You hopefully read my article 1999: A Great Year for Movies Part 1 earlier this week. Carrying on, here are some more of the movies from 1999 that, for me, make it one of the best years for movies ever.
Eyes Wide Shut
This has to be one of the best of Kubrick’s. He made this in 1999 before his death. We follow a man going through a very strange night in Manhattan, which leads him to an orgy for the super-rich. The cult of the super-rich is allegedly about the secret backdrop of Hollywood. Rich people, as a cult, do whatever they like. That can’t be true, not in Hollywood?
There is also a rumor going around that Kubrick wanted to break up Tom Cruise and his then-wife, Nicole Kidman, as Cruise got Kubrick’s daughter into Scientology. If you look it up, it’s interesting stuff.
Office Space
One of Mike Judge’s best movies and still very, very funny. Peter doesn’t like his job, so his girlfriend takes him to a psychiatrist who hypnotizes him to relax, but he doesn’t break out of it. Because of this, he starts to chill and tell the truth at work, which means he gets a promotion.
Peter and two workmates then start a scam, skimming money out of the company. This gets out of hand. It’s all very poignant and satirizes the American workplace perfectly. It’s a great cast too, including Stephen Root.
Sleepy Hollow
Tim Burton’s Sleepy Hollow is a great story, and scary in places. A Headless Horseman is decapitating people in the small town of Sleepy Hollow. Ichabod Crane is sent to investigate what is going on. It’s a good detective story, with a horror twist.
There is a great cast, good direction, and a very well-done movie from back in 1999.
Man on the Moon
After the success of things like Ace Venture and The Mask, Jim Carrey did The Truman Show, then he went all method acting with Man on the Moon. Carrey played Andy Kaufman, one of those comedians who took things way too far. To some he was a comedy genius, to others he was a nightmare.
I hadn’t heard of Kaufman until this movie as he wasn’t big in the UK, but it was a fascinating autobiographical movie. According to reports, Carrey was so method on set that he drove the director Milos Forman insane.
Audition
If you have seen Audition, you know what a great movie it is. If you haven’t, you should. It is a shocking movie, but it’s so well made. Be warned, if a cute girl seems into you, check her background first.
Lake Placid
This is a really underrated movie. A giant crocodile terrorizes a local swimming hole. The great thing about this movie is the cast and script, it is very fun and everyone is enjoying themselves. Oliver Platt is having a blast here and he’s really good.
Ravenous
If you haven’t seen this, you should. It’s a simple story about cannibalism in outer regions during the US Civil War. It’s a very underrated movie. You have Guy Pearce pitted against Robert Carlyle. The casting is perfect and Carlyle is amazing in this.
One other thing I remember about this movie is the score. It was done by Daemon Albarn (Blur) and is really good. I might need to put this on the Film Club list, as everyone should see it at least once.
Mystery Men
I LOVE Mystery Men, the humor in it is right up my street. In Champion City, the superhero Captain Amazing is worried since he’s losing sponsorship. He arranges for the release of his arch nemesis, Casanova Frankenstein. With a turn of events, an unlikely band of wannabe superheroes have to save the day.
There’s The Shoveler, Furious, and the Blue Raja, played by William H. Macy, Ben Stiller, and Hank Azaria. The rest of the cast is all really good, apart from Eddie Izzard. It’s got a killer soundtrack as well. I’d put this on a list as one of my favorite movies actually.
Gorgeous
One of Jackie Chan’s best movies and has probably the best on-screen fight ever, against Brad Allan. I love the fight here, they have respect for each other and it’s not mindless violence. Brad’s character wants the challenge of a good fight. The rest of the movie is good, not great, but it’s worth watching just for that fight.
10 Things I Hate About You
OK, so this is a love story, and a modernization of William Shakespeare’s comedy The Taming of the Shrew retold in a late-1990s American high school setting, but it’s perfectly cast and very funny. It was the first time I saw Heath Ledger and Joseph Gordon-Levitt. This has a great cast, it’s well made and the soundtrack is awesome. The scene at the end, where Julia Stiles’ reads her poem, always has me crying. A very underrated comedy.
I haven’t covered every movie in the year. I couldn’t possibly. There are just too many. Here are some honorable mentions:
The Boondock Saints, Beowulf, 8mm, Three Kings, Entrapment, eXistenZ, Go, The Straight Story, Being John Malkovich, Election, The Trench, The Limey, An American Tale, Stuart Little, Bicentennial Man, Cruel Intentions, The Thomas Crown Affair, Tarzan, The Virgin Suicides, South Park: Bigger, Longer and Uncut, Toy Story 2, Any Given Sunday, Bowfinger, End of Days, The 13th Warrior, The Insider, Magnolia.
What a year! I’ve stopped listing them now as there are just too many and I wish I could write up reviews for all of them. 1999 truly was the best year for movies ever. Do you agree?
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