Film Excess - Free Ukraine - Stop Putin - End the war NOW!!: 1999 in films and TV-series

6/27/2021

1999 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess

The Top 10 of the Year

1. Being John Malkovich - Spike Jonze + Best American Movie of the Year + Best Actress' Breakthrough of the Year: Catherine Keener + Best Dramedy of the Year + Best Fantasy Comedy of the Year + Most Undeserved Flop of the Year

2. Eyes Wide Shut - Stanley Kubrick + Best Erotic Movie of the Year + Best New York Movie of the Year + Best On-Screen Couple of the Year: Nicole Kidman & Tom Cruise

3. American Beauty - Sam Mendes + Best Debut of the Year + Best Drama of the Year + Best Mega-Hit Movie of the Year + Biggest Moneymaker of the Year: 127.48 mil. $ range

4. American Pie - Chris and Paul Weitz + Best High School Movie of the Year + Best Sex Comedy of the Year + Best Youth Movie of the Year

5. Bleeder - Nicolas Winding Refn + Best Copenhagen Movie of the Year + Best Crime Drama of the Year + Best Danish Movie of the Year + Best Huge Flop Movie of the Year

6. Frasier - season 7 - David Angell, Peter Casey, David Lee + Best Comedy of the Year + Best Returning TV-series of the Year + Best Romcom of the Year + Best Seattle Title of the Year

7. Freaks & Geeks - season 1 - Paul Feig + Best Coming-of-Age Title of the Year + Best New TV-series of the Year

8. A Texas Funeral - William Blake Herron + Best Box Office Disaster + Best Independent Movie of the Year + Best Texas Movie of the Year + Most Under-Appreciated Movie of the Year

9. The Blair Witch Project - Daniel Myrick, Eduardo Sánchez + Best Dollar Return of the Year: 1,243 Times Its Cost + Best Found Footage Movie of the Year + Best Horror Movie of the Year + Best Low-Budget Movie of the Year: 60k $ + Best Mockumentary of the Year

10. Boys Don't Cry - Kimberley Peirce + Best Rainbow Movie of the Year + Best Shooting Star Actress of the Year: Hilary Swank + Best True-Crime Movie of the Year

Other great 1999 movies (in alphabetical order):

Ghost Dog: The Way of the Samurai - Jim Jarmusch + Best New Jersey Movie of the Year + Best Samurai Movie of the Year

Girl, Interrupted - James Mangold + Best Period Movie of the Year

Other good, recommendable 1999 movies (in alphabetical order):

Audition/オーディション (Ōdishon) - Takashi Miike + Best Feel-Bad Movie of the Year + Best Gore Movie of the Year + Best Japanese Movie of the Year

Bowfinger - Frank Oz + Best Big Flop Movie of the Year + Best Los Angeles Movie of the Year + Best Parody of the Year

Buena Vista Social Club, documentary - Wim Wenders

EdTV - Ron Howard + Best Mega-Flop Movie of the Year + Best Satire of the Year

Election - Alexander Payne + Best Nebraska Movie of the Year

The Green Mile - Frank Darabont + Best Ensemble of the Year: Tom Hanks, Michael Clarke Duncan, Sam Rockwell, David Morse, Michael Jeter, Bonnie Hunt, James Cromwell, Patricia Clarkson, Harry Dean Stanton, Doug Hutchison + Best Epic Movie of the Year + Best Prison Movie of the Year + Best Religious Movie of the Year + Best Shooting Star Actor of the Year: Michael Clarke Duncan

The Bottom 10 of the Year

1. At First Sight - Irwin Winkler

2. Baby Geniuses - Bob Clark + Most Undeserved Hit of the Year

3. Analyze This (1999) - Harold Ramis + Most Overrated Movie of the Year

4. Alice in Wonderland, TV movie - Nick Willing

5. Existenz/eXistenZ - David Cronenberg + Most Deserved Flop of the Year

6. From Fusk Till Dawn 2: Texas Blood Money - Scott Spiegel

7. The 13th Warrior - John McTiernan + Biggest Career-Killer of the Year: John McTiernan + Costliest Flop of the Year: 95.36 mil. $ range

8. Deep Blue Sea - Renny Harlin + Best Shark Movie of the Year

9. Any Given Sunday - Oliver Stone + Best Actor's Breakthrough of the Year: Jamie Foxx

10. End of Days - Peter Hyams

Other failed, poor and/or mediocre 1999 movies (in alphabetical order):

Criminal Lovers/Les Amants Criminels - François Ozon + Best French Movie of the Year + Worst Dollar Return of the Year: 0.18 Times Its Cost

Galaxy Quest - Dean Parisot

[30 titles in total]

Notes:

A slim first edition of the lists of the best and worst in movies and TV-series from 1999 contains one masterpiece and one grade zero title:

The top 10 opens with Spike Jonze's inspiring, awesome fantasy comedy masterpiece Being John Malkovich; Stanley Kubrick's awe-inspiring erotic drama-thriller Eyes Wide Shut takes silver; and Sam Mendes' suburbia-skewering major hit American Beauty takes the bronze. The list goes on with Chris and Paul Weitz's hilarious teen comedy American Pie; Nicolas Winding Refn's mysterious, violent drama Bleeder; David Angell, Peter Casey and David Lee's romantic merry-maker Frasier - season 7; Paul Feig's warm, funny and nuanced teen dramedy Freaks & Geeks - season 1; William Blake Herron's unfairly under-seen Texas-set drama A Texas Funeral; Daniel Myrick and Eduardo Sánchez's sensational low-budget witch horror The Blair Witch Project; and finally Kimberley Peirce's stirring true-crime drama Boys Don't Cry.

Other noteworthy films of the year include a New Jersey-set samurai movie, Ghost Dog: The Way of the Samurai, a chuckle-worthy Hollywood parody, Bowfinger and another epic Stephen King adaptation set in a prison, The Green Mile.

On the year's bottom 10 list it is Irwin Winkler's thoroughly awful blindness melodrama At First Sight that takes the cake; followed by Bob Clark's baby monstrosity, grade zero shlock Baby Geniuses; and with Harold Ramis' cringe-worthy mob-themed comedy Analyze This taking the bronze. The list goes on with Nick Willing's TV movie ordeal Alice in Wonderland; David Cronenberg's high-minded sci-fi mumbo-jumbo Existenz; Scott Spiegel's poorly devised vampire flick From Dusk Till Dawn 2: Texas Blood Money; John McTiernan's hugely misinformed adventure The 13th Warrior; Renny Harlin's corny shark horror Deep Blue Sea; Oliver Stone's blown-up-hard American football epic Any Given Sunday; and finally Peter Hyams' preposterous apocalyptic actioner End of Days. Another great filmmaker whose output this years registers below par is François Ozon with his hot crime-drama Criminal Lovers.

The year marked high points in the careers of stars John Malkovich (Being John Malkovich), Kevin Spacey (American Beauty) and Tom Hanks (The Green Mile). Conversely 1999 marked major defeats for stars Antonio Banderas (The 13th Warrior), Val Kilmer (At First Sight) and Eddie Murphy (Bowfinger).

Biggest flops of the year:

[The loss is based solely on the cost and box office earnings for the films. Marketing spends and additional revenue (home video, TV rights and other auxiliary profits) are not taken into account]

1. The 13th Warrior - 95.36 mil. $ range

2. EdTV - 65.92 mil. $ range

3. At First Sight - 48 mil. $ range

4. Girl, Interrupted - 20.68 mil. $ range

5. Election - 18.08 mil. $ range

6. Bowfinger - 15.6 mil. $ range

7. Any Given Sunday - 14.92 mil. $ range

8. Existenz - 13 mil. $ range

9. Galaxy Quest - 8.76 mil. $ range

10. Criminal Lovers - 1.58 mil. $ range

= Combined losses: 301.9 mil. $

Biggest hits of the year:

[The gain is based solely on the cost and box office earnings for the films. Marketing spends and additional revenue (home video, TV rights and other auxiliary profits) are not taken into account]

1. American Beauty - 127.48 mil. $ range

2. The Blair Witch Project - 99.38 mil. $ range

3. American Pie - 83.16 mil. $ range

4. The Green Mile - 54.72 mil. $ range

5. Analyze This - 40.72 mil. $ range

6. Buena Vista Social Club - 7.24 mil. $ range

7. Boys Don't Cry - 6.28 mil. $ range

8. Deep Blue Sea - 5.84 mil. $ range

9. Baby Geniuses - 2.56 mil. $ range

10. End of Days - 1.76 mil. $ range

= Combined profits: 429.14 mil. $

1999 titles still on the watch-list:

Kolobos, Double Jeopardy, In Dreams, The Iron Giant, Julien Donkey-Boy, Please Kill Mr. Kinski, Music of the Heart, Office Space, A Room for Romeo Brass

Previous annual lists:

2020 in films - according to Film Excess

2019 in films - according to Film Excess
2018 in films - according to Film Excess [UPDATED I]
2018 in films - according to Film Excess
2017 in films - according to Film Excess [UPDATED I]
2017 in films - according to Film Excess
2016 in films - according to Film Excess [UPDATED II]
2016 in films - according to Film Excess [UPDATED I]
2016 in films - according to Film Excess

2003 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess [UPDATED I]
2003 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess
2002 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess
2001 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess

2000 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess

What do you think of the lists?
What 1999 titles would make it to your top and bottom lists?
What worthwhile 1999 movies and TV-series are missing on the watch-list?

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William Friedkin has died

Born in Chicago, Friedkin accrued TV credits prior to his advance to the big screen as the director of Good TImes (1967), The Birthday Party (1968), The Night They Raided Minsky's (1968) and The Boys in the Band (1970) before his major breakthrough, The French Connection (1971), for which he won his only Oscar. He followed it up with the even bigger smash, The Exorcist (1973), arguably the best horror film of all time, for which he was Oscar-nominated. Later credits include Sorcerer (1977), Cruising (1980), To Live and Die in L.A. (1985), Rampage (1987), Rules of Engagement (2000), Killer Joe (2011) and The Devil and Father Amorth (2017, documentary). Friedkin passed away at age 87. R.I.P.

Louise Fletcher has passed away

Born in Alabama to deaf parents, Fletcher got her first credits in late-1950s TV-series.She took a 10 year-long sabbatical to devote her time to motherhood after the release of A Gathering of Eagles, but then came back and soon saw her career's most important part, as Nurse Ratched in One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest (1975), for which she won her sole Oscar. Later credits include Exorcist II: The Heretic (1977), The Lucky Star (1980), Brainstorm (1983), Two Moon Junction (1988), Cruel Intentions (1999), A Perfect Man (2013) and many more. Fletcher passed away at age 88. R.I.P.

Jean-Luc Godard has passed away

Born in Paris, France, Godard lived much of his life in Switzerland. He wrote for French film criticism magazine Cahiers du Cinema and became foundational for the New French Wave that inspired new waves in scores of other countries across the world with his Breathless (1960). Later credits include A Woman Is A Woman (1961), Vivre Sa Vie (1962), Le Petit Soldat (1962), Contempt (1963), Alphaville (1965), Pierrot le Fou (1965), 2 or 3 Things I Know About Her (1967), Weekend (1967), Every Man for Himself (1980), King Lear (1987), Century of Cinema (1995, documentary), Goodbye to Language (2014) and many more. Godard died of assisted suicide at age 91. R.I.P.

Wolfgang Petersen has died

James Caan has died

Caan was born the son of Jewish immigrants from Germany in New York. He got his start on TV in the early 1960s. His credits include El Dorado (1966), The Rain People (1969), Brian's Song (1971, TV movie), The Godfather (1972), - for which he earned his only Oscar nomination, - Slither (1973), The Gambler (1974), Funny Lady (1975), Rollerball (1975), Silent Movie (1976), Hide in Plain Sight (1980), - the only film he also directed, - Thief (1981), Misery (1990), Honeymoon in Vegas (1992), Bottle Rocket (1996), Eraser (1996), Dogville (2003), Elf (2003), Las Vegas (2003-07), Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs (2009) and many more. Caan passed away at age 82. R.I.P.

Jean-Louis Trintignant has died

Born in Vaucluse, France, Trintignant's theatrical debut as an actor was in If All the Guys in the World... (1955). Later credits include ...And God Created Woman (1956), The Seven Deadly Sins (1961), Inferno (1964), A Man and A Woman (1966), My Love, My Love (1967), A Man to Kill (1967), The Great Silence (1968), Z (1969), The Assassination (1972), Three Colors: Red (1994), Amour (2012), Happy End (2017) and many more. He also wrote and directed two films in the 1970s. Trintignant passed away at age 91. R.I.P.

Ray Liotta has died

Adopted from an orphenage at a young age, Liotta got hooked on acting in high school. He had various TV credits in the late 1970s and early 80s, with his film debut in The Lonely Lady (1983). Later credits include Something Wild (1986), Field of Dreams (1989), Goodfellas (1990), Cop Land (1997), Hannibal (2001), Blow (2001), Narc (2002), John Q (2002), Identity (2003), Observe and Report (2009), Youth in Revolt (2009), The Details (2011), Killing THem Softly (2012), The Place Beyond the Pines (2012), Shades of Blue (2016-18), The Simpsons (2018, TV-series), Marriage Story (2019), The Many Saints of Newark (2021), Black Bird (2022, TV-series) and many more. Liotta passed away at age 67 in his sleep while on production in the Dominican Republic. R.I.P.

Philip Baker Hall has died

Born in Ohio, Hall didn't start acting until he was 30. His long list of credits include Zabriskie Point (1970), Miami Vice (1987, TV-series), Midnight Run (1988), Ghostbusters II (1989), Cheers (1993, TV-series), Hard Eight (1996), The Rock (1996), Air Force One (1997), Boogie Nights (1997), Seinfeld (1991-98), Rush Hour (1998), The Insider (1999), Magnolia (1999), The Talented Mr. Ripley (1999), Bruce Almighty (2003), Dogville (2003), The Zodiac (2005), Zodiac (2007), Curb Your Enthusiasm (2004-09), Mr. Popper's Penguins (2011), Modern Family (2011-12) and many more. Hall passed away at age 90. R.I.P.

William Hurt has passed away

Born in Washington D.C., Hurt's first film role was the lead in Altered States (1980). Later credits include Body Heat (1981), The Big Chill (1983), Gorky Park (1983), Kiss of the Spider Woman (1985), for which he earned his only Oscar as Best Actor; Chilrdren of a Lesser God (1986), for which he was also Oscar-nominated; Broadcast News (1987), for which he was again Oscar-nominated; Smoke (1995), A.I. Artificial Intelligence (2001), A History of Violence (2005), for which he was again Oscar-nominated; The Good Shepherd (2006), Into the Wild (2007), Robin Hood (2010) and many more. Hurt passed away at age 71. R.I.P.

Ivan Reitman has passed away

Born in Chechoslovakia, now Slovakia, Reitman's family fled the Soviet regime to Austria, then Toronto, when he was 4 years old. Reitman broke into movies as a director with Foxy Lady (1971). Later credits include Cannibal Girls (1973), Meatballs (1979), Stripes (1981), Ghostbusters (1984), Twins (1988), Ghostbusters II (1989), Kindergarten Cop (1990), Junior (1994), Father's Day (1997), Evolution (1998), No Strings Attached (2011), Draft Day (2014) and more. Reitman's son Jason Reitman is also a great filmmaker. Reitman passed away at age 75. R.I.P.

Film Excess - Free Ukraine - Stop Putin - End the war NOW!!

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6/27/2021

1999 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess

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