theoscarsproject

[theoscarsproject]

Cape Fear (1991). A convicted rapist, released from prison after serving a fourteen-year sentence, stalks the family of the lawyer who originally defended him.

Anchored by another staggering performance from Robert De Niro and an underrated Jessica Lange, this taut remake of a crime classic feels like both an homage and something totally original. It builds tension with Scorsese's signature flare, and culminates in a pretty unforgettable climax. Just a really, really great thriller, even if it's a little hard to disentangle from The Simpsons spoof of it these days. 8/10.

[theoscarsproject]

Terminator 2: Judgement Day (1991). A cyborg, identical to the one who failed to kill Sarah Connor, must now protect her ten year old son John from an even more advanced and powerful cyborg.

It really does have to be straight up one of the best action movies of all time, and one of the best sequels. Taut, thrilling, action packed, and genuinely pretty emotional - it's one of the few action movie classics that really lives up to the hype. 8/10.

[theoscarsproject]

Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country (1991). On the eve of retirement, Kirk and McCoy are charged with assassinating the Klingon High Chancellor and imprisoned. The Enterprise crew must help them escape to thwart a conspiracy aimed at sabotaging the last best hope for peace.

Not my favourite Star Trek, but it really is a fitting close to the OG crew. With its focus on politics, bigotry, and the wounds of the past, it finds its way through as it always does - with hope, reconciliation, and the promise of exploration. Good performances, good score, and just a reminder of how good this franchise is, even when it's not quite at it's best. 7/10.

[theoscarsproject]

The Hunt for Red October (1990). In November 1984, the Soviet Union's best submarine captain violates orders and heads for the U.S. in a new undetectable sub. The American CIA and military must quickly determine: Is he trying to defect or to start a war?

As a taut, Cold War thriller grounded in some excellent performances, it’s not hard to see why this film has the legacy that it does. That said, God, it’s dense! The attention to nautical warfare is impressive, but it often bogs down both character and pace in a way that has the tension waning, at least for me. Still, it’s a solid film, and I can see why it works for others, even if it didn’t always quite work for me. 7/10.

[theoscarsproject]

Backdraft (1991). Two feuding siblings carrying on a heroic family tradition as Chicago firefighters. But when a puzzling series of arson attacks is reported, they are forced to set aside their differences to solve the mystery surrounding these crimes.

The wooden actors they make Robert De Niro and Donald Sutherland act with (in this case, William Baldwin) is criminal! What a wild film? Melodrama with a capital ‘M’ and lacking all the fun of a film like Twister, it really straddles that line of late 80s and early 90s action movies. De Niro and Sutherland were great though at least? 5/10.

[theoscarsproject]

Days of Thunder (1990). A young hot-shot stock car driver gets his chance to compete at the top level.

In all fairness, I’m not really into car movies, but man, this just didn’t do much for me either. A movie soaked in hotheaded American machismo without the style, vision or soundtrack to elevate it to the likes of Top Gun in the way it clearly is trying to emulate. Kind of wild this is the movie Tom and Nicole met on though. 4/10.

[theoscarsproject]

Flatliners (1990). Five medical students experiment with "near death" experiences, until the dark consequences of past tragedies begin to jeopardize their lives.

Nobody does it like Joel Schumacher, for better and for worse. This is a fun one though! Tense, stylised, camp, with a who's who of late-80s/early-90s cinema cast. It's ridiculous, but it works too. 7/10.

[theoscarsproject]

Awakenings (1990). Dr. Sayer is a pioneering neurologist who wants to take a risk and give his patients who suffer from encephalitis a drug used for Parkinson's Disease. He tries it out on one man who miraculously wakes from his perpetual catatonic state

I can't believe I hadn't even heard of this one! A Penny Marshall film starring Robin Williams and Robert De Niro sounds right up my alley, and when this movie works, it really works. Marshall has such deep compassion as a filmmaker, and that resonates throughout te complex emotion within this story about life, medicine and disability. Unfortunately, it's approach does feel a little dated these days, but there's a good film here, and wonderful performances across the cast. 7/10.

[theoscarsproject]

The Field (1990). When a field (which has been farmed by the McCabe family for generations) goes up for auction, the patriarch of the McCabe family will stop at nothing to prevent a rich American from buying it.

A harrowing film about the fight for power, land and history in rural Ireland. Anchored by a solid script and an astonishing performance from Richard Harris, it's only added to by lush cinematography and a frog-in-slow-boil rising tension. The supporting performances are pretty good overall, but the movie stumbles a bit whenever it's not locked on Harris, which brings it slightly down in my opinion. Overall though, it's the sort of taut drama that they just don't really make anymore. 8/10.

[theoscarsproject]

Mr and Mrs Bridge (1990). Set during World War II, an upper-class family begins to fall apart due to the conservative nature of the patriarch and the progressive values of his children.

It really bums me out to have such mixed feelings on this one! James Ivory's late-80s-early-90s films generally really hit for me, and the combination of him and Paul Newman and Joanne Woodward should have just made this a runaway film, but unfortunately, it's kind of ill-paced, trying to do too much with, ultimately, too little. It depicts itself as a slice-of-life, but really it almost runs into the problem of a lot of biopics, which try to capture decades in minutes, and it just didn't really work for me. Woodward is the standout though, and when the movie sits with her, I think it's at its strongest. A shame though, I was really hoping to like this one more. 6.5/10.

[theoscarsproject]

Metropolitan (1989). A group of young upper-class Manhattanites are blithely passing through the gala debutante season, when an unusual outsider joins them and stirs them up.

What a funny little film! I'm still not entirely sure how I feel about it honestly, but it does feel like a neat little exploration of a particular subset of the rich and empty, and the dialogue is honestly pretty great. It kind of felt a bit in some ways like a bougie version of St. Elmo's Fire only better in every way, which - - okay, maybe I did like it, haha. The quasi-intellectual conversation over Austen culminating in the guy admitting he'd never read her was worth a star alone. 7.5/10.

[theoscarsproject]

Reversal of Fortune (1990). Wealthy Sunny von Bülow lies brain-dead, husband Claus guilty of attempted murder; but he says he's innocent and hires Alan Dershowitz for his appeal.

I'm always partial to a good legal thriller, and this pulpy, based-on-a-true-story film is way better than it has any right to be. It's not afraid to ask ethical questions about judicial process, nor lean into it's paperback-vibes while letting Glenn Close and Jeremy Irons chew scenery (particularly impressive for Close, given she spends most of the film in a coma), but it really felt like Ron Silver's movie to me. He really roots his performance as Claus' lawyer with a conflicted integrity that carries the story to the end. I really enjoyed this one. 8/10.

[theoscarsproject]

The Grifters (1990). A small-time conman has torn loyalties between his estranged mother and new girlfriend, both of whom are high-stakes grifters with their own angles to play.

The neo-noir resurgence of the early '90s means so much to me! That's not to say that this is a particularly good one - it's not really - but it is a pretty fun way to spend a couple of hours. Annette Bening is on fire as a sexxed up conwoman, and Anjelica Huston is, as always, everything. It's a shame the script isn't better, or the direction that much tighter, because there really is a better movie in here, but the kind-of-mid one is still worth the watch. 7/10.

[theoscarsproject]

Goodfellas (1990). The story of Henry Hill and his life in the mafia, covering his relationship with his wife Karen and his mob partners Jimmy Conway and Tommy DeVito.

I mean, what's there to say about this that hasn't been said before? It's not just a perfect gangster film, but pretty much a perfect film, weaving in all the best components of crime, romance, coming of age, rise to the tops and falls to the bottom. Plus, God, it's funny. Just wildly good, and truly one of Scorsese's best. 9.5/10.

[theoscarsproject]

Henry and June (1990). Anaïs Nin meets American writer Henry Miller in Paris in 1931. She keeps a diary of her sexual awakening, which includes Henry and his wife June.

I really wanted to like this one, but a male-directed take on female sexuality is always a hard sell, but perhaps even more so in 1990. But gosh, even taking out the sexuality component, this is just kind of a mess? Anais Nin deserves a brilliant bio pic, but what comes across in this is only tht Philip Kaufman doesn't understand her. She's given very little interiority in this film, and in many ways it makes sense that the movie's framed instead about her affair with Henry Miller and his wife June, if only because the film is more interested in the former if not the latter. Disappointing! Still, I think Maria de Medeiros and Uma Thurman did the best with what they had. 4/10.

[theoscarsproject]

Ju Dou (1990). In rural China, the young bride of a tyrannical owner of a silk-dyeing business finds temporary solace in the arms of her husband's nephew, but problems arise when she becomes pregnant.

Really beautifully shot with some pretty exceptional performances, but watching this virtually back-to-back with Raise the Red Lantern didn't do it a ton of favours. Still, it's compelling, and Zhang Yimou really does seem to bring out the best in Gong Li. She's amazing here, as she is in all of his films, and while there are a number of reasons to watch this film (the cinematography! the noir tropes!), the movie is well worth checking out even for her performance alone. A good film. 7/10.

[theoscarsproject]

Hamlet (1990). Hamlet, Prince of Denmark, finds out that his uncle Claudius killed his father to obtain the throne, and plans revenge.

Melodramatic, yet somehow lacking in intensity, this is far from my favourite adaptation of Hamlet. It's not to say that it doesn't have its moments - Glenn Close is predictably good as Gertrude, and Helena Bonham-Carter imbues her Ophelia with real vulnerability. Still, the movie lives or dies on Gibson's Hamlet, and his fairly crazed, dramatic performance really sets a tone that the film can't quite escape. I just don't think it really works. 5/10.