Winner
Best Picture
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Welcome to the Oscar Breach Awards: Best of the 1990s. I am including the best of all films that I have seen that were released between 1990 and 1999. By my count, I have seen at least 190 movies from the '90s and I managed to give 114 of them nominations or mentions. I tried to see as many '90s movies that I still hadn't seen this last year, but there are still lots of great films I'm sure I haven't seen. So if something seems to be missing from a category, it might be because I still have not seen it. With that in mind, I welcome both compliments and criticism, so feel free to email me here. Enjoy!
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Winner
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| Pulp Fiction | Saving Private Ryan | Titanic | The Truman Show | William Shakespeare's Romeo + Juliet |
| Many call Fiction a redefining moment for film. I agree because it started the new "out of sequence" approach to film, and showed that a film can just be about a lot of of people talking about nothing. And yet it all comes together with a hidden message about forgiveness and redemption. | This might be the best war movie ever, if not at least best of the decade. Spielberg did an excellent job in portraying the greatest generation for the heroes that they are, and the necessary sacrifices that must be made in times of war without censoring the horrors of the battlefield. | I remember when this film came out right as I was reaching adolescence, and its story brought me into that stage of my life by introducing me to the meaning of true love. I know many have turned their backs on this film in the last few years, but I still consider it one of the greatest love stories ever. | Few films have inspired me to find meaning in life like The Truman Show did. The philosophy of being trapped in a bubble with your surroundings controlled by a god-like figure is a situation that we all feel like we're in sometimes. And this film shows us how to break free from the bubble. | The story of Romeo and Juliet will forever be the greatest love story, but only through Baz Luhrman's brilliant modern day stylized interpretation can audiences like myself become truly attached to it and understand the full meaning of Shakespeare's words. Much like Titanic, this helped bring me into adolescence. |
Best Action Film
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Winner
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| Air Force One | Armageddon | Fight Club | Jurassic Park | Star Wars: Episode I - The Phantom Menace |
| Harrison Ford and director Wolfgang Peterson really know how to deliver extreme action, and even with a complicated and modern day relevant political plot. And it stays intense all the way to the end with several "what would you do?" ethical decision moments. | This was Michael Bay's best film until Transformers. Aside from Bay's typical intense action and thrilling effects, Armageddon has a cast of colorful characters and a great climactic ending with sacrifice and heart. This makes it one of the few action movies that makes me cry at the end. | Though this David Fincher film is somewhat light on the action, it remains heavy on thrills and suspense that eventually turns into chaos. You come out of this movie with it being something totally different than what you expected, and that's what you like about it. | Spielberg's vision reinvented the sci-fi disaster film. It was a revelation at the time and remains one today for its terrifying thrills mixed with a sense of wonder, explained by a relatively reasonable scientific process. Of course the sequels were not as good, but Jurassic set a new standard for effects and excitement. | Though clearly not the best of the Star Wars franchise, Episode 1 still does a great job standing as its own film rather than a link in the chain. With Jar Jar complaints aside, the film had bar-setting visual and sound effects, stunning action, and the sense of wonder that Star Wars has always provided. |
Best Comedy
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| The Big Lebowski | Home Alone | Liar Liar | Mrs. Doubtfire | Robin Hood: Men in Tights |
| Forget about Fargo and No Country for Old Men. This is the Coen Brothers' masterpiece. How often do we get such a unique cast of mixed characters thrown into a complicated situation, where the solution to all problems is to have a joint and go bowling? And it had some great laughs too. | Home Alone started a great trend of comedies for kids that adults can also enjoy. Aside from the comedy, there is great heart to the story. And the appeal to adults is treating adult characters as they are instead of how kids see adults, a mistake a lot of kids films make these days. | This is Jim Carrey at the top of his game. Few other actors can put in so much physical and vocal energy to get the maximum amount of comedy out of a performance. There are also few movies with a greater laugh/minute ratio than this movie does. Ace Ventura: When Nature Calls is the runner-up for funniest Jim Carrey film. | This is where my dedication to Robin Williams films first began. It was also the first time a guy in a fat woman suit was funny, before it was milked to death by Eddie Murphy and Martin Lawrence. But this film innovated the comedy of the drag situation, and like all great comedies has a lot of heart behind it. | Forget The Producers, Young Frankenstein and Spaceballs. I'd call this Mel Brooks at his best. Satire after satire is hard to do without cramming it down the audience's throat, but Brooks pulled it off with good humor and plenty of blind man jokes. |
Best Animated Film
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Winner
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| Aladdin | Beauty and the Beast | The Lion King | The Nightmare Before Christmas | Toy Story 2 |
| Before Pixar revolutionized animation, this was probably the most hilarious animated film ever, thanks mostly to Robin Williams of course. The Genie could practically have his own movie and I would see it. But Aladdin offered that and so much more. | Though not the funniest, Beauty lives up to its names as one of the most beautiful animated films ever made, both artistically and musically, which fully explains its achievement as the only animated film with a best picture Oscar nomination. | Through great music and artistic visuals, Disney brought successfully adapted a classic story into the often overlooked African culture. The film did a great job entertaining as well as spreading cultural diversity at the same time. | There is a reason why Tim Burton's holiday-twisting masterpiece has become a Halloween cult classic. It is one of the most visionary films ever by creating a wonderous world of haunting characters, and held together by some of the best music I have ever heard. | Toy Story was great, but this is a rare case where the sequel was even better than the original. It was funnier, it had greater action, and it had a more striking message about letting kids grow up. And it remains my second-favorite Disney/Pixar film to date just behind The Incredibles. |
Worst Oscar Film
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Loser
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| The Cider House Rules | The English Patient | Four Weddings and a Funeral | Mighty Aphrodite | Secrets and Lies |
| This is a pure example of making a film for the sole purpose of winning awards. By featuring strong actors, a period getup, nudity and the liberal view of an issue, what won't Academy members want to vote for? | This might be the worst best picture winner ever, making it a prime example of how '96 was a weak year all around. But this was just a lot of overdramatic time stalling so that it could arrive at nothing. I found absolutely no point in this film. | Perhaps I don't fully understand British humor, or I just didn't understand this film. But what makes it any more special than the next romantic comedy? It's as simple as the next lonely guy meets and falls in love with girl story. | Sure Mira Sorvino deserved her supporting actress win, but it couldn't have been for a worse film, and I'm not even that fond of Woody Allen films to begin with. What disturbed me most is seeing Woody Allen write a script that would allow his character to hook up with younger attractive actresses, a disturbing reflection of real life. | This is one of those cases where I stop and ask, "What are all these people crying about?" This pointless film had so much unneccesary drama in it just to get some respectable performances out of its actors. Again, '96 was a bad year. |
Best Performance by an Actor
Winner
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Roberto Begnini (Life is Beautiful) |
Robert De Niro (Cape Feare) |
Tom Hanks (Forrest Gump) |
Anthony Hopkins (The Silence of the Lambs) |
Geoffrey Rush (Shine) |
| It is always difficult to pay attention to a performance in a foreign-language. But Begnini got through to audiences with his happy go lucky energy in good times, and a powerful happy facade in the worst of times. He wins this for showing multiple sides of heroism. | DeNiro finally broke free from his tough Italian roles and convincingly played such a vile Southern stalker killer to the likes of the best villians ever. It was tough to beat Hannibal Lecter in '91, but he still put up a good fight with his equal manipulation and reserved rage. | He was also great in Philadelphia but it was Hanks' role as the highly-achieved mentally-challenged Southerner that created one of the most beloved, iconic, and quoted characters ever. His performance also gave us something to hope for proving that any person can do great things. | Hopkins created one of the most memorable villians ever through manipulation, deceit, and unholy sadistic acts. It's impossible to imagine any other actor doing such things. Hopkins also deserves credit for his great performance in Amistad as well. | Rarely does an actor go from complete foreign no-name to best actor of the year like Rush did in '96. Portraying a man tortured to perfection and stroke victim, while doing all his own piano playing himself, is an achievement no other actor could have done. |
Best Performance by an Actress
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Kathy Bates (Misery) |
Annette Bening (American Beauty) |
Cate Blanchett (Elizabeth) |
Frances McDormand (Fargo) |
Hilary Swank (Boys Don't Cry) |
| I literally just finally saw Misery the other day and good thing too. I was horrified by Bates as the literally die-hard fan who will worship you one moment and break your legs the next. I wouldn't imagine this category to be won by a thriller, but it is fully deserving. | Though I'm not a fan of Bening herself, she always gives excellent performances with her scenery-chewing drama-queen style. And Beauty is probably her best performance to date as the love-deprived suburban housewife nearly driven to murder. | The blossoming of the great Cate's career started here during her first portrayal of the great monarch. Her fully developing performance about a young woman suddenly faced with the largest responsibility in the world was mesmerizing. | If we ever needed proof that women have just as much comedic power as men, this is it. While taking on the Minnesota accent, a joke itself, McDormand was hilarious by staying upbeat and friendly even in the most horrid situations, until the end when her optimism finally brakes. | For some reason, Swank is good at roles about women filling the shoes of men, in this case literally. Again I'm not a fan of the movie, but Swank was great playing a woman strongly convinced to be a man. It's disturbingly confusing and real. |
Best Performance by a Supporting Actor
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Winner
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Tom Cruise (Magnolia) |
Ed Harris (The Truman Show) |
Martin Landau (Ed Wood) |
Brad Pitt (12 Monkeys) |
Kevin Spacey (The Usual Suspects) |
| Tom Cruise is a nut, but in the '90s he had a slew of great performances, including this one as the "Seduce and Destroy" motivational speaker who is overly confident in himself only to be brought to tears following the reunion with his father. | Harris is always great, but it was his performance as the reality show director turned nearly into a self-proclaimed deity that I find most memorable. His subtle work when he finally asks Truman to stay is heart-braking. | Here's your proof that Tim Burton can direct great performances. Landau was completely immersed in the role of the aging actor Bela Lugosi, out of work and herion-addicted. Not only was he unrecognizable by the makeup, but by the performance itself. | Pitt as well had his best string of performances in the '90s, but here he really stole the show in a role that was eccentric, crazy, and impossible to describe. And he was clearly committed to the role, even keeping with a unique misaligned eye look. | Keyser S�ze became one of the most infamous movie villians mostly because of Spacey's neurotic performance as the crippled criminal with an excellent skill for covering his past. It really broke the mold of the tougher criminal persona you would expect. |
Best Performance by a Supporting Actress
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Winner
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Lorraine Bracco (Goodfellas) |
Angelina Jolie (Girl, Interrupted) |
Anna Paquin (The Piano) |
Mercedes Ruhl (The Fisher King) |
Dianne Wiest (Bullets Over Broadway) |
| Women with Jersey accents have a tendency to steal this category (Marisa Tomei, Mira Sorvino), but Bracco was different. She was outstanding as a mobster wife refusing to abandon the life of luxery and privilage and nearly driven to murder. | Jolie's career lifted off with this excellent performance as the bipolar mental patient. A great performance to me has extreme reactions as well as multiple sides, and Jolie performed exactly that, and threw in lots of physical performance as well. | Paquin was not just good because of her age, she was good compared to the hundreds of women who didn't make this list. Aside from taking a Scottish accent, she portrayed frustration, curiosity and screaming horror when appropriate. | Again with the Jersey accents, but also Ruhl tore up the screen with her sympathetic yearning for a different life while tied down to a complete loser. This is one of Oscar's favorite types of roles, and I believe for good reason. | I'm really not a fan of Woody Allen films, but I loved Wiest for stealing every scene as the over-acting drama queen of Broadway. She also deserves recognition for her performances in Edward Scissorhands and The Birdcage. |
Best Screenplay
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Winner
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| Being John Malkovich | The Big Lebowski | A Few Good Men | Pulp Fiction | The Truman Show |
| Charlie Kaufman is one of the most insanely original writers out there, and this is where it all began. A story that involves puppets, chimps, half-tall floors and a gateway into the mind of John Malkovich is just some of the randomness in the brilliance of this script. | The Coen Brothers are a close second in the most original writers spectrum. They brilliantly wrote a complicated kidnapping heist, but also wrote some of the most memorable characters, particularly "The Dude" who remains an inspiration for millions of potheads. | Normally I'm not big on court dramas, but this one really engaged me for keeping the story complicated, but not so much that I couldn't keep up with it. And like many great scripts it produced one of the most memorable lines ever, "You can't handle the truth!" | Even though I didn't fully understand the purpose of this story, I commend Quentin Tarantino for his brilliantly real dialogue. He showed audiences that dialogue doesn't have to be important to the story, including yakking about what they call a Big Mac in France. | This is a brilliantly original story that nobody else could have imagined. A man trapped in a reality show can actually be a reflection on what it means to be trapped in a world you can't escape, something I think we all feel now and then. |
Best Art Direction
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Winner
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| Edward Scissorhands | Hook | Schindler's List | Shakespeare in Love | Titanic |
| Tim Burton films always have a sense of dark wonder, partially thanks to their hauntingly gothic and hollow sets. Scissorhands sets the mark for creating a powerful contrast between the light pastel suburban neighborhood and the dark mysterious house on the hill. | This was a very visionary film by redefining the world of Neverland. While the pirates live among a sort of 17th century harbor, the lost boys have built a sort of Swiss Family Robinson camp with modern day features attached. | It's no easy task recreating the site of the greatest crime against humanity. But the art directors accurately rebuilt holocaust camps as well as the shattered bombed ruins of cities. These sets are large in scale, and are a representation of the horror themselves. | As far as elder century period pieces go, Shakespeare hits the top of the list for building villages, mansions and theaters with the finest period detail. The colorful sets come to life with their royal extravagance and importance to the plot. | Now this is an unbeatable feat. Nobody has ever built a full-scale replica of the Titanic inside a giant water tank studio for the purpose of filmmaking. For the pure size, as well as architectural accuracy and period detail, this is clearly the winner. |
Best Cinematography
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Winner
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| Fly Away Home | Gattaca | The Green Mile | Schindler's List | Sleepy Hollow |
| This elegant film really innovated airborne cinematography. It is difficult to get just the right aerial shots and still have the right contrast of earth and sky, but this film nailed it perfectly. | This film feels like a precursor to Children of Men for depicting the future through cinematography with its hazy skies, lack of color, and complete conformity. It really helped establish the setting. | The cinematography here helped play an important part in darkening the feel of death row, and also bringing in the appropriate shades whenever there is magic. And the use of forced perspective made it look like the row never ends. | Some say black and white is actually easier for cinematographers. That is unless you include contrast elements like a girl in red running through the crowds. And the shots also helped give the film that authentic '40s footage feel that it has. | Tim Burton's darkest film has cinematography to thank for its haunts. The perfect monochromatic greyscale, combined with mist, shadows, and fire make this one haunting tale. And one of my all time favorite shots occurs in the church right after the death of three characters. |
Best Editing
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Winner
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| Fight Club | The Insider | The Matrix | Saving Private Ryan | William Shakespeare's Romeo + Juliet |
| As you'll find, I'm a sucker for quick cutting eccentric editing. Fight scenes in Fight Club had that, and there was also some clever cutting that played into the use of reality vs. fantasy. Editing was responsible for the suspense. | This is a very intense movie politically, and the editing helped out with that by cutting to the right characters at the right times to get the right reactions. Editing helped to understand the severity of the situation better. | One of the few impressive aspects of this film was the rapid editing, both actual speed and slow motion. It was just right for allowing the audience the see the right amount of action and just the right times. | The editing of this film was crucial to understanding the chaos of warfare. Particularly during the many POV shots we see continuous visionary threads and the cutting helped give the idea that nobody knows what is going on. | Baz Luhrman's flashy eccentric style was aided heavily by the film's fast editing. Quickly cutting between people and scenarios really helped keep the attention and energy up, and also made a slow story move a lot faster. |
Best Costumes
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Winner
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| Amistad | Braveheart | Dances With Wolves | Elizabeth | Rob Roy |
| Going back to 1830's America, the designers made a large ensemble of costumes for politicians, villagers, and African slaves. There is a great mixture of cultures and ethnicities in this film and that is evident by the costumes. | There is power in numbers and the task of costuming full-size armies in garber from the 13th century is not an easy one. But the designers captured both Scottish and British medieval culture and gave it a battle-torn look. | The costumes in this film span America in the 1860's, from the Civil War-torn East to the pioneering West, and of course the disappearing Native American tribes. This all but lost culture had to be carefully studied in order to get the design just right. | Clearly this film has some of the flashiest royal wear in cinematic history. The numerous dresses of the queen and her handmaidens are enough, but there are also villagers politicians and clergy to strengthen the diversity. | Rob Roy (or as I call it "Braveheart with guns"), has some fascinating contrast between the wear of the 1700's Scottish rebels and the occupying British aristocrats. It's one of the films where costumes really define the characters. |
Best Makeup
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Winner
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| Austin Powers: The Spy Who Shagged Me | Batman Returns | Men in Black | Mrs. Doubtfire | Terminator 2: Judgement Day |
| Various characters including Austin Powers, Dr. Evil and especially Fat Bastard are all played by Mike Myers thanks to the heavy prosthetic makeup. Some of the artificial fat is disgusting but certainly realistic. | All Batman films of the '90s showed excellence in makeup, but it was Tim Burton's grotesquely pale and anamorphed look of the Penguin that sealed the win for this film. | Rick Baker is probably the greatest makeup artist ever, and the aliens he created for this film are just one example. Then there's Edgar, the roach inside a dead guy's skin. Nice touch. | Robin Williams has always been open to undergoing extensive makeup. But turning him into an old woman was seamless, and making it easily removable was an even greater challenge. | Makeup is often easy when it goes on top of the skin, but Terminator posed a rare challenge of digging beneath the skin. It worked well, as Schwarzenegger really looks like he's a machine underneath. It gets the win for one of those "how did they do that?" achievements. |
Best Visual Effects
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Winner
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| Forrest Gump | Independence Day | Jurassic Park | Star Wars: Episode I - The Phantom Menace | Terminator 2: Judgement Day |
| Though the effects are subtle and easily overlooked, the effects team did miracles by making Lt. Dan's legs disappear, and inserting Forrest seemlessly into historic footage of JFK and Nixon. | Alien movies are always known for their effects, but this one features the thorough destruction of major cities, as well as plenty of spaceships and digital aliens. | This film was the birth of fully realized realistic digital animals. There's a magical sense of wonder in Jurassic Park and that comes from seeing realistic dinosaurs in full interaction with actors. | This Oscar snub remains inexplicable to me. Star Wars set a new record of visual effects shots and number of digital characters that were perfectly integrated, even if a little annoying. | It was after Terminator 2 that visual effects finally became a permanent Oscar category, and for good reason when you consider all of the T-1000 liquid metal effects. Even though these weren't the best effects of the decade, they were the most revolutionary at the time, so they get the award in this ever improving art. |
Best Sound Mixing and Editing
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Winner
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| Armageddon | Jurassic Park | The Mummy | Star Wars: Episode I - The Phantom Menace | Terminator 2: Judgement Day |
| The most Oscar-overdue team did some of their finest work with this piece of drilling in space. All of the space-technology effects were originally created, then mixed perfectly and seemlessly through all of the action and disaster. | This is where I first heard about the art of sound effects editing, when I heard the T-Rex roar was actually the sound of an aircraft similar. Combined with several other unique dinosaur noises, including the subtlety of approaching footsteps, this is one memorable mix. | For fantasy films like this, there are a great deal of original sounds that need to be produced including sand storms, swarms of bugs and roaring monsters. I don't know how they did it, but it was really something. | Light sabers, big fish, droids, all with their unique sounds from the Star Wars universe, which has provided some of the most unique sounds in filmmaking. Most impressive is the pod race with the weirdest vehicle sounds flawlessly mixed together. | For the T-1000's transformation, sound editors put a condom on a microphone then dipped it in oatmeal. It's the brilliance in using simple objects like that that produce some of the most unique and most memorable sounds. |
Best Musical Score
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Winner
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Alan Menken (The Hunchback of Notre Dame) |
John Williams (Jurassic Park) |
Hans Zimmer (The Lion King) |
Danny Elfman (Mars Attacks!) |
James Horner (Titanic) |
| Menken did many great scores and songs for Disney in the '90s, but I believe this to be his masterpiece. He managed to incorporate a dramatic score, the kind often heard in prestige films, into an animated film, complete with strong choral work. | John Williams is clearly the greatest composer ever and it's hard to pick a best for him, but I have to go with his triumphant and powerful score from Jurassic Park over his work in Home Alone, Schindler's List and Saving Private Ryan. | As far as appropriately incorporating foreign culture music into a film's score goes, Lion King is at the top for its African themed music and songs, and also making that theme enjoyable to mainstream American audiences. Very well done. | Elfman is one of the most overlooked composers ever, and it's hard to pick a best work between his Tim Burton collaborations: Edward Scissorhands, Batman Returns, and this overlooked film with its appropriate '50s B-movie industrial alien invasion theme. | As far as passionatley dramatic scores go, this one is top of the line. Titanic would have been a disaster were it not for Horner's tragic Irish-themed music which helps capture the audience's emotion into the moment. He also did fine work for Braveheart. |
Best Song
Winner
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Diane Warren "I Don't Want to Miss A Thing" (Armageddon) |
Danny Eflman "This is Halloween" (The Nightmare Before Christmas) |
Stephen Schwartz "When You Believe" (The Prince of Egypt) |
Phil Collins "You'll be in My Heart" (Tarzan) |
James Horner, Will Jennings "My Heart Will Go On" (Titanic) |
| I listen to this song all the time. Aerosmith sings it powerfully yet sympathetically. It also works as one of my favorite love songs ever, since it's strong and not sappy. I could slow dance to it all night. | Elfman is a highly overlooked artist. The songs he wrote for this film are brilliantly poetic and appropriately haunting, and this opening song has become a cult hit and is now the song most associated with the holiday. | I enjoy this song for its excellent vocal performance by Mariah Carey, and the significance of the lyrics. It gets my spirit up every time and fits well into the film. | After Tarzan came out, I became a fan of Phil Collins. He did several great songs for this picture, but this one tops them all for its humanistic sympathy and poetry. | This as well is one of the greatest love songs ever. It was also the theme song when I was just entering adolescence and whenever I heard it, I associated it with maturity and love, things I was only beginning to understand. The song guided me into adolescence. |
Best Hero
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Winner
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| Ace Ventura (Ace Ventura: Pet Detective) |
Harry Stamper (Armageddon) |
The Dude (The Big Lebowski) |
Guido Orefice (Life is Beautiful) |
Oscar Schindler (Schindler's List) |
| Jim Carrey's character acting began with this unconventional hero. It was such a refreshing treat to watch a hero that could not be described simply. He's essentially an overdramatic detective with a knack for goofing off and doing more than is necessary, and yet he still gets the job done. | This is one of those "even small people can do great things" sorts of heroes. Bruce Willis' Stamper doesn't seem like much of a hero. He's a divorced single father, is abusive to his coworkers and makes a living drilling oil, yet by the end he sacrifices himself to literally save the entire planet. | Not exactly a hero, but one of the greatest characters ever created. In Jeff Bridge's best performance, Jeffrey "The Dude" Lebowski is a pot-smoking unemployed hippie bowler who enjoys a simple life. Even when things get complicated, his resort is to just go bowling. No wonder he has been an inspriation to simpletons everywhere. | There's nothing sadder than when a clown dies. Unless it's a clown to used his humor to save his family from death, even if it meant giving his own life. A great hero puts others before himself, even if that means marching comically towards one's death if simply for the enjoyment of another. | I still don't fully understand Liam Neeson's Schindler and what his goals were, and maybe nobody will ever know. But sometimes it's what gets done rather than why it was done. Schindler managed to save over 1000 Jews from death and the deed itself outweighs the reason. |
Best Villian
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Winner
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Ivan Korshunov (Air Force One) |
Sirus the Virus (Con Air) |
Inspector Javert (Les Miserables) |
John Doe (Se7en) |
Hannibal Lecter (The Silence of the Lambs) |
| The actions of this villian, played by Gary Oldman, have to be some of the most dispicable ever. This terrorist puts a gun to a little girl's head as a serious threat. But there's no point in bargaining since he'll go back on his promises anyway. There are few villians with more evil deeds. | John Malkovich plays this criminal asylum escapee as a cold blooded killer, self-acknowledging psycho, and with an small amount of ironic flamboyance to him. He's also a genius mastermind for planning the entire plane hijacking himself. | It was after this role that I first became a fan of Geoffrey Rush. I was already familiar with Javert having played him in a production, but Rush took Javert to a new level of dedication and unyielding until he caught the man he's been searching for. | Like Kevin Spacey said himself, the actions of this villian make us all ponder. John Doe killed people by turning their sins against them just to prove a point to society. And it wasn't until he gave his own life that that point came full circle. | Anthony Hopkins' performance is widely regarded as the best villian ever, and I'll say at least the best of the decade. Lecter does not have the highest body count, but his cannibalism, his psychological manipulation and his stare all add up to one freaky villian. |
Best Action Choreography
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Winner
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| The Mask of Zorro | Mortal Kombat | Mystery Men | Star Wars: Episode I - The Phantom Menace | Terminator 2: Judgement Day |
| Sword fights are difficult to create without being traditional and boring. But these many sword fights had some authentic clinking and some other crazy stunts to go along with it. | Clearly this film is made for the sole purpose of entertaining fight sequences, and it provides just that. It also maintains my enjoyment of creative unexpected use of superpowers. | This may sound like an odd choice, but if you watch it you'll see some pretty clever action sequences by the various characters. Most notably you'll see how you can take out a group with a shovel and trowel. | This comes close to beating Episode III as the best lightsaber fight. I mostly loved the fight because it was a three-way, and for making Darth Maul a poweful Sith with a double-saber. And his actor Ray Park can do some pretty awesome stunts too. | This was really more of a series of "how many holes can we blow into this liquid guy." But that still made it some interesting action. There were also some well-choreographed car chase sequences. |
Best Scene
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Winner
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Apollo 13 "Successful Re-Entry" |
Armageddon "Sacrifice" |
The Big Lebowski "Gutterballs" |
Pulp Fiction "The Diner" |
The Truman Show "Edge of the World" |
| This is what waiting on pins and needles is all about, particularly for somebody who doesn't know how the real story ended. We wait for four minutes to see if a dangerous re-entry of the shuttle was successful, and appraise among the world when it does. The feel good moment of the decade. | Believe it or not, Michael Bay films can make me cry and this one gets me every time. I love seeing Bruce Willis take up the job of self-sacrifice to save the world and say, "You go take care of my girl, that's your job now." And the emotional goodbye scene that follows is heart-breaking as well. | This was a stroke of genius by the Coen Brothers. I've never before seen a dream sequence in the form of some musical number incorporating all elements that we've seen in the film, from bowling pins to Saddam Hussein. And being set to "Just Dropped In" by Kenny Rogers makes for one entertaining sequence. | By far my favorite scene in Fiction comes from this Jean Valjean moment of redemption and passing on ones sins. Yet the irony is having it set in a modern day diner robbery. Samuel L. Jackon's dialogue, his message, and especially Ezekiel 29:17 are all an inspiration to me. | This scene gets me teary-eyed as well. All of Truman's fighting of forces he doesn't understand leads up to this revealing moment where he finally finds out what his life purpose was and makes the decision to abandon happiness for truth. This concept of breaking free from invisible walls and ascending a stairway to heaven I find incredible. |
Actor of the Decade
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Winner
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Jim Carrey Ace Ventura: Pet Detective The Mask Dumb and Dumber Ace Ventura: When Nature Calls Batman Forever The Cable Guy Liar Liar The Truman Show Man on the Moon |
Morgan Freeman Unforgiven The Shawshank Redemption Se7en Amistad Deep Impact |
Tom Hanks Joe vs. the Volcano A League of Their Own Philadelphia Forrest Gump Apollo 13 Toy Story That Thing You Do You've Got Mail Saving Private Ryan Toy Story 2 The Green Mile |
Liam Neeson Schindler's List Rob Roy Michael Collins Les Miserables Star Wars: Episode I - The Phantom Menace The Haunting |
Robin Williams The Fisher King Hook Aladdin Mrs. Doubtfire Jumanji The Birdcage Jack Flubber Good Will Hunting Patch Adams Bicentennial Man |
| I loved Jim Carrey right from his big break in Ace Ventura. He continued to redefine physical comedy in his next several films before brilliantly entering abnormal drama in The Truman Show and flawlessly pulling off the biopic of Andy Kaufman in Man on the Moon. | Freeman was already established in the '80s, but continued his string with Oscar winning films like Unforgiven and Shawshank and also made some beloved thrillers like Se7en and Deep Impact. He's probably the most accomplished minority actor of the decade. | Hanks' career really blossomed in the '90s with two Oscar-winning roles in Philadelphia and Forrest Gump, historical dramas like Apollo 13 and Saving Private Ryan, and went back to his comedy roots for Toy Story. In the '90s, Hanks was certainly the actor to beat. | Neeson really broke out in '93 with Schindler's List, followed by well-received biopics of Roy Roy and Michael Collins. Plus he threw in a couple of blockbusters like The Haunting and Star Wars. And he did it all with the solemn character we love from him. | In the '90s there was hardly a Williams film I missed. He redefined comedy with roles like Mrs. Doubtfire and Flubber, got Oscar attention for his dramatic side in The Fisher King and Good Will Hunting, and opened the door to big name actors in animated films due to his hilarious animated performance in Aladdin. |
Actress of the Decade
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Winner
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Kathy Bates Misery Titanic Primary Colors |
Juliette Lewis Cape Feare What's Eating Girlbert Grape Natural Born Killers From Dusk Til Dawn |
Julianne Moore The Fugitive The Lost World: Jurassic Park Boogie Nights The Big Lebowski Magnolia |
Winona Ryder Edward Scissorhands Little Women The Crucible Girl, Interrupted |
Uma Thurman Pulp Fiction Batman and Robin Gattaca Les Miserables |
| Bates really broke out at the top of the decade with her terrifying Oscar-winning performance in Misery. She followed her success with some great roles including being in the biggest film of all time, Titanic, and giving another great Oscar-nominated performance in Primary Colors. | Lewis became a highly regarded young star after her Oscar-nominated performance in Cape Feare. She continued her innoccent teenage daughter persona in Gilbert Grape and Dusk Til Dawn, but amazed audiences with her boldness by playing a serial killer in Oliver Stone's Natural Born Killers. | She didn't become a household name until the later part of the decade as a result of her role in the successful Lost World, but she then had a string of great performances. She tackled drama in P.T. Anderson's two films Boogie Nights and Magnolia, and did comedy well in Big Lebwoski. | Though her career fell on hard times this decade, Ryder was big in the '90s thanks to her success in Edward Scissorhands, an Oscar-nominated performance in Little Women and strong dramatic performances in The Crucible and Girl, Interrupted as well. | Thurman broke out big time with her Oscar-nominated performance in Pulp Fiction. She followed that with some respectable performances in respectable films like Gattaca and Les Miserables. And even though Batman and Robin was not received well, it showed she can do action as well. |
Director of the Decade
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Winner
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Tim Burton Edward Scissorhands Batman Returns The Nightmare Before Christmas Ed Wood Mars Attacks! Sleepy Hollow |
James Cameron Terminator 2: Judgement Day Titanic |
John Lasseter Toy Story A Bug's Life Toy Story 2 |
Steven Spielberg Hook Jurassic Park Schindler's List The Lost World: Jurassic Park Amistad Saving Private Ryan |
Robert Zemeckis Back to the Future: Part III Forrest Gump Contact |
| Tim Burton will always be one of my favorite directors for his haunting style and facade. That style became famous in Edward Scissorhands, Sleepy Hollow, and most importantly Nightmare Before Christmas. He also directed a well acted biopic in Ed Wood. And unlike most I still loved Mars Attacks! for its parody of '50s B-Movies. | No other director has made one of the most technically advanced and entertaining sci-fi blockbusters, as well as the highest-grossing film and biggest Oscar winner ever in the same decade. But Cameron did it with Terminator and Titanic, a pair that you wouldn't normally expect to come from the same director. | In the mid-90s Lasseter co-founded Pixar animation studios and gave birth to modern computer animation. Toy Story and Bug's Life were just the first films in a successful string of Disney/Pixar films whose success lead to nearly all modern animation done as CG. Lasseter made some great films and redefined animation as we know it. | No question, Spielberg is the greatest director of all time. The key to his success is making both popular sci-fi epics like Hook and Jurassic Park as well as tackling heavy dramas that others are afraid to do like Schindler's List and Saving Private Ryan. No other director is as renowned for his craft, and that is because Spielberg always makes it fresh, entertaining and important. | After completing the successful effects-heavy sci-fi Back to the Future trilogy, Zemeckis wisely turned his effects ability to drama and made Forrest Gump one of the most inspirational films of our time. He followed that up with Contact and became a great director for drama, who also is up to date on film technology. |
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Well, I hope that you enjoyed my Oscar Breach Awards: Best of the '90s. Next year I'll take on the '80s which means I have a lot of films to start seeing. Thank you for reading. |
