Starring: Dee Wallace, M. Emmet Walsh, Billy Green Bush, Scott Grimes, Billy Zane, Terrence Mann
When a band of hardened extraterrestrial criminals escapes from a maximum-security prison asteroid and steal an escape craft, the flesh-eating ETs unwittingly head to a small, unsuspecting planet–Earth–pursued by a pair of awesomely powerful, if unbelievably inept, bounty hunters. Now, it’s the humans against the very hungry, man-eating aliens in a battle for the future of mankind!
Starring: Molly Ringwald, Jon Cryer, Andrew McCarthy, Annie Potts, Harry Dean Stanton, James Spader
Our favorite love triangle: misfit Duckie loves Andie but she’s got it bad for rich boy Blane. Will the social divides so prominent in high school ruin everyone’s chances for love? It’s hard to mention all the things that make this film so fantastic: everything about Duckie but particularly when he sings Otis Redding, Annie Potts’ fetish-loving record store owner, Andrew McCarthy’s beady eyes, all things Molly Ringwald, Harry Dean Stanton as the lovable father, and the creepy lurkings of James Spader. Plus, that glorious soundtrack! Pretty in Pink is the 1980s at its very best.
Starring: Alicia Silverstone, Stacey Dash, Brittany Murphy, Paul Rudd
Cher is a well-meaning but utterly clueless rich young lady in this instant 1990s comedy classic that is, surprisingly, based on a 19th century novel. Like match-making Emma, our heroine Cher tries to help everyone else around her (father, teachers, even the new girl) in the spoils of Beverly Hills all-the-while neglecting the things that she needs to do for herself. The drama of high school plays out as friends lose virginity, drivers license tests are failed, and she falls for a gay man. Plus, there’s a young Paul Rudd you wouldn’t want to miss. As if.
Starring: Meryl Streep, Anne Hathaway, Adrian Grenier, Stanley Tucci, Emily Blunt
Andy (Anne Hathaway) is a recent college graduate with big dreams. Upon landing a job at prestigious Runway magazine, she finds herself the assistant to diabolical editor Miranda Priestly (Meryl Streep). Andy questions her ability to survive her grim tour as Miranda’s whipping girl without getting scorched.
Starring: Larisa Oleynik, Julia Stiles, Heath Ledger, Andrew Keegan, Joseph Gordon-Levitt, David Krumholtz
A modernization of Shakespeare’s The Taming of the Shrew, this late 1990s romantic comedy set in an American high school has now become a bonafide teen classic. 10 Things I Hate About You stars the late Heath Ledger as the new mysterious kid at school (Patrick Verona) who just might win the heart over the misanthropic but beautiful Julie Stiles (Kat). Of course, this love match is set into motion by ulterior movies: by decree of their father, Kat’s younger sister has her eyes on a young man but can’t date until Kat has a boyfriend. And thus it begins…
Starring: Jack Nicholson, Glenn Close, Annette Bening, Pierce Brosnan, Danny DeVito, Martin Short, Sarah Jessica Parker, Michael J. Fox
What should you do when Martians tell citizens of Earth that they “come in peace”? Don’t believe them! Tim Burton’s hilariously original Mars Attacks! features an all-star cast who either help fight against the nearly unbeatable aliens or succumb to their irresistible (and sometimes sexy) powers. All the world is at risk from these cruelly comedic Martians and the United States must stand at the forefront in this battle as well as help rebuild a nation when the attack is over! And this includes everyone from young teenagers, a scientist, the president and Tom Jones. Isn’t America grand?!
Starring: Kurt Russell, Dennis Dun, James Hong, Kim Cattrall
All aboard the Porkchop Express! American truck driver Jack Burton enters into a whole different world when he picks up his pal’s Wang Chi’s fiancee from the airport. Bubbling up from the depths of Chinatown is the evil and body-less Lo Pan who must marry a girl with emerald green eyes in order to regain his form…and guess who has green eyes? Thus commences an epic mystical underworld battle between good and evil complete with some of the best lines in film…
When some wild-eyed, eight-foot-tall maniac grabs your neck, taps the back of your favorite head up against the barroom wall, and he looks you crooked in the eye and he asks you if ya paid your dues, you just stare that big sucker right back in the eye, and you remember what ol’ Jack Burton always says at a time like that: “Have ya paid your dues, Jack?” “Yessir, the check is in the mail.”
Starring: Sandra Bullock, George Clooney, Ed Harris
Sandra Bullock plays Dr. Ryan Stone, a brilliant medical engineer on her first shuttle mission, with veteran astronaut Matt Kowalsky (George Clooney) in command of his last flight before retiring. But on a seemingly routine spacewalk, disaster strikes. The shuttle is destroyed, leaving Stone and Kowalsky completely alone—tethered to nothing but each other and spiraling out into the blackness.
The deafening silence tells them they have lost any link to Earth…and any chance for rescue. As fear turns to panic, every gulp of air eats away at what little oxygen is left. But the only way home may be to go further out into the terrifying expanse of space.
Starring: Naomi Watts, Martin Henderson, David Dorfman, Brian Cox, Jane Alexander, Lindsay Frost
A year after her breakthrough performance in Mulholland Drive, Naomi Watts elevated this remake of the 1998 Japanese horror movie Ringu with a committed performance as the journalist aunt seeking answers after the mysterious and horrible death of her niece. Seattle is the gloomy backdrop and the color palette works mostly in grays and blacks, effectively creating an unsettling atmosphere and showing restraint from the usual Hollywood glitzing of the sparse original. There is plenty to captivate the eye – creepy kid drawings, troubled horses, and even a bit of that signature Japanese menacing long black hair. If there was any warning to be heeded from how video infects our brains, in this age of YouTube and TikTok it seems rather quaint that one passed-around VHS could do that kind of damage.
Starring: Nicolas Cage, Holly Hunter, John Goodman, Trey Wilson
Raising Arizona is one of the Coen Brothers’ most beloved films and with good reason: it’s perfect combination of comedy and strangeness make it enduring unique. Here a young Nicolas Cage plays an ex-con who is hell bent on making his policewoman wife (Holly Hunter) happy but procuring her a baby when they’re unable to conceive. But baby-rearing sure isn’t easy when that baby is stolen from the wealthiest couple in the state and everyone they know, plus a maniacal bounty-hunter, aim to use little Nathan Junior for their own financial gain. Doesn’t get much better.
