1999 Part 2

Continuing my look at the movies of 1999, my "friend", Art, persuaded me to see Will Smith's "Wild Wild West" that summer. As stated in a prior entry, it is one of the worst movies that I have ever seen. I went to see Kirsten Dunst in "Dick" (a comedy about "Tricky Dick" Nixon) as well as Julia Roberts and Richard Gere reuniting for "Runaway Bride" (pretty decent, actually). Pierce Brosnan in "The Thomas Crown Affair" was also enjoyable as were the animated "Iron Giant" and Eddie Murphy playing a goofball in "Bowfinger".



But let's get to some of the really good stuff. One weekend in the late summer, I went to a supernatural movie called, "The Sixth Sense". It was getting great reviews and making a lot of money. As I sat in the Galleria Theatres watching the movie, I have to say it was quite good, but not excellent.

However, once the twist came, I was totally floored and it became an "A" movie for me. Wow! I did not see that ending coming even though I had heard that the movie had a doozy of a twist near the end. It was nominated for Best Pic at the Academy Awards and was definitely in the running for my fave movie of '99.

Now it was on to the fall movie season. Another spooky movie came out called "Stir of Echoes". It starred Kevin Bacon. No "Sixth Sense", but a good, gripping thriller, nonetheless. Then there was the freaky "Stigmata" (not very good, but I did like the plot point that the Catholic church suppressed the Biblical verse, "The kingdom of heaven is within". It's what I believe, that no church is necessary for "salvation").

I saw Ashley Judd's "Double Jeopardy" in Winona with Art and his wife. Formulaic, but it did have its moments. The projector conked out about 7 minutes before the end of the movie and couldn't be fixed, so we were all given free passes. One evening in late September, I decided to go see "Fight Club". I had the strangest reaction to it in that I didn't know whether or not I liked it as I exited the theatre.

There were things I admired about it, but then again, I thought the film fell apart at the end. I've since revisited the movie and concluded that it is powerful filmmaking. This is one of my favorite lines from the movie:

Tyler Durden: Man, I see in fight club the strongest and smartest men who've ever lived. I see all this potential, and I see squandering. God damn it, an entire generation pumping gas, waiting tables; slaves with white collars. Advertising has us chasing cars and clothes, working jobs we hate so we can buy shit we don't need. We're the middle children of history, man. No purpose or place. We have no Great War. No Great Depression. Our Great War's a spiritual war... our Great Depression is our lives. We've all been raised on television to believe that one day we'd all be millionaires, and movie gods, and rock stars. But we won't. And we're slowly learning that fact. And we're very, very pissed off.

This one also had a big twist at the end.

Next, I went to see the psychological comedy, "Mumford". Another fantastic movie came out in early October, Clooney, Wahlberg, and Ice Cube in the early 90's Persian Gulf-set film, "Three Kings". The movie actually shows what happens to a body when it is struck by a bullet. Not pretty.

For shits and giggles, I saw Molly Shannon and Will Ferrell in "Superstar" (I got more shits than giggles). Dori and I went to see Tobey Maguire in "The Cider House Rules" (very solid, nominated for Best Pic) as well as Cage in "Bringing Out the Dead" (also good). November came and it was time for Kevin Smith's satire of his Catholic faith, "Dogma". Alanis Morrissette was fabulous as God. "Toy Story 2" was nice. Johnny Depp in "Sleepy Hollow" was a cool one to see as the nights turned colder. I loved the tagline on its poster: Heads Will Roll. Indeed. "Deuce Bigalow" was passable. Ralph Fiennes and Julianne Moore were fantastic in the longing "End of the Affair"

and Tom Hanks was excellent in the 3-hour "The Green Mile" (I had read the Stephen King book a few years prior). As the year wound down, I went to "Girl Interrupted" with Winona Ryder and a breakout performance by Angelina Jolie (for which she won Best Supporting Actress). Then there was Cruise, Julianne Moore, and many others in the 3-hour "Magnolia". As stated in a prior entry, Cruise gave the performance-of-a-lifetime in this one and did win a Golden Globe for the role. Next I went to "Shaving Ryan's Privates" and I have to say...jk..we went to see "The Talented Mr. Ripley" (very dark, but good stuff).

And that just leaves my favorite movie of 1999. When the movie in question ended, I got this incredibly blissful feeling just like I got after viewing "Titanic" two years prior and which I haven't felt in a movie theatre since that fall day in 1999. What was it? Well, I'm gonna have to write about it next time. 1999 was just too memorable to write about in two sittings.