River Phoenix died of a drug overdose, Pablo Escobar was shot dead by Colombian police, Manchester United won the English Premier League and UB40 topped the New Zealand charts of the year with a cover of an old Elvis Presley song.
1993 was also the year the multiplex began to seriously replace Aotearoa’s old picture venues, as cinema owners sought to capitalize on the booming Hollywood blockbuster industry and demanded to see the latest shows on a screen as big (and with as loud a sound) as possible.
To coincide with the return of Heartbreak High to Netflix, a cult 90s Australian young adult series first inspired by the 1993 film The Heartbreak Kid, Things to watch went back in time and selected eight great films that will turn 30 next year.
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Sleepless in Seattle and Jurassic Park are among the fabulous films that will turn 30 in 2023.
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Sylvester Stallone and Sandra Bullock have joined forces for Demolition Man.
Demolition Man (iTunes, GooglePlay, YouTube)
The closer we get to its 2032 setting, the more hilarious and foreboding this action-comedy becomes.
A seemingly unlikely couple of Bullock and Sylvester Stallone shine in this tale about a cryogenically frozen ’90s cop who is unfrozen when his nemesis (Wesley Snipes) sets out to wreak havoc in a more peace-loving future.
It’s a supposed utopia, where people are fined for swearing, have had no physical contact, and Taco Bell is the only fast food franchise still standing.
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Harrison Ford goes on the run in The Fugitive.
The Fugitive (GooglePlay, iTunes)
A solid cast – Harrison Ford, Tommy Lee Jones – terrific action sequences and fabulous pacing helped successfully distill Dr. Richard Kimble’s hunt for one-armed man from 120 hour-long episodes to 130 minutes of engrossing drama .
It was a delicate task. Until the Who Shot JR? episode of Dallas, the series finale in 1967 was the highest rated episode in television history. To date, the film remains the only big-screen remake of a regular television series to be nominated for Best Picture at the Oscars.
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Daniel Day-Lewis title In the name of the father.
In the Name of the Father (Netflix)
Daniel Day-Lewis leads a brilliant all-star cast, which also includes Emma Thompson, Pete Postlethwaite and Tom Wilkinson, in this action-based drama about a lawyer who fights to clear the names of a father and of a son convicted of a bombing via forced confession.
To prepare for the role of Gerry Conlon, Day-Lewis lost over 50 pounds of weight and also spent three days and three nights in a jail cell, which included being deliberately kept awake all night and a nine-hour “interrogation” by real specials. Branch Officers.
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After Jurassic Park, anything seemed possible.
Jurassic Park (Neon, GooglePlay, iTunes, AroVision, YouTube)
Thanks to nascent CGI technology and serial dreammaker (incredibly making Schindler’s List at the same time) Steven Spielberg, the world finally had realistic dinosaurs on screen.
Credit actors like Laura Dern, Jeff Goldblum, and our very own Sam Neill for making it all seamless. More importantly, it made everything possible.
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Tom Hanks won the Best Actor Oscar for his performance in Philadelphia.
Philadelphia (iTunes, AroVision, Academy OnDemand)
As much a courtroom drama as it is a poignant love story, Jonathan Demme’s story sees Tom Hanks’ attorney struggle not only with AIDS, but also with his former employers.
The formidable couple of Hanks and Denzel Washington lends what could have been a rather tearful affair its gravitas, while a terrifyingly evocative soundtrack includes songs written especially for the film by Neil Young and Bruce Springsteen.
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Anthony Hopkins starred opposite Emma Thompson in The Remains of the Day.
Leftovers (Netflix)
Anthony Hopkins, Emma Thompson, Christopher Reeve and Hugh Grant star in this superb adaptation of Kazuo Ishiguro’s book about the budding relationship between a butler and a housekeeper.
Director James Ivory and screenwriter Ruth Prawer Jhabvala (who apparently also had the help of Harold Pinter) do a magnificent job of creating an atmosphere of crackling emotional tension amid the main character’s constraints of being staff members in a field. of the upper class.
Forget Downton Abbey and its small screen, it’s the top/bottom period drama you need to see.
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Ben Kingsley and Liam Neeson were central to Schindler’s List.
Schindler’s List (iTunes, AroVision, Academy OnDemand)
As well as casting the likes of Ralph Fiennes, Liam Neeson and Ben Kingsley, Stephen Spielberg’s masterstroke was to shoot this riveting and uplifting WWII tale in 1993 in black and white – with the use of shadow and shade echoing the light and dark natures of the story’s main protagonists.
Then there’s this score by John Williams, performed to heartbreaking effect by violinist Itzhak Perlman.
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21st century technology would have solved many of the machinations and plot complications in Sleepless in Seattle.
Insomnia in Seattle (Neon rental, iTunes, AroVision, Academy OnDemand)
Do you remember when Tom Hanks and Meg Ryan were the dream movie couple? This 1993 effort was the best of the lot, with Hanks playing a widower whose son calls a radio show and whose story touches the heart of an unhappily engaged woman (Ryan).
Modern technology would have resolved much of the plot machinations and attendant complications, but moviegoers would have been much poorer for it. Perhaps as a double bill, you can also check out the movie that inspired Sleepless and is featured prominently in it – A Deal to Remember from 1957 (which is available to stream on Disney+).
