Blade the first time, I went out and bought a can of potted meat, just to see of it's true what they say in this movie.
And gosh darn it if it isn't right there on label....it actually say's so right on the list o' ingredients..... "pork shoulders, lips, peckers & intestines....".
Hunh.
Go reckon.
- Ransom
- Courage Under Fire
- The Arrival
- The Whole Wide World
Other Fave Movies Lists By Year:
1970
www.listal.com/list/10-70-my-fave-films
1971
www.listal.com/list/15-71-my-favorite-movies
1972
www.listal.com/list/15-72-my-favorite-films
1973
www.listal.com/list/20-73-my-favorite-films
1974
www.listal.com/list/films-of-1974
1975
www.listal.com/list/20-75-my-favorite-films
1976
www.listal.com/list/20-76-my-favorite-films
1977
www.listal.com/list/20-77-my-favorite-films
1978
www.listal.com/list/20-1978-my-favorite-films
1979
www.listal.com/list/20-79-my-favorite-films
1981
www.listal.com/list/25-81-my-favorite-films
1982
www.listal.com/list/25-82-my-favorite-films
1983
www.listal.com/list/25-83-my-favorite-films
1984
www.listal.com/list/25-84-my-favorite-films
1985
www.listal.com/list/25-85-my-favorite-films
1986
www.listal.com/list/25-86-my-favorite-films
1987
www.listal.com/list/25-87-my-favorite-films
1988
www.listal.com/list/25-88-my-favorite-films
1989
www.listal.com/list/25-89-my-favorite-films
1990
www.listal.com/list/30-90-my-favorite-films
1991
www.listal.com/list/30-91-my-favorite-films
1992
www.listal.com/list/30-92-my-favorite-films
1993
www.listal.com/list/30-93-my-favorite-films
1994
www.listal.com/list/30-94-my-favorite-films
1995
www.listal.com/list/30-95-my-favorite-films
1997
www.listal.com/list/30-97-my-favorite-films
1998
www.listal.com/list/30-98-my-favorite-films
1999
www.listal.com/list/30-99-my-favorite-films
2000
www.listal.com/list/35-00-my-favorite-films
2001
www.listal.com/list/35-1-my-favorite-films
2002
www.listal.com/list/35-2-my-favorite-films
2003
www.listal.com/list/35-3-my-favorite-films
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