From AwardAnnals
Results of the MTV Awards in the year 1999. For a ranked list of films, try the honor roll.
There's Something About Mary
Bobby Farrelly, Peter Farrelly
There’s Something About Mary is one of the funniest movies in years, recalling the days of the Zucker-Abraham-Zucker movies, in which (often tasteless) gags were piled on at a fierce rate. The difference is that cowriters and codirectors Bobby and Peter Farrelly have also crafted a credible story line and even tossed in some genuine emotional content. The Farrelly brothers’ first two movies,
Dumb and Dumber and
Kingpin, had some moments of uproarious raunch, but were uneven. With
Mary, they’ve created a consistently hilarious romantic…
Armageddon
Michael Bay
The latest testosterone-saturated blow-’em-up from producer Jerry Bruckheimer and director Michael Bay (
The Rock,
Bad Boys) continues Hollywood’s millennium-fueled fascination with the destruction of our planet. There’s no arguing that the successful duo understands what mainstream American audiences want in their blockbuster movies—loads of loud, eye-popping special effects, rapid- fire pacing, and patriotic flag waving. Bay’s protagonists—the eight crude, lewd, oversexed (but lovable, of course) oil drillers summoned to save the world from a…
Saving Private Ryan
Steven Spielberg
When Steven Spielberg was an adolescent, his first home movie was a backyard war film. When he toured Europe with
Duel in his 20s, he saw old men crumble in front of headstones at Omaha Beach. That image became the opening scene of
Saving Private Ryan, his film of a mission following the D-day invasion that many have called the most realistic—and maybe the best—war film ever. With 1998 production standards, Spielberg has been able to create a stunning, unparalleled view of war as hell. We are at Omaha Beach as troops are slaughtered by Germans yet…
Shakespeare in Love
John Madden
One of the most endearing and intelligent romantic comedies of the ‘90s, the Oscar-winning
Shakespeare in Love is filled with such good will, sunny romance, snappy one-liners, and devilish cleverness that it’s absolutely irresistible. With tongue placed firmly in cheek, at its outset the film tracks young Will Shakespeare’s overwrought battle with writer’s block and the efforts of theater owner Philip Henslowe (Geoffrey Rush, in rare form) to stage Will’s latest comedy,
Romeo and Ethel, the Pirate’s Daughter. Jokey comedy, though, soon takes a…
The Truman Show
Peter Weir
The whole world is watching—literally—every time Truman Burbank makes the slightest move. Unbeknownst to him, in this hauntingly funny film by Peter Weir, his entire life has been an unending soap opera for consumption by the rest of the world. And everyone he knows—including his mother, his wife, and his best friend—is really an actor, paid to be part of his life. In this intriguing and surprisingly touching 1998 film, writer Andrew Niccol imagines an ultimate kind of celebrity, then sees it brought to life with comic intensity and emotional honesty by Jim…
