Tuesday 10: Movies of 1995

January 13, 2015 Tuesday 10: Movies of 1995

Today’s entry started off as “Movies of 1972” and I was pretty excited about it because that’s the year I was born. Turns out that I’ve only seen two movies from that year that weren’t Bruce Lee movies, so I decided to go the other direction and pick back up in the mid-90s. By contrast, I’ve seen 63 of the movies released in 1995. I’ve no appreciation for the classics, apparently. Well, aside from The Godfather, which I quite like and which was released in 1972 (the other 1972 movie I saw was Deliverance, which… no, thank you).

Let’s see if I can whittle the 63 movies I’ve seen from 1995 down to my ten favorite (Spoiler Alert: I can):

Good luck getting that theme song out of your head.

10. 12 Monkeys – Crazy Brad Pitt is Best Brad Pitt. Throw in Bruce Willis and some time travel and why wouldn’t I like this one?

9. The Usual Suspects – Verbal Kint should teach improv classes.

8. Ace Ventura: When Nature Calls – Watch the opening scene of Sylvester Stallone’s “Cliffhanger” before watching the opening scene of this one. And I’m still trying to mindbleach the rhinoceros birth scene from memory.

7. The Quick and the Dead – A Sam Raimi Western that too few have seen.

6. Braveheart – It really feels like this one should be higher on the list, doesn’t it? This movie holds the distinction of being having the most (to me, at the time) interesting director’s commentary. Mel Gibson was still pretty new to the directing game, and I found his “I learned this while shooting this scene” comments fascinating.

5. Mortal Kombat – I unabashedly enjoy this movie enough that I still watch its sequel, which isn’t nearly as good (and is, in fact, fairly terrible).

4. Die Hard with a Vengeance – If it’s got “Die Hard” in the title and Bruce Willis in the movie, I’m probably going to like it. Add in Samuel L. Jackson and you’re just overselling it at that point.

3. Babe – You’d be surprised at how many times a year I bust out with a “Baa-ram-ewe! Baa-ram-ewe! To your breed, your fleece, your clan be true! Sheep be true! Baa-ram-ewe!” You really would.

2. Get Shorty – Great mob movie, great “inside Hollywood” movie, and funny besides.

1. Toy Story – This one belongs on the same Timeless Classics shelf as The Princess Bride.