The Truman Show (1998)

Great concept, especially for pre-reality TV times: a guy's life is broadcast as entertainment 24/7 without his knowledge. The town is like a 1950s idea of bliss as presented in an amusement park attraction. Everything's clean, everyone's content, there's no reason to change anything.

But a concept is not enough -- there has to be some depth. I never felt like I knew any of the characters, least of all Truman. For example, when he "escapes" from his room by fooling the cameras, we are in the position of the watchers rather than Truman -- we see his deception when everyone else does. Why? Aren't we supposed to identify with him? Why not let us escape with him, hoping to get away with it but feeling the "hurry up!!" nervousness that he will be discovered?

Also, it's certainly not easy to identify with a man who has literally never left his bubble. I get that he was manipulated his whole life, but he is aware of the outside world and has a great desire to be in it -- what man wouldn't try to get there? At least do it "The Village"-style and lie to him about what's "out there." Make it monsters. Make it nothing. It doesn't matter as long as I believe that, in his shoes, I'd stay put too. As written, it's ridiculous that he's never left. Also ridiculous? That we have no idea what happens to him once he leaves the bubble. What about money? A job? A place to stay? It seems he has no family and no experience that could help him out there. At least give us a "he's OK" montage over the credits. 

C

Zero Effect (1998)

This seems to be a take on Sherlock, where a man great at his job as an investigator has difficulty handling day-to-day interactions. He's got a Watson who acts as a personal secretary and go-between. But this Sherlock (Pullman) comes off more as a man suffering from arrested development and privilege while his Watson (Stiller) can barely mask his contempt for his boss.

The case itself is alright, but there's no punch or levity in the telling. It's all very muted and depressing and sleep-inducing.

C-

City of Angels (1998)

When I first saw this film I was an entirely different person. But, somehow, this movie still resonates for me in the same way it did back then. It's utterly dreamy and romantic and heartbreaking. I've seen Wings of Desire and do truly love it and I get that this shouldn't hold a candle: it's a little too "cleaned-up" somehow. But what gives this the edge over the original, for me, is the magic of Cage and Ryan. I felt their love in a way that wasn't generated by the couple in the earlier film.

I remember actually getting into a bizarre argument about this movie during a discussion at church. I can't remember why the film came up, but the immediate reaction from one of the men in the group was something along the lines of "I hate that movie. Angels have everything we're striving to get and it's ridiculous that one would throw that away for earthly pleasures." I, of course, disagreed heartily and I think God would too! After all, receiving love that is given by choice is the most amazing experience. This world may not be perfect, but free will that results in generosity of the heart? That's divine.

A

Practical Magic (1998)

This movie is so incredibly '90s. Proof: Aiden Quinn was a hunk, Nicole Kidman could barely muster a convincing American accent, and Margo Martindale had only a handful of lines. I can't believe both that 1) I hadn't seen it to this point nor that 2) it's a movie that felt so universally-watched that I should see it.

It's one of those weird movies that straddles genres in a way that simply doesn't make sense. It's a lightweight trifle but it also delves into some truly scary elements making it too silly for grown-ups while also managing to be too frightening for kids. I guess it's a movie for junior high school girls? They might feel like they're watching something edgy... everyone else can safely give it a pass. 

C

You've Got Mail (1998)

I originally saw this in the theater and liked it quite a bit -- but I had no idea if it would hold up or come off as dated. Happily, it holds up.

Hanks and Ryan are adorable as the couple who can't stand each other in real life but love each other online. Rather than coming off as creepy once he knows her identity but she's still in the dark, Hanks' manipulations come off as sweet and considered. It's just a happy little love story.

My one complaint is that there was no reason to make Hanks' girlfriend so self-absorbed. She could've just been wrong for him without making her unworthy of his love.

B+

The Interview (1998)

Lonely loser is napping in his squalid apartment when the authorities burst in and take him in for a day of questioning. It starts off as being about a stolen car then slowly becomes about more serious crimes. The loser is completely confused… or is he?

Twisty and turny with a subplot about police corruption to boot.

B+

Out of Sight (1998)

Bank robber escapes from prison and plays cat and mouse with a sexy U.S. Marshal.

This is a stellar Leonard adaptation -- maybe not quite as amazing as Get Shorty, but really close. Jennifer Lopez is actually really good here and Clooney is all shabby charm. A winner of a film.

B+

Sliding Doors (1998)

Gwyneth & her terrible British accent gets canned and heads home early. She misses the tube, almost gets mugged, hits her head, gets stitched up at the hospital and goes home to her boyfriend just minutes after the woman he’s cheating with leaves their bed. OR she makes the tube, and catches the two in bed.

Both scenarios and the couple of months following are played out simultaneously, but who cares? Gwyneth is a boring dishrag in one storlyline and a boring dishrag with a charming new guy in the other. If it weren’t for the lovely John Hannah brightening up every scene he was in, I’d stick a minus after this grade rather than a plus.

D+

Very Bad Things (1998)

Well, I accidentally typed “Very Bad Movie” as the title of this post before I realized and backspaced out of my error. Does that tell you anything?

A five-man bachelor party winds up with an accidentally-dead hooker on their hands and the group begins to fall apart immediately. It was artificially loud and frantic - in one scene, Jeremy Piven kept screaming “GOOSED,” which made neither sense nor a watchable sequence. Things go from bad to worse but I didn’t care, I just hated. Them. All.

F

Fallen Angels (1998)

Weird, overly-stylized pair of stories following a hitman and a mute small-time thug. I wasn’t sure of what was happening most of the time and many scenes went on for what seemed like weeks, but it was definitely original. I’m just not convinced it was any good.

C

Can't Hardly Wait (1998)

A genial “graduation-day house party” movie, the main thread of which concerns an earnest guy who might finally have a chance with the girl he’s loved for four years now that her jock boyfriend has dumped her. That is the least interesting of the plot threads as the lovelorn dude is played as a bit of a nerdy doofus and the girl is played as boobs attached to Jennifer Love Hewitt's generically pretty head.

The house is packed with a who's who of Gen X actors: Lauren Ambrose, Freddy Rodriguez, Eric Balfour (Six Feet Under 3-pack!), Seth Green, Amber Benson (Buffy 2-pack!), Donald Faison, Peter Facinelli, Jason Segel, Melissa Joan Hart & lots of etc.  The non-lovelorn doofus storylines all land fairly well, including a nerd who plans a revenge but gets sidetracked, a band that can't stop arguing long enough to play the gig, and a sarcastic girl and a pathetic guy remembering they used to be friends.

I definitely get why this would be beloved by people who graduated anywhere from 1997 to 2002, but Empire Records gets to keep its “Breakfast Club of the ‘90s” rights.

B

Music From Another Room (1998)

I have no idea what type of person could read this script and say "I've got to be involved in this movie!"

I guess it's supposed to feel like an epic romance. See, at five years old, the guy (grown-up version played by Jude Law) helped deliver the girl by using his little hands to unwrap the umbilical cord from her neck. Right then and there, he declares he's going to marry her. Huh? What five year old has marriage on the brain? Unfortunately, the girl turns out to be Gretchen Mol: a tightly wound bore whose defining characteristic seems to be poor acting.

Listen, we all say some stupid shit when we're kids. Yeah, it'd be a cool story if you wound up getting with her, but when the object of your childhood verbal betrothal turns out to be, you know, a shrew, just chalk it up to youthful babblings and move on, pal.

D+

The Big Hit (1998)

We kept looking at each other, slackjawed, and saying "this movie is SO STUPID!" But we also kept right on watching it and laughing at all the stupidity. At least no one on the screen seemed under any illusions that they were making art. That's something, eh?

C-

Saving Private Ryan (1998)

Saw this originally in the theater and it pretty much blew me away. It's not as powerful on the small screen OR the second time around, but it's still a pretty darn good war movie.

My one complaint would be the present-day bookending -- that's a device I think rarely works (another example is The Bridges of Madison County).

B+

Wild Things (1998)

When the guys in my house go off camping, I stay home and have myself a movie marathon. Since I'd already watched a heist movie (Inside Man) and a romantic drama (The Girl in the Café), I decided to switch it up with some sleazy cheese.

Although I knew nothing about this movie except that the cover shows Neve Campbell & Denise Richards up to their chins in water, Roger Ebert names this a guilty pleasure about which he doesn't feel guilty, and that it features full frontal Kevin Bacon...I've been wanting to see this for a while. It just started feeling like one of those "you haven't seen that?!" films such as Titanic or Schindler's List or...OK... Basic Instinct.

This movie, surprisingly, delivers. Denise Richards employs her weird "woodenly seductive" acting style, but she's surrounded by a story in which that works just fine. There's a lot of lurid stuff packed in here, but it's also clever and sexy and fun. It's entertaining schlock that's a lot smarter than it needed to be.

B

The Big Lebowski (1998)

This was the fifth or sixth time I've seen this and I just don't think it's ever getting old.

Trying to figure out which bit of this movie is my favorite is nearly as difficult as trying to pick my favorite all-time movie. Just as I commit to the part where the joint bounces into his lap and he douses it with his beer...I remember that isn't nearly as funny as him decoding the phone message with the pencil-rub method...and then I'll think of his anti-intruder doorstop device and start cracking up about that. It's just a goldmine.

A

P. S. Eight-year-olds, Dude.

Orgazmo (1998)

I seriously cannot remember how this ended up in my Netflix queue. Someone at some point MUST have told me it was good...I really wish I could remember who it was so that I could 1) make a note to ignore their advice in future and 2) flick them on the head.

Really dumb. Incredibly unfunny. Poorly acted. It's only saved from an "F" rating because the concept -- bright-eyed Mormon boy thinks that an offer to star in porn films is God's way of providing cash for his wedding -- is funny all by itself.

D-

Another Day in Paradise (1998)

Supremely annoying group on a crime spree. The most likable of the foursome is Melanie Griffith (that should tell you something right there). It's not horrible, it's just not good enough to recommend or sit through in its entirety -- of course, if you bail too early, you'll miss Lou Diamond Phillips in drag, so...

C

Great Expectations (1998)

Chris Cooper's marvelous as Uncle Joe -- but that's about the only bit worth a poo in this film. Gwyneth & Ethan seem self-conscious and wooden; the story cold and uninvolving. A waste of time.

D+

Cube (1998)

Effective mindgame of a movie. Moves along quickly and is rather tense. No big complaints, really -- except for Holloway's acting (really stiff) and the huge "WHY" that's impossible not to ask. Still…really cool.

I know they made a sequel, but I think I'd have to employ a much larger font-type for the "why" on that one.

B