The Firm (1993) - Pollack and Cruise scored big with 1993's lesser Grisham adaptation

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+ 3rd Worst Movie of the Year

Tom Cruise looking ponderous and running in a suit in a steely blue-toned poster for Sydney Pollack's The Firm could really sell a film in 1993

A freshly Harvard-graduated lawyer joins a firm in Memphis that launders mob money, and he soon gets the attention of the FBI.

The Firm is written by David Rabe (Streamers (1983)), Robert Towne (Drive, He Said (1971)) and David Rayfiel (The Morning After (1986)), adapting John Grisham's (The Summons (2002)) same-titled 1991 bestseller, and directed by great Indianan filmmaker Sydney Pollack (Tootsie (1982)). 1993 saw the release of another high-profile Grisham adaptation, Alan J. Pakula's infinitely better thriller masterpiece The Pelican Brief.
The Memphis law-firm is presented as an almost mythical, pompous institution, and the story's point of having this firm laundering the entire earnings of the Chicago mob seems a bit silly. But besides this the narrative unfolds without a hitch, as an intimidating gang of fine actors (including Gene Hackman (Wyatt Earp (1994)), Ed Harris (Sweetwater (2013)), Hal Holbrook (Haven (2001, TV movie)), Jerry Harding (The Magnificent Seven (1998, TV-series)) and others) doodle around to Dave Grusin's jazzy piano score.
Tom Cruise (The Mummy (2017)) leads confidently, but his wife is played without vision by Jeanne Tripplehorn (Steal This Movie (2000)), and since The Firm places considerable weight upon their relationship, - and has a long running time, - it lowers the suspense, which lives best in the film's noirish, cat-and-mouse-like scenes.

Related post:

Sydney Pollack: Eyes Wide Shut (1999) - Kubrick signs off with thrilling, sexually oriented adaptation (actor) 

1993 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess

Watch a 2-minute clip from the beginning of the film here

Cost: 42 mil. $
Box office: 270.2 mil. $
= Huge hit
[The Firm premiered 23 June (New York) and runs 154 minutes. Shooting took place in Washington, Memphis, Tennessee, the Cayman Islands, Massachusetts, including Boston, Arkansas, and Washington, D.C. from November 1992 - March 1993. Hackman's credit was a matter of dispute, as Cruise's contract stipulated above-title credit for him alone. Hackman got pre-title credit in the film and went uncredited in the end credit scroll and on the posters. The film is reportedly faithful to the novel in most respects but has a different ending. The film opened #1 to a 25.4 mil. $ first weekend in North America, where it stayed atop for another two weeks and stayed in the top 5 for two more weeks (#3-#3) and grossed 158.3 mil. $ (58.6 % of the total gross). Roger Ebert gave the film a 3/4 star review, translating to a notch better than this review. The film was nominated for 2 Oscars: Best Supporting Actress (Holly Hunter, who won the Best Actress Oscar that year for her performance in The Piano), lost to Anna Paquin in The Piano, and Best Score (Grusin), lost to John Williams for Schindler's List. It was also nominated for a BAFTA, a Grammy and received other honors. A TV-series sequel also called The Firm was released in 2012 and canceled after its first season. Pollack returned with Sabrina (1995). Cruise returned in Interview with the Vampire: The Vampire Chronicles (1994). The Firm is certified fresh at 76 % with a 6.2 critical average at Rotten Tomatoes.]

What do you think of The Firm?

Eyes Wide Shut (1999) - Kubrick signs off with thrilling, sexually oriented adaptation

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+ 2nd Best Movie of the Year

+ Best Erotic Movie of the Year + Best New York Movie of the Year + Best On-Screen Couple of the Year: Nicole Kidman & Tom Cruise

A mysterious, curiosity-sparking poster for Stanley Kubrick's Eyes Wide Shut

A wealthy married couple from New York goof around and flirt at a jet set party, and the wife admits to nearly having had an affair the year before. This provokes her husband to venture out on a sexual nightmare.

Eyes Wide Shut is an adaptation of Arthur Schnitzler's (Beatrice (1901)) novella Dream Story/Traumnovelle (1926)), written by Frederic Raphael (Far from the Madding Crowd (1967)) and New Yorker master co-writer-director Stanley Kubrick (The Shining (1980)), whose last film it is.
Nicole Kidman (Moulin Roge! (2001)) and Tom Cruise (Risky Business (1983)), in one of the definitely most exciting and electric instances of a real-life couple starring in a film, are outstanding in Eyes Wide Shut, and so is Sydney Pollack (The Sopranos (2007), TV-series) in a key supporting part.
Eyes Wide Shut is intense and impossible to remove oneself from. It feels raw and is incredibly well-crafted, with sets of New York erected in London's Pinewood Studios appearing impressively authentic. It presents itself in an expressive color scheme, stemming, among other things, from its Christmas setting, so-called push processing and excellent lighting work; Kubrick wanted only natural lighting, only helped along in places by Chinese paper ball lamps. The terrific cinematography is by Larry Smith (Only God Forgives (2013)).
The film has a few scenes that drag out a bit. But the feeling that anything can happen is there throughout, which is unique. The ending and the title adds to the thought-provoking nature of Eyes Wide Shut, which is a worthy and rich final film for one of cinema's absolute best.

Related posts:
 
Stanley Kubrick: A.I. Artificial Intelligence (2001) - A robot fairytale with both heart and mind (concept only)

1999 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess 
Top 10: The best adaptations reviewed by Film Excess to date   
The Shining (1980) - Kubrick's descent into madness is a timeless masterpiece
Barry Lyndon (1975) - Kubrick's elegant 19th century costume whopper 

Top 10: Best future-set movies
A Clockwork Orange (1971) or, Outrage! The intellectual sci-fi-prison-crime-drama Shocker!
2001: A Space Odyssey (1968) or, Humanity and Space  
Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb/Dr. Strangelove (1964) or, The Wrong Men, the Wrong Suits, the Wrong Invention

Watch Tom Cruise give an interview to Larry King about paparazzis before the film's American release here

Cost: 65 mil. $
Box office: 162 mil. $
= Even Steven
[Eyes Wide Shut premiered 13 July and runs 159 minutes. Kubrick bought the rights to the novella in the 1960s and had plans of making it with Woody Allen or Steve Martin as a comedy, which never happened. Several elements and character facts from the novella are changed in the film. Filming took place in England and New York from November 1996 - January 1998 with reshoots in May - June 1998. The shoot is recognized by Guinness World Records as the longest constant movie shoot, at 15 months, including an unbroken 46 week-long period of shooting. Kubrick's perfectionism was at its height, with meticulous recreating of parts of New York's Greenwich Village, as the master's fear of flying barred him from simply traveling there. Kubrick died 6 days after showing his first cut of the film to Kidman, Cruise and the executive producers. There are different accounts of the completion of the film (with Full Metal Jacket (1987) actor R. Lee Ermey stating what appears slanderous claims as to the master's satisfaction with the work), but it appears that Kubrick was extremely pleased with Eyes Wide Shut and his stars. The North American cut was altered in post production to disguise nudity that might have given it an NC-17 rating, which has drawn widespread criticism, (but probably helped it make a good deal of money in the market.) The film opened #1 to 21.7 mil. $ in North America, dropping to #4 the following weekend and then leaving the top 5, eventually grossing 55.6 mil. $ (34.3 % of the total gross). It was Kubrick's second highest-grossing film there, behind 2001: A Space Odyssey (1968), and is Martin Scorsese's fourth-favorite film of the 1990s. The film was nominated for a Golden Globe, a César Award (France's Oscar) and won an award at Venice International Film Festival. Kidman and Cruise were divorced in 2001. Eyes Wide Shut is certified fresh at 74 % with a 7.5 critical average at Rotten Tomatoes.]

What do you think of Eyes Wide Shut?