LawrenceA

X the Unknown

Bogie, our lists were very similar again. I haven't seen Le Ceremonie or The Battle Over Citizen Kane. Edit: I just checked the big dvd set of CITIZEN KANE that I bought recently but haven't watched yet. That documentary is included. I thought I'd be the only one to mention To Die For. Kidman was career best in that, and Joaquin Phoenix was very good too. Swithin, I haven't seen The Horsemen on the Roof, or Persuasion.

1995 - 222 films seen 1. Braveheart 2. Heat 3. Seven 4. Strange Days 5. Dead Man Walking 6. Leaving Las Vegas 7. Casino 8. Dead Man 9. The Usual Suspects 10. 12 Monkeys Runner-ups: GoldenEye, Nixon, Babe, To Die For, and Mighty Aphrodite. Larry's Choices: Addicted to Murder & To The Limit

Here are the 1001 Movies to See Before You Die entries for 1994: The Adventures of Priscilla, Queen of the Desert Caro Diario/Dear Diary** Chungking Express** Clerks Crumb Forrest Gump Four Weddings and a Funeral Heavenly Creatures Hoop Dreams** The Kingdom** The Last Seduction The Lion KIng Muriel's Wedding Natural Born Killers Pulp Fiction Satantango** The Shawshank Redemption Through the Olive Trees** Trois Couleurs: Rouge The Wild Reeds**^^ ^^I apologize Kingrat, I guess I have heard of this one! **denotes films I Have not seen

The Return of Chandu = The Return of Chandu & Chandu On the Magic Island King of the Rocket Men = Lost Planet Airmen

FLASH GORDON = ROCKET SHIP FLASH GORDON'S TRIP TO MARS = MARS ATTACKS THE WORLD FLASH GORDON CONQUERS THE UNIVERSE = PURPLE DEATH FROM OUTER SPACE

The only one I recall really liking was THE SWEET HEREAFTER, but I have to agree with an assessment of it I read once that said it wallows in misery. Edit: I just looked him up, and other than the two mentioned, the only other one of his I've seen was CHLOE, which was blah.

Amazingly, I've seen 243 films from 1994, but somehow not the #1 choices of three of you! COLONEL CHABERT QUEEN MARGOT BARCELONA (I think you put them in alphabetical order instead of preference, but it fits)

kingrat, interesting choices. EXOTICA was one of the only films where I got up and left the theater before it was over. I really, truly hated it that day. Many years later I caught it on tv, and finished it, and couldn't figure out why I had hated it so much. MURIEL'S WEDDING, like a few people have mentioned, was a terrific film, and Toni Collette probably would be my best actress choice. WILD REEDS I didn't know.

THE ONE ARMED EXECUTIONER - (6/10) - Filipino action movie about a Manila supercop, hot on the trail of a drug smuggling ring, who witnesses his wife's murder and has his left arm cut off in retaliation by the druglord. After a period of hopeless drunkenness, he decides to train with a one armed martial arts master and get revenge. Unlike most Filipino action films of the era, this one is pretty good, and a little better made, although it has some serious limitations (the lead actor's attempts to hide his left arm fail quite often). I also enjoyed the cheese-funk theme music. This was my final 1981 film. See ya soon for 1982!

Regarding PRISCILLA...Terence Stamp was terrific, and generated most of the accolades from the film, and Guy Pearce made an impression with the showiest role. But I thought Hugo Weaving was very good as well, and I've always liked him since initially seeing him in this.

In the past 10 years, there have been 19 black nominees in the acting categories. In that same time, there have been only 2 Latino nominees, and 1 Asian. So there's that.

I've had a particular fondness for John Sayles ever since he cast one of my family members in MATEWAN. I just never got around to ROAN INISH. I really liked BROTHER FROM ANOTHER PLANET, EIGHT MEN OUT, PASSION FISH, and especially LONE STAR.

TopBilled, I haven't seen your #1 choice, either. QUEEN MARGOT somehow never got watched, despite Isabelle Adjani's presence. I remember the tape cover. I never saw ROAN INISH either, but recall it.

I agree about the wealth of material...most writes itself! But I don't recall him being too shy about knocking stars. I remember one bit where he was talking about all the great stars of yesteryear, and now they nominate Jude Law. "Who the hell is Jude Law?," he said, Jude Law sitting ten feet away. A grumpy Sean Penn came out to present and called out Chris for the joke, making Penn look like more of a grouch than usual.

How could you forget? "What does it take to change the essence of a man?"

Wow, Bogie, you destroyed me with unseens this year: Le Colonel Chabert Maya Lin Kabloonak Bandit Queen Hoop Dreams To Live Once Were Warriors Burnt by the Sun Farinelli I haven't even heard of the top four I just listed.

1994 - 243 films seen 1. The Shawshank Redemption 2. Forrest Gump 3. Ed Wood 4. Pulp Fiction 5. Natural Born Killers 6. Leon: The Professional 7. Shallow Grave 8. Wyatt Earp 9. Bullets Over Broadway 10. Quiz Show Runner-ups: Heavenly Creatures, Crumb, The Hudsucker Proxy, Eat Drink Man Woman, and Little Women. Larry's Choices: On Deadly Ground & Street Fighter

Here are the 1001 Movies to See Before You Die entries for 1993: 32 Short Films About Glenn Gould** The Age of Innocence The Blue Kite** Farewell, My Concubine** Groundhog Day Hsimeng Jensheng/The Puppetmaster** Jurassic Park Philadelphia The Piano Schindler's List Short Cuts Trois Couleurs: Bleu** The Wedding Banquet** ** denotes films I have not seen, 6 again

My Liker works again!

A quick word about my 1993 Choice The Satan Killer. It's from '93 but looks ten years older. A tall, bearded, denim & leather-clad biker is killing people. A burnt-out, on-the-edge cop must team up with a salty old P.I. to catch their man. The dialogue and acting are the key enjoyments here. One of my favorite bad movies, it's also perhaps the most obscure. I just checked imdb, and it only has 6 user ratings! It's one I found in a competitor's video store in the vhs days and rented for no discernible reason. It became a crusade of mine to force everyone I knew to watch it. Most viewers enoyed it as much as I did, one of them so much that he loaned my vhs copy (which I bought from the competitor) to someone else, who in turn never returned it. So I lost my copy. It's been a good 18+ years since I last saw it, and it remains in my top five most-desired-but-unreleased DVD editions. Used copies of the vhs run $65+ on Amazon, and that's a bit rich for my blood.

Darn you, SansFin...I was taking a drink when I read this and spit it all over the place!

Lol...you're right. I just do it as a meaningless sign of encouragement, and to let people know I've actually read what they posted. Or if I actually like what they said, but felt they said it all, so no further commentary is needed other than a virtual head nod.

I heard that Rock was picked as host precisely because the black-nominee-shutout was a foreseen possibility. Months before award season, savvy prognosticators can fairly accurately guess at the potential nominees. They asked Rock back as host in case there was another all white year, like the previous one, partially to alleviate accusations of racism. Of course, no one is always right, even the "experts", so no one anticipated that a bio of gangsta rappers (STRAIGHT OUTTA COMPTON), yet another pseudo-sequel to ROCKY (CREED), or a Netflix original (BEASTS OF NO NATION) would garner such critical and commercial praise. Why all of these films weren't nominated for more, I can't say. The lack of best picture nods for CREED and COMPTON, and Idris Elba in supporting for BEASTS, really surprised me. As for Will Smith and CONCUSSION, that just looked like desperate Oscar-bait from the trailers.

Bogie, I haven't seen BLUE or LENI RIEFENSTAHL. The only one of yours that failed to connect with me was SHADOWLANDS. DAZED & CONFUSED was the 1970's version of AMERICAN GRAFFITI. Better in my opinion, though. SONATINE is more Takeshi Kitano yakuza fun. FREAKED probably won't be much liked by anyone else. A barely released comedy about a spoiled celebrity that gets trapped in a scientifically-mutated sideshow run by Randy Quaid. Very odd, and at times, very stupid.