Did anyone ever see eXistenZ?

[Taylor Millard]

It was on Sci-Fi last night.

I'm not sure whether to be creeped out by it or to wonder what the devil is going on.

Anyone else see this movie when it came out?

[Vega Van-Derveld]

I did.

It was pretty surreal. I liked it though. Thought it was pretty funny when Jude Law's character was talking to someone in a factory, and the guy just kept repeating the same phrase - reminded me of Final Fantasy :lol

[JonathanLB]

I really, REALLY want to see that movie. I love reality movies like that, and yet I've not seen it. That's ironic given that it is the type of film I want to create almost exclusively later, lol.

I will have to get to this movie sooner rather than later...

I saw The Grapes of Wrath and Strike (1925, Eisenstein) today, but mostly just spent my day reviewing (Confessions of a Dangerous Mind, The Rules of the Game, and Shanghai Knights, plus the two I saw).

[ReaperFett]

I liked it until I thought about it, and then hated it :)



Also, one of the worst endings ever

[Elena Van Derveld]

I don't remember the ending |I

[Dutchy]

Yes! Loved it. One of my faves of 1999, which is my fave year, movie-wise.

[JonathanLB]

Well I'll have to agree to disagree with you on that one, Dutchy. I thought 1999 was the worst year for movies in about a decade, except that we DID get three of the best movies I've seen, Fight Club, TPM, and The Matrix. The thing is, there just weren't that many "very good" movies during the year. It was like, ok, here are 3 of the best movies, but then all the rest was so mediocre.

I don't know, but I was not impressed with 1999. I think 2000, 2001, and 2002 were better years. I'd say 2002 is the best year of the new decade.

[Dutchy]

I just KNEW you were gonna say that. You and me have been there, done that, several times, actually. :)

Maybe it was because you saw TPM 50 times, instead of 49 very good movies. ;)

[JonathanLB]

Don't bet on it. I've seen most significant films from 1999. Anything I missed, I rented later, except I never did see Lake Placid. Gee I must have really missed out on that one. I saw Deep Blue Sea, though, hehe. Ugg.

There wasn't anything good during the summer of 1999 anyway. I was lucky that nothing good opened so I could see TPM a billion times. I eventually went back and watched Austin Powers 2, which was "good," but not much more, and Big Daddy, which I enjoyed, and of course much later The Sixth Sense, which rocks, but I do not really consider August part of the summer for movies. That's a different season. I think of summer as May - July, but lately it has extended into the first few weeks of August, amazingly. It's nice, actually.

1999 was very blah. Having seen every film in 2002, I know what a good year should look like. 1999 was not it. Good for ticket sales, the quality was lousy.

[ReaperFett]

I loved Lake Placid :)

[Dutchy]

Funny, but over here a year has 4 seasons, not just a summer. :)

[Dutchy]

Oh, guess I'll name some great 1999 movies:

American Beauty
The Sixth Sense (indeed)
Toy Story 2
Go
Magnolia
The Insider
Boys Don't Cry
The Green Mile
Election
Flawless
Eyes Wide Shut

And many, many more.

[JonathanLB]

That's not a very impressive list compared to any other recent year.

Four seasons, yes, two of which SUCK. Basically no good movies come out from January - March or August - October. You get a few, if you're lucky.

Summer is the best season for movies, so if summer sucks, the entire year sucks. Plain and simple.

[Lilaena De'Ville]

OMG 1999 was a great year.

Lake Placid was HILARIOUS!

Didn't American Pie come out that year too? Yes. Wasn't a "great" movie, but please. No good movies? Ha! Dutchy's list rocks.:)

[JonathanLB]

I rate American Pie as a great movie, actually. It's a four-star comedy in my book, one of the best comedies I have ever seen. Granted it's not as elogent and witty as something like It Happened One Night or The Awful Truth, or even Bringing Up Baby, but I like it better than the latter film actually (oh the blasphemy!).

1999 had a number of GREAT movies, but I was unimpressed by the number of simply good to very good movies. A year needs 15 four-star movies to be truly impressive, at least 10 to be decent, and it needs to have a solid 15 to 20 3.5 star films, then a huge group of maybe 30 to 40 3-star movies. 1999 was high on classic films like The Sixth Sense, Fight Club, TPM, The Matrix, and American Pie. It even had some other notable films critically like American Beauty, for instance, but it lacked the middle ground of a lot of good movies, which means in retrospect you can say, "Oh yeah, there were some great films from that year," and that's absolutely right, but during the year, I found very little to see because there wasn't that consistency of having at least a solid movie each week.

[sirdizzy]

ummm dutchy of your list quite a few of those movies were disappointing to me


i thought american beauty sucked
eyes wide shut was sensationalism garbage
election was just silly and not in the funny way

and even a few of the ones i liked to me weren't movies i could watch over and over
the sixth sense rocked my world the first time i saw it and maybe even the second but it was movie i didn't really want to see after a 4th viewing
same goes for gren mile


so far to me 2003 has been dissapointing

[JonathanLB]

I think 2003 has been strong so far, dude, January SUCKS always. If you think you are going to get great movies in either January or February, you're looking in the wrong place -- go to Blockbuster! :D

So far, The Recruit was better than what I'd expect of January, it was very good, and Shanghai Knights was very good, then I enjoyed A Guy Thing quite a bit, Final Destination 2 was fun for sure, better than I expected, and Just Married was at least above average. Oh and How to Lose A Guy in 10 Days was a good romantic comedy. Kate Hudson rocks and it was pretty darn funny. I'm disappointed, I've not gotten to hand out any bad ratings in ages now. :)

Actually, I'm happy I've been seeing mostly worthwhile movies. Although She-Wolf of London (1946) that I saw on DVD, umm, well useless addition to my film knowledge, but oh well, LOL. It was good overall, but a throw away. I don't have any interest in three-star movies from past decades unless they're VERY significant.

[sirdizzy]

well if ya want to hand out bad review go see biker boyz

[ReaperFett]

1999 gave a lot of FUN films, IMO

[JonathanLB]

NO! I will not subject myself to Biker Boyz, lol. ;)

That movie looks AWFUL.

[sirdizzy]

it was aweful

[Sanis Prent]

American Beauty - Not seen
The Sixth Sense (indeed) - Pretty good
Toy Story 2 - Not seen
Go - BLAH
Magnolia - CRAP
The Insider - Decent
Boys Don't Cry - Not that great
The Green Mile - Not seen
Election - BLAH
Flawless - Not Seen
Eyes Wide Shut - HORRIBLE

I'd put Fight Club a few miles above TPM and the Matrix, which I liked about evenly.

[Lilaena De'Ville]

Green Mile = good! I love it. :)

Eyes Wide Shut = AWFUL! :x

[Taylor Millard]

Eyes Wide Shut was one of those movies where I was like, 'What the devil'...then wasn't sure if I wanted to see it again.

I still don't know if I want to see it again.

[JonathanLB]

I'll get to EWS during my Kubrick studies, haha.

I love A Clockwork Orange and Dr. Strangelove. I am not a huge fan of 2001, very boring movie, but it has its merits, too. Overall a worthwhile effort, but by no means impressive. There was better sci-fi in the '50s with those corny but great horror movies. :)

[Sene Unty]

American Beauty made that year for me. I thought it was absolutly fantastic. Taking a look at that list I can safely say that 1999 was a damn good year for movies...