C. Robert Cargill,
Aug 23, 2007
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The year was 1990 and times were very, very different. George Bush
was the president; we were gearing up to go to war with Iraq; Israel
was in the news because of repeated violence; even Lebanon was in
dispute as militants were fighting over regions of that country. It was
the Middle East all day and all night. And across the nation a heat
wave was ravaging the country, setting record temperatures. Yep. The
world sure was different back then. VERY different.
What was most disturbing was that this was the era of movies that
had convinced us that civilization was heading toward an apocalyptic
nightmare world with ruined cities, roving biker gangs and robot
assassins. Some pegged the year at 1997. Others would peg it as early
as 1990 itself (like in the magnum opus 1990: Bronx Warriors).
Some of us, and I'm not naming names, were very disappointed that we
never got to trick out our minivan with metal plating and take a killer
nickname like Steelhawk or Captain Icecold.
All I'm saying is that John Carpenter lied to us, and there might be
some resentment, somewhere, for that.
But when movies weren't busy ending the world, some of them were
busy being really good. Here's 10 of them. My 10. As always, feel free
to mention the films you feel I unfairly cut from the list in the
comments section below.
10.)
Tremors
Director: Ron Underwood
Stars: Kevin Bacon, Fred Ward
Why a fave? It is THE tongue in cheek monster movie.
This movie is so self aware, knowing exactly what it is doing with
every cliché it rolls out, while staying consistently funny the
whole way through. Go ahead, tell some people the next horror movie you
see reminded you of Tremors and watch just how many of them
run out to see it.
9.) The
Hunt For Red October
Director: John McTiernan
Stars: Alec Baldwin, Sean Connery, presidential
candidate Fred Thompson
Why a fave? This is Tom Clancy's classic, a taut relic
of the US/Soviet Cold War era dealing with what would happen if one man
wanted to leave Russia and screw his country over while he was at it.
This one is a classic and still every bit as good as it was back then.
McT passed up on the Die Hard sequel to direct this. And it
wasn't a bad move at all.
8.) Total
Recall
Director: Paul Verhoeven
Stars: The Governator, Sharon Stone, Michael Ironside
Why a fave? See you at the party Richter! Blue skies
on Mars? Quuuuuuuaaaaaaiid. All that, plus a woman with three breasts,
an almost exploding Arnold and a mutant psychic twin named Quatto.
Pretty cool stuff.
7.)
Die Hard 2: Die Harder
Director: Renny Harlin
Stars: Bruce Willis, John "The Dad from Good Times"
Amos, presidential candidate Fred Thompson
Why a fave? Bruce Willis, John "The Dad from Good
Times" Amos, Presidential candidate Fred Thompson. Oh yeah, and
"Yippie-Kai-Yay, Mo..." Really, if I have to explain to you why this
rocks, we aren't speaking the same language. I don't care how much like
the first one it is.
6.) Misery
Director: Rob Reiner (no, really, it is)
Stars: James Caan, Kathy Bates
Why a fave? This is one taut thriller, and frankly one
of the best Stephen King adaptations not just of the era, but ever. And
watch this, I'm gonna type the word "sledgehammer" and you're going to
wince. See how that works? If you didn't wince, you haven't seen this.
And you probably should.
5.) Pretty
Woman
Director: Garry Marshall
Stars: Julia Roberts, Richard Gere, Hector Elizondo
Why a fave? Look. I know. I know. How did this get to
number 5? Because it's my mom's favorite movie ever and I watched it
about a hundred times when I was young. And it's good. Really good. So
good that you can call a romantic comedy the next Pretty Woman
and it'll make $100 million from just the women trying to find out if
you were right or not. As unconventional and pretty horrible as the
actual premise is, this movie manages to be sweet, lovable and
something of a charmer.
4.) La Femme
Nikita
Director: Luc Besson
Stars: Lots of French people and an appearance by Jean
Reno
Why a fave? This movie is awesome. It was incredibly
inventive for its time, pioneering a number of action set pieces and a
style that borrowed from Hong Kong and added French cool to it. This
was the film that woke up the American film watching underground and
reminded us that the French could make amazing films. We Americans
remade it and called it Point of No Return. It didn't work
out so well. So we let Besson make a thematic follow up called Leon,
aka The Professional. That DID work out so well.
3.) Dances
With Wolves
Director: Kevin Costner
Stars: Kevin Costner, Mary McDonnell, Graham Greene,
Rodney A Grant, Floyd Red Crow
Why a fave? Because this was the movie that proved to
us Kevin Costner was an amazing actor and a visionary director. Then he
spent the next 17 years trying to convince us otherwise. Okay, except
for 13 Days. That one was pretty great too.
2.) Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead
Director: Tom Stoppard
Stars: Gary Oldman, Tim Roth, Richard Dreyfuss
Why a fave? This is the film that turned me on to the
beauty of Shakespeare, by making fun of it. Tom Stoppard's genius play
brought to the screen details of what these two fateful characters from
Hamlet are doing when they're not on screen or on the stage in Hamlet.
Genius. Hilarious. And brilliant on so many levels that I don't have
the time or word count to explain it.
1.) Goodfellas
Director: Martin Scorsese
Stars: Ray Liotta, Robert De Niro, Joe Pesci
Why a fave? Look, when people cry how badly you
deserve an Oscar for 16 years after you make a movie, you know you did
something right. Listed as number 17 on the list of "All Time Greatest
Films" on IMDB, this baby needs no introduction. It's in the top 20
EVER. If you haven't seen THIS ONE, you better be putting it on your
queue, like now. Or else I gotta call the boys.
Got an opinion? Discuss
in the new Film.com Forums.
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C. Robert Cargill - - - Email
Me
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Austin-based Cargill, who not
only loves but owns The Cutting Edge, writes on movies
and DVD five times a week.
