Fletch's Favored Five: 1996 in Film

Now, the eleventh in a continuing series in which I count down my favorites from a particular year in film. Previous entries:

1982 * 1984 * 1985 * 1988 * 1990 * 1991 * 1993 * 1997 * 2002 * 2003

I'm going to use Wikipedia to kickstart my brain, year by year, and I'll throw out a Favored Five here and there. If you want to refresh your memory in a similar fashion, just go to Wiki and type "[four-character year] in film." Here's the one for 1996. I won't pretend that Wiki is the end-all, be-all of filmic knowledge or that these yearly lists are 100% accurate, but they're an excellent place to start and a great resource.

1996
I have pretty mixed feelings about 1996. It's filled with a bunch of fluff. Lovable fluff, but still fluff - movies like Twister and Independence Day and Mission: Impossible, on the big side, and Beautiful Girls, Fear and From Dusk Till Dawn on the smaller side. I don't know - I guess the more I look at the list of films, the more I see ones that I have great affection for, and many that I greatly enjoyed but just haven't seen enough times (Bottle Rocket). Half the films seem overly dated for just 15 years ago, while others are just as fresh now as they were then. I don't know - you tell me - is 1996 a good or even great year for film?

Notable movies not yet seen:
Beavis and Butt-Head Do America
Courage Under Fire - not sure how notable this even is, outside of seeing a young, skinny Matt Damon.
Michael Collins
The English Patient
Secrets & Lies

Honorable mentions:
The Birdcage - Although it tries to get a few messages slipped in, this one's as light as a feather, with delightful writing and characters. Having a bunch of seasoned vets around didn't hurt, either.

Happy Gilmore - Yes, it's plenty retarded, but it's got its moments. Also, it takes some practice, but if you can manage to hit the ball like Happy does, it indeed travels a country mile.

Primal Fear - I wish this one hadn't aged so poorly. Like a few other movies from 1996 (like Multiplicity), this one - at first glance - appears to have been made in 1988. But that doesn't take away from the enjoyment it delivers. A solid crime thriller with a tremendous acting performance that rightly put Ed Norton's name into our consciousness. As a bonus, I love seeing Richard Gere play a jerk, and LOST's Terry O'Quinn (Locke) has a small role (with hair!).

Shine - You know that distinction between best and favorite that people (like myself) are always making? Well, when I make these lists, they generally are biased towards the favorites - it seems as though there are few films (the best?) that can seem to straddle that line between expert film making and rewatchability (which is what that 'favorites' stuff really comes down to). The Last Emperor might be a fantastic film, but I can't say that I will ever have a desire to watch it again. Well, Shine is definitely more towards the "prestige" (best) category, but it's more than worth a rewatch or two for Geoffrey Rush's Oscar-winning turn as David Helfgott. Simply stunning - and there's a load of awesome music in here, too.

Tin Cup - Arguably better than either of Ron Shelton's other great sports flicks - Bull Durham and White Men Can't Jump - I would still rank Cup 3rd out of the three of them. Call it a bias towards what came first, or maybe a bias against Don Johnson. Ok, not really. But Cup is one hell of an enjoyable rom-com, and it features a great and terrible ending. Painful to watch, but so refreshing.

The Poll
New addition to this little series: I set up a poll over at the BC Facebook page with a selection of films from this year. Your mission: go vote on YOUR favorite from 1996! http://www.facebook.com/blogcabins

The Five
5. Swingers - These days it's known more for "You're so money!" and being connected to a Vegas resurgence than anything else, but Doug Liman's first film is, if not great, a fun, well-written ride featuring Vince Vaughn's star-making performance and enough cultural touchstones of the time (Sega's NHL '94, the 18th swing music revival, Heather Graham) to keep it relevant today. Multiple viewings are definitely rewarded.


4. When We Were Kings - Prior to seeing this, I was under the impression that Muhammed Ali was the Frank Sinatra of boxing: a wildly talented individual whose ego stood in the way of him being a beloved icon (at least to me, as I thought both were jackasses). Boy, was I wrong. Ali's "I'm the greatest" act was just that - just part of his shtick. Smarter and wittier than just about any athlete ever, When We Were Kings also showed his compassion and the brilliant tactician that he was. It was also eye-popping to see always-smilin', always-grillin' George Foreman in his younger days. My favorite documentary.


3. Kingpin - I still can never decide if this or Dumb and Dumber is my favorite Farrelly Brothers movie. I think it just comes down to whichever one I saw last. Woody Harrelson and Randy Quaid are of course fantastic, and Vanessa Angel's breasts deserved an Academy Award nomination for their performance, but we all know that it was Bill Murray (and his hair) that took this puppy over the top. "Hey there...not you."


2. Trainspotting - All in all, I don't think 1996 is all that great of a year, but these top two stand head and shoulders above the rest. It's not even close. Danny Boyle's second feature is just an all-time classic that I wouldn't even know where to start with when reflecting on what makes it so great. The star-making performances, the epic soundtrack(s), and, above all, Boyle's stellar direction seem to be the top reasons. Where would Ewan McGregor be without Rent Boy?


1. Fargo - Farrelly Brothers, meet Coen Brothers. Two diametrically different sets of films, same conundrum. Fargo or The Big Lebowski? That is the question I face. Thankfully, I don't really need to answer it to know that the former is my favorite film of 1996. Name a film for me that's funnnier while being about a subject matter that's 1/2 as dark as this, I dare you. Only the Coens could take such a violently disturbing tragedy such as this and turn it into a film so ripe with wit and absurdity, all the while playing it straight as an arrow (i.e. no Lebowski-like dream sequences or Fink-ish nutto endings). And unlike Primal Fear, this one only gets better with age.

And then...

Fletch's Favored Five: Quentin Tarantino Scenes

Quentin Tarantino has a gift for creating memorable scenes. The only problem is that this creates a paradox of sorts. He creates so many terrific scenes that, when called to narrow them down to a list of five, there's too much to choose from, leading me to think like The Incredibles' Dash: "If they're all special, then none of them are special."

But we know that's not the case. How can they be narrowed down, though? Pulp Fiction alone has about 30 scenes that might make this list; conversely, I love Jackie Brown and think it's solid from front-to-back, yet can't think of too many scenes in it that stand apart from their brethren. And though I've seen all of his films (and True Romance will be counted for the purpose of this list), there are some I have much more experience with than others, and I don't want to shut them out based solely on that.

5. Stuntman Mike's first act of destruction (Death Proof)


It's no wonder I couldn't find any pictures of this scene, since a) it happens quickly and b) it's pretty gruesome. But Death Proof is a slow burn, and this moment occurs at just about the midway point, and boy is it an OMG! moment if ever there was one, shocking the movie with a million gigawatts of electricity.

4. The Basement scene (Inglourious Basterds)


Of all of Tarantino's scenes, this most famous one from his more recent work seems to be the one that's the true test of whether or not someone really digs what Quentin is serving. A long, funny, tense setup...you know it's gonna end badly (much like the initial farmhouse scene), but you have no idea in hell when that's gonna happen.

3. "English, motherf#%^er, do you speak it?!?!" (Pulp Fiction)


I'll tell you right now, there are two Pulp Fiction scenes on here. I'm leaving off some of his most beloved films altogether. Of course, as I stated above, though, that's not the problem; the problem is all of the scenes in Pulp that could make the list that aren't going to. This, however, is probably amongst the most beloved and oft-quoted that their is...but not enough to top my list.

2. "You're a cantaloupe!" (True Romance)


Two acting heavyweights, going toe-to-toe with life on the line. Notice that theme popping up again? We all knew how this scene was going to end, but Tarantino took us to places surprising and hilarious first.

1. Jack Rabbit Slims (Pulp Fiction)


You might be saying "What?!?!" It's true, compared to the adrenaline scene or perhaps the finale in the diner or Bruce and Marsellus' trip to the L.A. underground, this is a subdued scene that really does little to move the plot forward. But this was the moment in the film that took it to another level in terms of pop culture, imbibing it with a timelessness and kitsch factor that set it apart from every other mobster movie out there. If I had to pinpoint the moment that I fell head over heels in love with Pulp, this was it.

And then...

Fletch's Favored Five: Stars in need of a heel turn

When the bloom is off the rose, when we've seen the hero save the damsel in distress time and time again, it becomes time to try something new.

Often, stars turn to villainous roles because that's all they have left in them - Val Kilmer, for a number of reasons, just isn't the same viable leading man (or even sidekick) that he was as few as ten years ago. Thus, he becomes the evil Dieter Von Cunth in MacGruber. Tom Cruise was Hollywood's #1 "face" for more than a decade, but when the prime roles started drying up, he turned to more nefarious work and found a heaping of critical acclaim that wasn't always there in the past (Collateral, Tropic Thunder, Lions for Lambs). Harrison Ford was tremendous in the underloved What Lies Beneath...Robert DeNiro scared us all to death in The Adventures of Rocky and Bullwinkle Cape Fear and The Untouchables, and has embraced his heel turns, evident in such fare as Machete.

You get the point. Most times, a change of pace is needed simply because we (and possibly them as well) have grown tired of seeing them play the same kinds of roles. Other times, a change comes about due to events in the star's real life (Robert Downey, Jr. was perfect for a bad guy run after all his zany misadventures; if only U.S. Marshalls had been a better overall vehicle). But mostly, it's due to a combination of the first reason thrown together with age. They get wrinkled and/or fat, and suddenly, the studios no longer want them to play the leads (not surprisingly).

So, who is due for a juicy villain role, and who do we think would excel given the opportunity? The ground rules I tried to limit myself to was this:

* A-lister, or close enough to it. People that aren't quite on the radar yet make their dough playing villains often. For a prime example, see Jeremy Renner in S.W.A.T. or Adam Scott in Torque (on second thought, perhaps you don't want to see those after all).

* Said star hasn't played a villain previously, or at least not since getting famous. George Clooney (our resident example for the next few points) might have played the bad guy in Return of the Killer Tomatoes (which I doubt he did), but it wouldn't count anyway since no one knew who he was at the time. (See above ground rule.)

* Assholes don't count; only villains do. Intolerable Cruelty, Burn After Reading...George was no villain. Imperfect yes, but that's it. We get into kind of a gray area with anithero roles like in From Dusk Till Dawn, but no one can convince me that that's a proper heel turn, either.

* I haven't seen every movie ever made and can only do so much research. If Clooney was the tabbed by his pal Robert Rodriguez to cameo as a villain in Spy Kids, well, you'll just have to excuse me not not knowing that. Besides, I'm talking HIGH profile villains here - think Collateral or Cage/Travolta in Face/Off. Just correct me if I'm wrong.


Honorable mentions:

* Brad Pitt - I so wanted to put him not only on the list, but at the top. However, even I couldn't b.s. myself out of knowing that between Early Grayce and Tyler Durden, he's played a villain in one form or another. He's also played antiheroes a number of times.

* Jennifer Aniston - Just do something different, Jen. Why not a bitchy role in the Miranda Priestley vein?

* Adam Sandler - he can certainly look scary (Zohan), and he loves to do accents. Marry the two and don't smirk at the end for the kiddies.

* Orlando Bloom - He's in need of a career resurgence - why not give it a shot?

The Favored Five

5. George Clooney

Hey, whaddaya know - it's like we've been here before! Anyway, most recently, we saw Clooney turn off his million-watt smile for a quiet role as a hit man in The American. We know the guy can act, and we know the guy can overact when he wants to (Intolerable Cruelty again). I'd love to see him throw on an accent and really turn the screws on someone.

4. Natalie Portman

So typecast as the virginal goody-two-shoes is Ms. Portman that she took a role in which that was the major arc for her character. Better yet, I think she could actually pull it off quite nicely, either by playing up her girlie charms and then stabbing the hero in the back or by playing it straight with the intensity she showed at the end of Black Swan.

3. Hugh Jackman

Not too dissimilar from my number one choice, Jackman is in dire need of some edge. Sure, he brings some of it to the role of Wolverine, but never has there been a cuddlier vermin than there is inhabited by Mr. Song and Dance. He can snarl and flare his nostrils all he wants, but we know the pearly whites that lie beneath.

2. Keanu Reeves

Came close in The Gift - he was definitely an asshole and a character that nobody liked, but a) it wasn't seen by hardly anyone, b) it wasn't that type of movie, and c) if it were, he wasn't the main baddie. That said, if you've seen it - along with pieces of The Devil's Advocate - you know that Reeves more than has the chops to pull it off. And, for a number of reasons, don't you dare mention The Day the Earth Stood Still...

1. Will Smith

There was some talk not long ago of Smith playing Cain in a film titled, creatively, The Legend of Cain, in which he would take down Abel, but there's no record of the film on his IMDb page, and the last bit of chatter about it was in July of last year. And yet, is there a more golden boy (man) in all of Hollywood right now? True, he hasn't been in much lately, but when he has, he hits big, and is this generation's equivalent of Tom Cruise if ever there was one. It's time to go sinister, Fresh Prince. Just ask Family Guy:

And then...

Fletch's Favored Five: 1982 in Film

Now, the tenth in a continuing series in which I count down my favorites from a particular year in film. Previous entries:

1984 * 1985 * 1988 * 1990 * 1991 * 1993 * 1997 * 2002 * 2003

I'm going to use Wikipedia to kickstart my brain, year by year, and I'll throw out a Favored Five here and there. If you want to refresh your memory in a similar fashion, just go to Wiki and type "[four-character year] in film." Here's the one for 1982. I won't pretend that Wiki is the end-all, be-all of filmic knowledge or that these yearly lists are 100% accurate, but they're an excellent place to start and a great resource.

1982
This year might as well not even exist for me. There are certainly some 'classics' in the mix, but many of them are in genres that I don't particularly care about (read: horror) or are films that I've not yet seen (I know, shocking). I guess it's due to bad timing, mostly - I was but five/six years old for this year, so I certainly wasn't catching the adult fare of the day, and I never got around to catching up on so many of them. The era doesn't help - films from this time seem hopelessly dated for the most part, so the thought of going back to watch An Officer and a Gentleman just doesn't appeal to me. Hell, I rarely watch even any of my top five from this year, save for a certain one that's on TV almost constantly. Perhaps in time this will change.

Notable movies not yet seen:
An Officer and a Gentleman
First Blood
Gandhi
Poltergeist
Porky's
The Thing
The Verdict
The Year of Living Dangerously

*Note: I've seen bits and pieces - and maybe even half or more - of at least Poltergeist and Porky's, but it's been so long that I can barely recall them, so they're making this list.

Honorable mentions:
Basket Case - If I read a trivia question that asked what year this came out, I would have guessed 1987. I watched this a number of times in high school and fell in love with it, but ain't seen it since. Fond memories (and a shout-out to Jason Soto, who holds this as one of his favorite movies of all time. It's weird as hell, but check it out.).

Star Trek: The Wrath of Khan - I'm not Trekker, but this is just too much fun to pass up.

TRON - Got a copy sitting next to the TV right now, just waiting to be watched. Had hoped to do so before seeing Legacy, but no dice. Still looking forward to a re-watch.

The Five
5. The Wall - Watch it tripped out, watch it sober - it doesn't matter. Either way, it's got great music and is a hell of a ride. Just don't make me watch the nipple shaving scene.


4. Blade Runner - By all accounts, this should be number one on my list (and probably will be eventually). Harrison Ford was only my movie hero of the 80s (I know, so original). Add on to that the sci-fi factor, and add on to that the Phil Dick factor, and this should actually be in my Top 10. Fact is, I just haven't seen it enough, or often enough, to love it that much. I'd watch it more, but frankly, movies that have 12 versions and bickering about what the final cut really, really is kind of bug me.


3. E.T. - My mom always used to tell me that when I saw this in the theater, I cried like a baby and was scared to death when E.T. was near death's door. Anyway, what 80s kid didn't want to ride their bike into the night sky? Or live in the sweet neighborhood that Elliott and family lived in? Or discover an alien in the woods. I also grew up with a crush on Drew Barrymore that lasted until about 1995.


2. The Man From Snowy River - You've probably never even heard of this, much less seen it. Maybe you have, but it seems like this was a classic film only in my family. The funny thing is, this is probably more of a little girls' movie than a boys movie, what with all of the horses and such, but it's got Kirk Douglas playing two roles and a ton of great action scenes. Show it to your kids if you have any; otherwise, leave this one to me and my nostalgia.


1. Fast Times at Ridgemont High - A quintessential 80s flick and a great flick all at once, Amy Heckerling's paean to high school has become iconic for so many reasons, from Mr. Hand to all of Spicoli's lines to the deep reservoir of talent the film lined up - including, of course, Mr. Nic Coppola. It's crazy outdated, but the themes presented are timeless.

And then...

Fletch's Favored Five: Great Things About...Starship Troopers

The Intro: The concept is pretty straightforward. Aside from going to the theater way too much, I also watch way too many movies on TV (or DVD). Since they're not new releases, I don't typically write a review for them, but there are often some things I'd like to say about them. Since I have a tendency to always find the negatives in things (I'm a champion pessimist), I've decided to pick five things from a movie that I've recently viewed that catch my eye or crack me up or inspire me or whatever. They could be anything from a whole performance, a single line (or even a single word), a sight gag, plot line, anything. So...

5 Great Things About...Starship Troopers


5. The communal shower
Of course, this is Hollywood, so the unisex shower of the future isn't littered with table shakers and cottage cheese. Just nice to know that in a few centuries, we'll have chilled out a bit with all the gender issues. Johhny and Diz got down without too many games - hell, Diz threw herself at him. The future is so laid-back, man...


4. Jake Busey
What a year 1997 was for the son of Gary. First, he killed Tom Skeritt and a bunch of other NASA nerds in Contact as the religious nutjob with a bomb. Then, mere months later, he's playing a neon violin and wisecracking with Casper, all under the tutelage of one Michael Ironside. That's two Top Gun greats he got to work with in one summer!! Nepotism has its privileges. (Just kidding, Jake - you're awesome!)


3. "Would you like to know more?"
The keys to the secret of the brilliance of Starship Troopers are all contained within the PSAs/wartime reels interspersed throughout the film. Try to imagine, for one second, the movie without them. I'll give you a hint - it's a Bay-level piece of shit. Overacted by many, badly acted by others, and taking itself way too seriously 98% of the time. Enjoyable, perhaps, but nowhere near the genius that those commercials make it, bringing the satire fully to life. Here's a great, detailed piece all about the subtext of the film, courtesy of The Onion A.V. Club.


2. Clancy Brown
Because Clancy makes everything better.


1. John D. Rico, lead character
Vacant. A blank slate. Dumb. Airheaded. Any or all of these words could be used to describe Johnny Rico, who's either the dumbest or greatest lead character in the history of film. Any time Rico is forced to make a decision or speak a line (in other words, almost the entirety of the movie), he looks back upon what others have done and/or told him. He's a complete and total follower, unable to ask questions and analyze situations on his own, which is what makes him such a unique character. We've been trained to know that the stars of our action movies or heist movies or business ethics dramas (or just about any other genre, for that matter) are made up of the smartest people in the room, out-of-the-box thinkers, clutch performers.

Rico may be a great athlete full of courage and valor, but he's as dumb as a box of rocks and as impressionable as a canister of Play-Doh. Feel free to mold him into any shape that you wish, so long as you speak to him with conviction. The personification of this arises mostly within his dealings with Michael Ironside's Lt. Rasczak, Rico's onetime teacher and future commanding officer. Rico so looks up to Rasczak that not only does he implore the man for orders even before joining the military, but parrots his every line as if, once he heard and memorized them, the space in his brain for other thoughts was gone forever.


P.S. - This didn't make the list, but in doing 'research' for this post, I just discovered this fact and I think my brain just got sucked by a big smart bug. I don't know how many times you've seen the movie, but I've seen it probably 10-20 times, including once in the past 48 hours. I just discovered who plays the biology teacher early in the film. HAD NO IDEA. I'm not gonna spoil it for you, but I'll even throw in a picture and see if that helps. I'm not sure if I'm just impressed at the acting or makeup or ashamed of myself for never having picked up on it. Random and weird...

And then...

Fletch's Favored Five: Wordless Lebowski Gags

You could say that it's easy to come up with a list of quotes from The Big Lebowski, given that there are so many to choose from. You could also say that it's damn near impossible to narrow such a list of quotes to your favorite five or ten, given that there are so many to choose from. I have wisely skipped over that task altogether, instead coming up with my favorite sight gags and other non-verbal jokes from the Coen brothers' epic stoner comedy.


5. Ranked the lowest because it really has little to do with the film outside of being a great example of awesome set design; the Coens had nothing to do with this image and, aside from the bowling aspect, it has nothing to do with the events of the film. But, c'mon, that's just a funny shot.


4. Works so great because, the first time you saw the flick, this was a sick-yet-funny image. But then, some 30 minutes into the film, you were given the background of one Jesus Quintana...and it immediately got a whole lot sicker. Ewww.


3. "Are you employed, sir?!?"



2. I love Jackie Treehorn's pervy drawing not so much for the content of it (which is admittedly funny), but for the fact that the audience gets to situate themselves in the exact frame of mind as The Dude upon first seeing it. Total bewilderment. Treehorn's look of intensity as he's creating it ain't half-bad, either.


1. You can't altogether see it from this image, but this is from one of the opening shots of the film, as we settle in on The Dude at his favorite grocery store - Ralph's - purchasing a half-gallon of milk (for the Caucasians, of course!). And that's all he buys. Naturally, he writes a check...for 69 cents. (Also notable is the fact that the date on the check is 9/11, but that's not particularly funny, just kind of a "huh" moment after the fact.)

And then...

Fletch's Favored Five: 2003 in Film

Now, the ninth in a continuing series in which I count down my favorites from a particular year in film. Previous entries:

1984 * 1985 * 1988 * 1990 * 1991 * 1993 * 1997 * 2002

I'm going to use Wikipedia to kickstart my brain, year by year, and I'll throw out a Favored Five here and there. If you want to refresh your memory in a similar fashion, just go to Wiki and type "[four-character year] in film." Here's the one for 2003. I won't pretend that Wiki is the end-all, be-all of filmic knowledge or that these yearly lists are 100% accurate, but they're an excellent place to start and a great resource.

2003
It's weird - some years, it seems there are 30 films vying for my Favored Five, and narrowing down to the honorable mention list can be even harder. Other years, I'm struggling to find movies that I'm passionate about...2003 is one such year. That's not to say necessarily that I don't love the ones that made the Five here - it's just that in a year with hundreds of releases, many of which I've seen, I expect to have to make some tough choices.

Notable movies not yet seen:
Elephant
The Last Samurai
Love Actually
Master and Commander: The Far Side of the World
Oldboy
Seabiscuit

Honorable mentions:
Confidence - Really not all that great, but a fun heist flick filled with a solid cast, and I'm a sucker for heist flicks.

Holes - If I were 11 in 2003, this would likely be my favorite film. If you're a fan of The Princess Bride, see this. They have very little in common aside from their tone, but Holes is a fun ride, and features Jon Voight overacting (as usual) - what more could you want?

LOTR: Return of the King - Would be higher if it didn't feature a giant spider-like thing (yeah, I'm a baby about spiders) and didn't have 14 false endings leading to its 7-hour run time.

The Five
5. Big Fish - Also known as "the last Tim Burton film that I can honestly say I liked." It practically defines whimsy and is pretty corny, but its emotional heft is pretty solid - I have to admit that it got a little dusty at the end the first time seeing this. Funny, well-written, and features Danny DeVito naked. Wait, that last thing's not really a plus, is it?

4. Kill Bill, Vol. 1 - It's pretty unlikely that any Tarantino flick doesn't at least make my top five in any year that there happens to be a Tarantino flick. I'm on record as not being the biggest fan of the never-ending final battle in this one, but the pluses far outweigh any negatives, and it's not really a negative, anyway - it just didn't make me geek out like it might have so many others. The premise of the two Volumes are just so solid.

3. Shattered Glass - I tried, Hayden. I tried to defend you (halfheartedly) for years, based solely on your wonderful performance here. But time has most definitely proven that this was merely a case of perfect casting and/or excellent direction (from Billy Ray, of whom I'm now a fan and am awaiting new material from - Breach is a solid film as well, starring Ryan Phillippe, no less). Nevertheless, Peter Sarsgaard was the larger revelation here - I wouldn't say that I have a man-crush on him or anything, but I've certainly followed his career pretty intensely after this one (though it's largely been a disappointment due to many a bad decision). Shattered Glass is pretty excellent - I can't think of too many other films about journalism that I find as gripping.

2. Code 46 - If you've been following me for any length of time, you'll know that I'm one of the chief flag wavers for this tiny sci-fi indie directed by Michael Winterbottom, starring Samantha Morton and Tim Robbins. I won't gush over it any more here, except to refer you to all my past gushings. It's not a perfect film, but does so many little things so well that endear me to it.

1. Finding Nemo - Much as a dig the previous film, it's hard to top what's indisputably one of Pixar's best flicks (let's give Wall*E and Up a few years before anointing them the crown-bearer). Taking on the challenging underwater setting - a nightmare for animators, for sure - director Andrew Stanton and his team produced a touching, poignant, funny, and of course beautiful film...about fish. Par for the course for Pixar. Hear more about this one in LAMBcasts 29/30.

And then...

Fletch's Favored Five: 1985 in Film

Now, the eighth in a continuing series in which I count down my favorites from a particular year in film. Previous entries:

1984 * 1991 * 1997 * 1988 * 2002 * 1993 * 1990

I'm going to use Wikipedia to kickstart my brain, year by year, and I'll throw out a Favored Five here and there. If you want to refresh your memory in a similar fashion, just go to Wiki and type "[four-character year] in film." Here's the one for 1985. I won't pretend that Wiki is the end-all, be-all of filmic knowledge or that these yearly lists are 100% accurate, but they're an excellent place to start and a great resource.

1985
Holy hell! It figures that the year smack dab in the middle would encapsulate the 80s so well. If I didn't know better, I'd swear that 90% of the films that define this decade were released this year - many of which won't even be making my Favored Five. Nevertheless, it appear as though 1985 is the home to many of my favorite movies of all time.

As is the case with just about any year I've covered in which I was but a wee lad for it (I was eight years old for much of 1985), I've seen most of the cheese and few of the prestige films. Though really, the Academy Awards were dominated by four films that year, with The Color Purple and Out of Africa receiving 11 nominations each, and Prizzi's Honor and Witness nabbing eight apiece, and I've seen half of those four, so I'm not doing all bad.

Good luck picking your five from 1985 - it's tough!

Notable movies not yet seen:
The Color Purple
Fandango (for Andy)
Kiss of the Spider Woman
Legend
Prizzi's Honor
Rambo: First Blood, Part II
Real Genius
St. Elmo's Fire

Honorable mentions:
Brazil
The Breakfast Club
Commando
Rocky IV
Vision Quest

5. Better Off Dead - Whither Savage Steve Holland? I'll never understand why this man didn't become a star. His first two films are this one and One Crazy Summer, aka two Hall of Fame 80s movies and probably the two biggest reasons that you know John Cusack's name. This one's awfully campy and occasionally becomes that which it parodies (the absolute ending is brutally cringeworthy), but the writing is just so absurd and dark that it demands to be appreciated. You've got to love a comedy in which its protagonist wants to commit suicide, you just have to.

4. Teen Wolf - Films 4, 3, and 2 on this list are pretty far ahead of number 5 and pretty far from number 1, but each lumped pretty tightly in my heart. The separation I've gone with here lies mostly in terms of their general craftsmanship.

Teen Wolf, for example, practically feels like a made-for-TV movie. The effects are far from awe-inspiring and there's not a star to be found in the cast outside of Fox, who even then was still know mostly for Family Ties. (It was actually released while Back to the Future was still in theaters, but I get the feeling that it was filmed prior and released to capitalize on BTTF's success.) It's all very small, even down to it's star stature (heyo!).

But boy is it memorable. Pamela Wells, her 35-year old boyfriend, the immortal Jerry Levine as the even more immortal Styles, "Boof," "Chunk" "Chubby," Coach Flinstock's three rules for life, "Give me a keg of beer" - where does it end? Even a crappy Saturday morning cartoon was spawned (and, admittedly, watched a few times by yours truly) by Wolf, not to mention the Jason Bateman-starring sequel that no one cares about.

An epic of my childhood right up there with The Karate Kid. And no, my name is not Bill Simmons (for the three people that might be thinking that right now).

3. The Goonies - Then there's this one. Just as memorable and lovable, but with it, much higher production values and much, much more. I wanted to be Mikey when I watched this flick: he was just a few years older, lived in a sweet Northwestern town (I always wanted to live near a forest), had a sweet group of dorky friends, and got to hunt for secret pirate treasure, for chrissakes!

It's quite possible that the kids of today won't care for The Goonies like the kids of the 80s did. To them, I say, "Goonies never say die." "Hey!! You!! Guys!!" "The marijuana goes in the top drawer. The cocaine and speed go in the second drawer. And the heroin goes in the bottom drawer. Always separate the drugs."

2. Back to the Future - And now, to the one that's most likely the number 1 choice of 95% of the people that will read this. Aiden recently gave this a fresh look, and no surprise that it walked away with a 9/10. Many would give it a 10, and deservedly so - Bob Zemekis crafted one of the last, best adventure flicks we've had not named Indiana Jones (and there was really only one more of those to come), an amazingly richly detailed film filled with humor, action, kickass music, and Huey Lewis. For all of the times I've seen BTTF and its sequel, I still feel like I haven't seen them nearly enough (strangely, I've never seen the third al the way through).

1. Fletch - As if this was ever in doubt. Amazingly, this post will mark the first time that Fletch (the movie) will be used as a post label, which means that for nearly four years, I've barely spoken a word about one of my all-time favorite films and the inspiration for my online alias. How in the hell did this happen?

As you might have guessed, I actually didn't get into Fletch as an 8-year old, but rather during my later high school years, when my then-best friend and I would watch it religiously. Over that time, I advanced to the point where I might be able to act the film out for you in its entirety. I won't tolerate any opinion that derides this as some cheesy 80s comedy, though; certainly, the music is dated (if lovable) and the outfits (who wears short shorts?) can be questionable when compared to today's climate, but damned if this isn't one hell of a script! So many jokes piled upon jokes, they fly at you like insults from Don Rickles (more timeliness!). I could go on and on about all of the things I love about Fletch (Gummy! Dr. Rosen Rosen! The familiar red Oldsmobuick of Mr. Arnold T. Pants, Esq., "Far as you know."), but I'll spare you.

And then...

Fletch's Favored Five: Teeth in Film

I've put way too much thought into this list - the only problem is that there's not a whole lot to choose from. They play an important part in Intolerably Cruelty, to be sure, and they're so pivotal in one film that the film is even named Teeth, but a) I haven't seen that, b) it sounds too gimmicky, and c) I'm not even sure they show the titular teeth because d) they ain't in her mouth.

What I was aiming for were the five most memorable teeth, be they an individual tooth or a mouthful. Obviously, vampires are way too commonplace and boring. Before we go any further, how about a lifetime achievement award to Tom Cruise, owner of three front teeth (or one, depending on how you look at it). Ever since this was pointed out to me, I've been unable to not fixate on it (don't think about elephants), so I thought I'd share my trauma with you:


Next, an honorable mention.

Mike Myers, Austin Powers series: Austin's gritty, grimy Briteeth were an important element of his character, and though they're not amongst my favorites, they deserve a shout-out. Sexy, baby:


The five:

5. Matt Dillon, There's Something About Mary: The definition of "chompers." Dillon's Pat Healy will do whatever it takes to get in the good graces of Mary, and when he learns that she's into nice, big teeth, well...


4. Vinnie Jones, Snatch: Really, the tooth itself is pretty inconsequential to the film; it merely adds to the aura of cool that writer/director Guy Ritchie imports into his characters and movies, and Tony was most definitely a cool cat and a bad ass, and his bullet tooth certainly helped in that regard.


3. John Matuszak, The Goonies: What would you work on first - the severe facial deformity or that set of mismanaged rice bits? Poor Sloth...


2. Richard Kiel, The Spy Who Loved Me and Moonraker: I can't imagine what it must have been like to brush those things after chowing down on some popcorn. That in and of itself is a nightmare.


1. Chris Cooper, Adaptation: It's a travesty that for my favorite set of teeth, there was not a single good image to be found on the internets. I had to find a video clip and screenshot it to present you this look at the few remaining teeth that John Laroche had. I don't doubt at all that his mouth played a large part in his Oscar win.

And then...