Year in movies: 1994

Inspired by Sinclair, who said that 19--(censored by memory) is the best year ever in movies, we have this feature. Limited research will be required, and requests are encouraged to a point. The idea is to examine the movies from some particular time to determine something, somehow. Results may vary.

Holy hell 1994 was a good year for movies. The most obvious narrative is that of Pulp Fiction vs. Forrest Gump. Or perhaps more accurately it could be remembered as the year the 3 Ninjas finally kicked back. Ha ha, no. Every year will have its fair share of crap, a pregnant Schwarzenegger for every deranged prison warden, if you will.

Still, I could mine this list of movies released that year for hours, or perhaps minutes. Even though I haven't seen Godzilla vs. SpaceGodzilla the plot is pretty obvious. Plus this is a year with not one, but two skydiving action movies: Terminal Velocity and Drop Zone. Which was better? Drop Zone, in a question best left for another day.

According to some article I just read, 1994 was the year that the dark nihilism and drugs of the counter-culture made their way into the mainstream. Sure, why not? It was also the year that a retard played ping-pong and ran ... into America's collective heart. And ate chocolate. Just a question of generational preferences I guess.

It would be pretty easy to cherry-pick films from this year for random purposes. A compelling argument could be made comparing the relative intelligence of Dumb and Dumber versus say, Speed. Or Clerks. Or what about some sort of re-imagining of The Lion King replacing major plot points with parts from Natural Born Killers and The Shawshank Redemption. That would include Rodney Dangerfield, which is a bonus. You get the idea?

Box office top 10:
Forrest Gump
The Lion King
True Lies
The Santa Clause
The Flintstones
Dumb and Dumber
Clear and Present Danger
Speed
The Mask
Pulp Fiction

Others of note, not previously mentioned:
Fear of a Black Hat, The Hudsucker Proxy, Ed Wood, Hoop Dreams, Quiz Show, Stargate, The Crow, The Professional