MCMXCIV

[Doc Holliday]

1994 kicked America in her balls.





MCMXCIV





To start things off 1994 laid out a classic list of flicks, perhaps comparable even to the juggernaut that is it's eighties counterpart... Nah!





The Films of 1994
(twenty-one approved by Hiddy, fuck the box office top ten)
Pulp Fiction - Quentin Tarantino - He's lost much of his fan base and his last movie was his worst. But in my book, he is still the best director to have started in the last thirty years. And this movie is his peak actually, I still like Jackie Brown better, but he didn't write that one. It invented a new dialogue copied by thousands, a lurid, used, cliché subject matter in glamorous L.A., fantastic pacing, a perfect retro-pop-culture score, and a climatic dialogue that only the master Sam Jackson could deliver. I just don't dig on swine.
The Lion King - Disney
The Shawshank Redemption - Frank Darabont
Clerks - Kevin Smith
The Crow - Alex Proyas
The Hudsucker Proxy - Joel and Ethan Coen
Interview with the Vampire: The Vampire Chronicles - Neil Jordan
Ed Wood - Tim Burton
Léon - Luc Besson
The Mask - Chuck Russell
True Lies - James Cameron
The Adventures of Priscilla, Queen of the Desert - Stephan Elliott - For our dear friend Arjue , sorry Muriel also came out but it sucked. This was the first movie I saw Hugo Weaving (Agent Smith) in.
Speed - Jan de Bont
Reality Bites - Ben Stiller
Forrest Gump - Robert Zemeckis
Wyatt Earp - Lawrence Kasdan - This movie is cool in the fact that it spans Earp's whole life, but come on, Val did a much better me in Tombstone.
Star Trek Generations - David Carson
Sodomania 7: Deep Down Inside - Patrick Collins
Ace Ventura: Pet Detective - Tom Shadyac
Natural Born Killers - Oliver Stone
Dumb and Dumber - Farrelly Brothers









Next... even with the grunge alternative no longer new, 1994 offered up a massive selection of music... more than say... 1984.





The Albums of 1994
(again twenty picked by Hiddy)
Beastie Boys - Ill Communication - May 23 - These days I'm beginning to think Check Your Head was the Beastie Boys most solid accomplishment. But IC is easily comparable. With slick instrumental tracks tucked between punk-rocking beats, this album pushed their limits of diversity, a goal they may have reached even further with Hello Nasty four years later in 1998. It's hard to believe it's been ten years since their prime...
Toadies - Rubberneck - August 23 - Fort Worth's own one album wonder... and it's a damn shame really, they didn't even attempt another for six years...
The Offspring - Smash - April 19 - Their breakthrough hit, Offspring's third album is also an early peak for this ninety's master of sell-out punk. With a loungy narrated intro and songs about fighting in school, Smash was certainly an album to be taken seriously.
The Prodigy - Music for the Jilted Generation - July 4 - The Prodigy's second album was a breakthrough in terms of spreading techno across the pond to the states. As so, it was the first album of it's kind I heard, probably thanks to Pitfall Harry, while playing The Mayan Adventure more than likely, but we'll get to the achievements in games in due time...
Green Day - Dookie - February 1 - I was really into punk at this time, and still today I think Green Day is a fantastic band. This album isn't even their first or best, but it was a turning stone for sell-out punk. And even if you hate punk, rock, or sell-outs, you have to cherish the beauty in writing a top 40 devoted to masturbation.

Bush - Sixteen Stone - December 6
Weezer - Weezer - May 10
Nine Inch Nails - The Downward Spiral - March 8
KoRn - KoRn - October 11
Blues Traveler - Four - September 13

Alice In Chains - Jar of Flies - January 25
Hootie & the Blowfish - Cracked Rear View - July 5
Dave Matthews Band - Under the Table and Dreaming - September 27
Stone Temple Pilots - Purple - June 7
Pink Floyd - The Division Bell - March 30
LIVE - Throwing Copper - April 26
TLC - CrazySexyCool - November 15
Beck - Mellow Gold - March 1
Soundgarden - Superunknown - March 8
Hole - Live Through This - April 12





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Coming Soon... Television and Games...
(so hold yer horses! but if I left out your favorite movie/album, do chime in)

EDIT 1 (12/6): added one important movie

[bbobb]

Shit, I forgot how great of year '94 was. The music and movies were both incredible.

[Razor Ramon]

The Downward Spiral alone is worth 1994.

The Crow sucked shit, though. And didn't someone die when filming that movie? I young so I don't remember much of it.

[bbobb]

The Crow was an excellent movie. Its sequels were crap. And yes, Brandon Lee was shot during the filming.

[Othello Harrington]

The Crow was an excellent movie. Its sequels were crap. And yes, Brandon Lee was shot during the filming.

IBTN, the crow fucking ruled.


Also, Ill communication was the defining BB CD imo.

[Doc Holliday]

The Downward Spiral alone is worth 1994.

I know I put Bush above Downward Spiral, but that's just because at the time I thought Bush was the shit. Now their just shit albeit nostalgic shit.

[Othello Harrington]

Green to Red

[bbobb]

Ill Communication is great and probably their most well known but Paul's Boutique is their best.

[bbobb]

Beck - Mellowgold was amazing.

I remember getting that when it first came out.

[Othello Harrington]

Oh shit, how could I forget about beck. That was the first cassette I threw into my awesome pioneer tape deck yo.