This is another big year for me for a few reasons. The first is that one of my all time favorite movies ever released and I more or less lived at the movie theater that summer, watching it over and over to a point where I am not sure how I had time for any other movies. Another was that I was in high school and able to go do things with friends that I hadn’t in the past. This was largely facilitated by having made some older friends at the video store who could drive and who I hung out with all the time. This made going to see movies much easier. It had some other much more horrifying consequences as well but it was one of the ways that I started seeing a lot more movies in the theater without my parents.

I was also starting to develop my particular taste although I was still a year or two off from getting to a point in which the excitement of having something gave way to the realization that the something in question sucked really bad. This partially explains how much I loved Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves and saw it four times in the theater. I loved Robin Hood and this was Robin Hood. I was just happy it was Robin Hood and Kevin Costner’s accent disappearing after like 10 lines of dialogue didn’t matter to me. I still think the movie rocks but the flaws from a source material standpoint didn’t sting me too badly back then. It wouldn’t really be until the next year when Bram Stoker’s Dracula from Francis Ford Coppola came out that I realized how incensed I could get by disrespect to source material. The version of me who writes this now is in the middle somewhere, forgiving of new takes on things and good faith changes while still being a source material stickler. It is a weird life being a pedantic nerd sometimes.

I feel like, and this may sound pretentious, I was starting to enjoy and respect more adult oriented stories while still retaining a love of genre and silliness. When those things were mashed together, I found my real sweet spot which will be clear as you read this list. My taste had started to form but it was not yet refined, whatever that means. I have never become a stuffy elitist, and I will continue to love what I love, but what I love started to expand this year into something a bit more sophisticated than it had been. Some of this was evolving taste and some of it was outside influence from people I was hanging out with at the time. It is difficult to reckon this sometimes with how things turned out with some of these people from a trauma perspective but regardless I am grateful for the exposure to other things I might not have considered otherwise. I have said all this and now cut to the list full of genre silliness. Oh well.

Runners up in roughly release order: Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead, La Femme Nikita, the Perfect Weapon, the Punisher, Oscar, What About Bob?, Soapdish, Don’t Tell Mom the Babysitter’s Dead, Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves, the Rocketeer, Naked Gun 2 ½: the Smell of Fear, Boyz N the Hood, Point Break, Dutch, Hot Shots!, Delirious, Pure Luck, Mystery Date, Barton Fink, Showdown in Little Tokyo, Star Trek VI: Undiscovered Country, Hook, Father of the Bride, and JFK.

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 1991 and why as well. It is also worth mentioning that there will be spoilers here for what are now 35-year-old movies. Let’s dig in!

1.Terminator 2: Judgement Day-James Cameron

The sequel to James Cameron’s own Terminator, Terminator 2: Judgement Day (T2) follows a new Terminator (Robert Patrick), the T1000 model, sent back in time to kill John Conner(Edward Furlong) and a T800 (Arnold Schwarzenneger) sent back by the future version of John to protect him. It is a chase movie and a road movie with the T800,  John, and newly liberated Sarah Conner (Linda Hamilton) racing against time to figure out how to kill the T1000 but also how to avert the nuclear war Judgement Day from being started by AI Skynet in the first place.

T2 is, to my estimation, the best action movie ever made full stop and without qualification. Its pace is perfect, its action exciting and perfectly choreographed, its effects amazing and remain so 35 years later, its writing is incredible, its sound design is perfect, its characters relatable and accessible even when one of them is a machine, and the performances are amazing. Aside from all that, it is just fucking badass.

Every bit of this movie is top notch to me. The look and feel is perfect, it just hits a timeless sweet spot in the same way that you can sit down with Jaws today and it holds up so too does T2. The Brad Fiedel score is one of my favorite ever put to film (it is no wonder I like it given he also did the score for Fright Night ) and the soundtrack songs are perfect to the point that despite not caring for country, I love Dwight Yokam’s ‘Guitars and Cadillacs.’ ‘You Could Be Mine’ by Guns & Roses is what really got me into that band (much to my mom’s chagrin), and ‘Bad to the Bone’ by George Thorogood & the Destroyers might be the most well deployed needle drop in movie history.

There is a lot of information out there about the making of T2, indeed you will grow old before finishing all the making of documentaries spread amongst the myriad physical media releases of the film, so I will not belabor it too much here but it had a fairly eventful production to say the least from script evolution to casting and production.

Once Cameron was enticed back by Mario Kassar of Carolco Pictures, he set to work repurposing some ideas he had from the original that he was unable to realize due to effects technology limitations at the time. Following the Abyss, he had the capability to bring the liquid metal for the T1000 to life. His original conception was for two T800s to come back and fight over John with the ‘good’ one beating the ‘bad’ one halfway through before a T1000 would come through but, thankfully, he felt audiences would be bored and confused seeing two Arnolds going at it (although I am sure there is plenty of fan fiction to that effect, if you know what I mean), so they changed the T1000 to the main villain from the jump. Cameron described the T800 as “a panzer tank so the T1000 would be a Porsche.”

Cameron’s first idea bout the T1000 is one that I would have loved to have seen, which was having the T1000 look like Michal Biehn’s Kyle Reese from the first movie in order to trick John and Sarah into trusting him so he can kill them but again they were worried it would confuse people. Cameron pivoted to Billy Idol for the role but he was injured in a motorcycle accident and was unable to do it. That would have been wild casting and I would have also loved to see how that panned out. Cameron landed on Robert Patrick, an unknown at the time who was living out of his car. This was a fantastic choice as he really pulled off the stoic, robotic movement of a terminator with the warmth and affability when he needed it. As far as infiltration units go, he was definitely an improvement over the Austrian bodybuilder look of the T800.

Edward Furlong was another unknown chosen after being spotted at a youth center. He lacked the polish of the hundreds of professional actors who were auditioning but he had a raw, authentic energy that made him the perfect John. His career and life after T2 argues that it was not the best thing in the world for him but he was the best thing for the movie, for as much as that is worth.

Linda Hamilton returned to the Sarah Connor role entirely changed by the events of the first movie. Her condition for doing the movie was that Sarah had ‘gone crazy’ which is why she has to be rescued from the Pescadero Mental Hospital early in the film. The conditions there informed how I approached working at a mental hospital when I did that a few years ago. Obviously, abusing patients and licking them when they are sedated are bad things to do but I always kept the workers’ attitudes in mind when working at a place to help people.

Sarah becomes the driving force of the back half of the movie and she is badass and brave but Hamilton is not afraid to show her vulnerability within that making Sarah a much more real and relatable character. She is a thoughtful contrast from the Sarah we see in the original movie and one of the best female heroes in movies as far as I am concerned.

Arnold Schwarzenneger is everything you expect him to be in this movie. He really understood the assignment even if he was hesitant to take on a role in which he didn’t kill anyone given that he was in a competition with Sylvester Stallone for how many guys he could kill in a movie. It is important to make real sacrifice for art and I think we all really appreciate Arnold’s service.

All of the performances in this movie are notable from an early Xander Berkley performance as Foster Dad Todd (there was a real run on dude’s named Todd around this time in movies) to Earl Boen returning as Dr Silberman. Cameron stalwart Jannette Goldstein as Foster Mom Jannelle stands out as do Joe Morton and S Epatha Merkleson as Miles Bennet Dyson and Tarissa Dyson. Danny Cooksey, character actor and John’s friend Tim, even makes a valiant effort to save the future with some misdirection in the arcade and teaches us all a valuable lesson about friendship.

Aside from Stan Winston’s special effects and ILM’s CGI and visual effects, Cameron make some practical moves that really keeps the movie looking current and tight even while other effects heavy films of the time and after look dated. Some of these things include using real twins whenever the T1000 doubles someone in the movie. When he disguises himself as a security guard at Pescadero, Don and Dan Stanton played Lewis the guard and Lewis the T1000 respectively. When the T1000 presents as Sarah Connor, Linda’s twin sister Leslie played the T1000. Further, when the T1000 flies the helicopter under a bridge, ILM thought it might not look authentic with CGI so Cameron just had the pilot fly the helicopter under the bridge.

James Cameron has a reputation for being a difficult director to work with, particularly in the past, but it is really hard to argue with his results. Two of his movies have been the highest grossing in history (not adjusted for inflation) and none of his films are bad. Sure, people like to hate on Avatar but they sure do watch the living shit out of them. T2 remains my favorite.

I saw T2 with a friend of mine, who will remain nameless although he will be talked about a lot. I first saw the trailer for T2 at a Star Trek Convention with that same friend and a handful of others and I was immediately on board. It looked fucking rad, although I will say that the marketing for T2 really fucked it over as it is very clear that the movie is set up so that the audience shouldn’t know which Terminator is the good one and which is the bad one until the shootout in the mall hallway, but the trailer spoils it right from the jump.

I was so excited to T2. My mom, as previously covered, would not let me see the first one because she thought it would scare me. But I knew what was up with the first one enough to get this and I watched that one immediately after seeing this. I fucking loved this movie right out of the gates. What followed, then, was an ongoing obsession with this movie that continues to this day.

I saw T2 23 times in the theater in its first run. People have asked how I managed to do that but that is because they forgot that I was a 15 year old who looked old enough to get into Rated-R movies and fuck all to do that summer besides go and see movies. And man, I would not shut up about this movie. My first girlfriend apparently said after we broke up that she was happy to never have to hear about Terminator 2 again (also Ren and Stimpy but that is for another article).

My friend who shall remain nameless and another friend and I wrote a line for line parody of Terminator 2 called Refrigerator 2: Defrosting Day that was put together by transcribing the movie line by line from the VHS. The great cosmic joke about that was that it was completed roughly a week before the official screenplay was released for retail.

I have seen T2 several times in the theater since its initial run and I will continue to see it as much as possible on the big screen. I own it on pretty much every form of physical media upon which it was released and wore a T2 t-shirt until it was reduced to rags. I can literally recite the entire thing line for line. It is seriously one of my absolute favorite movies. I don’t say any of this as some kind of brag. It just is what it is.

2.Silence of the Lambs-Jonathan Demme

Based on the Thomas Harris novel of the same name, Silence of the Lambs follows FBI agent in training Clarice Starling (Jodie Foster) as she is injected in a serial killer case to interview incarcerated serial killer Hannibal Lecter (Anthony Hopkins) as his brilliant mind may help catch ‘Buffalo Bill (Ted Levine) after he kidnaps a senator’s daughter (Brooke Smith).

Silence of the Lambs was a massive hit making $273,138,318 world wide off a 19-million-dollar budget. It is also credited as the only horror movie to have won best picture but I would argue that it is a thriller and not a horror movie. That being said, it swept the top Five categories at the Oscars with Best Picture, Best Actor, Best Director, Best Actress, and Best Adapted Screenplay.

The movie was given full the full cooperation from the FBI as they hoped it would drive recruitment, particularly for female agents. The film was able to film at the FBI training facility at Quantico which had always been closed off to film crews. Scott Glenn’s character Jack Crawford was based on John Douglas, one of the two agents who developed profiling and started the Behavioral Sciences Unit, and Douglas had input on the film and character while he was investigating Gary Ridgeway, the Green River killer who was ultimately captured in 2002.

I really dug this movie when I saw it and read the book. This was one of the primary inspirations for wanting to go into the FBI and profile serial killers. This did not ultimately happen by my degree in psychology most likely wouldn’t have happened without this influence. I was a pretty big fan of Thomas Harris’s work until his novel Hannibal when Starling and Lecter take a turn that caused me to throw the book across the room. While I prefer Red Dragon as a book, Silence of the Lambs is head and shoulders above any of the other adaptations from Harris’s work, although the Hannibal TV show is not far behind.

It needs to be mentioned, however, that some people have taken exception to Jame Gumb’s motivations for murder and what he does with his victims as he is trying to make a female suit for him to wear to present as female. This is somewhat inspired by Ed Gein, although while Gein did use human skin to make lampshades and other objects, he was not trying to make a human suit. Some people feel that this is a toxic othering of trans people in order to paint them into crazy killers or freaks, the sort of thing that Ace Ventura is also doing with its villain. I understand the sentiment but I personally feel that what is going on here is different. He is not a killer because he is trans or a crossdresser. He is a serial killer who is also trans. I think that is an important distinction. It is also worth mentioning that Ted Levine interviewed a number of trans people in preparation for the movie, which indicates a respect on his part for how the character is played. I respect anyone’s feelings that this aspect of the movie is not okay, I am just saying that I did not bump up against it.

Silence of the Lambs had a pretty massive influence on me when I saw it and, in my interests, and career path. I continue to work in behavioral health and maintain an interest in serial killers. I am fairly glad I never got into the FBI in retrospect but it has remained a fairly major part of my life and interests since as it often plays a role in fiction that I write. I wonder sometimes what would have happened if I had just not seen or read this, if I would have ever gotten interested in it and I think X-Files would have gotten me and then eventually Criminal Minds. I might not have brought up serial killers quite so regularly and awkwardly on first dates thought, so that would have been nice.

3.Bill and Ted’s Bogus Journey-Peter Hewitt

The decidedly not Bogus sequel to Bill and Ted’s Excellent Adventure sees Bill (Alex Winter) and Ted (Keanu Reeves) murdered by evil robot versions of them from the future sent by De Nomolos (Joss Ackland), an evil dissident that does not want to see the future ruined by Wyld Stallyns music. Bill and Ted, now ghosts, try to possess Ted’s Dad (Hal Landon Jr) to no avail and try to invade a séance held by Missy (I mean Mom) (Amy Stoch) before being sent to hell. In desperation they challenge the Grim Reaper (William Sadler) to a contest to win their lives back in order to stop the Evil Robot Thems from ruining the band and killing the princesses (Annette Azcuy and Sarah Trigger). This sounds absolutely insane, and it is, but that is what makes Bogus Journey so good.

It feels weird to suggest that Excellent Adventure was grounded but in the face of journeys through heaven and hell, time travel seems pretty normal. This movie is the concept unleashed and is absolutely unafraid to get as wild as it wants to. From the two big butted aliens that make up Station to Death being really bad at games and then being emotionally needy and looking for compliments, Bogus Journey is as bizarre as it is amazing. Add to that the return of George Carlin as Rufus who spends most of the movie posing as Pam Greir’s Mrs Wardroe, and you have a great movie.

Another great thing here is an escalation in the soundtrack. The first movie had a great soundtrack but this one levels up with some legit metal bands like Kiss, Faith No More, and Primus. It really ups the overall legitimacy that they don’t just talk about metal bands but have the music in the movie. In some cases they have the musicians themselves like having James Martin of Faith No More in the future music class, to having Primus in the battle of the bands. Honestly, though, with all due respect to Wyld Stallyns, there is zero chance that KISS’S ‘God Gave Rock n Roll to You’ beats ‘Tommy the Cat’ in a battle of the bands in any world in which I am interested in living.

I saw this with my parents and had already been listening to the soundtracks for weeks. My parents liked it okay but I loved it. It is my favorite of the series. More than that it led me to Primus, a band I saw live again three days ago, and my favorite band of all time Faith No More, who I will hopefully see again next year. This is probably a greater gift than any other movie has ever bestowed and I will always be thankful for Bogus Journey for getting me there. Also, James Martin calling De Nomolos a shithead was chef’s kiss.

4.L.A. Story-Mick Jackson

Written by Steve Martin, L.A. Story is a quirky romantic comedy set firmly in magical realism and satire. Harris K Telemacher (Steve Martin), a ‘wacky weekend weatherman” for a TV station, finds himself in a rut with his career and relationship until he is communicated with by a highway traffic sign telling him that L.A. wants to help him and he meets Sara (Victoria Tennant) at a brunch with friends. She is in L.A. writing an article on the city for a British magazine and asks Harris for an interview. The two begin a romance fraught with complications as he is broken up with by his long term ex, starts dating SanDeE (Sarah Jessica Parker) while Sara (lots of Sarah’s this week) is reconnecting with her ex Roland (Richard E Grant). While this sounds like a conventional romantic comedy plot (aside from the Freeway sign thing), L.A. Story is anything but as a send up of romantic comedies and a piss take at L.A.

While the humor is at once clever, silly, and quirky, the sentimentality of the movie is what really gets me. There are beautifully shot moments of surrealism in this movie that evoke very visceral reactions in me. The use of Enya on the soundtrack along with dreamlike fantasy sequence really drives this home and Mick Jackson’s direction leans into it with full commitment.

I don’t want to imply that the comedy here is secondary. I think this movie is hilarious and is infinitely quotable for me. The regularity that I quote Martin’s poem ‘Oh Pointy Bird,’ which he also used in All of Me (1984) is alarming especially considering how rarely one would need to say ‘Oh pointy birdy, oh pointy pointy, anoint me, anointy, anoint’ in casual conversation.

I saw this in the theater and was immediately in love with it. I had been unaware of it previously and while I was a fan of Steve Martin already, this movie solidified him to me as a favorite writer as well as actor. I later saw his stage play Picasso at the Lapin Agile and that further drove the point home.

I love everything about L.A. Story even if it has effective ruined me when it comes to breakups as I am always hoping for a 3^rd Act twist in which I can influence the weather to bring her back to me. There is something here in this blend of sentiment, satire, and the absurd that is perfect for me and it means something very profound to me. It has also made me sing ‘Beyond the Sea’ in French while visualizing a hot dog being helicoptered over the L.A. skyline whenever I hear it and if that isn’t a lasting legacy, I don’t know what is.

5.Defending Your Life-Albert Brooks

Written and directed by Albert Brooks, Defending Your Life is another magical realism movies that blends absurdity with sentiment as it follows ad executive Daniel Miller (Brooks) as he tries to navigate a purgatory-like waystation of the afterlife after he is killed in a car accident. He is then forced to defend his life against a pair of judges in order to prove that he has conquered his fear enough to move on. If he fails to do this he will be sent back to earth, reincarnated. He is given a ‘defense attorney’ Bob Diamond (Rip Torn) who is affable if disconnected to advocate for him against a ‘prosecutor’ Lena Foster (Lee Grant) who is nicknamed the Dragon Lady. In the midst of this uphill battle, Dan meets Julia (Meryl Streep) another soul defending her life who seems to have her shit way more together.

I saw this with that friend I am not naming on a whim one Tuesday evening. I was unfamiliar with Albert Brooks at the time and I was unaware of the movie. I was surprised at how much I enjoyed it and it started my fandom of Brooks as a writer, actor, and director.

The setting and situation is one that I quite enjoy and, much like Bill and Ted’s Bogus Journey, stories about the afterlife are right up my alley. I have spent a lot of time thinking about and writing about what happens after we die and this movie plays a part in all that. I really like the notion that we are meant to overcome fear to move on and I’d be lying if I said I didn’t find this a compelling concept outside of the movie.

The film itself feels light and intimate, it is very funny but never uproariously so. It is more contemplative and offers fun characters to spend time with. I particularly really like the dialogue and how that dialogue is delivered. Not a ton of ‘stuff’ happens in this movie so it is nice that the writing and performances are solid enough to keep the audience engaged.

Defending Your Life is not a movie that a lot of people talk about but when they do, it is almost always with admiration. It has been influential on other movies in the genre and remains something of a hidden gem to be discovered. I have watched it a couple of times in the last few years and it remains delightful each time. I really hope, however, if this movie’s vision of the afterlife is true that we don’t have to wear those god awful robes.