1998 is a kind of weird transitional year for me. I continued to work at Blockbuster but also started working as the office manager for the dojo at which I trained. I was enormously involved in karate, training all the time and competing in tournaments. I was also largely single during this time although there was some dating in there a bit. This freed up a lot of time for movies and karate. I was also largely away from my abuser during this time. He would eventually come back into my life but this year was mostly free of him.
Movies this year were still exceptionally important and when I wasn’t training karate or working (the line between these things started to blur while I was working at the dojo), I was watching movies at home or going to movies with friends. My parents and I were still seeing movies together but they were starting to travel a bit more so I often had the house to myself for long stretches of time.
This year also saw me becoming a TA for the karate classes at Pima Community college so I could bolster my teaching hours toward my black belt which I would be getting in 1999. In that class I met my first ex-wife. We didn’t start dating until the beginning of the next year, but we met at the class and then further connected at the dojo’s holiday party, a connection largely sparked by our mutual affection for Battle of the Planets, a cartoon I loved when I was a kid. I had the modern anime update of the original Japanese cartoon Gatchaman and invited her to come and watch it. If I have learned anything in my disastrous two failed marriages, it is that relationship sparks based on loving a TV show are not to be trusted. This is one of the reasons this project is not about my five favorite TV shows for every year of my life.
Movies this year were interesting as the Pulp Fiction effect was in full swing with a lot of indy crime movies that looked like they were filmed through the bottom of a brown beer bottle and with a budget of $1.75. Some of these still managed to be rad but there was a lot of indy garbage during this time, a lot of which made it straight to video.
There was still a lot of great movies throughout the year with some strong entries in just about every genre. R-Rated (and in the case of Orgazmo X-rated) comedies were absolutely killing it this year while horror struggled somewhat despite a few stand outs. Drama and crime were probably the strongest this year with a few strong sci-fi entries. And although no one understood what was coming at the time, super hero movies were lurking on the horizon with on pivotal Marvel movie pouncing out of the darkness.
Runners up in roughly release order: Fallen, Great Expectations, Zero Effect, Sphere, Wedding Singer, Dark City, U.S. Marshalls, Wild Things, Suicide Kings, the Big Hit, Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas, the Truman Show, Can’t Hardly Wait, Dirty Work, X-Files, Armageddon, Lethan Weapon 4, Pi, There’s Something About Mary, Mask of Zorro, Saving Private Ryan, Full Tilt Boogie, Halloween H20, Return to Paradise, Dead Man on Campus, Your Friends and Neighbors, Cube, Rounders, Rush Hour, Clay Pigeons, Pecker, Ronin, a Night at the Roxbury, Rushmore, Apt Pupil, Soldier, Orgazmo, American History X, John Carpenter’s Vampires, the Siege, Enemy of the State, a Bug’s Life, Shakespeare in Love, a Simple Plan, You’ve Got Mail, and The Faculty.
If you have not read the introduction to this exercise, I recommend you do so for context regarding what this all is. In short, be nice, these are my favorites based on how I encountered them in my life and what they mean for mean to me. This is not a list of objective best movies in their respective years and if a movie that you love or is considered great does not appear, it does not mean that I think it is shit or that I don’t love it. These are just my favorites for particular personal reasons. Feel free to let everyone know your favorite five for 1998 and why as well. It is also worth mentioning that there will be spoilers here for what are now 28-year-old movies. Let’s dig in!
1.Out of Sight-Steven Soderbergh
An adaptation of the Elmore Leonard novel of the same name, Out of Sight follows Jack Foley (George Clooney), a bank robber who escapes from prison with the help of his friend Buddy (Ving Rhames) who takes a US Marshall, Karen Sisco (Jennifer Lopez) hostage during the escape. After sharing a conversation in the trunk of the getaway car in which Foley and Sisco have undeniable chemistry despite her being all business, Sisco manages to get the drop on Glenn ‘Studs’ Michaels (Steve Zahn) who then leaves Foley and Buddy stranded. This sets off a chase between Foley and Sisco as Foley tries to complete the heist for which Foley broke out of prison. This leads to Detroit where Foley and Buddy clash with former cellmate Maurice ‘Snoopy’ Miller (Don Cheadle) who is planning the heist to take out another ex-con Richard ‘Ripper’ Miller (Albert Brooks) who has millions of uncut diamonds at his house. The former inmates clash on who is running the heist, all while Karen is hot on Foley’s trail…but maybe he wants her to catch him just a little?
The last of the Big Three of Elmore Leonard adaptations on the big screen, Out of Sight is not an imitation of the slick breeziness of Get Shorty, or is it the homage to 70s exploitation that Jackie Brown is, instead Steven Soderbergh gives it its own tone, style and feel while preserving the clever and often hilarious dialogue found in the novel. Foley and Sisco are two of the best characters in the Leonard pantheon right next to Raylan Givens, Chilli Palmer, and Ordell Robbie. Leonard revisited Foley in a later novel, Road Dogs, while Karen got her own TV show and guest appearances on Justified (Carla Gugino played her in both).
Here, the roles are played perfectly by George Clooney and Jennifer Lopez. Clooney oozes charisma as Jack and makes him likeable enough to make Karen falling for him (to whatever degree) make sense and Lopez is a self-assured badass who is always in control even if she is in the trunk with a bank robber. When she gets the better of Glenn she doesn’t do it with violence or sexuality, she takes control immediately and runs him. She is both intelligent and a physical threat which makes her a terrific counterpart to Foley who is intelligent, clever and generally in control if his temper doesn’t get the better of him. He also has a moral center despite being a criminal and shows this both in prison flashbacks when he saves Ripley from exploitation and in current time when he saves Ripley and his mistress Midge (Nancy Allen) during the heist when Miller’s cousin and accomplice Kenneth (Isaiah Washington) decides to cross the line.
This movie just works from top to bottom. It is slick, cool, funny, and at times fucked up. It takes the drama seriously even if some of the characters are wise cracking or irreverent. It is shot with definite style by Soderbergh who gives its own visual identity from other Leonard adaptations. The score and soundtrack are also top-notch. All of the performances are excellent, even in smaller roles from Luis Guzman and Dennis Farina.
In the overall, Leonard cannon, Out of Sight also carried some characters over and started some off in a really cool, interconnected way. Most of Leonard’s novels are interconnected as well so this being carried into movies is a really fun treat. In the novel, Sisco is dating Ray Nicolette, a character from Rum Punch who was played in that novel’s movie adaptation Jackie Brown by Michael Keaton. Going into the movie, I wondered if they were going to honor this and who would play him if they did. When Michael Keaton walked into the scene in his same costume from Jackie Brown, I yelled out loud in the theater. I was so excited, and I love this kind of shit. Another Leonard character, Raymond Cruz (from City Primeval), is in the Out of Sight novel and in the movie is played by Paul Calderon. When Justified returned a couple of years ago, adapting City Primeval with Raylan in the main role, they still had Raymond Cruz show up and he was once again played by Paul Calderon. This kind of thing is awesome, although it does get a little confused when Sisco shows up in Justified played by Gugino and without being able to use her name because of rights issues.
As mentioned, I read the novel before I saw the movie so I had fixed ideas of who these characters were before I saw them on screen. This can be a problem sometimes if there is a mismatch between what is imagined and what is in the movie. This was not a problem for Out of Sight. The actors here really embodied the characters perfectly so much that when Karen showed up in a later short story and Foley was in Road Dogs, Lopez and Clooney were who I pictured in the novels. As much as I love Get Shorty and Jackie Brown, I think that Out of Sight does the absolute best job of bringing the book to the screen (although Get Shorty is VERY close behind).
I saw this in the theater with my friend Ethan, who I have known since 1st grade. This is noteworthy mostly because he drove and on the way we got a flat tire that we had to change quickly to make it to the movie. As a result, we were running late and not ungodly early which was my normal way. We ended up in the middle of a crowded row in a packed theater as the opening credits were starting and it was uncomfortable and humid on a rainy day. I still fucking loved it.
Out of Sight is probably most responsible for me loving George Clooney and following him into whatever movie he is doing at any given time. It is also the reason I will defend Jennifer Lopez as an actor until the day I die. It is insanely quotable and it has everything I love in a crime picture. It also has some very well done romance which I don’t normally go for but it is done so well here, the pull is unavoidable. The title also provided a lot of easy, dad joke headlines for reviews as to its quality which I am sure made film critics’ jobs easier at the time. Even if they didn’t like it, they could write it wasn’t out of sight as it turns out. With a 94% on Rotten Tomatoes, however, there wasn’t much of that going around.
2.The Big Lebowski-Joel and Ethan Coen
A crime movie of a different stripe, the Big Lebowski is a modern noir tale that positions a stoner burnout, Jeff ‘the Dude’ Lebowski (Jeff Bridges), as the Sam Spade character and he haplessly meanders through an twisty and intricate plot that only vaguely has anything to do with him at the end.
After some thugs, one of whom is Flea from the Red Hot Chilli Peppers, break into the Dude’s apartment and piss on his rug while trying to extort an entirely different Jeff Lebowski, the Dude is encouraged by bowling buddy Walter Sobchak (John Goodman) to go to the other Jeff Lebowski (David Huddleston) to be reimbursed for the rug. Afterall, it really tied the room together. The Dude goes to see the Big Lebowski, a millionaire philanthropist, to ask for help with the rug only to be rebuffed and insulted by the man himself. In response, the Dude takes one of the Big Lebowski’s rugs before leaving. Brandt (Phillip Seymour Hoffman), Lebowski’s assistant, then reaches out to the Dude to hire him to help get Lebowski’s kidnapped trophy wife Bunny (Tara Reid) back. This leads the Dude and Walter into a web of conflict, intrigue, a porn tycoon, and a group of nihilists.
The first time I saw the Big Lebowski, I hated it. I had liked previous Coen brothers movies but I really didn’t connect to it and thought it wasn’t very funny and nothing really happened. It wasn’t until my friend Jeff, who I met working at Blockbuster and who is now my best friend, encouraged me to watch it again because he said it was a movie one had to see a few times to really get into it. Trusting his opinion, I checked it out again. This time I fucking loved it.
It is really weird because now I don’t really understand what had been wrong with me the first time. This may be one of the most quotable movies ever made and it is absolutely hilarious. I wasn’t really as checked out on noir stories at the time so some of those conventions were lost on me at the time but it has only grown in my estimation since then.
There is just so much here that I think maybe it is hard to take all of it in on a first watch. Sam Elliott’s cowboy narration is amazing. John Goodman is on fire in what may be his best role. John Tuturro’s Jesus is such a weird ass character that doesn’t really do much but leaves enough of a mark that he later made a spinoff movie about the character (which is sort of weird given the character’s sex-pest backstory). Julian Moore is throwing 100 mph in an absolutely surreal scene that is as fascinating as it is entertaining. Phillip Seymour Hoffman turns in another goofy performance that is absolutely note perfect and makes me wish we had gotten more weird shit from him. Obviously, Jeff Bridges absolutely annihilates as the Dude and it is easily the most memorable character and performance of his great career. Also having a porn called ‘Log Jammin’ makes me laugh in a way I can’t explain.
I am so glad I went back and revisited this movie as it has taken a permanent place in my personal canon. If I had a nickel for every time I quoted this movie, I would never need to work again (although converting all those nickels to cash would take forever). I can’t end this entry without mentioning that it also has one of the best TV edit lines ever when it replaces ‘This is what happens when you fuck a stranger in the ass’ with ‘This is what happens when you find a stranger in the Alps.’ Magic.
3.Nightwatch-Ole Bornedal
Not to be confused with vampire action movie of the same name from 2004, Nightwatch is an American remake of a Danish original Nattevagten from 1994 (staring Jamie Lannister himself, Nikolaj Coster-Waldau) by the same director. It follows Martin Bell (Ewan McGregor) as a law student who takes a job as a night watchman at a morgue who becomes embroiled in a serial killer case after one of the victims is brought in by lead detective on the case Inspector Cray (Nick Nolte). Martin starts to feel like he is not alone at night and quickly becomes the prime suspect in the killings. He starts trying to figure out who the real killer is and starts to suspect his best friend James (Josh Brolin) as thing start getting weird.
Nightwatch is an interesting movie in that it was not very well received upon release and critics largely panned it, saying that it was a pale imitation of the original. McGregor was also criticized for his American accent in the movie, a criticism that has reared its head again in this year’s The End of Oak Street (his accent is fine). I remember seeing trailers for it in theaters but it ended its run quickly after only making 1,179,002. There are multiple cuts out there after widespread reports of studio interference that could point to why it was not commercially successful. And yet, I love this movie.
I rented it from Blockbuster and watched it late one night after a closing shift and for my money at 1am on my bedroom floor with the lights out, Nightwatch was scary as shit. There aren’t a lot of movies that scare me post childhood as I am a massive horror fan, but this one really did it. I found it creepy and unsettling, keeping you off balance the whole way as the story starts to tilt and warp on its way to a visceral and heart pounding conclusion. I was really blown away.
I started recommending this movie any time anyone walked into Blockbuster and asked for the scariest movie we had. I never had anyone come back and tell me it sucked (and trust me, they would have and did often when recommendations didn’t pan out). Generally, people would come back and say it scare the shit out of them too and would recommend it to their friends. So it was with no small measure of surprise that I found out it was not well liked critically.
I returned to Nightwatch a number of years ago while programming a horror movie marathon for my friend Nick, who is easily scared by horror movies, and I found it to be painfully 90s now and not in the best way possible. It is still really creepy and I think the story and scares largely still work but only if you can get past very dated filmmaking. I don’t say this to distance from how much I have loved this movie but rather as an expectation setting should you choose to check it out. I still stand by Nightwatch despite it feeling a bit dated now. It is creepy as fuck and Josh Brolin, in particular, is great here.
4.BASEketball-Davd Zucker
A sports parody movie following friends Joe Cooper (Trey Parker) and Doug Remer (Matt Stone) who develop a variation of basketball with baseball rules in order to own a couple of frat guys at a friend’s party which ultimately becomes a massive professional sports sensation, Baseketball hit after Parker and Stone made it big with South Park and offers a weird hybrid of comedy between their sensibilities and old school ZAZ parody movies like Naked Gun and Airplane!.
Parker and Stone did not write this movie but their influence is felt all through it. There is only one overt South Park reference when Parker uses Cartman’s voice for a psyche out about another player’s weight. Squeak’s (Dian Bachar) real name is revealed to be Kenny as well, which may or may not be another reference. But generally speaking, their performances, voice work, and dialogue feel very much them.
The other end of the spectrum is the more typical ZAZ style parody gags which work but are also a little weird with some of the other material. It makes this a weird hybrid of a slacker comedy with a sports parody and that combination is somewhat uneasy throughout although it works really well for me. I dug this mixture quite a bit and it was a big influence on me with things I was writing at the time.
I had to think long and hard about whether to include this or Orgazmo on the top five. Orgazmo is a comedy written by Parker and Stone and is a pure example of their comedy rather than this movie that they did not write nor direct. Orgazmo is amazing and is definitely top 10 for me but in terms of influence on me and how often I watched it at the time, Baseketball takes the honors here.
It did not do very well at the box office with only seven million after a 25 million budget and weak critical response for its vulgar and ‘low brow’ humor but it is something of a cult hit now and it is well loved by its fans. I am obviously amongst them and I really enjoy this weird Frankenstein’s monster of a movie. This is another movie that I quote all the time and remains a touchpoint with my friend Jeff to this day.
5.Blade-Stephen Norrington
An adaptation of the Marvel character of the same name, Blade came from out of nowhere to dominate and prove that comic book movies don’t have to be less than or suck balls.
Telling the story of the titular Blade (Wesly Snipes), a half-human half-vampire hybrid who kills vampires in search of Deacon Frost (Stephn Dorff), the vampire who killed his mother and is responsible for Blade’s condition. When a hematologist Karen (N’Bushe Wright) is bitten by one of Frost’s gang, Quinn (Donal Logue) during an autopsy, Blade uses her to find Frost and put him down once and for all. Little does Blade know, however, that Frost is in an embittered war with the vampire hierarchy made up of purebloods (those who were born vampires instead of humans who turned) and is attempting to resurrect the Blood God in order to turn everyone in the world into vampires.
Blade fucking rocks out. Snipes is perfect in the role and brings his martial arts skill to bear in exciting action scenes that still hold up today. Dorff is insanely good as Frost and I think this is my favorite of his performances ever. The world building is on point her as well, as it creates a full world beneath the know world in a way that feels effortless. More importantly it showed that you could make an R-rated adult action movie from a comic book property and it could be good. A lot of people credit X-Men and Spider-man with ushering in the modern super hero era but without Blade to carve its way into the mainstream, those probably never would have even happened, or if they did, not taken seriously.
I saw Blade in the theater and was absolutely blown away. I loved it on a martial arts level because as mentioned, the fights are awesome, but I also loved the vampire lore here. It manages to incorporate horror and action together seamlessly while also offering a different vision of what vampires could be than in Ann Rice’s Vampire Chronicles but not so far removed as to be unrecognizable.
It also didn’t really feel like a comic book movie at all. Marvel fans knew Blade but he was largely unknown to most movie goers at the time. Most people showing up to the movie were just excited to see such a cool action horror movie and that was probably all the proof of concept studios needed to start bringing more mainstream comic movies to the screen. It was probably also contributed to the X-men wearing black leather in their first movies but you have to take the bad with the good sometimes.
A lot of people feel like Guillermo del Toro’s follow up, Blade II, is the superior film, but for my money, and with all due respect to Guillermo, I think the first one is the best. The action is not heavily wired or CGIed and just feels more real. Sure Blade can do more flips and bullshit in the sequel but the CGI does not really hold up now where this movie just looks great all the way through. I don’t dislike the sequel at all, but for me the original wins.
It makes me pretty sad that Marvel was not able to make Blade work with Mahershala Ali because a modern Blade would rock. Snipe’s appearance as the character in Deadpool and Wolverine was proof positive of that and I feel like we were really robbed. I will say, I didn’t care for the Sicky Fingaz erasure in that movie as he was great as Blade in the Spike TV series but given that is TV I will let it slide. We need more Blade. It sucks that we now have to go hungry when Blade is what started all this.