Best of 1998

Saving Private Ryan

Was there any guess? The most spectacularly gruesome battle sequence you simply couldn't take your eyes off of. Top notch acting from Tom Hanks and Tom Sizemore. One unforgettable performance by Jeremy Davies as the spooked translator who winds up more screwed up than anyone, and a devastating end in the present that showed just how deeply the war affected all concerned. Steven Spielberg redeems himself in grand fashion after last year's disastrous Lost World. <MORE>

Out of Sight

The movie grew larger in my memory from when I first saw it.  Then, after renting it again last week, it only reaffirms my belief that this was, very quietly, the best crime movie since The Usual Suspects. George Clooney took the part of Jack Foley and ran with it, and he was backed by such a stellar cast (Ving "I'll just take your car" Rhames, Don Cheadle, Albert Brooks, and who could forget Steve Zahn as stoner Glen Michaels) and one fetching female lead (Jennifer Lopez, putting her money where her incredibly big mouth is) that it would have been hard to misstep. Steven Soderbegh directs it all like an art film, but with more coherence than he's shown in years. I also decree that no more Elmore Leonard books can be made into films without Scott Frank doing the adaptation. He seems to be the only one who can get it right. And that includes you too, Quentin  <MORE>

Shakespeare in Love

A late but very worthy addition to The Big Five. Joseph Fiennes as the Bard for better and for worse (sure, he was a great writer, but he was also a tyrant and kind of a plagiarist, according to this script).  Gwyneth Paltrow as his muse. Cross dressing, mistaken identity, sword fights, sex, and badass Judi Dench laying down the law as Queen Elizabeth.  Don't dare call this a chick flick, this is a romantic comedy with smarts, sass, and guts.  <MORE>

There's Something About Mary

Arguably the best comedy of the '90s (its only major competition is, in my book, Groundhog Day and The Ref). Ben Stiller brings to life every ounce of neurosis I ever felt in the throes of love as he longs for/stalks after Mary (Cameron Diaz), the object of his adolescent affection. Throw in the ever nimble Lee Evans, sick boy Chris Elliott, and Matt Dillon playing smarmy better than I expected, mix with a Farrelly Brothers blender, and you have five or six of the most famous scenes in modern cinema. This movie is going to raise the bar for all poor suckers who choose to follow it.  <MORE>

The Truman Show

Peter Weir is probably the only director who could make us take Jim Carrey seriously (though Milos Forman will certainly give it his best with that Andy Kaufman biopic Carrey's currently shooting), and what better way than to cast him as the unwitting star of a 24 hour TV show and network dedicated to his life. Granted, Tom Hanks probably could have played the part of Truman Burbank better, but give Carrey credit, he held his weight. (and besides, Hanks is too old for those parts now) Ed Harris, as the megalomaniacal producer Christof who controls every second of Truman's life, will doubtlessly be rewarded with an Oscar nod. The movie did well at the box office, with $122 million, though I expected it to do much better. Perhaps it cut a little too close to the bone.  <MORE>

Rounding out the Top Ten:

Mulan
Pleasantville
A Bug's Life
The Negotiator
Happiness

(if that gives you any idea how thin the pickings were this year. Not the best year for movies)

Movies that would probably be in my Top Ten if I had seen them:

Elizabeth
A Simple Plan
The Thin Red Line
maybe A Civil Action

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Worst of 1998

The Bottom Five, the movies I either wanted my money back
or, if it was a free pass, I wanted those hours of my life back.

Snake Eyes

Unquestionably the worst movie I saw this year. It takes a good actor to do a really bad job, and Nicolas Cage is so incredibly awful in this movie, I wondered if the drug store switched his medication by mistake. Gary Sinise needs to stay away from parts like his claiming to be innocent but painfully obviously guilty Commander Dunne, and Brian DePalma needs to get a grip. His glory days are becoming fainter by the day.  <MORE>

Godzilla

Sony spent as much hyping this movie as 20th Century Fox did making Independence Day, the previous effort by 'zilla producer and director Dean Devlin and Roland Emmerich. A small taste of success with ID4 and all of a sudden Emmerich thinks he's unstoppable. How wrong he was. What they should have done is hired a real screenwriter who could have injected an ounce of life or believability into these cardboard cutout characters and shallow plot line. Emmerich better watch his step with his next effort (lucky for him, and perhaps unlucky for us, he signed a megadeal with Sony for at least two more Event movies), or he's going to wind up on the B-minus list directing the sequels to his earlier movies, like Stargate and Universal Soldier.  <MORE>

Six Days, Seven Nights

Thank God I didn't pay for this one. What a mess. Harrison Ford wasn't the problem; Anne Heche wasn't the problem. The complete absence of a story was the problem. (One word: Pirates) And David Schwimmer didn't help things much, either (ZERO chemistry between him and Heche, and not for the reasons you're probably snickering about). Director Ivan Reitman, who gave the world Ghostbusters and Dave, better watch himself too, or he'll wind up outside looking in at the true funnymen of the times, like (God, I never thought I'd say this) the Farrelly Brothers.  <MORE>

Dark City

I can't believe for the life of me how this movie wound up on Roger Ebert's list at Number One. Yeah, sure, it looked pretty cool, and had an interesting concept (a group of aliens, called Strangers, control the daylight and experiment with switching the memories of people on a day to day basis). But the execution was mediocre at best. Rufus Sewell was probably the only decent thing about this movie. Keifer Sutherland, as the doctor under the command of the Strangers but secretly helping Sewell's character figure out what's going on, gives one of the worst performances of his career (that's right, of his incredibly unspectacular, hit and miss career). William Hurt, as a cop who thinks Sewell is a killer, is woefully miscast, and Jennifer Connelly, well, she's Jennifer Connelly, so make sure and keep your expectations low. It had some good visuals, but so did director Alex Proyas' previous effort, The Crow. Visuals alone are not enough.

Armageddon

The biggest moneymaker of the year. What a frightening thought that is. Director Michael Bay pumps up the volume and pins his audience to the back wall with the loudest, dumbest, most mind-numbing action movie since, well, Jerry Bruckheimer's last production, Con Air (that one at least had some sense of wit to go with its preposterousness). Bruce Willis' brain seems to be atrophying onscreen, sucking any ounce of acting talent he had out of him. (He seems to have two speeds: slow and brooding or stationary and brooding) I felt sorry for Ben Affleck and Liv Tyler after seeing the animal cracker scene, as it had no emotional resonance but rather an unintentional hilarity. Not even Steve Buscemi's wiseacre Rock Hound could save this one.   <MORE>

Other movies that would have made this list if I had spent money on them:

The Waterboy
Patch Adams
Hard Rain
Simon Birch
I Still Know What You Did Two Summers Ago and all the other teen slashers.

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Guilty Pleasure of the Year

Last year I had five, but you all know that one movie was such a perfect
Bad Movie We Love that it ranks Number One, Two, Three, four and Five:

Wild Things

This was the best piece of trash I've seen in a long time. A seemingly simple case of sexual harassment turns into a three party conspiracy, then goes off the deep end. With double, triple and quadruple crosses, the best (read: gratuitous) sex scene since Basic Instinct, the inspired casting of Theresa Russell as Denise "Smiling Idiot in Starship Troopers" Richards's mother, a hilarious turn by Bill Murray as an ambulance chasing lawyer, and Kevin Bacon's, um, bacon. The best part was the credits, where they showed you the scenes in between major events in the movie that explain the setups. If porn flicks had plots like this, I'd be in heaven.

(Kidding, sort of)

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Awards

Miscellaneous Awards to Various Hollywood Types

Best Argument For Cloning:

Catherine Zeta Jones (The Mask of Zorro), Ashley Judd, Charlize Theron and Gwyneth Paltrow. I'll let Deb represent the men in her Best of list. (I'll give you a two word hint: Vince Vaughn)

The "Clock is Ticking" Award

Bruce Willis, John Travolta, Brad Pitt, Sandra Bullock.

The "Following Up Is Hard To Do" Award

Screenwriter Kevin Williamson, with Halloween H20 and The Faculty.

The "I Hope Quentin Is Taking Notes" Award

Steven Soderbegh, Out of Sight. Handled infinitely better than Jackie Brown, Q's take on Elmore Leonard's Rum Punch.

Sponsored by Bad Idea Jeans

Babe: Pig in the City, The Avengers, Psycho, Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas.

Underneath The Radar

Chris O'Donnell, Tim Roth, Geena Davis.

"Geez, I get more work when I'm in jail"

Robert Downey Jr., Christian Slater

"Hi, I'm River Phoenix:"

Leonardo DiCaprio. Watch it, Leo, you're begging for trouble.

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Future Movie

Reasons To Be Cheerful: Here's a movie to get really excited about in 1999

Pushing Tin

John Cusack and Billy Bob Thornton are air traffic controllers in New York who are constantly trying to outdo each other in terms of who can land the most planes in the smallest amount of space. The script, written by Cheers creators Les and Glen Charles, was inspired by an article in the New Yorker about a couple of real life air traffic controllers, and the mixture of ego and insanity it takes to do the job well. Cusack and Thornton's battle goes off the runway when Cusack beds Thornton's wife (not too dissimilar from Barry Levinson's movie Tin Men). Directed by Mike Newell (Four Weddings and a Funeral, Donnie Brasco), Pushing Tin is supposed to be so good that Cusack will be a megastar after its release and no one will land at LaGuardia, JFK or Newark without a few stiff drinks in them.