Looking Back at 20 Years Ago: 1994 in Cinema

[Buscemi]

Here are the 1994 titles I own on Blu-ray:

Angie
Camp Nowhere
Clerks
Color of Night
The Crow
Disclosure
Drop Zone
Dumb and Dumber
Ed Wood
Fist of Legend
Forrest Gump
Four Weddings and a Funeral
Heavenly Creatures
Holy Matrimony
Interview with the Vampire
It Could Happen to You
The Mask
Mother's Boys
Natural Born Killers
The Puppet Masters
Reality Bites
The River Wild
Roadracers
The Shawshank Redemption
A Simple Twist of Fate
Street Fighter
The Specialist
Speed
Stargate
Star Trek: Generations
Terminal Velocity
Three Colors: White
Three Colors: Red
Timecop
Wes Craven's New Nightmare

And I also have some others (such as Pulp Fiction and The Lion King) on DVD still.

[Geezer]

What the fuck people??? See The Lion King!!!!!!!

[Shrykespeare]

Yeah, Brock, with a toddler, you're going to be seeing every major Disney and Pixar movie about 500 times. Believe me, it's cheaper than a babysitter.

[Geezer]

You know what this makes me want to do? Go back and have Reel Society Awards for every year before we became a group. Would be interesting to see what we vote on, and would be more accurate than the yearly awards, having had much more time to view films. Would be nostalgic and fun, even if a big undertaking. Wouldn't need a big reveal show or anything, just nominations, votes and results.

[Buscemi]

I don't know. Part of the fun of looking back at the award shows is what they got wrong (while allowing us to discover titles that we didn't know about).

But also, we would have some problems in certain years. For example, would The Matrix have really deserved a Best Picture nomination in 1999 just because the Internet loved it?

[W]

I don't know. Part of the fun of looking back at the award shows is what they got wrong (while allowing us to discover titles that we didn't know about).

But also, we would have some problems in certain years. For example, would The Matrix have really deserved a Best Picture nomination in 1999 just because the Internet loved it?

It deserves a nomination because it's one of the best films of the year and when you say it's "game-changing" you don't mean it in any inflated way whatsoever. If you talk about the film decade of 2000-2009 and don't mention how The Matrix transformed it, you're doing something wrong. THAT'S the mark of something that should be nominated for Best Picture.

[Buscemi]

Sure, the film advanced visual effects and had a nice look but it's not a great movie. It's a merely good movie, no more, no less.

And certainly not helping was the hype. Has excessive pre-release hype ever helped a movie in the long run?

[Buscemi]

So with W mentioning his whole revisionist Oscars idea, I decided to bring out the actual Oscar results from the ceremony that covered the year's releases.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/67th_Academy_Awards

The game: if I had a ballot. Basically, it's using the Oscar ballot and making your personal choices.

If I had a ballot (and I hope I never will become an Academy member), here is how I would have voted.

Best Picture: Pulp Fiction
Best Director: Quentin Tarantino
Best Actor: John Travolta
Best Actress: Jessica Lange
Best Supporting Actor: Martin Landau
Best Supporting Actress: Uma Thurman
Best Original Screenplay: Pulp Fiction
Best Adapted Screenplay: The Shawshank Redemption
Best Foreign Language Film: Before the Rain
Best Documentary Feature: A Great Day in Harlem
Best Documentary Short: abstain
Best Live Action Short: Franz Kafka's It's a Wonderful Life
Best Animated Short: Bob's Birthday
Best Original Score: Forrest Gump
Best Original Song: Circle of Life (The Lion King)
Best Sound Editing: Speed
Best Sound Mixing: Speed
Best Art Direction: Interview with the Vampire
Best Cinematography: Forrest Gump
Best Makeup: Ed Wood
Best Costume Design: The Adventures of Priscilla, Queen of the Desert
Best Film Editing: Hoop Dreams
Best Visual Effects: Forrest Gump

[W]

My idea???

[Buscemi]

I mean Geezer's. That whole thing on The Matrix made me think it was your idea.

[JohnErle]

Okay, this is an ideal way to waste time at work, and 1994 was a very good year for cinema, so I'll bite.

I'm not going to limit myself to choosing from the five nominees the Academy singled out, although there will be some overlap. And since many of these movies are things I haven't seen in ages, there are certain categories I can't remember anything about, like the original scores, and certain categories where I never feel outsiders like us are able to judge, such as best sound editing.

Best Picture: Quiz Show
Best Director: Robert Redford, Quiz Show
Best Actor: Ralph Fiennes, Quiz Show
Best Actress: Linda Fiorentino, The Last Seduction
Best Supporting Actor: Samuel L. Jackson, Pulp Fiction
Best Supporting Actress: Dianne Weist, Bullets Over Broadway
Best Original Screenplay: Pulp Fiction
Best Adapted Screenplay: Quiz Show
Best Foreign Language Film: ?
Best Documentary Feature: Hoop Dreams
Best Documentary Short: Who cares?
Best Live Action Short: No idea.
Best Animated Short: Bob's Birthday
Best Original Score: ?
Best Original Song: ?
Best Sound Editing: ?
Best Sound Mixing: ?
Best Art Direction: Quiz Show
Best Cinematography: Quiz Show
Best Makeup: ?
Best Costume Design: ?
Best Film Editing: ?
Best Visual Effects: True Lies

[Buscemi]

You didn't exactly follow the actual ballot (for one, Fiorentino was ineligible since The Last Seduction played on cable before hitting theatres domestically) but no problem.

Also, give Franz Kafka's It's a Wonderful Life a watch. It's hilarious and a good way to know Peter Capaldi as more than just the new Doctor Who (he directed it). And it's also got a good performance by Richard E. Grant.

[Chienfantome]

Hey, I missed this thread ! (well I was on vacation, true).
It's a great thread, and a great idea Boosch.
1994 was a great film year, perhaps because I was 12/13 and at that time, everything that was coming from Hollywood was cool. I loved Stargate back then, bought it on VHS as soon as it came out then. I loved Forrest Gump, even if I was 13 and didn't expect to love such a film. And The Lion King was probably the last Disney film I really enjoyed at that time. After that, I lost interest. It was the year I discovered Jim Carrey. The Mask was the first of his three 94 films to get released here, and it made me rush to see Ace Ventura and Dumb & Dumber afterwards. Speed. Loved it. I bought the VHS of that one too.

Pulp Fiction was forbidden to the minors under 12, and I was just 12 when it was released. I had a blast and had never seen any film like that in theater before. It was so cool. I remember watching Four Weddings and a Funeral while in vacation in Normandie too, it was such a huge success in France.
Timecop ! (I'm watching the list at BOM as I'm writing, sorry for the style !) An underrated JCVD film, I loved it. Well, when I watch it now, it's not that great of course, but it's fun. Can you believe 1994 was a year when JCVD movies could make $85M (adjusted ?). It's funny.
I still can't believe today I didn't go see The Shawshank Redemption in theaters.

Here's how I would have voted at the Oscars :

Best Picture: Pulp Fiction
Best Director: Quentin Tarantino
Best Actor: Tom Hanks (It's funny Travolta wasn't in the supporting category)
Best Actress: I can't vote there, don't remember those films
Best Supporting Actor: Sam Jackson
Best Supporting Actress: Uma Thurman
Best Original Screenplay: Pulp Fiction
Best Adapted Screenplay: The Shawshank Redemption
Best Foreign Language Film: Burnt by the Sun
Best Documentary Feature: Can't vote
Best Documentary Short: Can't vote
Best Live Action Short: Can't vote
Best Animated Short: Can't vote
Best Original Score: The Lion King
Best Original Song: Circle of Life (The Lion King)
Best Sound Editing: Speed
Best Sound Mixing: Speed
Best Art Direction: Forrest Gump
Best Cinematography: The Shawshank Redemption
Best Makeup: Ed Wood
Best Costume Design: Queen Margot
Best Film Editing: Pulp Fiction
Best Visual Effects: Forrest Gump