zwolanerd

I saw 71 movies released in 1999, and I might as well admit that I saw Star Wars Episode I: The Phantom Menace four times the year it was released. I kept going with people who hadn’t seen it yet, basically. That’s not much of an excuse, I know, but it’s what happened.

I really tried to get this list down to 10, but I didn’t want to leave off Being John Malkovich and Bowfinger so you get bonus list items today.

12. Being John Malkovich – The scene where John Malkovich goes inside his own head and everyone is him and only says “Malkovich!” over and over is delightfully weird.

11. Bowfinger – Steve Martin and Eddie Murphy (x 2!) in a movie that spoofs both Hollywood and Scientology.

10. American Beauty – A lot of great stuff in this movie, but there’s also that nonsense about the plastic bag blowing around, so I guess it all balances out.

9. Office Space -I’m probably supposed to have this movie higher on the list. I do enjoy it, but I enjoy it as a whole less over time. Some of the lines in it will be forever wonderful, though.

8. The Sixth Sense – I prefer Unbreakable, but this one’s pretty great.

7. Sleepy Hollow – It made a little over $100 million, but I still feel like this Tim Burton movie gets mostly overlooked.

6. 10 Things I Hate About You – How many times have we seen this one in lists of mine? I don’t even know. It’s fun!

5. For Love of the Game – My favorite baseball movie.

4. The Iron Giant – “Soo-per-man” is all it takes for the tears to well up.

3. The Matrix – Come on, you know this is still one of the coolest movies ever made.

2. Toy Story 2 – If the Sarah McLachlan song in this movie doesn’t make you tear up you might be a robot.

1. Galaxy Quest – The best parodies love the thing they’re parodying, and this celebrates and spoofs Star Trek so well that many Star Trek fans include it on their “Best Star Trek Films” lists.

Additional Notes:

• The Blair Witch Project – I expected a lot more out of this movie, but in the end I wanted them to get eaten.
• Fight Club – I’m glad I saw this movie, but I can’t muster up more than an extended “mehhhhhh” about it.
• Girl, Interrupted – I had to cut the list off somewhere, but this one would’ve been next up. Winona Ryder and Angelina Jolie? Come on.
• Man on the Moon – Jim Carrey was fantastic in this movie even though it didn’t make me like Andy Kauffman any better.
• Wild Wild West – I loved the show it was based on and I generally like Will Smith. This movie made me sad :(
• Wing Commander – The first two Wing Commander games were so, so awesome. Like, you don’t even know. And a movie based on them could also have been so, so awesome. But it wasn’t.

Tags: Tuesday10, Yearly

Written by: Mark