30 From 97: My Favorite Films From 1997

  I remember that at the time that this movie came out, the bankability of what was expected from a top tier actor was reaching a fever pitch in the "hollow" eyes of Hollywood. It was because of this that all eyes were on the box office of Conspiracy Theory since the two leads actors, Mel Gibson and Julia Roberts, were, at the time, about as big as it got when it came to superstar names that had the ability to bring home the most amount of bacon.
 Yet despite its bountiful returns, this film still got a bad rep in terms of its overall quality of story and believability.



  Therefore, since word of mouth wasn't all that grand, I didn't bother going to see CT when it was in the theaters. I finally got around to watching it when it made its way onto the television screen, and TBH, I didn't think it was as bad as the detractors say it is.
  In fact, while I don't view it as a masterpiece of any kind (which, honestly speaking, really isn't something that I should have to mention in a standardly intelligent discussion about film, but, since this is the internet, I will say, just to cover my ass...), I actually found myself liking enough of it, that, even though it's not very high, it still has a ranking here on my list of favorite films from 1997.
  Which, if you've been paying attention, is the subject of what you are currently reading right now.

When I heard that a lot of the visuals of this film were gonna be based off the works of French comic-book illustrators Moebius and Jean-Claude Mézières, as a comic-book nerd, I was super stoked. I didn't just want to like The Fifth Element, I wanted to love it.
 And after watching it, speaking bluntly, I didn't.
  I was a bit disappointment by the avant-garde goofiness of the plot which, in my opinion, took away a lot of the depth that this movie shows signs of but only on the surface level. Because of this, I walked in expecting to experience a story with a much stronger structure that would hopefully relay a more cohesive point, and as a result, make for a combination that would match the grandness of the visuals.
 In other words, as good as this Element looks, story-wise, I was really looking for more.
 Based on the cult following that TFE has accumulated over the years, I guess that this wannabe space opera is just one of those examples of either you get it, or you don't. And obviously, I didn't.
 All that said, there is still an over-all creative beauty to this film that despite all of my objections, prevents labeling my reaction to it as a complete "dislike" to it. As I implied at the beginning of this entry, on the surface level, I still like it.
A lot.
But only as a friend.

 Princess Mononoke is an import from the island empire that is Japan that was rising in popularity outside of its borders throughout the late 80's and 90's and has become pretty much become its own genre when it comes to animated cinema. And like most of the anime motion pictures that cross over the oceans to reach our shores here in the United States, it's a pretty good one. 
  However, speaking honestly, when I first watched it, I thought it could've been better.  See, I saw Mononoke back when it was released in theaters. Back in the 90's, it was possible to watch an anime flick in a movie theater, as opposed to today, in the age of TV channel and streaming services, where it's practically unheard of. The only thing is, for this kind of nationwide distribution, these Japanese produced features were released not in their natural language but were dubbed in English instead, in order to try and attract as large of an American audience as possible. And the thing with anime entertainment, whether it was movies or television series, they had a habit of not putting very much money or effort into the dubbing department. 



  With names like Minnie Driver and Billy Bob Thornton in the credits, Princess appears to be one of the first few manga-based motion pictures that actually put some money into the process of translation. But, even if there was some money there, the end result hints very heavily that the effort wasn't as substantial.   Basically, what I'm trying to say here is that even though I enjoyed this as a movie that features mythological beasts and forest gods, gremlins and spirits, that focuses more on the adult sensibilities of its viewers, I probably would've liked it a bit more had I not been so distracted by the heavy accented (and IMO, the terribly miscast) voices of Billy Bob and Minnie in the English dubbed rendition. With the story taking place in some mystical ancient woodland from a historic period of Japan, hearing a character speak with Minnie's English inflection and Billy Bob's southern fried slant, doesn't fit the timbre of this thaumaturgy tale and to be quite honest, comes off as incredibly lazy.
  And yeah, I know that now, this doesn't have to be an issue since it more and likely that watching this or any other anime movie would be on either on DVD or streaming, and therefore, all one has to do is turn off the dubbing and switch on the subtitles, but I just feel that that had more effort been put into transitioning these types of animated adventure films for a mainstream audience, maybe the genre wouldn't still be so stuck within the limited boundaries of a niche market that it is in right now. As the saga of Mononoke shows, it is too much of a good and creative alternative to the big-budgeted Pixar/Disney formula to be in a container that small.

  They say what you don't know can't hurt you.
  And in this franchise, this applies to idea of aliens as well.
  Extra-terrestrials have not only touched down to Earth, they are living amongst us. And have been doing so for quite some time. So, how did we get by for so long without knowing?
The MIB, a secret organization that makes sure that unidentified flying objects remain unidentified and that extra-terrestrials remain "extra" (if that makes any kind of sense...).
   And for any of those Area 51 enthusiasts out there, don't get your pannies all in a bunch... it's not a conspiracy, it's for your own good. These black suited, dark spectacled agents know that if any of us average joes were aware of the fact that our humble blue planet has been being visited for years now, it would be too much information for mere Earthlings to handle.
  In short, to save us from being taken away by the men in white, we need the Men In Black.
  We just don't know it.



  Heck, as far as you know, a being from another planet could be typing these very words that you are reading right now.

   When the first Jurassic Park came out, it did monster business at the box office. Commercially and critically, it was probably Steven Spielberg’s biggest success since any of the Indiana Jones flicks. Probably two of the biggest factors in that success were the groundbreaking computer-generated images and the scientifically accurate script (obviously when I say, “scientifically accurate”, what I mean is accurate to the science of a fictionally conceived concept of reintroducing prehistoric dinosaurs to the world). Contradictory, those two aspects of the film were also two of the things that worked against the sequel. The CGI from the first film was such a visual stunner, that it was the surprise of seeing such realistic dinosaurs onscreen that attracted people to movie theaters to see Jurassic Park.   Yet after so many people saw it, not just once but multiple times, that meant that the visuals in the The Lost World lost some of its overall impact. The computer graphics were still amazing, they just didn't initiate the eye-popping oomph that results from seeing such imagery for the first time. 
  Also, the accuracy from the first trip to the Park led to a theme of logistics that was emphasized by Jeff Goldblum's character, Iam Malcolm. A professor of chaos theory, who's constant questioning of the logic, sensibility and overall practicality of bringing dinosaurs back from the "dead" was continually being validated throughout the chaos of the first adventure. To quote Prof. Malcolms near the beginning of the movie, "Your scientists were so preoccupied with whether or not they could, they didn't stop to think if they should". By the end of the movie, the argument of whether they should or should not, was pretty much summed up by the visual a giant T-Rex roaring amidst the rubble of one of the Park's museums as a torn promo banners falls to its feet. This is a symbol that would lean strongly towards a sense of "lesson learned" from the whole disastrous affair, which would prove as somewhat problematic for any kind of plot premise for a sequel.
But the wasn't enough to stop the money-making machine of movie making to try and meet the challenge. 
 The Lost World was that answer, but by the time the movie is over, the flaw to the movie's premise is only reinforced towards demonstrating that all those involved in the Park were blinded so much by greed that no lesson was learned even to the slightest degree.

Hey,
check it out....
I got a film, or an animated short in particular, that only lasts for five minutes on this list of what I think are the best flicks of 1997.
B'cuz as short as it is, it's that good.

With it's cinematic visuals and rich score, Kundun is a film that sounds and feels like a sweeping epic, but silently sneaks passed all the Hollywood hub-bub to leave it's mark under the radar as a beacon for those who are in a constant search for under-appreciated cinema.
Directed by the ever capable hands of Martin Scorcese, it's an illuminately layered biopic that covers several stages of the life of the 14th personage of the Dalai Lama. A life dedicated to the pathway of peace that is the heart of the Tibetan tradition, but which proves ineffective against the oppressive invasion of Communist China.

After the crumbling and desolation of the Soviet Union, ex-military clerk Danila must find a way to make it through the financially broken remnants of an emerging democracy. So he heads out to be with his brother in the "saint-lacking" city of Petersburg and enters into a world full of mob hits and treachery. And quickly discovers where the fine line is between surviving in an ineffective society and what is right and what is wrong.

The Ugly is one of those stories that relies heavily on it's ending to give it a distinction that separates it from others of it's kind. So, in order to prevent myself from revealing any spoilers, I should probably try to keep my comments about this flick as short as possible.



While the "job" of killing people "serially" is never a pretty one, here is a movie that shows that trying to live with the ghosts of those you've killed can get pretty ugly.

Sylvester Stallone was hoping to expand the roles he was doing with this movie. However, if I recall correctly, this film got so-so reviews, and I guess never got Sly's career rolling in the direction he wanted. Which is too bad, cuz I didn't think this was bad at all & also that Sly shoulda kept at trying new things ( which he didn't.... I mean, c'mon.... Rambo as an old man....?).
Ah well, maybe it's not too late for Vin Diesel or the Rock.

A Hitcthcockian style con-job film written and directed by critic and connoisseur favorite David Mamet.
The Spanish Prisoner referred to in the movie's title is a term used for identifying a mark in a certain type of confidence scheme. Featuring Steve Martin playing out of character as a protagonist of a mortiferous nature, it's a con game written with the intellectual lethalness that usually comes with a Mamet movie. And just like his first foray into flim-flam films, 1987's House Of Games, Prisoner is an elaborate shell-game that raises the stakes of the genre to a much more dangerous level.

I always wanted to know how to make rain.
So I watched this movie.
Turns out,
it's a courtroom drama, not a how-to on the subject of instigating precipitation from the skies.
I still consider it a good movie,
but it probably would've made it higher on this list if it's plot ran more directly along the lines of it's title.
Oh well, I guess I'm just stuck with a yellow lawn until Mother Nature finally decides to take piss.......

The real life story of the world's most famous shock jock and his the meteoric rise to the top of talk show radio.
And by "real life", what I mean is that it's true.
Who woulda thunk that a movie about Howard Stern's early life on the air woulda made for a pretty decent movie?
And by "decent", what I mean is that's it's not dirty.
At least, not as much as one would expect it to be considering it's about the self-proclaimed "King Of All Media".

  In the same manner that the first Scream movie reinvigorated the slasher genre a year earlier, the second Scream movie help to invigorate sequels to the slasher genre.  Except that now, these groups of movie installments were being called franchises. With the benefit being that movie goers didn't consider themselves fans of just one particular film, now they were fans of an entire film franchise.
  As a result, movie companies now felt an obligation to pump out chapter after chapter of a franchise with more of a guarantee that "fans of the franchise" will still flock to see 'em even if the any of the follow-ups fail to meet the standard that was set from the first one. And whenever a certain chapter in the series hits a lull, all the company has to do is "reboot" the series with a new first chapter and start the process all over again.



  To be honest, for me personally, it all comes off more as an endless cycle of movie marketing that is enough to make any serious connoisseur of the medium want to scream. Yet, despite the obvious money grab of the system, Scream 2 did turn out to be a successful slasher flick, in terms of both script and box office. Displaying a very vociferous self-awareness to its own formula, this is a sequel that shows that when it comes to this type of usually overwrought body-counting thriller, stabbing the story with a script that is just as sharp-edged as its killings can make screaming the second time around can be just as nice as the first time.

  Unfortunately for the genre, we live in a time when science fiction films are expected more to be star-faring vehicles of blockbusting escapism more than they are as cosmic catalysts for provoking thought. And the truth is, it was for the latter that the genre was invented in the first place.
 Gattaca is a film that goes back to the roots of what fiction written through the use of futuristic fantasy was originally dreamt for.
Set in the ever popular "not too distant" future, it tells the tale of a social system founded on the belief that genetic superiority is "valid" and the best means in which to effectively run a Dystopia.
 However, because of this, Gattaca failed to prosper financially in the same manner that three of the other significant sci-fi motion pictures that were also released in 1997, The Fifth Element, Men in Black, and Contact. And of those three, only Contact did a better job at delving into the thought provoking themes that make the genre of "fictional science" such an intellectually stimulating form of entertainment. And I know that saying something like that may make me sound like some kind of highbrowing hoity-toity cinema snob (that is part of the theme of this movie), but I don't care. 
It's the truth. 
 And sometimes, the truth hurts. Ot at the very least, looks down its nose on those who would prefer see Will Smith gallivanting around with a bunch of CGI spawned aliens than watching something that makes you bring your brain with you into the theater instead of leaving the poor thing at the door. Brains like watchin' movies too, y'know...

Here's a movie about the adult film business that features an actual adult filmstar in it, 90's porn icon, Nina Hartley.
And boy, lemme tell ya....
that Nina Hartley.....
if God could be embodied into the form of an ass,
it would definitely be hers.
Hell, just thinking about it is enough to make me want to wag the dog....

And speaking of which....



Just like my parents taught me, I've come to believe that "wagging the dog" was likely to leave a person blind.
And I mean that in a political sense, not a masturbatory one.
Seriously, though,
in this film the Dusty Hoffman teams up with De Nironator to prove that this duo combo of actors does not need to rely on the sophomoric use of the name of "Fockers" in order to provide a piece of quality cinema entertainment.
A satisfying and smart satirical spin on the process of the political art known as spin doctoring.

Being the new kid on the block is never easy. In the business world, being the new kid on the corporate floor is worse. Especially if you're just a "temp" at the lowest rung of the ladder.
Iris is an unambitious introvert who along with three other female temps in the employ of Global Credit Association band together as friends and as colleagues against the rest of the ladder climbers of their office building.
When word gets around that a mysterious thief is stalking the cubicles and stealing office supplies, Iris and her the "bosom" buddies start to feel the partnership between them put through the paper shredder. Torn between the survival of her job and the loyalty of friendship amidst the inter-office "scandal", she soon finds herself just trying to get through the day by watching the clock.

Wanna know how good Titanic is?
Because of this movie,
I have developed a lifelong hatred towards icebergs.
Also,
for a brief moment there,
this film actually had me believing that a man would actually allow himself to freeze to death in the icy ocean waters of the North Atlantic, just b'cuz he loved a girl so much that he couldn't bring himself to ask her if she could maybe scoot her fat ass over on the drift board just a little bit,
to make room for his skinny butt.

....godd@mn icebergs......!

Take a crime story out of the pages of those old detective pulp magazines from the 50's, the glamour of southern California scene back in it's heydey and mash it up with a revealingly gritty view of paparazzism, racism and corruptionism (uhmn...that's is a word, right?) along with a great cast of characters, whom almost all seem to share the lead role,
and you end up with an L.A. story that comes off as tough, fresh, modern and nostalgic, all at the same time.

  I've always been a sucker for British crimes cinema. Especially the ones that are chockful of twists and turns and which have such heavy cockney accents that I always have to turn on the subtitles in order to understand what it that they're saying (I also have to do a lot pausing as I look up on the internet what the meaning is of all of the slang terms that they keep using). My favorites are the ones by Guy Ritchie who, with pictures such as Snatch and Lock, Stock, and Two Smoking barrels, is often regarded as the king of these types of movies. Another fave is Layer Cake, which, in my personal opinion, is a watered-down version of a Ritchie crime thriller. And then there is this one, Face, which I refer to as a watered-down version of Layer Cake. It's not as twisty-turney as the Ritchies, and the dialogue isn't as sharp as those of Cake, but it is still a good one none the less. And I still have to turn on the subtitles to make out what they're all talking about.
  The plot centers around a caper gone good which then gets bad as, one by one, each of the perpetrators find themselves going down in a "murderous flurry of recriminations." It is situation that reveals a slope that continually steepens as it unravels, all the way down to the local police station and then culminates into an all-out shoot with the boys in blue.
  Face is a tight and terse turn-coating tale that shows that sometimes, crime doesn't pay. And at other times, in doesn't pay in spades.
Featuring a Brit Pack of actors such as Robert Carlyle, Ray Winstone, Phil Davis and a young and eternally beautiful Lena Headey, and Damon Albarn, frontman of the English superstar band Blur, thrown in for good measure.

A comicbook nerd/artist actually scores with a chick.
And not with just a "regular" chick, but more specifically,
he scores with a chick who is a lesbian.
And this comicbook nerd/artist not only scores with a lesbian,
but he scores enough with her to the point where she decides to switch teams.

Yeah.....
rright.

A small Canadian town is left emotionally reeling when a school bus has a fatal accident resulting in the loss of several of the local children.
An out of town lawyer, driven by his failure to protect his own daughter from the devastation of drug addiction, tries to convince the towns people to sue for a big settlement.
However, with the class action suit depending on the few kids who did survive, one of the primary (and potentially hopeful) witnesses, a now paralyzed 15 year old once budding music prodigy may have ulterior reasons for sitting in the witness chair.
Emotionally gripping from beginning to end, director Atom Egoyan (now is that a name or what?) reaches the pinnacle of his ability to intertwine the stories of different characters and their situations into one final restrained yet powerful climax.

Basically, The Apostle is just an excellent independent effort by Robert Duvall in an "engripping" tale of a troubled on-the-lam minister who finds a new ministry and as a result, a newfound chance at redemption.
Also includes great supporting performances by Farrah Fawcett and Billy Bob Thornton.

  There were quite a number of really good mobster movies that were released during the 1990's. Goodfellas (my 2nd. favorite of the genre, after the first Godfather flick), A Bronx Tale, Casino, Miller's Crossing, Bugsy, True Romance, and, of course, the third installment of the Godfather Trilogy (and yes, I do think it's a good movie despite what the popular opinion may be).  Al Pacino in the mob, but this time, on the opposite side of the hierarchy. A low-level aging hitman who can't get no respect. One of the few times Al gets to expand his acting muscles as opposed to just flexing 'em with a loud performance, which, over the years, has sorta become his standard.
For me, a great gangster movie isn't just about "whacking" people. It's when it shows the inner-most details of how the mob works. This one goes towards the very lowest part of the totem and shows us how the "cogs" grind thru a living in hopes of someday climbing that mafia ladder.

What Close Encounters Of The Third Kind did back in the 70's, this film takes to the next evolutionary step, in terms of the actual physics and concepts of an actual meeting 'tween us mere mortals and any life-forms from beyond.



For my money, Contact contains some of the best discussions of religion and atheism in any film ever made. It's depictions of the manner that things like general fear and politics can get in the way of a true quest for knowledge is both basely intelligent and comprehendibly poignant. This film's plot does a great job treading on the subject of how our society is constantly struggling between the comfort of what we already know and the confrontational truths about our species that can be revealed as result of the discovery of what is new, especially if seen through the "eyes" of a life-form that's a lot smarter than us.

  Here is a piece of independent drama that is a very stable movie that features a very stable script about a not so stable family. Directed by the one guy who directed the first Hulk movie, and starring a quality ensemble cast that includes that one bad-ass chick from the Alien film franchise, and that one guy from the very first Spider-Man blockbuster, who, coincidentally, throughout the running time of this story, is reading a comic-book about the Fantastic Four. And to be honest. I'm not exactly sure just how the theme of a comic book is supposed to fit into the story here, but since it is there, I just went with it. 



  Super-hero references aside, here is a Thanksgiving flick that, as far as Thanksgiving flicks go, this one might not be the most positive or inspiring, but let's be honest, Thanksgiving is a holiday when everyone gets together just to be reminded of how deep the level of dysfunction runs within the distended and extended parts of a family.
  Besides, there are so few Thanksgiving flix to begin with, let alone quality Thanksgiving flix, that this is probably a situation in which we should all just give thanks for the few, like this one, that we do have.
  And maybe your family isn't as effed up as the one in this movie (on the other hand, maybe your family is even worse). But, after viewing Ang Lee's The Ice Storm, you'll be left with the perfect feeling of indigestion, bitterness and hopeless depression that can only come after an over-bloated feasting of dead bird, pumpkin pie and thickly gelatinous cranberry sauce that retains its shape after it slides out of the can.

I've never really been into romance flicks all that much. The few that I do enjoy usually tend to have a sort of a sharp or jagged edge to 'em. And this one definitely does thru Jack's portrayal of a writer with "redrum" on his mind. At least, he does with the little dog during the opening sequence.
Nicholson eases thru the role of a crusty curmudgeon with psychologically-based anti-social issues (Is it just me or does it seem that the majority of Jack's most memorable roles always have something seriously askew upstairs? Or am I just being crazy?), and he does so with the insane-like smoothness of an actor who can do this stuff blindfolded.
Add the fact that, at the same time, he still manages to allow himself to genuinely deliver the kind of lines that make the ladies go "awwww...", therefore substantially increasing the chances of me "gettin' some" with my date on the night I saw this film, and it becomes easy to see why this is a romantic comedy that provides an end-result that can be pleasing to both males and females alike.

A great come back vehicle for Pam Grier,
Robert Deniro does an awesome job stretching hmself outside his usual Deniro persona,
Samuel L. Jackson, at the height of his career, is slicked-back and just downright evil,
and last but not least,
Bridget Fonda is perfect as a trouble brewing pot stewing "slacker-ho", not to mention that she simply looks fine as hell in this flick.
Oh, and the script ain't too bad either.

  Will Hunting is a troubled youth from the south of Boston who does an honorable job of working as a janitor at a very prestigious college. But that's not what makes him good.
 Will Hunting is a genius.
In the purist sense of the word.
   But, as super-duper smart as he is, he's not intelligent enough to see that he needs therapy. Or intelligent enough to keep himself out of jail. Or intelligent enough to hold onto a good thing when he's got one.
 In other words, despite his extraordinary talents, he's still human. And any human, particularly one with an abusive past, can walk around with a shadow that no one else can see. That's a simple kind of math that requires more heart than brains to figure out.



  I pretty much ignored Good Will Hunting when it first came out. I remember seeing the trailers for it, and even though I love me a good drama, I usually have to be in the mood for it. Seeing as to how Hunting seemed like a typical troubled teen type plot, there wasn't much shown that made me want to rush out and see it. Even after it was the film that finally got Robin Williams his first Academy Award. That, combined with the critical hype that keep buzzing long after the film stopped showing in theaters, I just didn't feel any kind of motivation to finally give this thing a watch.
   A couple of years after its release, I was out on a business trip, doing some work up in my hotel room. I decided to rent a movie off the hotel TV menu as I worked and noticed that GWH was one of the options available. I still wasn't jumpin' up and down about it, but I knew this was a good time to give this movie a looksee and see what all the hype was about.
Even though I wasn't surprised that it indeed was a good film, what I didn't expect was that it would end up being one of my top ten favorites of all time.
 But here we are.

 Matt Damon stars as an orphaned hard-hitting Southie street punk who pays the bills as a custodian but solves almost impossible mathematics for fun.

Robin Williams costars as a unambitious widower who teaches for a living, does therapy work as a side gig, and is blessed with a sympathetic ear.

  Both actors won Oscars for this movie, Williams for "Best Supporting Role" while Damon for "Best Original Screenplay".  The whole movie won accolades all across the board from various film award organizations and, from my point of view, it's one of those few that I feel definitely deserved 'em. But what this movie won that matters most for the purpose of this list is the number one position of my favorite films for the year.