instantwatcher.com

Hal Hinson, Washington Post

1. James and the Giant Peach 1996 The latest in an impressive string of first-rate movies for kids.
2. A Perfect Candidate 1996 One of a small handful of essential films about politics in this country. full review
3. Sgt. Bilko 1996 Martin's aggrieved expressions and sublime physical bits are constantly entertaining. full review
4. Braveheart 1995 [Gibson] has created a completely adequate modern facsimile of the classic romantic epic. full review
5. Clueless 1995 While Cher and the other characters here may seem vacuous and spoiled, Heckerling -- who wrote the script as well -- is a gentle satirist. full review
6. The Crossing Guard 1995 full review
7. The Doom Generation 1995 An arty atrocity for thugs and sub-literates that makes Natural Born Killers look like The Sound of Music. full review
8. Four Rooms 1995 Four Rooms asserts itself as a goof so laboriously and aggressively that you almost feel pinned back in your seat. full review
9. Heidi Fleiss: Hollywood Madam 1995 full review
10. A Month by the Lake 1995 full review
11. The Prophecy 1995 full review
12. Black Beauty 1994 full review
13. The Scout 1994 A genuine -- and immensely enjoyable -- curiosity. full review
14. Blue Chips 1994 The filmmakers don't get the ball into the Shaq-man's hands enough -- both literally and figuratively -- to make this personable giant's screen debut memorable. full review
15. Clerks 1994 Amateurishly acted, clumsily edited and slapped together out of what looks like surveillance camera footage, the thing bumps along not so much on talent as on audacity. full review
16. Fresh 1994 full review
17. Greedy 1994 full review
18. Heavenly Creatures 1994 Powerful, evocative movie. full review
19. Hoop Dreams 1994 The most powerful movie about sports ever made. full review
20. I.Q. 1994 full review
21. Radioland Murders 1994 full review
22. Sirens 1994 full review
23. The Good Son 1993 Where were the responsible adults when this thing was made? full review
24. Map of the Human Heart 1993 A film of incantatory intensity and moment by a prodigiously gifted young filmmaker. full review
25. The Piano 1993 [An] evocative, powerful, extraordinarily beautiful film from the Australian director Jane Campion. full review
26. The Vanishing 1993 A case study in how Hollywood can make a complete mess out of what was previously a marvelous film. full review
27. What's Eating Gilbert Grape 1993 There is a good idea for a movie hiding here, but Halstrom has buried it beneath a load of charmless shtick. full review
28. 35 Up 1992 The film's realism is as ruthless as it is low-key. It's impossible not to look at the 35-year-old woman and mourn the loss of the 7-year-old girl. full review
29. Cool World 1992 What are the rules anyway? full review
30. Enchanted April 1992 Is it fair to ask why usually sophisticated Americans turn to mush over this particular variety of moribund ersatz art? full review
31. Incident at Oglala 1992 full review
32. Ladybugs 1992 full review
33. Reservoir Dogs 1992 It's brutal, it's funny and you won't forget it. full review
34. Shining Through 1992 full review
35. Career Opportunities 1991 Jennifer Connelly is very easy to look at. Career Opportunities isn't. full review
36. The Doors 1991 The film is an absurdity -- muddled, self-serious, alienating, a stone drag. full review
37. Drop Dead Fred 1991 full review
38. Let Him Have It 1991 full review
39. Mobsters 1991 The whole movie seems to be about hair, slicked-back hair, hair so meticulously coifed and lacquered that bullets would bounce off of it. Your first thought is that the budget for mousse must have climbed into the zillions. full review
40. Paris Is Burning 1991 full review
41. Slacker 1991 This is a work of scatterbrained originality, funny, unexpected and ceaselessly engaging. full review
42. Terminator 2: Judgment Day 1991 It's a tank of a movie, big, powerful and hard to resist. full review
43. The Grifters 1990 It seduces you into believing it's merely a cheeky trifle, and then, when you least expect it, lowers the boom. full review
44. The Hunt for Red October 1990 A leviathan bore, big, clunky and ponderously overplotted. full review
45. Internal Affairs 1990 Figgis gives his dolled-up universe a high-voltage hum. And at the center of it, Gere is an extraordinarily vivid monster -- the devil as fashion plate. full review
46. The Krays 1990 full review
47. Mermaids 1990 Having made something of a specialty of woe-is-me, adolescent angst, Ryder finds a deeper level here, a level of comedy with something genuinely painful mixed in. full review
48. Quigley Down Under 1990 full review
49. The Russia House 1990 full review
50. Earth Girls Are Easy 1989 The movie equivalent of cheap champagne -- even though it's lousy, it still gives you tickles up the nose. full review
51. Harlem Nights 1989 Once there was Freddy. Once there was Chuckie and Jason and Howard the Duck. Now there is the scariest of them all. Now there is Harlem Nights. full review
52. My Left Foot 1989 Jim Sheridan's My Left Foot must be the most passionately empathetic film about a physical affliction ever made. full review
53. Casual Sex? 1988 full review
54. Colors 1988 There's great pleasure in watching these two actors work. And Hopper, a great actor himself, knows what they need to thrive. full review
55. Coming to America 1988 In Landis' hands, the film doesn't live up to even the meagerest of expectations. full review
56. The Last Temptation of Christ 1988 In spite of all [Scorsese] accomplishes, he is unable to bring Jesus close to us, to realize his stated goal of creating a universal figure who symbolizes the spiritual anguish of all men. full review
57. License to Drive 1988 About all that's worth noting is that the Caddy gets demolished and that the stars remain intact (though practically everyone will wish that it were the other way around). full review
58. Poltergeist III 1988 full review
59. Rain Man 1988 Neither Levinson nor Hoffman was able to penetrate the mystery of their subject. full review
60. Scrooged 1988 If Donner and his team had any interest in the story's message, they've picked a puzzling way to show it. full review
61. Talk Radio 1988 Talk Radio has the loony intensity of those impassioned conspiracy theorists who look out at the world and see patterns of corruption spreading in all directions...it's another of Stone's wake-up calls to America. full review
62. The Thin Blue Line 1988 full review
63. Beverly Hills Cop II 1987 full review
64. Cross My Heart 1987 full review
65. Date with an Angel 1987 full review
66. Fatal Attraction 1987 Fatal Attraction has an inescapable pull to it; it's suffocatingly exciting. full review
67. No Way Out 1987 In thriller terms it's close to irresistible and enormously entertaining. full review
68. Planes, Trains and Automobiles 1987 A riotously springy holiday knockabout. full review
69. The Untouchables 1987 ...only marginally entertaining. full review
70. 8 1/2 1963 [Fellini] is that rare sort of artist who can be loved, revered and just barely tolerated, all at the same time. full review