Aladdin by
In the heat of an enchanted city, a commoner named Aladdin and his mischievous monkey, Abu, battle to save the free-spirited Princess Jasmine from the schemes of the evil sorcerer, Jafar. Aladdin's whole life changes with one rub of a magic lamp, as a fun-loving, shape-shifting Genie appears and grants him three wishes, setting him on an incredible journey of discovery.
Bob Roberts by
A satirical comedy in which a British documentary crew follows a radical folksinger (and self-made millionaire) turned senatorial candidate as he blends singing, music videos and scandal on the campaign trail.
Bram Stoker's Dracula by
15th-century warrior Vlad goes off the fight the Turks. Upon his return, he finds that his wife Elisabeta, hearing he was dead, has killed herself. Maddened by this injustice, Vlad curses God, and becomes the immortal blood-eating fiend known as Count Dracula--for centuries. When English attorney Jonathan Harker journeys to Dracula's castle, the Count sees a photograph of his fiancée, Mina Murray. Dracula's patience has been rewarded--Elisabeta lives again! The Count goes to dastardly lengths to possess Mina, while her best friend Lucy, Lucy's three suitors, and Prof. Abraham Van Helsing all become entangled by Dracula's quest. The modern age is dawning, even in Transylvania. Will the Count triumph, or be relegated to the past?
Candyman by
A search for dissertation material leads a graduate student to an old tale about a slave spirit said to haunt a notorious housing project.
Malcolm X by
Screen version of the life of Malcolm X, who through his religious conversion to Islam, found the strength to rise up from a criminal past to become an influential civil rights leader.
The Player by
"I was just thinking what an interesting concept it is to eliminate the writer from the artistic process. If we could just get rid of these actors and directors, maybe we've got something here."--Griffin Mill. Griffin is a slick, successful film studio vice president whose primary duty is to listen to story pitches from a constant stream of writers. Like all Hollywood producers, he's always looking over his shoulder, and he thinks up-and-comer Larry Levy is after his job. Along with power lunches, corporate in-fighting, and bottom-line priorities, a mysterious someone--probably an ignored and angry screenwriter--has been leaving him threatening postcards. When he finally takes action, his cool aplomb deserts him, things go seriously sideways, and Griffin's world begins falling apart.
The Crying Game (1992) dir. Neil Jordan
Deep Cover (1992) dir. Bill Duke and Conrad Palmisano
Far and Away (1992) dir. Ron Howard
A Few Good Men (1992) dir. Rob Reiner
Glengarry Glen Ross (1992) dir. James Foley
Malcolm X (1992) dir. Spike Lee
American Cinema of The 1990s: Themes and Variations by
With the U.S. economy booming under President Bill Clinton and the cold war finally over, many Americans experienced peace and prosperity in the nineties. Digital technologies gained popularity, with nearly one billion people online by the end of the decade. The film industry wondered what the effect on cinema would be. The essays in American Cinema of the 1990s examine the big-budget blockbusters and critically acclaimed independent films that defined the decade. The 1990s' most popular genre, action, channeled anxieties about global threats such as AIDS and foreign terrorist attacks into escapist entertainment movies. Horror films and thrillers were on the rise, but family-friendly pictures and feel-good romances netted big audiences too. Meanwhile, independent films captured hearts, engaged minds, and invaded Hollywood: by decade's end every studio boasted its own "art film" affiliate.
American Film Satire in the 1990s: Hollywood Subversion by
This study examines how a particular selection of films turned American cultural material of the 1990s into satirical experiences for viewers and finds that there are elements of resistance to norms and conventions in politics, to mainstream news channels and Hollywood, and to official American history already embedded in the culture.
The End of Cinema As We Know It: American Film in the Nineties by
Thirty-four essays that take a serious look at the state of modern cinema Almost half a century ago, Jean-Luc Godard famously remarked, "I await the end of cinema with optimism." Lots of us have been waiting forand wondering aboutthis prophecy ever since. The way films are made and exhibited has changed significantly. Films, some of which are not exactly "films" anymore, can now be projected in a wide variety of wayson screens in revamped high tech theaters, on big, high-resolution TVs, on little screens in minivans and laptops. But with all this new gear, all these new ways of viewing films, are we necessarily getting different, better movies? The thirty-four brief essays in The End of Cinema as We Know It attend a variety of topics, from film censorship and preservation to the changing structure and status of independent cinemafrom the continued importance of celebrity and stardom to the sudden importance of alternative video. While many of the contributors explore in detail the pictures that captured the attention of the nineties film audience, such as Jurassic Park, Eyes Wide Shut, South Park: Bigger, Longer and Uncut, The Wedding Banquet, The Matrix, Independence Day, Gods and Monsters, The Nutty Professor, and Kids, several essays consider works that fall outside the category of film as it is conventionally definedthe home "movie" of Pamela Anderson and Tommy Lee's honeymoon and the amateur video of the LAPD beating of Rodney King. Examining key films and filmmakers, the corporate players and industry trends, film styles and audio-visual technologies, the contributors to this volume spell out the end of cinema in terms of irony, cynicism and exhaustion, religious fundamentalism and fanaticism, and the decline of what we once used to call film culture. Contributors include: Paul Arthur, Wheeler Winston Dixon, Thomas Doherty, Thomas Elsaesser, Krin Gabbard, Henry Giroux, Heather Hendershot, Jan-Christopher Hook, Alexandra Juhasz, Charles Keil, Chuck Klienhans, Jon Lewis, Eric S. Mallin, Laura U. Marks, Kathleen McHugh, Pat Mellencamp, Jerry Mosher, Hamid Naficy, Chon Noriega, Dana Polan, Murray Pomerance, Hillary Radner, Ralph E. Rodriguez, R.L. Rutsky, James Schamus, Christopher Sharrett, David Shumway, Robert Sklar, Murray Smith, Marita Sturken, Imre Szeman, Frank P. Tomasulo, Maureen Turim, Justin Wyatt, and Elizabeth Young.
Fade from Red: The Cold War Ex-Enemy in Russian and American Film 1990-2005 by
This study investigates the close correlation between politics and mainstream cinema vividly evidenced in Russian and American screen images of the former Cold War enemy from 1990 to 2005. Whereas glasnost and the demise of the Soviet Union ushered in a period of official cooperation that soon inflated into rhetorical declarations of partnership, the fifteen years under examination saw the gradual deterioration of relations after the initial euphoria, culminating in a partial resumption of mutual Cold War recriminations. The American blockbusters under analysis outnumber the major Russian selections because of the notorious discrepancy in production volume between Hollywood and Russian studios (especially during the 1990s) -- an incommensurability bemoaned by representatives of the Russian film industry. Moreover, while we recognize that widely advertised money-making blockbusters may provide a more reliable index of both official priorities and vox populi, we have included a number of smaller-scale or financially less successful films that encapsulate the political agenda of a given period. Considerations of length influenced our process of selection, which favored eloquent illustration over automatic exhaustiveness.
Fathers on Film: Paternity and Masculinity in 1990s Hollywood by
The father is an enduring and iconic figure in Hollywood cinema and in the 1990s, narratives of redemptive fatherhood featured prominently in some of the decade's most popular films like Kindergarten Cop (1990), Mrs Doubtfire (1993), Jurassic Park (1993) and The Lion King (1994). Interpreting such films through the lens of feminist and queer theory, along with masculinity studies and psychoanalysis, Katie Barnett offers an insightful and interdisciplinary discussion of cinematic fathers. Barnett reveals that the father figure is often portrayed as one that invests in and is part of a discourse of reproductive futurism. This plays out across a range of genres including rom-coms, fantasy, sci-fi, drama, and disaster. By exploring both blockbuster and more low-budget films of the 1990s, Barnett explores the figure of the father against the crisis of masculinity in the United States, and indeed more globally, at this time.
Indie, Inc: Miramax and the Transformation of Hollywood in the 1990s by
During the 1990s, films such as sex, lies, and videotape, The Crying Game, Pulp Fiction, Good Will Hunting, and Shakespeare in Love earned substantial sums at the box office along with extensive critical acclaim. A disproportionate number of these hits came from one company: Miramax. Indie, Inc. surveys Miramax's evolution from independent producer-distributor to studio subsidiary, chronicling how one company transformed not just the independent film world but the film and media industries more broadly. As Alisa Perren illustrates, Miramax's activities had an impact on everything from film festival practices to marketing strategies, talent development to awards campaigning. Case studies of key films, including The Piano, Kids, Scream, The English Patient, and Life Is Beautiful, reveal how Miramax went beyond influencing Hollywood business practices and motion picture aesthetics to shaping popular and critical discourses about cinema during the 1990s. Indie, Inc. does what other books about contemporary low-budget cinema have not--it transcends discussions of "American indies" to look at the range of Miramax-released genre films, foreign-language films, and English-language imports released over the course of the decade. The book illustrates that what both the press and scholars have typically represented as the "rise of the American independent" was in fact part of a larger reconfiguration of the media industries toward niche-oriented products.
Edited for Television: CNN, ABC, and the 1992 Presidential Campaign by
This book discusses the words and pictures that constituted coverage of the 1992 presidential campaign on ABC and CNN. It addresses the implications of the news product for the viewing audience and the impact of the forces that create television news on the political system.
The Late Shift: Letterman, Leno, and the Network Battle for the Night by
Recounts CBSs wooing of late night talk show host David Letterman and how Letterman and Jay Leno faced off over who would host the Tonight Show.
The Lonely Nineties: Visions of Community in Contemporary US Television by
This book examines the most popular American television shows of the nineties--a decade at the last gasp of network television's cultural dominance. At a time when American culture seemed increasingly fragmented, television still offered something close to a site of national consensus. The Lonely Nineties focuses on a different set of popular nineties television shows in each chapter and provides an in-depth reading of scenes, characters or episodes that articulate the overarching "ideology" of each series. It ultimately argues that television shows such as Seinfeld, Friends, Law & Order and The Simpsons helped to shape the ways Americans thought about themselves in relation to their friends, families, localities, and nation. It demonstrates how these shows engaged with a variety of problems in American civic life, responded to the social isolation of the age, and occasionally imagined improvements for community in America.
Seinfeldia: How a Show About Nothing Changed Everything by
"Her book, as if she were a marine biologist, is a deep dive...Perhaps the highest praise I can give Seinfeldia is that it made me want to buy a loaf of marbled rye and start watching again, from the beginning." --Dwight Garner, The New York Times Book Review The hilarious behind-the-scenes story of two guys who went out for coffee and dreamed up Seinfeld--the cultural sensation that changed television and bled into the real world, altering the lives of everyone it touched. Comedians Larry David and Jerry Seinfeld never thought anyone would watch their silly little sitcom about a New York comedian sitting around talking to his friends. NBC executives didn't think anyone would watch either, but they bought it anyway, hiding it away in the TV dead zone of summer. But against all odds, viewers began to watch, first a few and then many, until nine years later nearly forty million Americans were tuning in weekly. In Seinfeldia, acclaimed TV historian and entertainment writer Jennifer Keishin Armstrong celebrates the creators and fans of this American television phenomenon, bringing readers behind-the-scenes of the show while it was on the air and into the world of devotees for whom it never stopped being relevant, a world where the Soup Nazi still spends his days saying "No soup for you!", Joe Davola gets questioned every day about his sanity, Kenny Kramer makes his living giving tours of New York sights from the show, and fans dress up in Jerry's famous puffy shirt, dance like Elaine, and imagine plotlines for Seinfeld if it were still on TV.
Television Series of The 1990s: Essential Facts and Quirky Details by
In the 1990s the big three networks were being challenged by upstarts FOX and the WB for viewer loyalty. Alongside must-see stalwarts like Frasier, Friends, and Seinfeld, the new networks introduced pop culture touchstones like Buffy the Vampire Slayer and The X-Files. Such shows not only made household names of their stars, but also thrived in syndication and some even graduated to the big screen. In that decade, shows such as ER, Everybody Loves Raymond, and Northern Exposure were vying for awards while programs like Beverly Hills, 90210 and Home Improvement drew in millions of viewers each week. Even after these shows departed the airwaves, they live on in syndication and on DVDs, entertaining many generations of viewers. In Television Series of the 1990s: Essential Facts and Quirky Details, Vincent Terrace presents readers with a cornucopia of information about sixty programs from the decade. For example, did you know that Ally McBeal's favorite brand of ice cream is Ben and Jerry's? Or that Hank Hill's shoe size is 12? Or that Carrie Bradshaw's favorite cookie is Double-Stuff Oreos? These are just a handful of hundreds of fun and intriguing specifics found inside this volume. Programs from all of the major networks--as well as select syndicated programs and HBO--are represented here. This is not a book of opinions or essays about specific television programs but a treasure trove of facts associated with each show. FromNiles Crane's I.Q score to George Constanza's high score on Frogger, readers will discover a wealth of fascinating information that, for the most part, cannot be found elsewhere. In some cases, the factual data detailed herein is the only such documentation that currently exists on bygone shows of the era. Television Series of the 1990s is the ideal reference for fans of this decade and anyone looking to stump even the most knowledgeable trivia expert.
Toasting Cheers: An Episode Guide to the 1982-1993 Comedy Series with Cast Biographies and Character Profiles by
This comprehensive reference work first presents an historical overview of the program. Biographies of the show's performers are followed by biographies of the characters. An exhaustive episode guide for all 295 shows includes cast and credits, guest stars, plot synopses, original air dates, featured subplots, and quotations.