1. As I get older, I find myself genuinely unintentionally plagiarizing things I've read. same with the LG WEXNER quote in re: SHERLOCK HOLMES AND THE CASE OF ZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZ......- WAS IT the one about surgery without anesthesia, genuinely, as the movie lulled me into a stupor, it's a genuine thought that came to me that i was actually loosing feeling in my body as I watched it.CinemaInternational wrote: ↑January 1st, 2024, 3:58 pm I think you did borrow the phrasing from Inside Oscar, but that's OK....
I only saw Shawshank once (in fact, much like Pauline Kael, many films I have only seen once). I remember it being good, with fine work from Freeman, Whitmore, and Tim Robbins, but it's not best movie of all time material. It's not even the best film of 1994, which was definitely not a favorite year of mine, so Shawshank would still be top 20 for the year...
I am kind of curious as to how it got to the top, given that it was a box office flop in the theatres. Was it all word of mouth and video rentals that caused it to go so high?.
For the record, personal top 30 of 1994 (full disclosure, I know I liked a film you despised.... And I apologize in advance).... And no, I didn't much warm to Forrest Gump, Pulp Fiction, or The Lion King...
1 Quiz Show
2 The Browning Version
3 That's Entertainment! III
4 Widows' Peak
5 Ed Wood
6 Little Women
7 Crooklyn
8 Second Best
9 I'll Do Anything
10 Immortal Beloved
11 Corrina, Corrina
12 Four Weddings and a Funeral
13 Don Juan DeMarco
14 Serial Mom
15 Tom and Viv
16 It Could Happen to You
17 Guarding Tess
18 Pret-a-Porter
19 The Shawshank Redemption
2. omg, I am much the same with watching movies only once- except for some movies that I HAVE WATCHED OVER 50 TIMES- but they account for 2%
of whatall I have seen. Some movies deserve a second viewing though.
3. 1993 was, I think it is safe to say, one of (if not the?) LAST TRULY GREAT YEARS FOR FILM. 1994 had a hard act to follow- and I being older than you, RECALL BEING DISAPPOINTED A LOT IN 1994- by THE LION KING, by PULP FICTION (although I don't dislike it), and MOST ESPECIALLY by READY-TO-WEAR aka PRET-A-PORTER- a film I like to think of as the MARS ATTACKS! of 1994...(i see it is high on your list. i perhaps serve momentary eyebrow, but then I remember that JAWS 3-D is one of those films I have seen (well over) 50 times and I remember not to judge.
4. I am beguiled boggled and bewildered as to just what in the Holy Hell is going on with SHAWSHANK being imdb's number 1, but, at the risk of really derailing things, I see that THE DARK KNIGHT is #3 and, in my humble, basement-dwelling, but 100% honest opinion, THAT MOVIE SUCKS ON TOAST.
5. i love 1994 LITTLE WOMEN though, it'd maybe be #1 for me, but then again I'd have to see ED WOOD (which I also LOVED) and FOUR WEDDINGS again- although I did love it, even though if we're gonna mention SUCKING ON TOAST- I can't miss the chance to ask in a flat, inflectionless monotone: "is it raining? I hadn't noticed."