Every year the major Hollywood studios produce about 500 movies. The vast majority of those pictures are released, reviewed, and forgotten. A few films standout, either for their greatness or their awfulness, and by the year’s end there are typically one or two titles that will stand the test of time.
Once in a great while there is a year that sees the release of a plethora of great and important movies that define their time and become classics. Think of 1968, which saw the release of 2001: A Space Odyssey, The Planet of the Apes, Bullit, Oliver!, The Swimmer, Once Upon a Time in the West, Yellow Submarine, Night of the Living Dead, and Romeo and Juliet. The year 1982 included the release of several classic sci-fi and fantasy films including Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan, Blade Runner, TRON, The Thing, and E.T.: The Extra Terrestrial. More recently, the year 2007 featured titles such as 300, Alpha Dog, Knocked Up, Juno, The Bourne Ultimatum, Michael Clayton, No Country for Old Men, Zodiac, Into the Wild, and There Will Be Blood. These extraordinary cinematic crops come roughly once a decade although their greatness usually isn’t evident at the time.
Today’s episode of Sounds of Cinema featured a look back at one of these great years in cinema: 1994. Below you’ll find a look at the films discussed on the show as well as a few other titles.
Adventures of Pricilla, Queen of the Desert – This comedy of errors featured Hugo Weaving, Guy Pierce, and Terrance Stamp as drag queens and a transsexual on a road trip.
Clear and Present Danger – The best of the Jack Ryan movies and the second to star Harrison Ford. Based on the novel by Tom Clancy, the story channels the South American military operations of the Reagan administration but it is quite relevant to the present day.
Clerks – Kevin Smith’s debut feature is one of the essential titles of the cinema of Generation X. Clerks may not be pretty but it is very funny and one of the most important pictures in the recent history of American film.
The Crow – The Crow is a great comic book film and it brought maturity to the genre.
Dumb and Dumber – Comedies don’t usually stand the test of time so when they do it’s an impressive feat. This is one of the best comedies of the 1990s and one of the best buddy comedies of all time.
Ed Wood – This biography of the director of Plan 9 From Outer Space is one of Tim Burton’s great works.
Forrest Gump – It’s unhip to like this movie but Forrest Gump is very entertaining and it succeeds in sending viewers on a nostalgia tour of the 1960s and 70s.
Four Weddings and a Funeral – Four Weddings and a Funeral made actor Hugh Grant a fixture of the romantic comedy genre. The film tells the story of a committed bachelor reconsidering his life.
Fresh – A tale of a young man who is a low level player in a drug ring.
Heavenly Creatures – Before he directed The Lord of the Rings, Peter Jackson helmed this story of two girls whose mutual obsession with each other leads to murder.
The Hudsucker Proxy – One of the Coen Brothers best movies. Channeling Meet John Doe, the film captures the Coen’s sense of irony while providing characters that strike a balance of realism and cartoonishness.
In the Mouth of Madness – Director John Carpenter has had an uneven career. In the Mouth of Madness was one of the horror filmmaker’s last great movies but it’s gone underappreciated.
Interview with the Vampire – Anne Rice’s vampire stories were hot in the 1990s but the novelist famously and publicly bashed the casting Tom Cruise in the role of Lestat. When she finally saw the movie, Rice issued a retraction and praised the movie.
Legends of the Fall – A sweeping romantic tale of a family living through times of change in the early 20th century.
Leon: The Professional – This story of an assassin who takes a young girl under his wing was a breakout hit for actors Jean Reno and Natalie Portman and writer/director Luc Besson.
Muriel’s Wedding – A directionless and unmarried woman makes impulsive choices in order to change her life.
Natural Born Killers – The most controversial title of the 1990s, Natural Born Killers is a superbly crafted but philosophically flawed piece of filmmaking.
New Nightmare – Wes Craven returned to A Nightmare on Elm Street with the best sequel in the series. This film was a scary and cerebral dry run for Craven’s next feature, 1996’s much more commercial Scream.
Nobody’s Fool – The film featured one of Paul Newman’s last great performances.
The Lion King – The Lion King remains one of the standard bearers among Walt Disney Animation Studio’s feature films.
The Mask – One of Jim Carrey’s three blockbusters of 1994, this adaptation of the comic book featured groundbreaking special effects and was perfect or Carrey’s cartoonish comedy.
The Paper – Michael Keaton plays the editor of a newspaper facing a crisis.
Pulp Fiction – Another defining film of Generation X, Pulp Fiction made Quentin Tarantino into a star director. This film is essential viewing for film enthusiasts.
Quiz Show – This Robert Redford directed drama, based on a true story of the television quiz show scandal of the 1950s, has gone underappreciated.
The Ref – A comedy vehicle for Denis Leary, the film also stars Kevin Spacy and Judy Davis as an unhappily married couple.
The Shawshank Redemption – This film was a box office disappointment in 1994 but The Shawshank Redemption is now one of the best regarded films of all time.
Speed – This story of a city bus armed with explosives made movie stars out of Keanu Reeves and Sandra Bullock.
Stargate – An early effort by Roland Emmerich. The director never lived up to the promise of this feature but it did inspire a well-liked television series.
Swimming with Sharks – Kevin Spacey regularly stars as cruel businessman types and much of that is due to his role in this film.
True Lies – Mixing comedy with action, this James Cameron directed feature was supposed to put Arnold Schwarzenegger’s acting career back on track after the disaster of Last Action Hero. Instead it ended up being one of Schwarzenegger’s last great movies.
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