Film Excess - Free Ukraine - Stop Putin - End the war NOW!!: June 2023

6/26/2023

1994 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess

The Top 7 of the Year

1. Ace Ventura: Pet Detective - Tom Shadyac + Best American Movie of the Year + Best Animal Movie of the Year + Breakthrough of the Year: Jim Carrey + Best Comedy of the Year + Best Debut of the Year + Most Deserved Hit of the Year + Best Florida Movie of the Year + Best Huge Hit Movie of the Year + Best Poster of the Year + Most Underrated Movie of the Year

2. Crumb, documentary - Terry Zwigoff

3. Frasier - season 2 - David Angell, Peter Casey, David Lee + Returning TV-series of the Year + Best Sitcom of the Year + Best Washington State Movie

4. Dumb and Dumber/Dumb & Dumber - Bobby and Peter Farrelly + Best Colorado Movie of the Year + Best Road Movie of the Year

5. Four Weddings and a Funeral - Mike Newell + Best British Movie of the Year + Best $ Return of the Year: 55.84 + Best Mega-hit Movie of the Year + Best On-screen Couple of the Year: Hugh Grant & Andie MacDowell + Most Profitable Movie of the Year: 93.88 mil. $ range + Best Romcom of the Year

6. Chungking Express/重慶森林 - Wong Kar-wai + Best Hong Kong Movie of the Year

7. Exotica - Atom Egoyan + Best Canadian Movie of the Year + Best Sex Drama of the Year

Other good, recommendable titles of the year (in alphabetical order):

Death of a Cheerleader, TV movie - William A. Graham + Best True-crime Movie of the Year + Best TV movie of the Year

The Hudsucker Proxy - Joel Coen + Best Mega-flop of the Year + Most Expensive Flop of the Year: 20.48 mil. $ range + Best Satire of the Year + Worst $ Return of the Year: 0.45

The Bottom 4 of the Year

1. Interview with the Vampire: The Vampire Chronicles - Neil Jordan + Most Overrated Movie of the Year + Most Undeserved Hit of the Year

2. The Crow - Alex Proyas

3. Three Colors: White/Trois Couleurs: Blanc - Krzysztof Kieslowski

4. Ed Wood - Tim Burton

[13 titles in total]

Notes:

Though opened with a meager 13 title count, 1994 already boasts one masterpiece - and no grade zero trash yet.

Topping the Top 7 list is said masterpiece; Tom Shadyac's zany popular comedy smash, Ace Ventura: Pet Detective. Terry Zwigoff's great cartoonist biography documentary Crumb takes silver; and the second season of David Angell, Peter Casey and David Lee's chuckle-worthy sitcom classic Frasier bronze.

The list goes on with another Jim Carrey comedy bull's eye, Bobby and Peter Farrelly's Dumb and Dumber; Mike Newell's sensational British romcom Four Weddings and a Funeral; Wong Kar-wai's stylish metropolitan drama Chungking Express; and Atom Egoyan's stirring sex drama Exotica rounds off the list in this first edition.

The Bottom 4 list hands the turkey gold to Neil Jordan's hard-to-take vampire costume yawner Interview with the Vampire: The Vampire Chronicles; with Alex Proyas' dark, ugly, star-killing The Crow taking silver; and Krzysztof Kieslowski's high-brow, unfunny 'comedy' Three Colors: White claiming bronze. Tim Burton's misdirected B/W filmmaker biopic Ed Wood rounds off the list.

Among those enjoying audiences' favor in 1994 are first of all Jim Carrey, whose starring debut in Ace Ventura began a year of heading 3 films that collected more than 500 mil. $ at the box office (Dumb and Dumber and The Mask being the other two films.) Wonderful comedies are already far in overweight on the list, and Mike Newell, Hugh Grant and Andie MacDowell enjoyed another one of the year's rare, triumphant hits with Four Weddings and a Funeral.

In the other end of the spectrum, continued hard-hitters in American cinema Tim Burton and the Coen brothers all suffered smacks at the box office with their major duds Ed Wood and The Hudsucker Proxy.

Future updates will greatly expand the works of the year, their receptions, qualities and lacks thereof.

Biggest flops of the year:

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

1. The Hudsucker Proxy - 20.48 mil. $ rage

2. Ed Wood - 12.48 mil. $ range

= Combined losses: 32.96 mil. $

Biggest hits of the year:

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

1. Four Weddings and a Funeral - 93.88 mil. $ range

2. Dumb and Dumber - 81.88 mil. $ range

3. Interview with the Vampire: The Vampire Chronicles - 29.44 mil. $ range

4. Ace Ventura: Pet Detective - 27.88 mil. $ range

5. The Crow - 14.6 mil. $ range

6. Exotica - 2.12 mil. $ range

= Combined profits: 249.8 mil. $

1994 titles currently on the watch-list:

Coming Out Under Fire, Heavenly Creatures, The NeverEnding Story III, Tammy and the T-Rex, Barcelona, The Paper, Priest, 8 Seconds, Carlo & Ester, To Live, Faust, Wild Reeds, Death and the Maiden

Previous annual lists:

2022 in films - according to Film Excess

2021 in films - according to Film Excess

2020 in films - according to Film Excess

2019 in films - according to Film Excess [UPDATED I]

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

2008 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess [UPDATED II]
2008 in films - according to Film Excess [UPDATED I]
2008 in films - according to Film Excess
2007 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess [UPDATED II]
2007 in films - according to Film Excess [UPDATED I]
2007 in films - according to Film Excess

2006 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess [UPDATED II]
2006 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess [UPDATED I]
2006 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess

2005 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess [UPDATED I]
2005 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess

2004 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess [UPDATED I]
2004 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess

2003 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess [UPDATED II]

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

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

1998 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess

1997 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess

1996 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess

1995 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess

What do you think of Film Excess' 1994 lists?

What films would comprise your personal lists?
Anything essential missing on the watch-list in your opinion?

6/24/2023

Perfume: The Story of a Murderer (2006) - Tykwer's fabulous 18th century serial killer sensory bombardment

♥♥♥♥♥

+ Breakthrough Actor of the Year: Ben Whishaw + Best Crime Drama of the Year + Best Serial Killer Movie of the Year

An unnaturally red-haired, beautiful fair woman lies outstretched in a pose that suggests that she may be deceased on this sensual poster for Tom Tykwer's Perfume: The Story of a Murderer

An orphan boy with an extraordinary sense of smell later in life begins the criminal hobby of enfleuraging women, essentially meaning that he murders them in order to make perfumes out of them.

Perfume: The Story of a Murderer is written by Andrew Birkin (King David (1985)), co-writer/producer Bernd Eichinger (Die Eltern (1974, TV movie)) and great German filmmaker, co-writer/director/co-composer Tom Tykwer (Friday Afternoon (1986)), adapting Patrick Süskind's (Das Kontrabass (1981)) same-titled 1985 novel.

A highly unusual story, Perfume: The Story of a Murderer is an epic crime drama narrated wonderfully by John Hurt (Jackie (2016)), with the attractive Ben Whishaw (Surge (2020)) portraying the murderer Jean Baptiste. There are plenty more of Christian connotations in the film, especially towards the end of it, and ending which is highly ambiguous; at the same time seemingly pleading the case for love - and limitless, decadent aestheticism.

Dustin Hoffman (Boychoir (2014)), Alan Rickman (The Butler (2013)), the music (by Tykwer, Reinhold Heil and Johnny Klimek (Deadwood: The Movie (2019, TV movie), both)) and the images (cinematography by Frank Griebe (Sense8 (2015, TV-series))) are also large enjoyments in this stunning film.

Tom Tykwer: 2006 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess [UPDATED III]

1998 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess

Run Lola Run/Lola Rennt (1998) - Tykwer's zeitgeist amuck run

Watch a trailer for the film here

Cost: 63.7 mil. $

Box office: 135 mil. $

= Flop (returned 2.11 times its cost)

[Perfume: The Story of a Murderer premiered 7 September (Munich, Germany) and runs 147 minutes. Eichinger had attempted to buy the film rights from Süskind since his bestseller's publication, but he had resisted for many years, explaining that only Stanley Kubrick and Milos Forman were appropriate to film it. Eventually Eichinger got the rights, reportedly for a gigantic 10 mil. € paycheck. 19 companies and support bodies cooperated in the financing and making of the film. CEO of VIP Medienfonds Andreas Schmid was later found guilty of multiple counts of tax evasion connected to the financing of the film and given a 6 year prison sentence. The huge budget made the film one of the costliest German films ever made. Shooting took place from July - October 2005 in France and Spain. 3.5 tons of fish and meat were reportedly used in the fish market scene. The film opened #48 to a 37k $ first weekend in 3 theaters in North America, where it peaked at #24 and in 280 theaters, grossing 2.2 mil. $ (1.6 % of the total gross). The film's biggest markets were Germany with 53.1 mil. $ (39.3 %), where it was #1 for 3 weeks, selling more than 5 mil. tickets; Spain with 9.9 mil. $ (7.3 %) and Russia with 9.2 mil. $ (6.8 %). The film won 2/5 European Film award nominations, among other honors. Roger Ebert gave it a 4/4 star review, translating to a notch over this one. The film made more than 7.5 mil. $ on the North-American home video market and much more in Germany. Tykwer returned with The International (2009). Whishaw returned in I'm Not There (2007). Perfume: The Story of a Murderer is rotten at 59 % with a 6.30/10 critical average at Rotten Tomatoes.]

What do you think of Perfume: The Story of a Murderer?

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!!

Eagerly anticipating this week ... (5-24)

6/26/2023

1994 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess

6/24/2023

Perfume: The Story of a Murderer (2006) - Tykwer's fabulous 18th century serial killer sensory bombardment

Eagerly anticipating this week ... (4-24)

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