1994 in film.

Top ten box-office films of 1994:

1. The Lion King
2. Forrest Gump
3. True Lies
4. The Mask
5. Speed
6. The Flintstones
7. Dumb and Dumber
8. Four Weddings and a Funeral
9. Interview with a Vampire
10. Clear and Present Danger

What are your top three films for 1994? We will keep a running tally and eventually have some sort of bracket. For me it would be:

1. Satantango
2. Chungking Express
3. Ed Wood

What are some of the forgotten gems from the year? What is overrated? What did you discover at a young age and what did you discover later?

YEARS IN FILM • forum.chorus.fm

 

I am watching “What Happened Was…” now.

 

Pulp Fiction
Speed
Leon/The Professional

honorable mention: Dumb and Dumber

 

1. Pulp Fiction
2. Crooklyn
3. Reality Bites

 

1. Pulp Fiction
2. Shawshank Redemption
3. Quiz Show

 

1. Pulp Fiction
2. The Lion King
3. To Live

4. Leon
5. The Mask
6. Natural Born Killers
7. Crumb
8. Three Colors: Red
9. Chungking Express
10. Dumb and Dumber

Feel like this year's going to have a clear winner.

 

1. Three Colors: Red
2. Pulp Fiction
3. Hoop Dreams

Marlon Riggs’ Black Is… Black Ain’t is another strong doc from the year. My list was almost two thirds Kieslowski, as I love Three Colors: White a ton as well. Clerks is probably the closest Kevin Smith will get to any of my top 3s but as much affection as I have for his early work, it’s not particularly close.

 

1. Chungking Express
2. Three Colours: Red
3. Eat Man, Drink Woman

I'd seen Chungking Express a few times over the years and thought it was great, but a few years ago, I watched it on a flight while slightly pissed, and it felt like the best film I've ever seen. I then watched it again and it was "only" great, but I'm giving it top spot because of how transcendent it felt on that flight. Faye Wong's cover of "Dreams" is an absolute banger too.

Three Colours Red is the second masterpiece in the Three Colours trilogy (White isn't as good), with the wonderful Irene Jacob, and looking at trying to find connections in modern life. Beautiful cinematography, and a phenomenal ending.

Third was a little trickier, but I went for Ang Lee's family drama, Eat Man, Drink Woman. Sensitive and thoughtful, and full of wonderful cookery scenes. Probably my favourite Ang Lee film.

For some honourable mentions, this was a big year for films that were really important to me at like 14-15 when I started watching films "seriously", including Pulp Fiction, The Shawshank Redemption, The Hudsucker Proxy, Natural Born Killers, & Leon: The Professional. I haven't seen most of those in 10 + years probably, but nothing but great memories associated with them.

There's two silly and funny Stephen Chow comedies this year, Love on Delivery and From Beijing With Love, both showing his trademark approach to comedy, full of farce and non-sequiturs.

There's The Legend of Drunken Master, which is (maybe) the last truly great Jackie Chan film, a perfect blend of stunt work and comedy, all done with a massive sense of scale and production.

71 Fragments of a Chronology of Chance is a good Haneke film, a bit like The Seventh Continent, I find the build up a little too slow and mundane, but the payoff and climax is worth it.

I need to re-watch Ashes of Time, it's the only Wong Kar Wai I haven't re-watched. First time I watched it, I thought it looked beautiful, but I basically had no idea what was happening. Perhaps a second watch would improve it.

John Waters' Serial Mom is also a very funny and very silly film, with a great comic performance from Kathleen Turner.

 

Chungking Express really finds a very narrow spot between earnestness and the sort of manufactured "eccentricity" that would become popular when so many filmmakers tried to be like Wes Anderson.

 

It takes good direction and performance to keep Faye Wong’s character from descending into self-conscious “kookiness”. In his less skilled hands, she could have been portrayed very differently.

 

1. Vive l’amour (Tsai)
2. Chungking Express (Wong)
3. To Live (Zhang)
-
4. Portrait of a Young Girl at the End of the ‘60s in Brussels (Akerman)
5. Three Colours: Red (Kieslowski)
6. A Caixa (Oliveira)
7. Little Odessa (Gray)
8. Casa de lava (Costa)
9. Cold Water (Assayas)
10. Through the Olive Trees (Kiarostami)

Additional shout out to Atom Egoyan’s Exotica, one of the great Toronto films.

 

One day I will make the time for Satantango. I was waiting for the restoration to screen at our cinematheque until everything shut down.

 

1. Pulp Fiction
2. Ed Wood
3. Hoop Dreams

Honorable mentions:

Chungking Express
Clerks
Dumb and Dumber
Leon
The Shawshank Redemption
The Lion King
Quiz Show

 

surprised at the lack of crooklyn. not gonna pull a me and say it’s spike’s best but it is very good. delroy is great in it too

 

1. Hoop Dreams
2. Pulp Fiction
3. Clerks

basic boi this year

 

1. The Shawshank Redemption
2. The Lion King
3. Pulp Fiction

 

1. Three Colors: Red
2. Chungking Express
3. Pulp Fiction

Another tough year with some great movies left off. Hoop Dreams is an all timer documentary, Dumb and Dumber an all timer comedy, and The Little Giants a personal favorite from childhood. Leon the Professional, The Lion King, Quiz Show, and Clerks are also contenders. I really need to rewatch Ed Wood.

 

An easy choice for my top three for this year

1. Speed
2. The Adventures of Priscilla, Queen of the Desert
3. Pulp Fiction

Outside of those favourites there really wasn't much else that I also love or even like; Léon: The Professional, The Crow, True Lies, Clear and Present Danger, The Ref, In the Mouth of Madness, New Nightmare, Shallow Grave, and The Client.

 

1. Serial Mom
2. The Mask
3. The Crow

 

One of my childhood memories is how ubiquitous the Pulp Fiction poster was. It seemed so adult and so different than anything I understood. I would see it in restaurants, video stores, and other places. I can't think of a smaller movie that has that kind of reach nowadays.

 

Pulp Fiction wins it with 22 votes. Three Colors: Red and Chungking Express were in second place with 8 votes each. Pulp Fiction will move on to the bracket.

 

good

 

1. Pulp Fiction
2. Dumb and Dumber
3. The Shawshank Redemption

 

You commented on like 15 of these, in reverse sequence, in the span of like an hour

Do you just know your "best of" list for decades on end in your head?

 

I have all the films I own (which is like 400+) stored/listed in my IMDB account, so I was sorting by the year and going off my favorites.