Guilty Pleasures
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Posts Tagged ‘1994’
Guilty Pleasures Holiday Edition: ‘Mixed Nuts’
24, Dec 2012
When filmmaker Nora Ephron brings together an all-star cast led by Steve Martin, you expect something terrific. Mixed Nuts was Ephron’s follow-up to her smash success Sleepless in Seattle, and when it was released by TriStar Pictures on December 21, 1994, she was greeted with some of the most visceral reviews of her career, and experienced a spectacular failure that would briefly scare her career.
An adaptation of the successful (but obscure to American audiences) 1982 French farce Le Pere Noel Est Une Ordure (loosely translated: Santa Claus is a Bastard), Mixed Nuts retained very little of what made the French farce so dark and uncompromising. At the same time, Ephron tailored the film to something more along her style and managed to give the characters of the piece some hope and love through a cynical story. Right here, it’s easy to see why the film failed at the box office: The film wanted to be hopeful and dark at the same time, and a comedy can’t quite succeed when they’re trying to counter-balance that. It is a weird holiday film made for those who are looking for something a little different than films like A Christmas Story or National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation.
- In: Guilty Pleasures
- Tags: 1994, Adam Sandler, Anthony LaPaglia, Christmas, Christmas Eve, comedy, Delia Ephron, holiday films, Joely Fisher, Juliette Lewis, Liev Schreiber, Madeline Kahn, Mixed Nuts, Nora Ephron, Rita Wilson, Rob Reiner, Robert Klein, Santa Claus is a Stinker, Sleepless in Seattle, Steve Martin, This is My Life, TriStar Pictures, workplace comedy
In Search of Best Picture
17, Feb 2011
by Nigel Druitt
As the Oscar telecast creeps up on us again, it begs the question: How many times has the Academy really gotten this “Best Picture” thing right, anyway?
Think about it. How many controversial decisions are there in the Academy’s history? How many times is a movie other than Best Picture long remembered as the best of the year?
- In: User Showcase
- Tags: (500) Days of Summer, 127 Hours, 1941, 1977, 1994, 1998, 1999, 2000, 2001, 2002, 2003, 2004, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2008, 2009, 2010, 28 Days Later, 3:10 to Yuma, A Beautiful Mind, A History of Violence, A Serious Man, academy awards, adaptation, Alfonso Cuarón, American Beauty, An Education, Ang Lee, annie hall, Atonement, Avatar, Babel, Batman Begins, Best Picture, Big Fish, Black Swan, Brokeback Mountain, Capote, Casablanca, Catch Me If You Can, Chicago, Children of Men, Chocolat, Christopher Nolan, Citizen Kane, City of God, Clint Eastwood, Crash, Crouching Tiger, District 9, Donnie Darko, Eastern Promises, Erin Brockovich, Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, Exit Through The Gift Shop, Fight Club, film, films, Finding Nemo, Flickchart, Forrest Gump, Frost/Nixon, George Lucas, gladiator, Gone Baby Gone, Good Night and Good Luck, Gosford Park, Guillermo Del Toro, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 1, heath ledger, Hidden Dragon, hot fuzz, How Green Was My Valley, How to Train Your Dragon, Howl's Moving Castle, In Bruges, In the Bedroom, Inception, Inglourious Basterds, Iron Man, Juno, Kick-Ass, Kill Bill, Let The Right One In, Letters from Iwo Jima, Little Miss Sunshine, Lost in Translation, Luc Besson, Martin Scorsese, Master and Commander: The Far Side of the World, Memento, Michael Clayton, Mickey Rourke, Milk, Million Dollar Baby, Moon, moulin rouge, movies, Munich, Mystic River, No Country For Old Men, Oldboy, Orson Welles, Oscar, Pan's Labyrinth, Peter Jackson, Precious: Based on the Novel Push by Sapphire, Pulp Fiction, Reese Witherspoon, Ridley Scott, Ron Howard, Russell Crowe, Sandra Bullock, Saving Private Ryan, Scott Pilgrim vs. The World, Seabiscuit, Sean Penn, Serenity, Shakespeare in Love, Shutter Island, Sin City, Slumdog Millionaire, Spider-Man, Star Trek, Star Wars, Steven Soderbergh, The 40 Year-Old Virgin, The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford, The Aviator, The Blind Side, The Bourne Identity, The Bourne Ultimatum, The Curious Case of Benjamin Button, The Dark Knight, The Departed, The Fighter, The Hours, The Hurt Locker, The Kids are All Right, The King's Speech, The Lives of Others, The Lord of the Rings, The Matrix, The Pianist, The Professional, The Queen, The Reader, The Shawshank Redemption, The Social Network, The Town, The Wrestler, There Will Be Blood, Tim Burton, Toy Story 3, Traffic, True Grit, Up, Up in the Air, Walk the Line, WALL-E, Wallace & Gromit: The Curse of the Were-Rabbit, William Hurt, Winter's Bone, Woody Allen, Zodiac
by Nigel Druitt
In This Corner…
Back in the days before 1995, before Pixar came along and ruined everything, the Walt Disney Studio was responsible for the greatest animated films of all time. In 1937, Walt Disney changed the face of cinema forever with the first feature-length animated film, Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs. Every few years heralded the advent of a new Disney masterpiece, but following The Jungle Book in 1967 (the final animated film Walt himself oversaw before his death), Disney animation hit a bit of a slump.
It wasn’t until 1989, with the success of The Little Mermaid, that the studio’s second Golden Age of animation arrived, and it lasted until CGI (and the obvious storytelling prowess of Pixar Studios) moved in and brutally kicked traditional hand-drawn animation out of the cinemas. It was a magic age that brought us films the likes of Aladdin, Mulan and Tarzan, but there were two films that stood head and shoulders above the rest.
Both were films that told classic stories in a way that only Disney animation could achieve. Both reveled in critical and box office success. (One was able to claim for nine years that it was the highest-grossing animated movie of all time; the other was able to claim for 19 years that it was the only animated movie to ever be nominated for a Best Picture Academy Award–until an expansion of the category to ten nominees and this film came along.) And both were unquestionably among the most brilliant jewels in Disney’s animation crown. But this, folks, is Flickchart, and there’s only one question to ask: Which movie is better? Find out in this edition of Reel Rumbles (now Super-Sized, with a special Bonus Round!): The Lion King vs. Beauty and the Beast.
- In: Reel Rumbles
- Tags: 1937, 1967, 1989, 1991, 1994, 1995, 1996, 2001, 2003, 2006, Aladdin, Alan Menken, Angela Lansbury, Atlantis: The Lost Empire, Beauty and the Beast, David Ogden Stiers, eddie murphy, Elton John, Ernie Sabella, fairy tale, film, films, Flickchart, Gary Trousdale, Hamlet, Hans Zimmer, Howard Ashman, James Earl Jones, Jeremy Irons, Jerry Orbach, Jonathan Taylor Thomas, Kirk Wise, Linda Hamilton, Matthew Broderick, movies, Mulan, Nathan Lane, Open Season, Paige O'Hara, Pirates of the Caribbean, Pixar, Reel Rumbles, Rob Minkoff, Robby Benson, Robert Guillaume, Roger Allers, Ron Perlman, Rowan Atkinson, Shakespeare, Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, Tarzan, The Haunted Mansion, The Hunchback of Notre Dame, The Jungle Book, The Lion King, The Little Mermaid, Tim Rice, Walt Disney
Your Flickchart Top 20: Gift or Curse?
29, Mar 2010by Nigel Druitt
If you’re an avid Flickcharter, you’ve no doubt got a list of hundreds — if not thousands — of films ranked. From your all-time favorites to the dregs of cinema that you only wish you could un-see, to those middle-of-the-chart, ho-hum, so-so films whose ranks, while fun to try and get into their proper order, become somewhat interchangeable as they all share a common air of mediocrity.
Indeed, when it comes to your Flickchart, do you truly care whether Movie #667 is better than Movie #668? Does it even matter if Movie #236 is better than Movie #247?
What about global rankings? Does it matter to you if Flickchart’s users have V for Vendetta ranked higher than There Will Be Blood? Or that District 9 ranks higher than Best Picture Oscar-winner The Hurt Locker? Be honest: Does it really, really concern you that The Dark Knight outranks Star Wars as the #1 movie of all-time? As a movie fan, you know this fact to be either true or false; global rankings can be very useful in helping you find good movies that you haven’t seen yet, but when it comes to the films you do and don’t like, they aren’t necessarily going to sway your opinion.
In fact, I’d be willing to bet that, for most Flickcharters, the only list that really matters is that one that stares you in the face every time you come to the site: your personal Top 20. It’s the list that’s on-screen every time you rank; either causing you to constantly question it, or reaffirm that yes, yes these are, in fact, my favorite movies of all-time. The cream of the crop. The films that will smack down any others they come against in your Flickchart rankings.
- In: User Showcase
- Tags: 1985, 1986, 1989, 1991, 1993, 1994, 1995, 2001, 2003, 2004, 2006, 2008, Alfonso Cuarón, Aliens, apollo 13, Back To The Future, Best Picture, Children of Men, Collateral, david fincher, Dean Parisot, District 9, Fight Club, Finding Nemo, Flickchart, Galaxy Quest, Heat, Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade, jurassic park, Memento, Minority Report, movies, Peter Jackson, se7en, Star Wars, Steven Spielberg, Terminator 2, terminator 2: judgment day, The Dark Knight, The Green Mile, The Hurt Locker, The Lion King, The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring, The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King, The Matrix, The Prestige, There Will Be Blood, top 100, top 20, Up, V for Vendetta, WALL-E
Reel Rumbles #13 – “Blade Runner” vs. “The Matrix”
13, Dec 2009
In This Corner…
Can man create his own reality? Is the reality we know reality at all? Can artificial intelligence take on a life of its own, and if so, should that life be held with the same respect that we hold each other? These were all improbably difficult questions to answer at the time both films in this week’s Reel Rumbles were released, but as technologies advance, philosophies change, and life goes on, it’s as if fate is starting to force our hand for legitimate answers. No matter where you stand on either side of the moral conundrum, you have to admit that this week’s pairing asks questions of such depth that it is uncertain if the films themselves can adequately grasp the breadth of it all. But all philosophical meanderings aside, which of these sci-fi extravaganzas is the better film? Plug in, boot up, and sign on. It’s time for Blade Runner vs. The Matrix.
- In: Reel Rumbles
- Tags: 1992, 1994, 1995, 1996, 1997, Antonio Banderas, artificial intelligence, Assassins, Blade Runner, Bound, Bram Stoker's Dracula, Brion James, Carrie-Anne Moss, CGI, Dark Passage, Daryl Hannah, David Webb Peoples, Deckard, Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?, Double Indemnity, Edward James Olmos, Frankenstein, Fred MacMurray, Gina Gershon, good vs. evil, Hampton Fancher, Harrison Ford, Hugo Weaving, Humphrey Bogart, Jennifer Tilly, Joe Pantoliano, Keanu Reeves, Laurence Fishburne, M. Emmet Walsh, Mary Shelley, metaphor, Philip K. Dick, philosophical, Reel Rumbles, Replicants, Ridley Scott, Rutger Hauer, science fiction, Sean Young, sequels, skin jobs, Speed, Sylvester Stallone, The Devil's Advocate, The Matrix