What was the deal with 1997? Multiple movies about giant killer volcanoes? Anyhow, there were only a few movies I saw on IMDb that I have not seen that seemed like ones I should try to catch: Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil, The Man Who Knew Too Little, Princess Mononoke and Donnie Brasco. Whether that was because I saw more good movies, fewer good movies came out that year or I am just getting lazier in typing up these year by year posts, I leave up to you, discerning reader.
My top ten for that year is:
- Face/Off
- Jackie Brown
- L.A. Confidential
- The Fifth Element
- A Life Less Ordinary
- Grosse Pointe Blank
- The Lost World: Jurassic Park
- Austin Powers: International Man of Mystery
- Good Will Hunting
- The Spanish Prisoner
There were a lot of other movies from that year that were pretty good too including science fiction films Men in Black, Contact and Gattaca. Kind of funny to group these together — they really don’t have much in common. How about three comedies: The Full Monty, Chasing Amy, and In & Out. I guess In & Out and Chasing Amy both dealt with homosexuality? Not necessarily in a realistic way but I guess 1997 was taking what it could get from Hollywood and Kevin Smith.
Amistad was excellent and perhaps should be in my top ten. But it’s a my favorites list, not a critically acclaimed list. What else? I saw As Good as It Gets — definitely liked that. I remember Boogie Nights too (although I saw it years later) which has a pretty funny performance from Burt Reynolds in it.
Wag the Dog came out that year? Man, that felt like it was both satire and documentary when it came out.
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