Fletch's Favored Five: 1990 in Film

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

1997 * 1991 * 1984 * 1988 * 2002 * 1993

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 1993. 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.

1990
If you were a historian looking for the year in which (lackluster) sequels took over, I'd hazard a guess that 1990 is the year you'd settle on. Have a gander at this motley crew:

Another 48 Hrs.
Back to the Future Part III
Child's Play 2
Die Hard 2: Die Harder
The Exorcist III
The Godfather Part III
Gremlims 2: The New Batch
Look Who's Talking Too
The Neverending Story II: The Next Chapter
Predator 2
Robocop 2
Rocky V
Three Men and a Little Lady
The Two Jakes
Young Guns II

Now, I've not seen half of these, so don't mistake inclusion on this list as a proclamation that all of them are terrible films - I'm sure each has their fans. That said, I don't think there's a single one of them that was/is hailed as being a great film in its own right. Even of the ones I've seen that I think are decent (Back to the Future III, for example), I'd have no problem if none of these films existed.

Basically, that line of thinking extends to the entirety of films from 1990. I've seen a lot of the flicks from this year, and I had a hard time coming up with even my top five, much less any honorable mentions, and from the ones I've chosen, though there are some that I really enjoy, I don't know if there's a one that I looooove. A shame - I was 13 for much of 1990 - I should love many of them. Beyond that, so many of the films that I've seen and can remember liking...I don't recall all that well, from Pump Up the Volume to Internal Affairs to Revenge to Miller's Crossing and so on, so it seems wrong to rank them here. What's left is comfort food, mostly.

Notable movies not yet seen:
Dances with Wolves
Pretty Woman
La Femme Nikita
The Hunt for Red October
Postcards from the Edge
Wild at Heart (currently sitting in my Netflix queue)

Honorable mentions:
Lionheart
Mr. Destiny (I'm a sucker for this flick)

5. Kindergarten Cop - Really not a great movie, but it was just about the best example of a "fish out of water" that we could have hoped for in the 80s/early 90s. As a bonus, it produced line after line after classic line delivered by Schwarzenegger - enough to be the cause for more prank phone calls than you can possibly fathom.

4. GoodFellas - Stop it. I can hear you all right now, blasting me to shreds for either not having this at number one and/or for having Home Effing Alone above it. Well, tough. As documented ad nauseum, I'll take Casino over this one any day of the week. Sorry, I guess I don't like Ray Liotta nearly as much as I thought I did 20 years ago. That said, I am due for watching this one more; I've seen the likes of Casino and The Departed tens of times each; GoodFellas, not so much. Perhaps it will grow on me as they did (each of them gets better with every viewing, so why not this one?).

3. Edward Scissorhands - Ahhh, the gold old days, back when Burton's schtick was fresh and seeing John Depp play a misfit seemed odd. I long for that simpler time.


2. Home Alone - There's a reason it was a big box-office hit - it strikes all the right chords. Equal parts melancholy, funny, and Christmas-y, I seem to enjoy this one more and more each year as well. How can anyone watch this and not want to be Kevin (at that age)? The bumbling criminals bit has never wowed me, but the ingenuity of the kid and his pranks make it akin to The Goonies in that way, while the rest of it has that John Hughes/Chicago suburbs charms.

1. Total Recall - If this wasn't made for a 13-year old future movie geek, I don't know what was. What's not to love? Arnold kicking ass, a three-breasted prostitute, Benny, bulge-out eyes, Phillip K. Dick, Michael Ironside, "two weeks," topless Sharon Stone? It's got it all, and then some.

And then...

Random thought: Really, Arnold?

I'm just sitting here watching Total Recall and the famous "Two weeks" scene is on, where Arnold's Douglas Quaid returns to Mars. Being a highly sought-after fugitive, he arrives wearing an intricate woman's head mask thing and a muumuu, so as to disguise his large frame.

He's asked a few questions by a customs agent (of sorts) regarding fruit being brought to the red planet and how long he's planning on staying. For reasons unbeknownst to us (read: major plot hole), his high tech mask/head that's also a bomb is inexplicably programmed to speak no more than two words - "two weeks," so that when that question about the fruit comes up, his answer makes him highly suspicious.

He repeats the line ad nauseum, more or less shorting out the entire mechanism, which leads us to the part where it's used as a bomb.

Being the forgiving moviegoer, I'm more than willing to overlook the retarded "two weeks" plot hole. However, as his costume malfunctions and he's repeating those words, drawing the attention of Michael Ironside's Richter, the following medium-range shot is shown:


Um, am I the only one seriously disturbed by this image? (If you'd like, click on it for a much larger view.)

I can understand it when a director dresses the extras around the main character in drab clothing and/or has the lead in a royal blue or fire engine red so as to have them stand out, but why the hell would director Paul Verhoeven allow Quaid - again, highly wanted fugitive - to arrive on Mars wearing a golden muumuu amidst a sea of travelers and customs agents wearing nothing but shades of gray, black and beige?

Douglas Quaid might have had his memory wiped, but he ain't stupid.

And then...

Outlandish Statements #2

It's time for more outlandish statements. Feel free to disagree, call me crazy, or call me genius. Just don't call me Shirley. Here's the last installment of this feature.

"David Lynch's Lost Highway is intellectual masturbatory nonsense, full of images and plots that don't tell a story, but rather beat you into submission, leaving you begging for any sense of clarity."

"As good a movie as it is, Terminator 2: Judgement Day is only Arnold Schwarzenegger's third best film, trailing both Total Recall and Predator."

"Ocean's Twelve is a fine addition to the franchise and rewards repeat viewings."

"As much as I think him a loonbag nutjob and don't want to support his movies (financially), I miss Mel Gibson the actor."

"The guy that played Biff Tannen (Tom Wilson) in the Back to the Future movies is one of the most criminally underused and underappreciated actors of all time, capable of playing for comedy or drama, at any age."

Got some of your own?

And then...