Lupe's honorable mentions of 1999

These first three could easily have been in the top 20 if there weren't already twenty great movies ahead of them.

Bowfinger (comedy)
A gripping allegory about how Randy Quaid got his big break.  Also, Laker girls!

Dick (comedy)
The true story of Watergate is way boringer than this.

Toy Story 2 (animated, comedy)
Seeing toys talk is like watching dogs play poker.  It's AWESOME!


The rest of these really only deserve to be runners up.

The Blair Witch Project (horror)
Who knew so many people could get so much motion sickness?

Bringing Out The Dead (drama)
Nic Cage stars as a ham sandwich in search of a story.

Dogma (comedy)
It's got a poo monster.

Girl, Interrupted (drama)
If I remember right, the Angelina Jolie nudity was in Pushing Tin (also '99).

The Green Mile (drama)
Made me pray I never get a urinary tract infection.

Man on the Moon (drama)
Jim Carrey's tour de force earned him a little Foghat at the MTV movie awards.

The Sixth Sense (suspense)
Great, until you realize the ghosts can be beaten with water.

Sleepy Hollow (fable)
The little kid in this totally gets what's coming to him.

Star Wars Episode I: The Phantom Menace (adventure)
This movie would be completely forgettable if it weren't for Jar Jar.

Lupe's Top 20 of 1999

In a normal year, any of these would be top ten material.  And the list could have been longer.

20. The Matrix (sci-fi, action)
This beat the pants off the tired action movie genre and made it put on tight black leather.  Uh, it's better than that makes it sound.

19. The Iron Giant (animated)
Brad Bird's riveting examination of mankind's psyche in the face of alien contact, just with Jennifer Anniston in the Jodie Foster role.  Being a Warner Brothers cartoon, it's not exactly stingy with the Superman references.

18. Election (comedy)
I'm waiting for the version of this with the gender roles reversed.  I think the plotline with the little sister stealing the counter culture vote got turned into an episode of Veronica Mars.

17. The Insider (drama)
None of this would have happened if Proctor & Gamble had just employed Oompa Loompas.  I guess Mike Wallace would still have ridden around Beirut with a bag on his head.

16. Ghost Dog: The Way of the Samurai (action)
Before Idi Amin turned into a complete psychopath, he had a code of honor.  Or, I might be confusing a couple of movies.  That's the risk you run when a film messes with anachronisms.

15. Three Kings (action)
When will we Americans learn that instead of protecting the weak and dispossessed, we should just steal their stuff and move on.  If it weren't for George Clooney's liberal bleeding heart, he'd have gotten away with a lot of gold in this movie, just like the Huns of old.

14. Galaxy Quest (comedy)
If I were William Shatner or Leonard Nimoy, I would feel like this movie loved me wholeheartedly and unreservedly.  Then again, if I were William Shatner, I'd put that Fight Club punk Ed Norton in his place.

13. The Talented Mr. Ripley (drama)
I like to think of it as Head Wound, starring Jude Law.  This may be an Anthony Minghella film, but it's no English Patient.  That's why it's good.

12. Titus (drama)
We already knew Shakespeare was adaptable, but Julie Taymor shows us just how violent he can be.  Vividly.  Jeez.  He was dead by the time of Jack the Ripper, right?

11. Go (crime)
Probably the only Pulp Fiction clone that succeeded in being good, mostly because it's awash in charisma.  Also mentioned the Achaemenid emperor Xerxes before 300 turned him into a transvestite ogre.

10. South Park: Bigger, Longer, and Uncut (animated, comedy)
The only strike against this suitably epic big screen adaptation is that it came out before Butters became a major character on the show.  Should've won the Oscar for best song.

9. Cookie's Fortune (drama)
For a movie set in Mississippi, this actually isn't condescending.  It's kind of sweet, even when the old lady shoots herself in the face.

8. Run Lola Run (foreign, action)
I could watch Franka Potente running for ninety minutes.  In point of fact, I've watched it several times.

7. Princess Mononoke (animated, adventure)
The bit where Ashitaka fires an arrow that severs both of a bandit's arms at the elbow literally changed my life.  I wish I was kidding.

6. Office Space (comedy)
Probably the second best comedy of the decade.  As a celebration of laziness and mediocrity, I found it personally fulfilling.

5. Being John Malkovich (comedy)
This movie reiterates what Ronald Reagan and so many others have learned to be an objective truth:  everything is better with a monkey in it.

4. Magnolia (drama)
Dude gets hit in the face with a frog.  Surprisingly, this is not a comedy.  Plus, it's got a better child actor than The Sixth Sense, and he even wets his pants.  Again, not a comedy.

3. Eyes Wide Shut (drama)
When the creep in the mask commands Tom Cruise to take his clothes off, I felt deeply uncomfortable in a way few movies have ever achieved.  You would, too.  Plus, awesome last line of dialogue.

2. American Beauty (drama)
Watching this, you really get the sense that all the characters are at the center of their own stories, rather than being supporting characters for Kevin Spacey.  Well, except the drug dealer's mom.  She doesn't do much.

1. Fight Club (n/a)
If you're a guy and you didn't love this movie, then you probably thought Notting Hill was the best film of '99.

Honorable mention: Bowfinger, Dick, Toy Story 2, ...Notting Hill.

Strat's honorable mentions of 1999

How can you do this? How can you make a list of movies that weren't good enough to put in your top 20?

1999 was not a great year in cinema for nothing. It's a year full of movies better than most any other years. I feel it's important to understand that beyond a mere 20, there are other movies that in other years would make the 20 and it's not fair to pretend like they never existed.

So here's my attempt to do them some bit of service and explain a bit why they weren't worthy of the 20. Hopefully someone will be intrigued enough to take a look at some of these:

In no particular order:

Three Kings (action)

It's humor and war meets Saving Private Ryan imagery and Matrix bullet-time. Solid acting and who would have thought Marky Mark would keep his acting chops rolling.

American Movie (documentary)

Filmmaking is a serious art. Not to these mid-western guys filming their horror opus in this documentary. Well at least it's funny to us watching them make it. Once you've been in the movie business, you've probably seen this movie happen in real life a hundred times.

Man of the Century (comedy)

This barely seen movie is a sweet comedy blending the modern day world with a man from the 20s. If you can find it, it's worth definitely worth a view. While different, in a year of ground-breaking it was not earth-shattering.

The 6th Sense (suspense/drama)

Solid movie although I can't say I liked it as much as other films considering I figured out the ending 20 minutes into my first time watching it. Good child acting.

Beyond the Mat (documentary)

Every wondered what goes on outside of the wrestling ring? A very interesting look at not just the world of pro wrestling, but the people who chose that as a career. It doesn't make the 20 as it seems actually too brief and your left unfulfilled with some of the characters.

The Straight Story (drama)

In a year of violence and craziness - Lynch breaks out the story of a man and his lawnmower? Well-crafted simple storytelling at its finest. In the end it's a tale that fades into the tapestry.

Any Given Sunday (sports drama)

Oliver Stone, Al Pacino and pro football. Expect craziness. You get it. While the politics is hitting you in the chin, the hyper-real Natural Born Killers feel sometimes acts as a determent to what this movie could have been.

Varsity Blues (sports drama)

It's a bit cheesy. Okay a lot. Though it's surprisingly one of the better 90s teen movies and understands the world it exists in pretty well.

Sleepy Hollow (fantasy/drama)

Tim Burton and Johnny Depp. You know it's going to be good. While everything is there in this one, you almost feel like something besides a horsemen's head is missing in this one. A bit too contrived.

The Hurricane (sports drama)

It's the Denzel Oscar push movie. Very clearly. Solid acting, but it's not as compelling a story as one would have hoped. Although seeing Denzel in a solid role is hard not to enjoy.

Election (comedy)

The groundwork for complicated stories in high school politics. And Matthew Broderick (Ferris Bueller's Day Off) is the teacher this time. While it's amusing, it never really scores well on consistent laughs.

10 Things I Hate About You (comedy)

Ladies and gentlemen, introducing Julia Stiles and Health Ledget. In a modern update of yet another Shakespeare play, we realize that we've got a solid movie spearheaded by some of the best up-and-coming young talent.

ExistenZ (sci-fi)

In any other year it probably is the best sci-fi movie. In 99, it's a bad copy of the Matrix. Except with a little David Cronenberg classic grotesqueness thrown in for good measure.

Boys Don't Cry (drama)

The raw power of Hillary Swank's performance is hard to ignore. The movie never once goes violent just to be violent, but uses it in such a careful manner that we're never felt that this is an Oscar push movie. That's why it did so well.