MC Yearly Consensus - 1994

[Spinal]

Submit your five favorite films from this year and in a week I will give you a top ten. IMDb dates will be used.

The point system is as follows

1st Place-5 points
2nd Place-4 points
3rd Place-3.5 points
4th Place-3 points
5th Place-2.5 points

There will be no restrictions on short films. A minimum of three films must be listed. You may edit your post freely up until the time that the voting is closed, which will be in about a week. I will give at least 24 hours warning before tallying votes.

You may begin now.

IMDB Power Search (http://www.imdb.com/list)

[Spinal]

1. Muriel's Wedding
2. Heavenly Creatures
3. The Kingdom
4. 71 Fragments of a Chronology of Chance
5. Quiz Show

Very honorable mention: Baseball

6. Priest
7. Queen Margot
8. Crumb
9. To Live
10. Pulp Fiction
11. Ed Wood
12. The Madness of King George
13. Sister My Sister
14. The Shawshank Redemption
15. Exotica
16. The Hudsucker Proxy
17. Mrs Parker and the Vicious Circle
18. Spanking the Monkey
19. White
20. The Professional
21. Backbeat
22. Bullets Over Broadway

Soooo much awesome

[Yxklyx]

1. Heavenly Creatures (Peter Jackson)
2. Red (Krzysztof Kieslowski)
3. Pulp Fiction (Quentin Tarantino)
4. Muriel's Wedding (P.J. Hogan)
5. Ed Wood (Tim Burton)

6. Chungking Express (Kar Wai Wong)
7. The Shawshank Redemption (Frank Darabont)
8. Quiz Show (Robert Redford)
9. Amateur (Hal Hartley)
10. The Kingdom (Morten Arnfred & Lars von Trier)

[Boner M]

1. Sátántangó (Tarr)
2. Exotica (Egoyan)
3. What Happened Was... (Noonan)
4. Ed Wood (Burton)
5. Heavenly Creatures (Jackson)

6. Crumb (Zwigoff)
7. Pulp Fiction (Tarantino)
8. The Kingdom (von Trier)
9. Three Colors: Red (Kieslowski)
10. Wild Reeds (Techine)

HM: Once Were Warriors, Muriel's Wedding, Dumb & Dumber

[Russ]

1. The Kingdom
2. Crumb
3. Pulp Fiction
4. Chungking Express
5. Ed Wood

[Pop Trash]

1. Pulp Fiction
2. Exotica
3. The Shawshank Redemption
4. Hoop Dreams
5. Dumb and Dumber

6. Chungking Express
7. Ed Wood
8. Fresh
9. Spanking the Monkey
10.Clerks

My second favorite cine year of the 90s. First being 1997.

[Ezee E]

Jees...

1. Hoop Dreams
2. Leon: The Professional
3. Pulp Fiction
4. Quiz Show
5. Crooklyn

6. Dumb & Dumber
7. Shawshank Redemption
8. Forrest Gump
9. Chungking Express
10. Blue

[Ezee E]

FYC, and should be on top of anybody's "Why the freak haven't I seen this" list:

Hoop Dreams

[Pop Trash]

FYC, and should be on top of anybody's "Why the freak haven't I seen this" list:

Hoop Dreams

Fuckin' A.

[Mysterious Dude]

1. Pulp Fiction
2. Interview with the Vampire
3. The Shawshank Redemption
4. Fresh
5. Bullets Over Broadway

[Weeping_Guitar]

1. Red
2. Pulp Fiction
3. The Hudsucker Proxy
4. Chungking Express
5. Barcelona

------------------------

6. Forrest Gump
7. White
8. The Shawshank Redemption
9. Dumb and Dumber
10. Heavenly Creatures

[Grouchy]

1. Pulp Fiction
2. Red
3. Chungking Express
4. Ed Wood
5. White

Too bad I don't have room for Natural Born Killers. That movie gets too much hate.

[Izzy Black]

1. Sátántangó (Béla Tarr, Hungary)
2. Les Roseaux Sauvages (André Téchiné, France)
3. Huozhe (Yimou Zhang, China)
4. Hoop Dreams (Steve James, USA)
5. Little Women (Gillian Armstrong, USA)
6. Red (Krzystof Kieslowski, France)
7. Ladybird Ladybird (Ken Loach, UK)
8. Amateur (Hal Hartley, USA)
9. Ai qing wan sui (Tsai Ming-liang, Taiwan)
10. Through the Olive Trees (Abbas Kiarostami, Iran)

Notable: Barcelona (Whit Stillman, USA), L'Enfer (Claude Chabrol, France), Riget (Lars von Trier, Denmark), Pulp Fiction (Quentin Tarantino, USA), J'ai pas sommeil (Claire Denis, France), Chungking Express (Wong Kar Wai, China)

[Pop Trash]

Wouldn't it be awesome if Israfel put Dumb&Dumber at number one just to blow our minds?!?!

[Izzy Black]

11. Dumb & Dumber (Peter & Bobby Farley, USA)

Just when you thought I was finished.

[Pop Trash]

1. Dumb & Dumber (Peter & Bobby Farley, USA)


Fixed that for you good buddy.

[Watashi]

1. The Shawshank Redemption
2. Red
3. Chungking Express
4. Pulp Fiction
5. To Live

[Philosophe_rouge]

1. Exotica
2. Trois Couleurs: Rouge
3. Ed Wood
4. Leon: the Professional
5. The Lion King

[soitgoes...]

1. Three Colors: Red (Krzysztof Kieslowski)
2. To Live (Zhang Yimou)
3. Ed Wood (Tim Burton)
4. Hoop Dreams (Steve James)
5. The Lion King (Roger Allers, Rob Minkoff)
-----------------------------------------------
6. Bullets Over Broadway (Woody Allen)
7. Three Colors: White (Krzysztof Kieslowski)
8. Léon (Luc Besson)
9. The Shawshank Redemption (Frank Darabont)
10. Pulp Fiction (Quentin Tarantino)

[Stay Puft]

1. Vive L'Amour
2. Exotica
3. Red
4. Chungking Express
5. Drunken Master II

[Lazlo]

1. Pulp Fiction
2. Ed Wood
3. The Shawshank Redemption
4. Léon
5. Forrest Gump

[ledfloyd]

1. Rouge
2. Pulp Fiction
3. White
4. Crumb
5. Ed Wood

ridiculous year.

[dreamdead]

1. Exotica
2. Muriel's Wedding
3. Heavenly Creatures
4. Three Colors: White
5. Three Colors: Red

HM: Pulp Fiction, Ed Wood, Hoop Dreams, Wes Craven's New Nightmare, To Live

Need to See: Satantango (and Boner's praise will likely be the thing to get me off my butt), What Happened Was... (need to see if any libraries have this one)

[Boner M]

Need to See: Satantango (and Boner's praise will likely be the thing to get me off my butt), What Happened Was... (need to see if any libraries have this one)
Repped! What Happened Was... is one of my ultimate 'why isn't this better known/loved' films. I think you'll really like it, knowing your fondness for low-key films that explore the need for human connection... Ray Carney considers it one of the greatest films ever, and even though he regularly comes off as an asshat, he knows his stuff when it comes to films like this.

[Yum-Yum]

1. Exotica
2. Chungking Express
3. Muriel's Wedding
4. Heavenly Creatures
5. Ed Wood

6. Pulp Fiction
7. Keine Liebt Mich
8. Cabin Boy
9. The Ref
10. Natural Born Killers

[Hugh_Grant]

Great year...

1. The Shawshank Redemption
2. Exotica
3. Imaginary Crimes (Harvey Keitel's finest hour...)
4. Four Weddings and a Funeral
5. Quiz Show

Honorable mention: Red, The Last Seduction, The Sum of Us, The Adventures of Priscilla, Queen of the Desert, Serial Mom, The Ref, Swimming with Sharks, Lamerica, Farinelli...

[Sycophant]

1. Chungking Express
2. Love on Delivery
3. Ed Wood
4. Pulp Fiction
5. Crumb

6. Crooklyn
7. To Live
8. The Hudsucker Proxy
9. Eat Drink Man Woman
10. Pom Poko

[thefourthwall]

1. The Shawshank Redemption
2. Pulp Fiction
3. White
4. The Secret of Roan Inish
5. Chungking Express

[Raiders]

1. Exotica (Egoyan)
2. Heavenly Creatures (Jackson)
3. Satan's Tango (Tarr)
4. That's Entertainment! III (Friedgen, Sheridan)
5. Three Colors: Red (Kieslowski)

-----------------------------------------

6. Cold Water (Assayas)
7. Chungking Express (Wong)
8. Ed Wood (Burton)
9. Crumb (Zwigoff)
10. Clean, Shaven (Kerrigan)

[Kurious Jorge v3.1]

1. Chungking Express
2. White
3. Heavenly Creatures
4. Pulp Fiction
5. Red

[Qrazy]

1. Satantango
2. Red
3. Ed Wood
4. Chungking Express
5. Pulp Fiction

[Ezee E]

Just so you all know, Satantango is coming out to DVD on 7/22.

[origami_mustache]

1. Satantango
2. Vive l'amour
3. Chungking Express
4. 71 Fragments of a Chronology of Chance
5. Red

6. Pulp Fiction
7. Dumb and Dumber
8. White
9. Ed Wood
10. Hoop Dreams

[monolith94]

1. The Hudsucker Proxy
2. Ed Wood
3. Léon: The Professional
4. Dellamorte Dellamore
5. Chungking Express

[Sycophant]

There was a time Clerks topped my 1994 list. I'm glad that time has passed. Still Kevin Smith's best movie.

[Pop Trash]

There was a time Clerks topped my 1994 list. I'm glad that time has passed. Still Kevin Smith's best movie.
Chasing Amy begs to differ.

[Kurosawa Fan]

Chasing Amy begs to differ.

No, it screams and cries. That's how we know it's being dramatic.

Clerks is Smith's best film, and that's not much of a compliment.

[Watashi]

Jersey Girl is Smith's best film and that says a lot on what I think of Kevin Smith's films.

[Spinal]

How Kevin Smith was able to launch the career he has based on friggin' Clerks is beyond me.

[Qrazy]

I like when Cult Icon flamed him for making crappy movies. Good times.

[baby doll]

1. Exotica (Atom Egoyan)
2. Chungking Express (Wong Kar-wai)
3. Les Roseaux sauvages (Andre Techine)
4. Rouge (Krzyzstof Kieslowski)
5. Jeanne la Pucelle (Jacques Rivette)

Films I'm embarrassed not to have seen: L'eau froide (Olivier Assayas), Satantango (Bela Tarr), Vive l'amour (Tsai Ming-liang).

On the other hand, I'm not embarrassed in the slightest that I haven't seen The Shawshank Redemption.

[Bridget Jones]

On the other hand, I'm not embarrassed in the slightest that I haven't seen The Shawshank Redemption.


Your loss.

[Spinal]

You probably wouldn't like it.

But I bet you would LOVE Le Redemptione de Shawshank.

[Qrazy]

You probably wouldn't like it.

But I bet you would LOVE Le Redemptione de Shawshank.

Ah yes Haneke made that one didn't he?

[Dead & Messed Up]

Man, tempted to put Clerks in my top five, just to hear the noise. But as a lapsed Catholic, my favorite Smith flick is easily Dogma. Didactic as fuck, but so's the third reading before communion.

1. The Shawshank Redemption
2. Ed Wood
3. Quiz Show
4. Pulp Fiction
5. Drunken Master II

[MadMan]

1994 is pretty much the third best year of the 90s (1998 and 1999 reign supreme).

1. Pulp Fiction
2. Forrest Gump
3. Dumb and Dumber
4. The Lion King
5. Speed
6. The Shawshank Redemption
7. Airheads
8. Ace Ventura: Pet Detective
9. Maverick
10. Clerks

[trotchky]

1. Crumb
2. Chungking Express
3. Pulp Fiction
4. Clerks

[Melville]

1. Crumb
2. Exotica
3. Three Colors: Red
4. Three Colors: White
5. Ed Wood

HMs: To Live, Ace Ventura: Pet Detective, Bullets Over Broadway, The Madness of King George

[origami_mustache]

Vive l'amour (Tsai Ming-liang).



oops edited to add

[soitgoes...]

Last call! I'll try and total this up tomorrow, but honestly it might not be till Saturday night. I have a busy weekend ahead of me.

[Robby P]

1. Hoop Dreams
2. Chungking Express
3. Pulp Fiction
4. Ed Wood
5. Crumb

[MacGuffin]

1. Chungking Express (Kar-wai)
2. Beverly Hills Cop III (Landis)
3. Black Ice (Brakhage)
4. I Can't Sleep (Denis)
5. Pulp Fiction (Tarantino)

[Qrazy]

Didn't realize Crumb was that great, guess I'll have to get to it.

[Pop Trash]

2. Beverly Hills Cop III (Landis)
3. Black Ice (Brakhage)
4. I Can't Sleep (Denis)
Not sure what's more random: that this is on your list at all or that it falls right ahead of films by Brakhage and Denis?

[Pop Trash]

That was pretty funny. I'm not gunna lie. I have memories of taking the city bus out to the theater with a friend to see this when I was 13 or so. I think we also saw the now classic Renaissance Man with Danny Devito. Good times.

[Pop Trash]

Wait...you deleted it. Now my comment makes no sense.

[MacGuffin]

Wait...you deleted it. Now my comment makes no sense.

Sorry, I posted it and then saw you went offline. Thanks for the response.

[Gizmo]

1. The Shawshank Redemption
2. Leon: The Professional
3. Forrest Gump
4. Clerks
5. Ed Wood

[soitgoes...]

Closed.

[soitgoes...]

#10

http://i233.photobucket.com/albums/ee171/soitgoes22/R2_White_00_05_34-1.jpg

Three Colors: White

Director: Krszysztof Kieslowski

Country: France/Poland/Switzerland

Second of a trilogy of films dealing with contemporary French society shows a man dealing with a Polish immigrant whose wife wants to divorce him because he can't perform in bed.

Almost every shot in the movie contains at least one white object. The climax of the film was shot months after the rest of the film, and was intended to soften Dominique's image; Kieslowski has said that he was dissatisfied with the ending shot previously and wanted her to seem less of a monster.

"The colors blue, white and red in the French flag stand for liberty, equality and fraternity. One of the small puzzles Kieslowski sets up is how these concepts apply to his plot. As Karol deviously sets a snare for the wife he loves and hates - as he gains control of the relationship, in a way - it is hard to see how "equality" could be involved in such a struggle for supremacy. Afterwards, thinking about the film, beginning to see what Kieslowski might have been thinking, we see even richer ironies in his story." - Roger Ebert

[soitgoes...]

#9

http://i233.photobucket.com/albums/ee171/soitgoes22/crumb1-1.jpg

Crumb

Director: Terry Zwigoff

Country: USA

A cinematic portrait of the controversial comic book writer/artist and his traumatized family.

During his years-long, money-starved struggle to make this documentary, director Terry Zwigoff was laid up in bed with crippling back pain and was suicidally depressed. Media reports following the film said that Robert Crumb later told Terry Zwigoff that he hated the film. According to Zwigoff, however, this never happened and the two still speak on a regular basis.

"Zwigoff's gaze is generally evenhanded and sympathetic. He doesn't milk unnecessary laughs from the Crumb family, but allows them to speak for themselves. Still, you have to question the ethics behind a presentation like this: Where does curiosity blend into exploitation? At what point, if any, did Zwigoff forfeit his friendship with Crumb simply to make a juicier, more provocative film?" - Edward Guthmann

[soitgoes...]

#8

http://i233.photobucket.com/albums/ee171/soitgoes22/medium_satantango2-1.jpg

Sátántangó

Director: Béla Tarr

Country: Hungary/Germany/Switzerland

In a small dilapidated village in 1980s Hungary, life has come to a virtual standstill. The autumn rains have started. The villagers expect to receive a large cash payment that evening, and then plan to leave. Some want to abscond earlier with more than their fair share of the money. However they hear that the smooth talking Irimias, whom they thought had died, is coming back. They are apprehensive that he will take all their money in one of his grandiose schemes to keep the community going.

The film, like many of Béla Tarr's films, contains one of the longest average shot lengths in any motion picture: 145.7 seconds. A single long take approximately 4 hours into the movie lasts an incredible 10 minutes, 14 seconds.

"How can I do justice to this grungy seven-hour black comedy (1994), in many ways my favorite film of the 90s? Adapted by Hungarian filmmaker Bela Tarr and Laszlo Krasznahorkai from the latter's 1985 novel, this is a diabolical piece of sarcasm about the dreams, machinations, and betrayals of a failed farm collective, set during a few rainy fall days (two of them rendered more than once from the perspectives of different characters). The form of the novel was inspired by the steps of the tango--six forward, six backward--an idea reflected by the film's overlapping time structure, 12 sections, and remarkable choreographed long takes and camera movements. The subject of this brilliantly constructed narrative is nothing less than the world today, and its 431-minute running time is necessary not because Tarr has so much to say, but because he wants to say it right." - Jonathan Rosenbaum

[soitgoes...]

#7

http://i233.photobucket.com/albums/ee171/soitgoes22/heavenly_creatures6-1.jpg

Heavenly Creatures

Director: Peter Jackson

Country: UK/Germany/New Zealand

Two girls have an intense fantasy life; their parents, concerned the fantasy is too intense, separate them, and the girls take revenge.

Juliet Hulme was revealed to be mystery writer Anne Perry who came forward and revealed her real identity in 1994 during the making of the film, but all attempts to find Pauline Parker failed. In 1997, Pauline Parker was finally traced to a rundown cottage on a farm near Strood, Kent, England, where she currently runs a children's riding school. Since assuming the name of Hilary Nathan, the spinster has become a devout Catholic and devoted her life to handicapped children.

"Jackson tries to enter as well as celebrate the collective consciousness of the heroines, and though the results are often visually striking, they quickly become glib and mechanical as the lurching zooms and intercut fantasy motifs are repeatedly trotted out like favorite routines. Unlike the campy excess of Jackson's earlier Dead Alive, this kind of deliberate overkill--which extends to the broad caricatures of the girls' families as well as the girls' feverish fantasy life--ultimately points toward a dearth of ideas rather than a surfeit, though the story remains sufficiently interesting and troubling to hold one's attention." - Jonathan Rosenbaum

[soitgoes...]

#6

http://i233.photobucket.com/albums/ee171/soitgoes22/shawshank5bi-1.jpg

The Shawshank Redemption

Director: Frank Darabont

Country: USA

Two imprisoned men bond over a number of years, finding solace and eventual redemption through acts of common decency.

The American Humane Association monitored the filming of scenes involving Brooks' crow. During the scene where he fed it a maggot, the AHA objected on the grounds that it was cruel to the maggot, and required that they use a maggot that had died from natural causes. One was found, and the scene was filmed.

"Just as posters in the film disguise plot twists, the film's naïve sentimentality undermines serious issues of violence, rape, manhood, and male bonding. Indeed, after the Sisters are silenced, Darabont cranks up the unilateral act of hero worship: prison goes from being 'mean and scary' to, well, 'cute.' Andy writes letters in order to get books into the prison library, starts doing everyone's taxes, and wins the hearts of guards and prisoners alike. Someone should bake a pie. Oh, wait, they do!" - Ed Gonzalez

[soitgoes...]

#5

http://i233.photobucket.com/albums/ee171/soitgoes22/52egoexotica_schoolgirl-1.jpg

Exotica

Director: Atom Egoyan

Country: Canada

The 'Exotica' is a nightclub on the outskirts of Toronto, where Eric, DJ and MC, watches nightly as his ex-girlfriend Christina performs. Watches jealously, especially as far as the extra attentions regular customer Francis garners are concerned. Thomas, meanwhile and erstwhile, goes through a series of, um, interesting situations involving his pet shop, a gruff taxi-sharing stranger, unexpected tickets to the opera and smuggled eggs of a rare bird.

To judge from his own account, Egoyan was quite amused by an unlikely award that this film won: the Adult Video News award for Best Alternative Adult Film of 1996.

"Exotica is a movie labyrinth, winding seductively into the darkest secrets of a group of people who should have no connection with one another, but do. At the beginning, the film seems to be about randomly selected strangers. By the end, it is revealed that these people are so tightly wound up together that if you took one away, their world would collapse." - Roger Ebert

[Melville]

And everything was going along so well until #6...

Good job on quoting a review that seems to perfectly mirror my dislike of the film, though.

[soitgoes...]

#4

http://i233.photobucket.com/albums/ee171/soitgoes22/edwooddvd265-1.jpg

Ed Wood

Director: Tim Burton

Country: USA

The mostly true story of the legendary director of awful movies and his strange group of friends and actors.

This film cost more to produce than all of Edward D. Wood Jr.'s films put together. Tim Burton said that he was drawn to the story because of the similarities between Edward D. Wood Jr.'s relationship with Bela Lugosi and his own friendship with Vincent Price late in the actor's life.

"It engages in a conversation about how Wood's films are seen at the same time that it endeavours to tell the highlights of Wood's life. The result is a picture that bridges the gap between cult and camp classic; the melancholic and the melodramatic; and the difference between a director of vision and a director with a vision that sucks." - Walter Chaw

[soitgoes...]

#3

http://i233.photobucket.com/albums/ee171/soitgoes22/red-1.jpg

Three Colors: Red

Director: Krzysztof Kieslowski

Country: Poland/France/Switzerland

Final entry in a trilogy of films dealing with contemporary French society concerns a model who discovers her neighbour is keen on invading people's privacy.

At the end, during the ship catastrophe, we see real life/TV footage of the sinking of the ferry "Herald of Free Enterprise", which took place in the English Channel in 1987. Final movie for filmmaker Krzysztof Kieslowski.

"At the end of Red, the major characters from all three films meet - through a coincidence, naturally. This is the kind of film that makes you feel intensely alive while you're watching it, and sends you out into the streets afterwards eager to talk deeply and urgently, to the person you are with. Whoever that happens to be." - Roger Ebert

[Spinal]

I used to like Jonathan Rosenbaum and I'm trying to remember why.

[soitgoes...]

#2

http://i233.photobucket.com/albums/ee171/soitgoes22/chungking-express-1.jpg

Chungking Express

Director: Wong Kar-Wai

Country: Hong Kong

Two stories, two lovelorn cops, two objects of desire: one a big-time heroin dealer in deep trouble with her boss after the cargo disappears, the other a seriously flaky take-out waitress who inadvertently gets hold of the keys to her admirer's apartment, all shot in a breathless kaleidoscope of color and hand-held camera work to create a mesmerizing portrait of Hong Kong in the 1990s.

The title is an amalgamation of two "landmarks" in Hong Kong. 1) Chungking Mansions, a drug-filled, rundown hostel populated by Indians, Pakistanis and Nepalese. 2) Midnight Express, a Indian fastfood store in Lan Kwai Fong, a major bar district populated by foreign yuppies (Tony Leung vists California, a bar located directly across the street from it).

"Chungking Express is more impressive than engaging. Yet some will be charmed by the high spirits with which Wong depicts Hong Kong life, and the affectionate irony with which he views his characters, their haphazard encounters and missed connections." - Mick LaSalle

[Spinal]

Not a bad list, but some awfully good films are missing here.

[soitgoes...]

#1

http://i233.photobucket.com/albums/ee171/soitgoes22/pulp_fiction-1.jpg

Pulp Fiction

Director: Quentin Tarantino

Country: USA

The lives of two mob hit men, a boxer, a gangster's wife, and a pair of diner bandits intertwine in four tales of violence and redemption.

When Captain Koons visits the young Butch to give him his father's watch, his recollections refer to an airman named "Wynocki" who transports the watch back to safety. "Wynocki" is the name of John Garfield's character in Howard Hawks' film Air Force (1943). Hawks is one of Quentin Tarantino's favorite directors. The book that Vincent reads is "Modesty Blaise", by Peter O'Donnell. In that book, a killer indulges in a Biblical rant very similar to that of Samuel L. Jackson's character.

"More important than the film's elegant structure is what the creation represents. Jonathan Rosenbaum summed the film up quite nicely as "a couch potato's paradise." No one in the film can access reality unless they are engaging the many ghosts of noir's past. Godard and countless others did this kind of thing way before Tarantino but Pulp Fiction had such a profound effect on older Gen Xers because it spoke to a newer generation's shared consciousness." - Ed Gonzalez

[soitgoes...]

1. Pulp Fiction - 71.5
2. Chungking Express - 58.5
3. Three Colors: Red - 55
4. Ed Wood - 50
5. Exotica - 45
6. The Shawshank Redemption - 35.5
7. Heavenly Creatures - 25.5
8. Sátántangó - 23.5
9. Crumb - 22
10. Three Colors: White - 19.5

So Close: Hoop Dreams - 19, Léon - 17.5

[soitgoes...]

Not a bad list, but some awfully good films are missing here.
I'm ecstatic that both Kieslowski films made it, even if I only voted for Red. Outside of that happening I didn't really care. Though Zhang's film would've been nice on the list, I don't think it's been seen by many here. Or at least I hope that's the reason.

[soitgoes...]

And everything was going along so well until #6...

Good job on quoting a review that seems to perfectly mirror my dislike of the film, though.
Negative reviews are more fun in my opinion.

[Melville]

That must be the first time that all of my choices made it into the top 10. Good stuff.

[Spinal]

Negative reviews are more fun in my opinion.

I generally prefer giving each film the best argument available (apart from times where a film is so well-loved that I throw in something slightly unpredictable). But I appreciate the effort it takes to help me out with this, so I'm not going to be a stickler on that point.

[Robby P]

Good results, but Hoop Dreams is still far superior to anything that made the list.

[soitgoes...]

I generally prefer giving each film the best argument available (apart from times where a film is so well-loved that I throw in something slightly unpredictable). But I appreciate the effort it takes to help me out with this, so I'm not going to be a stickler on that point.
Generally, I go with the first review that has a good quotable few lines, whether it's positive or negative. I enjoy helping out, but the process is a bit time consuming so I don't search intensely for the perfect review. That and I try to shy away from the easy Ebert review as much as possible. He has something on everything it seems.

[Spinal]

Generally, I go with the first review that has a good quotable few lines, whether it's positive or negative. I enjoy helping out, but the process is a bit time consuming so I don't search intensely for the perfect review. That and I try to shy away from the easy Ebert review as much as possible. He has something on everything it seems.

This site (http://www.geocities.com/paulinekaelreviews/) is fun to draw from every once in a while.

[soitgoes...]

This site (http://www.geocities.com/paulinekaelreviews/) is fun to draw from every once in a while.
Good to know. Thanks! I like to use Bosley Crowther's Times reviews for the older consensus, too.

[Spinal]

Good to know. Thanks! I like to use Bosley Crowther's Times reviews for the older consensus, too.

Bosley is so funny. He's always worried about films offending tender sensibilities even when he likes them.

[origami_mustache]

need to see Crumb, Exotica, and Heavenly Creatures.

[Spinal]

The American Humane Association monitored the filming of scenes involving Brooks' crow. During the scene where he fed it a maggot, the AHA objected on the grounds that it was cruel to the maggot, and required that they use a maggot that had died from natural causes. One was found, and the scene was filmed.


That's really, really silly.

[soitgoes...]

That's really, really silly.
That's why I included it. Taking something a tad bit too far, wouldn't you say.

[Pop Trash]

Good results, but Hoop Dreams is still far superior to anything that made the list.
It's certainly the best documentary of 1994. Don't get me wrong, I love Crumb but it just isn't the achievement of Hoop Dreams.

[Ezee E]

Hoop Dreams seems to be generally underseen in every movie forum I've ever been to.

[Qrazy]

Hoop Dreams seems to be generally underseen in every movie forum I've ever been to.

I've seen it, liked it, can't say I was blown away by the filmmaking. The commitment is impressive but the filmmaking didn't hit me at a Wiseman/Maysles level of documentary footage.

[Mysterious Dude]

I saw Hoop Dreams. I didn't find it very interesting.

[Watashi]

Shawshank should be #1.

[Bridget Jones]

Shawshank should be #1.
Damn skippy, Wats.