Top 10 Films of 1992

1. ''The Chekist'' (Aleksandr Rogozhkin, Russia)

2. ''The Player'' (Robert Altman, USA)

3. "Reservoir Dogs" (Quentin Tarantino, USA)

4. "Howards End" (James Ivory, UK)

5. "Braindead" (Peter Jackson, New Zealand)

6. ''Like Water For Chocolate'' (Alfonso Arau, Mexico)

7. "Hard-Boiled" (John Woo, Hong Kong)

8. "Glengarry Glen Ross" (James Foley, USA)

9. "Full Contact" (Ringo Lam, Hong Kong)

10. "Aladdin" (Ron Clements, John Musker, Disney, USA)

Other great films:

92 Legendary La Rose Noire (Hong Kong)

L'Amant (France)

Bad Lieutenant

Basic Instinct

Batman Returns
Bob Roberts

Bram Stoker's Dracula

C'est arrivé près de vous (Belgium)

Chaplin

Conte d'hiver (France)

Cool World

Cosi fan tutte (Italy)

The Crying Game (UK)

Dragon Inn (Hong Kong)
Enchanted April (UK)
Fern Gully: The Last Rainforest
A Few Good Men

Gas Food Lodging

Grand Prix Australia
Gun N' Rose (Hong Kong)

Hanappe Bazooka (Japan)

Home Alone 2: Lost In New York

Husbands And Wives

Jamon Jamon (Spain)
Juice

Léolo (Canada)
Leon The Pig Farmer (UK)
Lethal Weapon 3
Malcolm X

Mambo Kings

Map Of The Human Heart

Naked Killer (Hong Kong)

Newsies
Once Upon A Time Cinema (Iran)
Once Upon A Time In China II (Hong Kong)

Peter's Friends (UK)

Porcco rosso (Japan)
Powerful Four (Hong Kong)

Pretty Woman (Hong Kong)

Psy (Poland)
The Public Eye
Rebels Of The Neon God (Taiwan)
Requiem pour un beau sans-coeur (Canada)

Requiem pro panenku (Czechoslovakia)

Riens du tout (France)

Rock-A-Doodle
Scent Of A Woman

Schtonk (Germany)

Shining Through

Sneakers
The Story Of Qui Ju (China)
Strictly Ballroom (Australia)
Swordsman II (Hong Kong)
Twin Dragons (Hong Kong)

Twin Peaks: Fire Walk With Me

Two Women

Under Siege

Unforgiven

La Vie de Boheme (Finland)
Wayne's World
Wizard's Curse (Hong Kong)

Short Top 3:

1. "Stereotypes" (Jean-Marc Vallee, Canada)

2. "Menage" (Pierre Salvadori, France)

3. "Pets Or Meat: The Return To Flint" (Michael Moore, USA)

Other great shorts:

The Bitches

Creation (Canada)

Top 3 Music Videos:

1. "Man On The Moon" (Peter Care, R.E.M.)

2. "Nuthin' But A G Thang" (Dr Dre, Snoop Doggy Dogg)

3. "Free Your Mind" (Mark Romanek, En Vogue)

Top Commercial:

"Parisian People" (Jean-Luc Godard, France)

Other great commercials:

Cindy Crawford

TV Top 3:

1. "Seinfeld: The Contest" (Tom Cherones, NBC)

2. "Seinfeld: Subway" (Tom Cherones, NBC)

3. "Seinfeld: The Pick" (Tom Cherones, NBC)

Other great TV shows:

Kabaret Olgi Lipinskiej: Bekarty (Poland)

Kabaret Olgi Lipinskiej: Lepiej z glupim zgubic (Poland)

Kabaret Olgi Lipinskiej: Skumbrie w tomacie (Poland)

Kabaret Olgi Lipinskiej: ...zza krzaka (Poland)

Cartoon Top 3:

1. "Screen Play" (Barry Purves, UK)

2. "Mona Lisa Descending A Staircase" (Joan C. Gratz, USA)

3. "A Feather Tale" (Michele Cournoyer, NFB, Canada)

Other great cartoons:

Adam (UK)

How To Make A Decision

The Sandman (UK)

Trail Mix-Up

Words Words Words (Czechoslovakia)

Weak films of 1992:

Alien 3
An American Tail: Fievel Goes West
Autumn Moon (Hong Kong)
Being At Home With Claude (Canada)
Black Cat 2 (Hong Kong)
The Bodyguard
Le Cahier volé (France)
City Hunter (Hong Kong)
Un Coeur en hiver (France)
Daens (Belgium)

Damage
The Dark Side Of The Heart (Argentina)
Death Becomes Her
Diably diably (Poland)
Dr Lamb (Hong Kong)
The Hand That Rocks The Cradle
Honeymoon In Vegas
L.627 (France)
The Last Of The Mohicans
Little Man Tate
Love Field

Mac
Midori (Japan)
My Cousin Vinny
Night On Earth
Nord (France)
Passion Fish
Patriot Games
Police Story III: Supercop (Hong Kong)
Pushing Hands
Raising Cain
Rikki O (Hong Kong)
Rush
Scent Of Gardenia (Brazil)
Scorchers
Stalingrad (Germany)
The Stolen Children (Italy)
Tetsuo II: Body Hammer (Japan)
Three Days (Lithuania)
Toys
Urga (Russia)
Wszystko co najwazniejsze (Poland)

Weak shorts:

Assassins (France)
L'Enfance de l'art (France)
Those Were The Days (Finland)

Weak cartoons:

Pearl's Diner (Canada)
So Far So (Canada)

Weak TV shows:

Kabaret Olgi Lipinskiej: Lwi pazur mistrza (Poland)

Kabaret Olgi Lipinskiej: Pieski Sylwester (Poland)

Top Musical of 1992

"Strictly Ballroom" (Baz Luhrmann, Australia)

The Player (1992) *****

Following the failure of "Popeye" in 1980, Robert Altman found himself directing some highly theatrical, low budget and largely ignored little films for the rest of the 1980's. But in 1992, he made a spectacular and triumphant comeback with "The Player", a devilishly clever, complex and superbly entertaining satire on Hollywood. The film stars Tim Robbins as a studio executive trying to beat a murder charge, while brushing his girlfriend (Cynthia Stevenson) aside and barely surviving an assassination attempt involving a dangerous snake. Virtually every major movie star makes a cameo appearance in this magnificent, extremely cynical comedy that ridicules the formulas and conventions of contemporary Hollywood movies, while using those same elements (humour, murder, nudity, love, mystery, suspense, last-minute rescues, happy endings) in new and surprising ways. It also makes references to past films, major celebrities and key current events (including the Rodney King affair - a prophetic reference considering that the film was made before the tragic L.A. riots). Possibly Altman's greatest film and certainly his most entertaining one.

The Chekist (1992) *****

Reservoir Dogs (1992) *****

Violent, superbly well written gangster picture. Quentin Tarantino's film debut.

Howards End (1992) *****

An exquisite, masterfully crafted adaptation of E.M.Forster's novel about hypocrisy and snobbery of the upper class Victorian society. Amusing and deliciously ironic at first, the film becomes increasingly serious, even tragic, as it explores the delicate situations and arrangements that lead some otherwise generous people to compromise their values. A superb comedy of manners, as well as a profound human drama, it's a triumph of intelligent storytelling. James Ivory's masterpiece.

Rebels Of The Neon God (1992) ****

The Crying Game (1992) ****

Léolo (1992) ****

Like Water For Chocolate (1992) ****

Glengarry Glen Ross (1992) ****

Tense and exciting adaptation of David Mamet's play about real-estate salesmen.

Hard-Boiled (1992) ****

A Hong Kong hospital, full of sick patients, becomes a battleground between cops and triad goons. This John Woo's actioner probably has the highest body count of any motion picture in history - innocent bystanders drop like flies during spectacularly staged orgies of gunfire. With Chow Yun-Fat, Tony Leung Chiu-Wai and Anthony Wong.

Full Contact (1992) ****

Stylish crime movie directed by Ringo Lam.

Braindead (1992) ****

The goriest film ever made, a masterpiece of "splat-stick" cinema.

Aladdin (1992) ****

Excellent Disney fantasy-musical about a hyperactive genie helping a young thief to win the love of a beautiful princess. Songs:

"Arabian Nights" **
"One Jump Ahead" **
"Friend Like Me" ***
"Prince Ali" ***
"A Whole New World" ***

Requiem pour un beau sans-coeur (1992) ****

Story of a criminal on the run, told from the subjective point-of-views of his accomplices.

Once Upon A Time In China II (1992) ****

The popular saga continues. This time, the villains are Chinese ultra-nationalists from the White Lotus Society. Wong Fei-Hong (Jet Li) joins forces with Sun Yat-Sen (the future leader of China) to fight against them.

Unforgiven (1992) ****

Violent, somber western about justice and revenge.

Shining Through (1992) ***

Husbands And Wives (1992) ***

Cool World (1992) ***

Bram Stoker's Dracula (1992) ***

Twin Peaks: Fire Walk With Me (1992) ***

Under Siege (1992) ***

Mambo Kings (1992) ***

Sneakers (1992) ***

Quirky spy drama about computer encryptions.

The Story Of Qui Ju (1992) ***

A peasant woman tries to appeal an unjust verdict. Very interesting film about life in China in the early 1990's.

Twin Dragons (1992) ***

Directed by Tsui Hark and Ringo Lam. With Jackie Chan, Maggie Cheung and Nina Li Chi. Basically a kung-fu adaptation of Shakespeare's "Comedy Of Errors".

Gas Food Lodging (1992) ***

Basic Instinct (1992) ***

Bad Lieutenant (1992) ***

A Few Good Men (1992) ***

An exciting courtroom drama about two Marines accused of murdering a collegue.

Fern Gully: The Last Rainforest (1992) ***

Politically-correct animated film about the destruction of the Amazonian forest. Songs:

"Life Is A Magic Thing"
"Batty Rap"
"If I'M Gonna Eat Somebody (It Might As Well Be You)"
"Toxic Love"
"Raining Like Magic"
"Land Of A Thousand Dances"
"A Dream Worth Keeping"
"Some Other World"

Dragon Inn (1992) ***

Superb fantasy adventure film starring Brigitte Lin, Maggie Cheung and Tony Leung Kar-Fai. The best (and sexiest) fight scene has Brigitte and Maggie removing each other clothes.

Bob Roberts (1992) ***

Cinema-verité style pseudo-documentary about a fascistic country singer who becomes a US senator.

Batman Returns (1992) ***

Daniel ("Heathers") Waters' screenplay lacks the author's usual wit, self-mockery, cruel irony and hilarious one-liners, but Tim Burton's direction helps create a fairy-tale universe, where reality is distorted beyond recognition. Michelle Pfeiffer is superb as kinky, whip-cracking Catwoman, but Danny DeVito's performance as Penguin is one-dimensional.

Swordsman II (1992) ***

A superior sequel to the 1990 hit. Brigitte Lin plays a gender-changing villainess.

Once Upon A Time Cinema (1992) ***

An Iranian "Purple Rose Of Cairo".

Strictly Ballroom (1992) ***

Quirky, very sophisticated Australian musical. Irony and sarcasm galore. Songs include:

"Happy Feet"
"Time After Time" **
"Perhaps, Perhaps, Perhaps" **
"Love Is In The Air" **