Top 25 movies (1990-2015)
These are my top 25 films from 1990 (when I was just seven years old) - 2015. Also, I ordered the films chronologically, but that's not in all cases the order in which I first saw them. Funny to see that quite some years are represented three times.
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- DirectorPenny MarshallStarsRobert De NiroRobin WilliamsJulie KavnerThe victims of an encephalitis epidemic many years ago have been catatonic ever since, but now a new drug offers the prospect of reviving them.At one point in the film, it is said of one of the patients that she borrows the will of the ball. To me, "borrowing the will of the ball" means that none of us can do it alone. Luckily, we don't have to.
- DirectorHarold RamisStarsBill MurrayAndie MacDowellChris ElliottA narcissistic, self-centered weatherman finds himself in a time loop on Groundhog Day.This film had me at "I got you babe."
- DirectorJonathan DemmeStarsTom HanksDenzel WashingtonRoberta MaxwellWhen a man with HIV is fired by his law firm because of his condition, he hires a homophobic-small time lawyer as the only willing advocate for a wrongful dismissal suit.With lead roles in wonderful films as A League of Their Own (1992), Forrest Gump (1994), Apollo 13 (1995), That Thing You Do! (1996) and Saving Private Ryan (1997), Tom Hanks is, to me at least, *the* Hollywood actor to define the nineties.
- DirectorAndrew DavisStarsHarrison FordTommy Lee JonesSela WardDr. Richard Kimble, unjustly accused of murdering his wife, must find the real killer while being the target of a nationwide manhunt led by a seasoned U.S. Marshal.Not knowing about this film when I was a teen, I remember seeing a segment of this on TV and being glued to it.
- DirectorQuentin TarantinoStarsJohn TravoltaUma ThurmanSamuel L. JacksonThe lives of two mob hitmen, a boxer, a gangster and his wife, and a pair of diner bandits intertwine in four tales of violence and redemption.Together with Molly Ringwald - who did a dance sequence with the other Breakfast Club members in my favourite 1980's flick -, John Travolta and Uma Thurman are the other actors whose dance moves I've stolen.
- DirectorRon HowardStarsTom HanksBill PaxtonKevin BaconNASA must devise a strategy to return Apollo 13 to Earth safely after the spacecraft undergoes massive internal damage putting the lives of the three astronauts on board in jeopardy.Two years before Titanic showed us it's still possible to deliver a thrilling film while everyone already knows how the story ends, there was this gem.
- DirectorMartin CampbellStarsPierce BrosnanSean BeanIzabella ScorupcoYears after a friend and fellow 00 agent is killed on a joint mission, a secret space based weapons program known as "GoldenEye" is stolen. James Bond is assigned to stop a Russian crime syndicate from using the weapon.As a teenager I have watched this best Pierce Brosnan Bond film over and over again on this nowadays little known gadget called a VCR.
- DirectorJohn McTiernanStarsBruce WillisJeremy IronsSamuel L. JacksonJohn McClane and a Harlem store owner are targeted by German terrorist Simon in New York City, where he plans to rob the Federal Reserve Building.Apart from Goldfinger of the James Bond series, this is the only third part in a movie series that is way better than the already solid first part.
- DirectorDanny BoyleStarsEwan McGregorEwen BremnerJonny Lee MillerRenton, deeply immersed in the Edinburgh drug scene, tries to clean up and get out despite the allure of drugs and the influence of friends.This film has one of the best opening scenes I've ever seen, it got me hooked on writer Irvine Welsh (Glue is a true masterpiece, by the way) and it introduced me to Iggy Pop, whom I saw perform twice in 2006. Twice? Well, I'd already paid for the ticket.
- DirectorRoberto BenigniStarsRoberto BenigniNicoletta BraschiGiorgio CantariniWhen an open-minded Jewish waiter and his son become victims of the Holocaust, he uses a perfect mixture of will, humor and imagination to protect his son from the dangers around their camp.This is the reason why Italian actor/director/writer Roberto Benigni was put on this earth: to intensely touch us with this bittersweet war story.
- DirectorMike van DiemStarsPavlik Jansen op de HaarJan DecleirFedja van HuêtJacob Katadreuffe lives mute with his mother, has no contact with his father who only works against him and wants to become a lawyer, at all costs.His mother hardly ever speaks to Katadreuffe, but when she learns that he didn't try his luck with a former, then single colleague who liked him as much as he liked her, her quote "Well, Jacob Willem, then you've been a big ass." is enough to crumble all his years of work and study.
- DirectorTom TykwerStarsFranka PotenteMoritz BleibtreuHerbert KnaupAfter a botched money delivery, Lola has 20 minutes to come up with 100,000 Deutschmarks.It's funny how tastes can differ: I showed this to my dad and brother once and they didn't like it at all. Why show the same story three times!? It doesn't bother me though, I still dream about Lola and her red hair from time to time ;)
- DirectorThomas VinterbergStarsUlrich ThomsenHenning MoritzenThomas Bo LarsenAt Helge's 60th birthday party, some unpleasant family truths are revealed.Danish bombshell that got me even more intrigued after I learned it was the start of Dogme 95 (even though pretty soon that turned out be a bit of a disappointment)
- DirectorTony KayeStarsEdward NortonEdward FurlongBeverly D'AngeloLiving a life marked by violence, neo-Nazi Derek finally goes to prison after killing two black youths. Upon his release, Derek vows to change; he hopes to prevent his brother, Danny, who idolizes Derek, from following in his footsteps.If you mention this film to someone and they don't go "aw, that scene with the curb", you know they haven't seen it.
- DirectorChristopher NolanStarsGuy PearceCarrie-Anne MossJoe PantolianoA man with short-term memory loss attempts to track down his wife's murderer.Although I love his Batman trilogy as well as Inception and Interstellar, this remains my favourite Christopher Nolan film.
- DirectorStephen FrearsStarsJohn CusackIben HjejleTodd LouisoRob, a record store owner and compulsive list maker, recounts his top five breakups, including the one in progress.Let's just say it's not hard for me to relate to a thirtysomething, top 5 list maker with a great interest in pop culture :)
- DirectorWolfgang BeckerStarsDaniel BrühlKatrin SassChulpan KhamatovaIn 1990, to protect his fragile mother from a fatal shock after a long coma, a young man must keep her from learning that her beloved nation of East Germany as she knew it has disappeared.It remains hard to fully grasp that the country next to mine (I live in the Netherlands) has undergone such momentous changes in the relatively recent past.
- DirectorSofia CoppolaStarsBill MurrayScarlett JohanssonGiovanni RibisiA faded movie star and a neglected young woman form an unlikely bond after crossing paths in Tokyo.Ten years earlier he was the arrogant weather man who got to re-live Groundhog Day over and over again and did his best acting he had ever done at that point. Here, Bill Murray gives what is probably his best performance ever.
- DirectorQuentin TarantinoStarsUma ThurmanDavid CarradineDaryl HannahAfter awakening from a four-year coma, a former assassin wreaks vengeance on the team of assassins who betrayed her.(plus Vol. 2 of course) What's not to like about a stunning Uma Thurman in a riveting yellow outfit training and (sword)fighting her way up to a brilliant finale with David Carradine talking about Superman?
- DirectorFlorian Henckel von DonnersmarckStarsUlrich MüheMartina GedeckSebastian KochIn 1984 East Berlin, an agent of the secret police conducting surveillance on a writer and his lover finds himself becoming increasingly absorbed by their lives.While dealing with their extremely turbulant past ever more nuanced, the German cinema has given us a film with what I consider one of the best and most touching endings ever to be seen on the silver screen.
- DirectorJonathan DaytonValerie FarisStarsSteve CarellToni ColletteGreg KinnearA family determined to get their young daughter into the finals of a beauty pageant take a cross-country trip in their VW bus.Simply superb roadmovie about a lovable family of misfits. That being said, The Good Heart (2009) came close but didn't make this top 25, but since Paul Dano is also in that film, I'm gonna use this space to mention this little known and little shown drama in which a rather gruffy bar owner takes a young, homeless man under his wing.
- DirectorDenis VilleneuveStarsLubna AzabalMélissa Désormeaux-PoulinMaxim GaudetteTwins journey to the Middle East to discover their family history and fulfill their mother's last wishes.There are quite some movies from the nineties and early 00's in this list. Probably because I was born in the early eighties and movies one sees in ones childhood/teenage years have a bigger chance of having impact and sticking in your head. At the start of a new decade, Incendies showed me I hadn't gotten blasé yet: the film hit me like a ton of bricks!
- DirectorDarren AronofskyStarsNatalie PortmanMila KunisVincent CasselNina is a talented but unstable ballerina on the verge of stardom. Pushed to the breaking point by her artistic director and a seductive rival, Nina's grip on reality slips, plunging her into a waking nightmare.This is one of those works of art that is timeless in the sense that it's an instant-classic that doesn't feel like it was just made in 2010, but rather, that it has always been around.
- DirectorAlex van WarmerdamStarsJan BijvoetHadewych MinisJeroen PercevalA vagrant enters the lives of an arrogant upper-class family, turning their lives into a psychological nightmare in the process.This film - and note that I've seen quite some films by Dutch director Alex van Warmerdam before - marks the first time that while the credits were rolling, I could only think "what the *beep* did I just see!" And just so we're on the same page, I mean that as an enormous compliment.
- DirectorAlejandro G. IñárrituStarsMichael KeatonZach GalifianakisEdward NortonA washed-up superhero actor attempts to revive his fading career by writing, directing, and starring in a Broadway production.Form (ah, the jawdropping form of this film!) and substance go hand in hand in this tour de force that should have gotten Michael Keaton an Oscar!