What was your favorite movie of 1994?

I'm fascinated by how many great movies came out in 1994. It also was an incredible year for music, but not to the degree of its awesome movie selection. Is it just me? My favorite drama (Pulp Fiction), two favorite comedies (Dumb and Dumber and Clerks) and favorite documentary (Hoop Dreams) all came out in 1994. The Shawshank Redemption, The Lion King, Ed Wood and Four Weddings and a Funeral were awesome, too. And hell if I don't love Natural Born Killers and Ace Ventura: Pet Detective.

Oh, and Forrest Gump won most best picture awards, to the chagrin of seemingly all of SportsJournalists.com.

So what were the best? Which ones still stick with you?

I'm sure Azrael or Alma will come in with suggestions of foreign-language flicks, but I went with movies made in America because the list is good and deep enough already. I had to cut out a few to cut it to 20.

But what led to so many great movies coming out in one year? The music industry had a lot of great work come out in 1994, too.

Also, is 1994 the best movie year ever? The best of the past 30 years? Has any single year topped it since?

 

1939

 

That's like saying the 1927 Yankees are the best baseball team ever. When I say that, I am not disagreeing.

 

What happened in 1994 in music? I was very much out of the music loop that year. Was one of 10 people who like REM's Monster. But the shows I saw that year were strictly old-school or off the beaten path: Metallica, Eagles, Pantera.

As for the flicks:

Pulp Fiction is highly quotable, and is Tarantino's third-best flick, which is more a testament to how great Kill Bill and Reservoir Dogs were. Ask yourself this: if it's told in a linear fashion, what is truly different? How many secrets were revealed through that style of storytelling? And do we blame it for the copycats that ensued?

Shawshank Redemption is great, but it's top-40 moviemaking. Crowd pleasing from the moment the lights go down until the end.

Forrest Gump suffers now, but that's like saying, 'Man, the graphics on the original Zelda game sure pale in comparison to what we have now!" At the time, it was groundbreaking, and fit right into the audience's non-cynical, nostalgic 1990s desires. I still enjoy it, though not nearly as much as Pulp Fiction.

Hated Dumb and Dumber at the time. Think it's OK now, but never got the fuss.

Really like Natural Born Killers. Maybe Stone thought he was making some kind of point, but I really like the characters and the performances. It's great.

Clerks is highly overrated, like its director. Has moments, but is just OK.

Hated The Paper. Stealing a story off a competitor's desk? REALLY? An obnoxious film. But All The Preisdent's Men is pretty much the only "newspaper" film I can stomach.

Five Funerals (snicker, snicker) is fun. The wife likes it a lot.

Interview with the Vampire is another the wife likes. She no longer watches it because I spend the whole time making fun of Pitt and Cruise's performances. "I will not take her life!!" "I have already done it for you." How pretty! How angsty! How boring.

True Lies? It's OK. Rolling Stone at the time said Cameron's Digital Domain was soon gonna take over from Industrial Light and Magic as THE pre-eminent effects shop.

The Lion King? I read Hamlet and saw Bambi. Highly derivative, no matter the hype painting it as "Disney's first original since . . .!!!!!"

Hoop Dreams is an absolute masterpiece. The best sports doc of all time. Prime example of how the story can go a thousand places you don't expect. Utterly brilliant. Oscar's greatest travesty is its lack of a nomination for Best Documentary. Ebert's recounting of the nominating process exposes that process as a complete sham.

And:

http://showwatcher.com/the-10-greatest-years-for-movies/

 

Pulp Fiction and The Paper jump right out as my two favorites. All I thought I thought about Tarentino was that his previous film was torture porn. But seeing clips of Travolta and Thurman convinced me to try Pulp Fiction. Dialogue you couldn't turn away from, and a few of the top set pieces in cinematic history. The Paper was one of the more realistic looks at newspapering, tho not totally so. An exhilarating ride that shows how basically good but flawed people try to do the right thing despite themselves.

As for the third, the first contender was one Verse didn't list, Quiz Show, kind of narrow focused, but a nice snapshot of a moment in time before the old class distinctions were broken into shards. Gump is kind of a curiousity (where will Forrest be inserted next?) except when he and Jenny interact; that's where the film gets its heart. Four Weddings and a Funeral is a satisfying ode to friendship. Speed and True Lies won't be mistaken for Great Cinema, but are unmistakably Great Entertainment.

And very much not in contention is Natural Born Killers; all technique and no point. The remake of Cape Fear does a much better job of fleshing out a relationship between a psychopath and a woman.

So my No. 3 would be....Ed Wood. Tim Burton does a great job of making a film that is a look directly into the worldview of someone and makes you put yourself in his shoes. For a couple hours, you believe that Martin Landau as Bela Lugosi is an inspiration, not a junkie. And that a cast of misfits is in the service of a vision that you would laugh at but for Johnny Depp making you root for him.

 

Quiz Show was a bad omission. Thanks for point it out. I'll add it.

 

Mine were Ed Wood, Pulp Fiction and Clerks. I think Ed Wood is Burton's (and Depp's) masterpiece. Shawshank was my last cut.

A big one you left out? Leon: The Professional. Would've voted for it over Clerks. Norman Stansfield will have your ass for that one, Versatile.

The movie I absolutely hate -- but still watch on occasion -- is Natural Born Killers. Totally ridiculous.

 

I voted for Pulp Fiction because it's pretty much my favorite of the era and contends for my favorite of all time.

Shawshank and Gump still rank very high. If I'm flipping channels and either one is on, I stop. True Lies and Speed are also stops to watch.

I absolute hate Jim Carrey's work and have never seen more than a few minutes of Ace Ventura or Dumb & Dumber.

There is nothing wrong with The Paper. I tried to watch Clerks but just couldn't get into it. It's just not my thing. Natural Born Killers is terrible.

The biggest problem with Vampire and Legends is the same thing: Brad Pitt's dramatic acting. He sucks at it and should stick to parts such as Rusty in Ocean's 11. I remember really liking Vampire when it first came out just because it was Interview with the Vampire. I was on a big Anne Rice kick at the time. I bought the movie as soon as it came out on VHS and watched it over and over. Now, if it's on, I go right on by.

As a side note, I'd like to give a nod to Gettysburg which came out the year before in 93 and Braveheart the following year in 95, both very strong years in their own right making a pretty good three-year run in movie making.

 

Favorite was Pulp Fiction. Shawshank was terrific while other movies provided fun experiences.

I don't think that list makes '94 best ever -- '76 could lay claim to that: http://www.films101.com/y1976r.htm

Taxi Driver
All the President's Men
Rocky
Network
Bad News Bears
The Outlaw of Josie Wales

and those are just some of them.

 

How can you do a list of the best movies of 1994 ON THIS BOARD and not include The Client?

Some actor - his name escapes me - was great in that.

 

I hated Pulp Fiction. I hated Forrest Gump.

I've seen five movie on that list. I didn't see Shawshank in 1994, but that would be my favorite. Sadly, it would be followed by Speed and then the Lion King, although The Paper is close. I've only seen that twice, though.

None of the others remotely appeal to me. I wonder what else I did see that year. Certainly not The Client.

 

FWIW omissions foreign and domestic:


Il Postino

The Madness of King George

Burnt by the Sun (Academy Award for Best Foreign Film)

Muriel's Wedding

Heavenly Creatures

The Secret of Roan Inish

Three Colors: White

Three Colors: Red


also


The Hudsucker Proxy

Swimming with Sharks

Vanya on 42nd Street

Wyatt Earp