by I posted my picks for 1990 and 1991 yesterday, I take on 1992 today. As with the other years, it’s both embarrassing and pretty exciting to see that there are a number of good movies from 1992 I should make an effort to see.
One of them, Glengarry Glen Ross, was tweeted at me Monday as a pick for 1991. IMDb has it in 1992, so that’s where I’ll list it. I’ve seen the “scene” but really ought to see the whole thing ASAP.
[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8kZg_ALxEz0?rel=0]
Other highly rated movies I should find on Vudu or Amazon Prime include Reservoir Dogs and Bad Lieutenant. I really can’t believe I never caught to the two big biography films from the year Malcolm X and Chaplin. I’d also like to see Zebrahead and I can’t remember if I saw Passion Fish but if I didn’t it goes on this list!
As for my top ten favorites from 1992 I put The Player at the top of my list. I sure hope that holds up if I watch again. I don’t remember enough of it now but it might have been the first Robert Altman movie I watched. After that, for better or for worse I put Wayne’s World which was not only the first successful movie spin-off of a Saturday Night Live sketch, it was the humor palette for me and my friends for far too long after we saw it. Mea culpa (20 years later but still…)
- The Player
- Wayne’s World
- Unforgiven
- El Mariachi
- A League of Their Own
- Bob Roberts
- Army of Darkness
- White Men Can’t Jump
- Alien³
- Aladdin
Other movies I saw and liked included Gas, Food Lodging; Like Water for Chocolate; Noises Off; Hoffa; A Few Good Men; Patriot Games; Dracula; Hero and The Last of the Mohicans. There were also a number of solid comedies I liked: Death Becomes Her, My Cousin Vinny, and The Distinguished Gentleman.
There were a couple of great trashy movies that year — Basic Instinct and Poison Ivy. Poison Ivy starred Drew Barrymore (childhood star from E.T.) and Sara Gilbert (slightly bratty kid from teevee sitcom Roseanne) in an aggressively sleazy movie. To put it in perspective, it was like the Olsen Twins actually made the sexy raunchy movie that so many creepy Internet dudes fantasized about. Anyhow..
[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fYoQXPHGlWI?rel=0]
Cool World was a really interesting effort at combining animation and live action that ultimately just didn’t pop enough to be one of my favorites. Still good enough and the cast included Brad Pitt, Gabriel Bryne and Kim Basinger.
[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P-CTR5t7ph4?rel=0]
There were two maybe proto-nerd movies that year: The Lawnmower Man and Sneakers. Sneakers featured a bunch of hackers and Lawnmower Man had a Tron-like spin. This was also the year of Freejack which for some reason I went to see thinking it would be good. I remember it not being good. Luckily for all of us Mick Jagger stuck with his day job.
This was also the year that Batman Returns came out which was Tim Burton’s second effort at Batman. I loved the first one, especially because when it came out it was basically the second superhero character to get a proper big screen adaptation. This one was not nearly as satisfying as the first, but not so bad in light of the downhill tumble that Joel Shitmacher put the franchise on when he took over. The highlight of course being Michelle Pfeiffer’s portrayal of Catwoman. Christopher Walken was kind of wasted ultimately and as committed to the role that Danny Devito was as Penguin, it was just not nearly as fun as Jack Nicholson’s Joker.
[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6N5ElA5lqzk?rel=0]
