My 40 Favorite Films of the 90's - 5- Reservior Dogs (1992)

Director: Quentin Tarantino

Writer: Quentin Tarantino

Starring: Harvey Keitel, Michael Madsen, Steve Buscemi, Tim Roth, Chris Penn

Reservior Dogs (1992;  Miramax Pictures)

The heist film is a classic genre with a long proud tradition of quality films.  Going all the way back to the silent era, the crime caper has been seminal in the action/thriller genres.  In 1992, Quentin Tarantino brought us Reservoir Dogs, a heist movie where the heist is only part of the story.  The core of the movie involves the interactions between a group of thieves hired to work a job for a local boss.  In an empty warehouse, the tough crew awaits their chance to meet up with their contractor, and finally split to leave this botch-job behind them, but nothing is that simple.  The entire job is a mess from the start, and while all of the hired men claim to be professionals, these guys do not work well together for the most part.  It all culminates in a series of disasters, betrayals and surprises that just make this a fun sit.  

The quality of this film comes down to a few key points.  First off, you have Tarantino’s trademark fast, witty banter and it is top-notch here.  The often funny dialogue and perfectly distinct personalities of the characters makes this film flow smoothly.  For a flick that takes place almost entirely in a mostly-empty warehouse with only a few interactions at a time, Dogs really never feels slow or flat.  It comes down to the dialogue and execution.  Second is the way violence is used in the movie.  While all of Tarantino's films are violent, unlike Kill Bill, which revels in it's 70's exploitation ways, Reservior Dogs' bloodier scenes are disturbing and really nail home the personalities of the characters involved.

There are a few notably memorable scenes, too, arguably the most famous of which involves Madsen, duct tape, a straight razor and Stealer’s Wheel.  If you know the scene you know this movie.  If you haven’t seen this famous movie moment, do not just go watch the one scene.  Instead, seek out Reservior Dogs in full and watch it through.  It isn’t a long movie, but it is a fun quotable, delightfully-exploitative and gritty picture full of everything Tarantino does best, all presented with a snappy screenplay and a spot-on cast of great actors in their prime.

My 40 Favorite Films of the 90's - 6: The Silence of the Lambs (1991)

The Silence of the Lambs (1991; Orion Pictures)

Director: Jonathan Demme

Writer: Ted Nally adapted from the novel by Thomas Harris

Starring: Jodie Foster, Anthony Hopkins, Ted Levine

I gave a nod to one of Demme’s other great 90’s classics Philadelphia previously on this list.  While Philadelphia was an excellent film with a career-changing performance for its star Tom Hanks, it did lack one thing, a really good villain.  For that matter....  Why don’t we just have two?!

The Silence of the Lambs is the story of a young FBI academy member named Clarice Starling who finds herself entangled in an investigation into the disappearance of a girl.  Believed to be the work of a serial killer who calls himself “Buffalo Bill”, the very desperate federal agency forces the nervous yet bright young Starling to interview yet another, far worse, killer: the cannibalistic psychopath Hannibal Lecter.  The hope of which being she would be able to appeal to him for a profile to aid in the apprehension of Bill, and the rescue of the missing girl.  

In hindsight it’s easy to miss, but The Silence of the Lambs was a very important demarcation point in procedural filmmaking.  Most commonly, the perspectives in these sorts of movies were fixed.  We would see events from one character, or at least from one side of an investigation.  This is in the vein of the classics of Agatha Christie, who crafted her tales in such a way to keep the reader guessing and involved in the mystery.  The Silence of the Lambs takes things in a different direction.  Instead of being trapped on one side of the struggle, or even being a fly on the wall, the story is told from a rather omnipotent perspective.  We see Clarice being called in to work on the case, we see the creepy and famous scene of her walking to the end of the "dungeon" to find an unsettling image of Lecter waiting stiffly for her arrival, but then we see a girl trapped in a well, we see an insane man dressing in drag and dancing almost comically in front of a mirror, and we even get some perspective from Bill’s dog!  The goal here is to craft a story from all of the facts simultaneously, dropping them all in at once, and all the audience can do is hope and wait.  It answers the question of whether or not you would WANT to know what happened, even if everything did not turn out alright.  

This is a film built entirely on the performance of Hopkins as Lecter.  Aside from the standard serial killer plot that wraps the film, this character is the image and identity of this movie.  Even those who have never seen Silence of the Lambs, any of the other Hannibal Lecter movies (not recommended) or the recent TV show, likely knew who Lecter was by reputation.  He has become the standard by which movie villain performances are measured, and for good reason.  Hopkins’ Oscar-winning performance sold this movie.  The plot is actually quite ludacris, Buffalo Bill is insane in a rather comical way and much of the cinematography is flat, except for a few notable scenes.  No.  This is about Lecter.  Hopkins’ performance is so good in this movie, that not only is he the lynchpin here, but his portrayal of the mad doctor makes it nearly impossible to really enjoy any other cracks at the character from other performers, and for me this includes Mads Mikkelsen, who is good, but nowhere near this good. 

My 40 Favorite Films of the 90's - 21 - Fargo (1996)

Fargo (1996; Polygram
Filmed Entertainment)

Directors: Joel and Ethan Coen

Writers: Joel and Ethan Coen

Starring: Frances McDormand, William H. Macy, Steve Buscemi, Peter Stormare

The Coen Brothers have been appeared on my list numerous times thus far and Fargo marks their final film featured in this series.  Fargo is a twisted black comedy from two filmmakers who know how to direct the most disturbing things in such a way that they are actually funny.  This is not uncommon, but what makes Fargo work so well is its tone.  The film itself seems rather condescending towards its own characters, which is strange and, for some, off-putting. However, I find it to simply add to the humor already on display.

The film centers on a small town family man named Jerry (Macy) who, motivated by a personal financial crisis, pays two thugs to kidnap his wife for a ransom he intends to collect.  However, when the hired guns (played by Buscemi and Stormare) botch the kidnapping significantly, resulting in a triple homicide, they are forced to push up the time frame and get the job over with so they can get out of town.  What they did not count on was a smart and unrelenting small town sheriff named Marge (McDormand) who, despite being very, very pregnant, is hot on their trail.  

Fargo is a film that can be interpreted in any number of ways.  Typically, in a film like this, the Keystone Cops trope takes hold, and things go haywire, but ultimately a mess is left.  I see the Coen brothers playing with expectations here.  The idea of the smart cop running a tight ship in a small town in North Dakota is not entirely unbelievable, however film cliches dictate that if you are not a big city cop in a trench coat, you are bad at your job.  Here we have a movie that could have easily played it safe, keeping things very simple and doing nothing fresh and it would have still been a funny romp of a crime flick.  Yet, the Coen brothers transform what would have been (in likely any other hands) a completely generic murder flick into something clever and unique.  

Other elements that are open to subjective opinion are the details of what exactly Jerry is really trying to pull.  We know he pitches to his boss (who is also his father-in-law) that he wants money for a “lot”, possibly intending to start his own auto dealership, but there is also a running subplot involving him being unable to verify a list of serial numbers for some merchandise.  The widely-accepted opinion regarding this is that he was, in some way, involved in fraud, and is possibly responsible for embezzlement.   This is never clearly fleshed out, however.  Many of the details of whatever he is involved in are provided, but there is no overt exposition, and it as a result, the audience is never entirely sure what Jerry wants the money for, and why he was willing to go to such lengths to get it.

My 40 Favorite Films of the 90's - 22 - Seven (1995)

Seven (1995; New Line Cinema)

Director: David Fincher

Writer: Andrew Kevin Walker

Starring: Morgan Freeman, Brad Pitt, Kevin Spacey

I have already featured two of Fincher’s films on my top 40.  He is a talented director with a standout voice.  After heading his first feature, Alien 3, in ‘92, this music video director needed a challenge.  Seven was a pretty obvious screenplay, taking the episodic structure of “this many of this thing is going to happen over this period of time”, giving a moody, grim and violent tone and putting two opposing styles of detection in the same room together to solve the case.  From the screenplay, you would think there was not an original idea in there.  However, this is no ordinary procedural.  Seven is more than a crime thriller, it is a study in the psychology of a killer, and as a movie, it is an examination of how subtle techniques in filmmaking paint a deeper image of the story that you may not even know you are seeing.  It delves into the mind of the villain long before we see or even hear him, and we can almost see his face in every scene leading up to the character’s introduction.

When an attorney is found facedown in a bowl of spaghetti, force-fed to death, a series of other strange crimes begin to occur, each one tagged with one of the Seven Deadly Sins, as taught in Catholic literature and explored in classical writings like The Divine Comedy and Paradise Lost., of which the killer deemed them guilty.  Morgan Freeman plays Det. Somerset, a soon-to-be-retired veteran who is known for his “over-analysis”.  He is tagged to show his replacement the ropes, and it turns out he is to be succeeded by an overzealous and occasionally petulant younger detective named Mills (Pitt).  Initially unwilling to take the case as he felt it would never end, Somerset is stuck trying to solve the murders as Mills and his wife slowly begin to break Somerset’s tough exterior.  However, this is a crime with a counter, and the killer will not give up until at least seven souls are punished for their sins.

Like so many of Fincher’s films, Seven has a great ending.  It is a film that actively involves the viewer, drawing them into the events as they unfold.  Concentrating makes you feel the tension and stress of each scene.  An air of dread fills every room, hall and street as Fincher plays games with your brain by choosing very specific levels of lighting and ambiance to match each moment in the script.  Every line of dialogue matters, every drop of rain is deliberate and the moments of slow dialogue bring some of the ambiance to a haunting silence, as though you did not notice it until it was gone.  All of Fincher’s subtleties executed here make Seven a stunning example of filmmaking.  Aside from it being a good movie, it is a good point of study for the psychology of film, in how sights and sounds effect the audience.  In a way, a movie hypnotizes you into feeling or thinking a certain way about a character, and the more subtle, the better.  Seven is on my list, not only because I think it is an excellent thriller, but also because it is an exceptional exercise in suggestion from a master of his craft.

My 40 Favorite Films of the 90's - 24 - Misery (1990)

Misery (1990; Castle Rock Entertainment)

Director: Rob Reiner

Writers: Stephen King (Novel), William Goldman

Starring: James Caan, Kathy Bates

Rob Reiner used to direct good movies.  He does not do that anymore, and has had a rather bad track record since the mid 90’s, really starting with the dreadful bane of my existence that is North.  That said, during the 80’s and early 90’s he had a good run, and Misery is one of his best directorial works, lagging just behind the powerful A Few Good Men, the charming When Harry Met Sally and the fan-favorite fantasy The Princess Bride.  Reiner has a knack for visual style and Misery has a really cool idea behind it, focusing the camera mainly in a series of wide shots of a single room, putting the audience in the shoes of a man who is royally screwed, although, at least he is not the poor guy from Audition.

Misery follows the story of an author named Paul Sheldon.  After being injured in a car accident, Sheldon is nursed back to health by a woman named Annie who turns out to be a crazed fan.  Under her care, Sheldon is stuck in his present state, with nobody knowing where he is, and thus begins to finish the last novel of his beloved series in a bed in her cabin.  However, when Annie discovers his intent to kill off her favorite character, her already present insanity turns into utter rage, with events that build and tension that has a steady climb over the course of the film.

Misery is freaking terrifying.  It is not the lazy sort of horror with things jumping out at you shouting “BOO!”  No, this is a story where you are meant to empathize with Sheldon as an artist and a victim.  He cannot leave, he cannot fight her, he is almost entirely helpless through most of the film, and Annie knows it.  She has complete control over him, and as events play out, her attempts to keep him there to “fix” the story become more and more desperate, and violent, and a feeling of dread slowly fills the air over the course of the film.  It is a helpless situation that is elevated thanks to two very excellent performances from two superb talents.  Reiner’s direction goes a long way as well, with wide angle shots that appear as Sheldon’s perspective of the room, which has this strange effect of seeming smaller and smaller as the film goes on, and the low angle shots of Annie, stiffly towering over the severely injured man give a sense of intimidation very early in the movie, really before Annie even does anything all that crazy.  This is a creepy story executed flawlessly thanks to three talents in their prime.

My 40 Favorite Films of the 90's - 30 - The Game (1997)

The Game (1997; Polygram Filmed Entertainment)

Director: David Fincher

Writers: John D. Brancato, Michael Ferris

Starring: Michael Douglas, Sean Penn

The Game is the first film by David Fincher to appear on this list.  The story revolves around a wealthy businessman named Nicholas Van Orton who seems to have lost his way, at least in the eyes of his brother, Conrad.  For Nick’s birthday, Conrad gives him a pass for a company that provides a strange role playing game that is interweaved into the "player's" daily life.  He reluctantly follows through with the gift and what follows is a bizarre, twisting and dark series of events where you never know what is truly real, and what is all part of the game.  Along the way, he meets a woman who becomes an unexpected ally through the course of events.

By the time The Game was released, David Fincher had already established himself as a talented filmmaker with his 1995 film, Seven.  His dark, complex cinematic style has become a trademark and his talent for weaving together complex ideas into solid and cohesive stories is undeniable.  The Game is an extremely deep fantasy, where the real world seems to disappear into the background as the events become more and more bizarre.  The interesting aspect of The Game is how the story is told.  We experience the events almost solely from the perspective of the protagonist, where rarely a single scene goes by where Nick is not present, so the audience experiences the threatening “game” exactly as he does.

The distinct style of Fincher begins to mature in this film.  The dark imagery, the creepy use of things like clowns and more abstract images like formless shadows and even the simplest reflections on stone walls are used to create a dreamlike atmosphere.  The mood of the film is easily its biggest strength.  It is unsettling, and this sense of unease throughout is palpable and effective.  Michael Douglas gives a good performance as a man who transforms through the film, starting off as a cynical and almost bitter man.  As the film goes on, and the game becomes more and more unnerving, we experience this arc with him.  Survivalist instincts take over and we see this in Douglas’ most subtle actions and expressions.  It is a great performance from a seasoned actor and it only adds to the strangeness of the events, as we can read his response and mimic him sympathetically.

The first time sitting through The Game is quite the experience.  It really is not the kind of movie that holds up to countless re-watches, however, because once we see the end, there really is no journey anymore.  Still, a new watcher of this film will likely find themselves puzzled, captivated and excited about the unfolding story.  This is a must-see for fans of complex films and puzzling mysteries.

My 40 Favorite Films of the 90's - 33 - Falling Down (1993)

Falling Down (1993; Warner Bros. Pictures)

Director: Joel Schumacher

Writer: Ebbe Roe Smith

Starring: Michael Douglas, Robert Duvall, Barbara Hershey

Have you ever had a bad day?  I mean a really, really bad day?  Well, William Foster had a bad day in 1993.  Falling Down is about one man’s travels through Los Angeles in the middle of a heat wave where he faces many of societies ills and decides he will deal with them in his own vigilante style.  That style, however, turns into an increasingly violent rampage as he essentially threatens his ex-wife about coming to “see his daughter on her birthday”.

The film opens with Michael Douglas sitting in his car on the freeway, stuck in a traffic jam in the smoldering Summer heat.  He makes the rash and uncalculated decision to up and abandon his vehicle and this begins his journey.  As he travels the city he crosses street gangs, Nazi sympathizers and cynical fast food workers, and as he moves from place to place, his ultimate destination being a visit to his daughters’ home.  Along the way, he exacts revenge of sorts on those who he deems to be “problems” in society.  He is the living embodiment of that frustrated feeling you get while driving behind a complete idiot on the road multiplied by one hundred.  He is society’s rage and bitterness and violence all rolled into a simple, psychotic package.

Michael Douglas nails it in this movie.  I would go so far as to say, this is my favorite performance of his entire career.  He hits the nail on the head with the mood swings, the sudden swing from rational to utterly mad, and as the day goes on, he becomes more and more dangerous.  My favorite scene in the film is actually one of my personal favorite film scenes period.  It takes place in a fast food restaurant and I really do not want to ruin it so just watch this movie, even if only for that one scene.  Douglas’ acting here is laugh-out-loud funny and more than a little disturbing.

The supporting cast is good here, though most characters are only in the film for a brief time as they are archetypes that Foster is forced to deal with.  The main supporting character is the obligatory “one-day-before-retirement” detective, obviously played as a gag on the cliche.  Detective Pendergast is acted with energy and a contrasting level of self control by the super-talented Robert Duvall, who can give a performance in a local car dealership ad and it would be Oscar material.  

The typical cat-and-mouse plot is actually only secondary, however, as the crux of the film is focused on an array of societal issues like racism, gang violence, and even the simplest acts of selfishness.  Foster is the Id.  He is the first, unfiltered, violent, extreme that one with no moral compass or social filter would become while surrounded by the things he or she despises.  Of course, he is also a caricature of judgement from On High, as he hands out the best punishment he can, even if it is him simply yelling what we are all thinking while wielding a machine gun.  

Falling Down is a brilliant work of social satire told with wit and from a surprisingly non-biased position.  It is a clever idea executed very well.  Now, about the execution: Did you note the director’s name?  Yep.  This is from the man who directed one of the most despised movies of all time: Batman and Robin.  Do not let that fact spoil this, though.  Falling Down is great fun and, despite being a little over-the-top, is actually even a little cathartic as it is a reminder that maybe you are not the only one who is “sick and tired”.

My 40 Favorite Films of the 90's - 34 - Jurassic Park (1993)

Jurassic Park (1993; Universal Pictures)

Director: Steven Spielberg

Writers Michael Crichton, David Koepp

Starring: Richard Attenborough, Sam Neill, Laura Dern, Jeff Goldblum

Here is an obvious one!  Jurassic Park is Spielberg’s very well-made adaptation of Michael Crichton’s novel.  Considered unmakable at the time, this movie was a tremendous undertaking.  The film had a massive budget, loaded with huge sets, large-scale animatronics, scientific advisors and some of the best computer animation the early 90’s could offer.  However, despite its lowered expectations due to skepticism given the scale of the production, the film nearly made its entire $63 million-dollar budget back on its opening weekend in June of 1993 (sources: imdb.com, the-numbers.com).

Jurassic Park tells the story of an eccentric billionaire named John Hammond (Attenborough) who opens a theme park populated by genetically-engineered dinosaurs.  A group of scientists and specialists, as well as Hammond’s grandchildren, arrive at the island park for its dry run, only they were not expecting a dangerous tropical storm and a slimy hacker to cause a lot of trouble for the awed visitors.  What transpires is a high-tension monster movie filmed with a lot of love for the material.  The money also shows on screen, with big sets and convincing effects.  One downside of the movie I would say is how Spielberg uses the night setting and the tropical storm to obscure some of the technical limitations, giving the movie a dark, occasionally colorless look.  It is a monster flick, though, but it is important to know that the dark imagery standard set in the 70’s was also to hide effects and makeup, so take from that what you will.

The acting is fair, with Ariana Richards giving a solid performance as the Hammond’s granddaughter, Lex.  However, she has not appeared in much outside of some B-movie material.  Laura Dern, Attenborough, and Jeff Goldblum are all quite good in their lead roles and Wayne Knight and Samuel L. Jackson give entertaining supporting performances in the few scenes they are in, and over all, there are no performances that come off as stilted or annoying, as is often the case with Spielberg's films, especially from the child actors who appear in his movies.  That said, Sam Neil is good with his lines but he really seems to be sleepwalking through the movie and his character Dr. Alan Grant only seems to exist to provide exposition about the dinosaurs.  

All-in-all, Jurassic Park is not a flawless movie, but it is an entertaining one.  It has some good effects work, some pretty tense moments and a few quotable lines.  There was effort here, and sometimes that is all you need to put something fun on screen, and despite all of the effort to make a big effects movie, Spielberg is usually pretty good about keeping the focus on the characters, which he does do here.  You never feel disconnected from the action and there is a sense of dread and fear for the lives of the park’s patrons.  You can not really go wrong with this material either, I mean it is a T-rex chasing a jeep in the rain.  That is so badass.

My 40 Favorite Films of the 90's - 35 - L.A. Confidential (1997)

L.A. Confidential (1997; Warner Bros.)

Director: Curtis Hanson

Writers: Brian Helgeland,  Curtis Hanson

Starring: Guy Pearce, Russell Crowe, Kevin Spacey, Danny DeVito, Kim Basinger

Curtis Hanson’s film adaptation of James Ellroy’s novel is an exploration of politics and corruption in the Los Angeles Police Department in the 1950’s.  Focusing on the investigation of a multiple homicide at a diner, the story reveals the investigation of this brutal crime from four perspectives: A sleazy tabloid writer and his LAPD celebrity detective ally, a crooked cop, and a young idealist.  The murders seem to lead in many different directions including a group of teens who abducted an Hispanic girl, a corrupt cop’s illicit dealings and a brothel specializing in celebrity lookalikes.  

Putting a simple label on the plot of L.A. Confidential, I would say it is a study of how corruption leaves death in its wake as it corrupts as many as it can in its path.  It shows us how the few corrupted by power can bleed everyone beneath them for more of that power and how even the most just men can be seduced by the promise of a medal, a photo-op and a prestigious label.  However, the story is much more complex than a simple few sentences can describe.

The interweaving stories are set into motion after a detective named Dick Stensland is identified as a victim in the dining shooting.  Edmund Exley (Guy Pearce) is a young cop who wants to keep the investigation on the up and up, but he is constantly in conflict with the violent and trigger happy Bud White (Russell Crowe), Stensland’s former partner.  White finds himself caught up in a part of the investigation leading to an illicit escort service through a romance with a call girl named Lynn (Kim Basinger).  A media-hungry celebrity cop named Jack Vincennes (Kevin Spacey) uses his considerable connections to pull his weight in uncovering who was truly behind the killings.  Misdirections and dead ends abound in the investigation, as the officers are constantly deceived by everyone, including people in their own department.  Ultimately, the investigation leads to answers that get Exley and White in deeper than they had ever expected.

The film benefits from a considerable supporting cast including Danny DeVito, David Strathairn,  James Cromwell, Matt McCoy and Ron Rifkin and while it does tend to meander about quite a bit, it has a solid screenplay.  The branching plotlines tend to veer a little too much at times and there are way too many characters, many of which ultimately have little-to-nothing to do with the actual plot.  Obviously attempting a film Noir style, L.A. Confidential misses many of the key elements of Noir.  The narration is told to us through the perspective of tabloid writer Sid Hudgens, who is not directly involved with any but one of the major characters, so we are not able to get the traditional Film Noir introspection on first impressions of characters and events.  In fact, of the numerous characters in the film, there are several that could have made a better narrator than Hudgens and there would have still been issues with perspective.  

Needless to say, L.A. Confidential is not a perfect film.  It is an entertaining movie though, full of elements you would expect from a mid-20th century mystery film but with much more sex, drugs and violence thrown in the mix.  It has a rough edge to it that makes it cast a shadow over the idealized 1950’s of classic cinema and the performances of Pearce, Spacey and Crowe make up for any plot detours and slow pacing.  It is a solid procedural piece told with an aggressive style and lot of polish.  

My 40 Favorite Films of the 90's - 37 - Ransom (1996)

Ransom (1996); Touchstone Pictures

Director: Ron Howard

Writers: Richard Price, Alexander Ingon

Starring: Mel Gibson, Gary Sinise, Rene Russo, Delroy Lindo

This one will be a little shorter as Ransom is a rather straightforward movie.  Ron Howard was on a roll for a few years there, directing some really solid films in the 80’s and by the mid-90’s, thanks largely to the success of Apollo 13, Howard had become one of the biggest directors of his day.  He continues to establish himself as a reliable, talented filmmaker capable of bringing great performances out of actors and taking a story from the biggest idea to the simplest one and making it captivating on screen.

Now, how do you follow up a modern historical epic like Apollo 13?  Howard’s very next film was a simpler project called Ransom.  It was no special effects extravaganza nor was it even really all that bombastic, it was a simple story told naturally through solid direction and good performances.  Sometimes, it is easy to get caught up in the idea of a “blockbuster” that we forget that, every once and a while, the simplest stories can be the most powerful.

Ransom is the story of a wealthy father and mother named Tom and Kate Mullen (Gibson and Russo) whose son, Sean, is kidnapped during a city science fair in New York.  What follows shows us two sides of a gripping story.  We focus mainly on the perspective of the parents who mostly remain at their apartment, surrounded by police and negotiators working to bring their child home safely.  On the other hand we get into the minds of the kidnappers as well.  Instead of doing the typical Hollywood shtick of the faceless bad guys, we get very human kidnappers who are all very bad people, but they are still people nonetheless.  The small gang of villains is led by Gary Sinise, who is intense as Hell portraying a violent, corrupt detective named Jimmy Shaker, who is looking to make a payday off of the parents’ fear of their young boy’s death, but is also motivated by a personal vendetta against the Mullens.

What makes this movie work is, as the story goes on, and the police (led by the excellent Delroy Lindo) begin to look more and more incompetent, Tom takes it upon himself to offer his own ransom for the safe return of his son, turning the tables on the negotiations entirely.  The intensity of Gibson and Sinise squaring off indirectly over the safety of Sean is powerful stuff.  These are two actors who can really be both intimidating and forceful on screen, and the conflict between one father’s rage versus the villains’ greed is a major factor in why I like this movie.

Ron Howard does a good job guiding each scene with a rhythm and a nice pace so that the film never feels to stagnant.  Even scenes of the parents waiting for a phone call are filled with tension and each performance reflects that building pressure while never becoming emotionally-manipulative.  We empathize with the parents’ fears because they are fears we can understand.  This is not like Commando where a child is at risk but we are ensured their safety with the promise of a heroic rescue.  Ransom is pretty realistic in how it approaches its story, and there is a constant threat of tragedy throughout the film.

My 40 Favorite Films of the 90's - 40 - Audition (1999)

Audition: 1999; Basara Pictures

Director: Takashi Miike

Writer: Daisuke Tengan

Starring: Ryo Ishibashi, Eihi Shiina

Kicking off this list of my 40 favorite movies from the 90's is one of the hardest sits of my life.  I watched Audition shortly after its release and was disturbed, disgusted, shocked and yet I loved every minute of it.  I will not hold back in saying that Audition is easily one of the most disturbing films ever made as director Takashi Miike is a master of sensory filmmaking and with films like Gozu and the Happiness of the Katakuris he blends different visual and tonal ideas, all having a certain visceral feel to them.  Audition is built upon a very simple, yet structural, use of tension and as it grows and grows the events in the movie become even more disturbing, revealing one of the most hard-to-watch final acts of any film I have ever seen.  

The plot follows a widower named Shigeru (Ishibashi) who is convinced by his brother to hold a fake audition for musicians, with the true intention being to find a new wife for the lonely man.  The one perfect girl, Asami (Shiina), seems so beautiful and so sweet to Shigeru and we get the same impressions of her from the start.  However, this expectation is promptly crushed as the film progresses and, at the start of the 2nd act, we finally get a glimpse into just how disturbed she really is.  The conclusion of this film is a prolonged, slow and quiet torture scene, where we can hear and even feel the acupuncture needles going behind the eyes and the piano-wire sawing Shigeru's feet off.  It is all done in graphic detail and with a shocking level of intimacy, especially in the sound production, which is some of the best in the horror genre.  Every sinew, every severed vein, ever prick and prod is heard over a deafening silence, otherwise only broken by a heavily-drugged and nearly-paralyzed Shigeru’s stifled cries of pain and Asami’s gleeful yet eerily-soft singing.

Now, despite its disturbing premise and final scenes, Audition is a beautiful film.  It is all very soft and delicate, with lots of close shots and lingering scenes that do not feel dragged out, instead they all add to the boiling pot.  There are a few scenes in particular that are framed just beautifully.  Long shots down a dark hallway lit in the foreground by a soft blue fluorescent light, and beautifully-framed scenes of silhouette and interior scenery that are surprisingly not boring.  Miike is very good at visual tone, and he uses the cold, sterile fluorescent lights of Shigeru's life to contrast with the warmer golden of Asami’s.  It is meant, I believe, to be a siren’s song for the audience, as though she can bring warmth and color to his world again.  We know in the end, however that this will not happen.

My 20 Favorite Movies for Halloween

20 - The Sixth Sense -
M. Night Shyamalan’s third film is easily his magnum opus, a film so simple yet so powerful that it has regularly been held up among the greatest films of all time.  Everyone tried to argue that they figured the ending out, and they all were liars.  I had a few guesses but the surprise ending here was so out of nowhere that the hints to the ending made throughout the film did not even seem like hints until the end.  The film also launched the short but lucrative A-list run for its star Haley Joel Osmont, who remained consistently good though many of his later vehicles sort of felt weak as a whole.  

19 - Seven
This is the film that really got me into the modern thriller.  I never cared for horror movies or thrillers when I was younger, I was more of an action and comedy person, but Seven taught me that the horror film can be a cerebral good time and helped me to break down the wall of pretension that I had put up for myself.  I still love Seven to this day, as I do pretty much all of David Fincher’s films.  This is one of the strongest crime thrillers of all time and I feel it is at least almost as good as Vertigo and the Third Man based on the mystery and inventiveness of the story.  The ending is a real kicker too, it feels like it all built to this one big climax.  I also like how the entire film is dark and grungy until the end where the field is bright and open.  It is a nice little piece of symbolism, as though we’re forced to see the world through John Doe’s eyes.

18 - Misery
This is one freaking disturbing movie.  To me, Misery, like Seven, is much scarier than A Nightmare on Elm street because it seems real, like it can happen.  I still love Nightmare more, just because it is such a great story told in such a clever way, but Misery just hits me in an interesting way.  It’s almost hard to explain.  However, when Annie breaks Paul’s ankles with that hammer, you know he’s trapped.  You feel his pain.  It is so chill-inducing and so perfectly done that it feels too real at times.  

17 - Zombieland
This is a fun movie that uses gore well, but is more of a comedy than a horror film.  Zombieland is a great pick for people trying to get into zombie flicks because, while it is not the best, it is one of the most accessible.  The gore effects here are superb and the performances by all involved are damn good.  If you want a little laugh to go with your gore, this is a great choice.

16 - The Silence of the Lambs
This Oscar-winning thriller gave us one of the greatest movie villains of all time, Hannibal Lecter.  The character is not the principal villain of the story, that would be the killer Buffalo Bill, but he is so terrifying, so evil and so intelligent that he just instills you with a unique style of fear.  His creepy persona is just so perfectly performed by Anthony Hopkins that it stays with you long after the movie is over.  Heightening this fear is Jodie Foster’s character Clarice Starling, whose own terror is visible and only amplifies the effect of Hopkins’ performance.

15 - Rosemary’s Baby
Roman Polanski’s thriller about a woman who is pregnant with the spawn of Satan is probably one of the most captivating horror classics of all time.  The film is filled with these birth pains (so-to-speak) that just build and relax, coming closer and closer until the very end. The climax is one of the creepiest scenes ever put to film in my opinion.  With all of the tennants standing around a room at the end of which is a carriage holding a terrifyingly-deformed baby.  This movie is one hell of a creep fest from start to finish.

14 - Ringu
The Japanese original Ringu towers above the over-produced mess that was the American remake in just about every way.  It is scarier, it is smarter, it is better-acted and better-directed.  Ringu is moody, the special effects are great and the story is a lot better than it really has to be for this type of movie.  Good on you Japan for teaching us how to make a good horror movie, yet will still manage to screw it up here in the U.S. almost ever time.

13 - 28 Days Later
From one end of the world to another, we go from Japan to the UK for 28 Days Later, one of the best “zombie” movies pretty much ever made.  28 Days later is a stunning thriller from Danny Boyle, the Oscar-winning director of Slumdog Millionaire.  The story follows a man named Jim, played by the very-adept Cillian Murphy, who wakes up after a coma to find his home city completely abandoned. That is, until he falls under attack by hordes of “zombies” piled on top of eachother in a church.  But these aren’t the lumbering, slow “zombies” we’re used to.  No!  This things are sprinters and they are ready to eat your face!   In 28 Days later, mankind becomes infected with what is known as the Rage Virus, which throws its victims into a state of uncontrollable violence.  Along the way our hero meets up with a group of survivors fighting a resistance against the lost souls.  This is a really good one people.

12 - Wait Until Dark
Wait Until Dark is one of those movies that requires you to really put yourself in the character’s shoes.  A group of thugs, led by a terrifying Alan Arkin, follow a missing stash of drugs to the apartment of an innocent blind woman named Susy, played by the almost-always unmatched Audrey Hepburn.  There are scenes where she is moving about her house, completely unaware of her silent intruders, but as the movie continues, and she realizes she is not alone and the terror in her performance is unforgettable.  

11 - Shaun of the Dead -
This is the ultimate zombie/comedy.  I love this movie because it follows the zombie tropes that work, casts aside many that don’t, and features characters we can see ourselves hanging out with.  I also like how it implements some real human situations, like when Shaun’s mother is bitten.  It feels like Edgar Wright wanted to really tell a story with a humorous angle, rather than going for a straight spoof.  This, to me, makes for better comedy.  

10 - Army of Darkness
Army of Darkness is great fun.  One of my favorite films of the 90’s, Army of Darkness concludes the Evil Dead trilogy with Ash transported back to medieval times to unwittingly get dragged into a prophecy and a fight against an evil army of the damned.  This movie is a blast, mixing gore, slick practical effects and some very well-done slapstick to make for one hell of a good time.  I also adore the stop motion animation used for many of the scenes because this movie was released on the cusp of the rise of CGI, just before that crappy medium came in and made just about every movie ugly.  Yeah!  I said it!

09 - Night of the Living Dead -
The zombie classic that started it all, George A. Romero’s independently-filmed horror masterpiece is one of the most influential films ever made.  It sparked the indie-horror movement and it gave life to the zombie genre.  It is still, to this day, the standard by which all zombie films are judged and it remains one of the all-time greats.  It also stands out for its use of a black protagonist, something that was quite rare at the time.  

08 - An American Werewolf in London
Between this and The Howling (released a few months before) it can be difficult for some to really settle on which film from 1981 gave new life to the werewolf movie, but for me, with all of The Howling’s credibility, I just cannot bring myself to enjoy it as much as John Landis’ An American Werewolf in London.  The movie is funny, the effects by Star Wars legend Rick Baker are some of the best I have ever seen in a werewolf flick, the story is much more relatable, and the lead just comes off as more sympathetic.  Also, there is that completely epic transformation scene.  Yeah.. You know the one I’m talking about!  They tried to make it “awesome” in 1997 with An American Werewolf in Paris but they laced it with crappy CGI and just made the whole thing look dumb.

07 - The Shining
Prepare to hate me film snobs, but this is the only Stanley Kubrick movie I like.  Yep, it’s true.  I am so sorry.  He just does not appeal to my tastes.  That said, this amazingly creepy and well-made chiller about a caretaker and his family trapped in a haunted hotel alone during a winter storm remains one of my favorite films of all time.  As the father falls deeper and deeper into madness we are forced to wonder if he is possessed by the spirit of a man who slayed his family years earlier, or if he was already predisposed to violence induced by alcohol.  Is he evil, or stir crazy?  The haunting moments in the film are dreamlike and terrifying as we are never really sure what is real as we near the end of the movie.  The strangeness that abounds in the Overlook Hotel stays with you thanks to the great use of atmosphere and a legendary performance by the great Jack Nicholson.

06 - Audition -
This story of a lonely man who holds a fake audition for a new better half that becomes enamoured with the WRONG woman is so freaking disturbing that I’ve only seen it once, more than a decade ago, and it stuck with me and impacted me as though I’ve seen it a hundred times.  I love the look of this film.  It’s so sterile, so fluorescent, until we begin spending time with Asami, whose apartment is warm and welcoming.  It is a masterful use of visual symbolism by the epically-talented Takashi Miike.  What has made Audition an enduring and notable thriller through the years is the notorious torture scene.  The last few minutes of the film is focused on this beautiful girls complete phsyical undoing of our protagonist.  It is terrifying, graphic and disturbing as hell.  This movie is not for everybody, but if you can stomache it, it is one of the best of the best.

05 - Evil Dead 2
Sam Raimi’s crowning achievement is this creepy, claustrophobic sequel to/reimagining of the first film, where everybody really just goes all out with the craziness.  Lots of blood, lots of memorable moments and some great humor.  Bruce Campbell is as badass as ever and every little setpiece flows together seamlessly.  For what essentially ammounts to a bunch of action and scare scenes strewn together, Evil Dead 2 is pretty freaking awesome and one of the best horror films of all time.  

04 - A Nightmare on Elm Street
I love the original Nightmare, and they can tack on all the CGI they want with the remake, but it is not going to make a better movie.  The original remains the best by far, with Robert Englund’s famous Freddy and some stunningly-good special effects.  The atmosphere is slick and the story works. Nightmare is a great film that gave us one of the most legendary screen characters of all time.

03 - Halloween
Let us go from a movie that shoots gallons of blood out of a bed, to a movie that has almost no blood to speak of.  Halloween is the chilling thriller about an escaped mental patient named Michael Meyers on the loose, who terrorizes a young babysitter named Laurie (Jamie Lee Curtis).  A doctor, knowing what the killer Meyers is capable of, works with the police to stop him before his body count rises.  John Carpenter gave us a horror classic with this movie.  A film that would spark the “slasher” genre and would bring horror to the forefront as a legitimately and almost-universally-recognized artform.

02 - Jaws
Considered by some to be the greatest thriller ever made, Steven Spielberg's Jaws is a classic.  The theme of man versus nature is universal and easy to understand.  We know that beasts can kill us, and we know that we are not at the top of the food chain.  Jaws follows the sheriff of a small New England town named Brody, who is faced with the threat of a killer shark lurking in the water.  The town council refuses to close the beach due to the impending travel season and the result is the death of a small child.  This prompts Brody to summon the help of a shark expert named Matt Hooper (Richard Dreyfuss) and a fisherman named Quint (played by film veteran Robert Shaw in the twilight of his career) to find and kill the deadly crature once and for all.  Jaws is a classic.  It is one of the most beloved films of all time and ranks as one of the best monster movies ever made.

 

01 - Psycho
Now for my favorite.  Alfred Hitchcock is a legend and Psycho is one of my favorite films of his, and certainly my favorite of his that could qualify for this list.  Psycho is a film about a woman who escapes with a large amount of money in tow and hides out in the secluded Bates motel.  It is there where she meets the mild-mannered Norman Bates, a man who claims to live there with his mother, but after the young woman is murdered, her sister, on her trail arrives and begins to unravel the madness of the mind of Norman Bates.  Anthony Perkins’ performance as Bates here is astonishingly good.  He is creepy and twisted in a way that no other character before him has ever been.  The film shocked audiences and for years was called the scariest movie ever made, and it would hold that title until the release of Dario Argento’s Suspiria in the late 70’s.

So that is my list.  It’s not exactly conventional, I know, but I go for entertainment over just about anything else, and these movies entertained the hell out of me.  I still watch most of them every  year around Halloween.  What are your favorite films for Halloween?  Feel free to share them in the comments below.