The Movies of 1990!

I am starting a new series here on the Fanboy Review.  I have long wanted to do this and finally I'm just gonna sit down and get to it.

Like I do at the end of every single year, I am going to take a look back at every year since the year of my birth, and I am going to say what I thought were my favorite aspects of moviemaking from each and every year.  From favorite director of 1990, to my favorite screnplay of 2005, I am going to do this for every year from 1990 till 2008.  I first started doing this all in 2009, so you can find those lists in the archives and hopefully you will enjoy this nostalgic trip down memory lane with me.

Alright, so I'm kicking things off with 1990, the year of my birth.  As a whole, looking back upon it, 1990 was a fairly lackluster year for moviemaking.  While there were some genuinely good movies from this year, there weren't as many as there are in the rest of the Nineties.  Even still, there are some genuine classics from this year.  So without further ado, let's take a look back at the year of 1990!

****

Best Song - "Somewhere in My Memory" from Home Alone
Funny enough, "Somewhere in My Memory" has become a routinely played Christmas song over the past two and a half decades since Home Alone's release.  With music by John Williams and lyrics by Leslie Bricusse, this is just an enjoyable song that manages to evoke sentimental feelings about the holidays as well as any other.
Runners-Up
2.) "This Is What We Do" from Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles
3.) "Doubleback" from Back to the Future Part III

Best Score - Home Alone
John Williams is the master of movie music and he further reaffirms that with his score for Home Alone.  The main theme is mysterious and playful, while the softer theme usually denoting Kevin's longing for his family, is as beautiful and elegant as any theme ever written by the great Mr. Williams.
Runners-Up
2.) Back to the Future Part III
3.) Dances with Wolves

Best Make-up and Hair - Dick Tracy
In bringing a comic strip to life, the make-up and hair department of Dick Tracy did not have it easy.  While a lot of the work seems dated to our modern eyes accustomed to seeing a lot of the rough edges of extensive make-up work now smoothed out with CGI, the work on Dick Tracy is nothing short of breathtaking.
Runners-Up
2.) Dances with Wolves
3.) The Godfather Part III

Best Costumes - Dick Tracy
Milena Canonero's costumes for Dick Tracy were one of the many crucial elements that helped sell, not just the comic strip reality that director Warren Beatty was trying to create, but also the heightened 1940s universe where gangsters could thrive.
Runners-Up
2.) Dances with Wolves
3.) Pretty Woman

Best Sound - Back to the Future Part III
The Back to the Future franchise is well-known, not just for its story, but for the great strides the movies helped make on the technical side of moviemaking.  The sound work for all three Back to the Future movies was phenomenal, full of uniquely built sound effects to sell time travel, and Part III adds in all of the sound elements of the Old West on top of all that!
Runners-Up
2.) The Hunt for Red October
3.) Die Hard 2: Die Harder

Best Special Effects - Back to the Future Part III
Industrial Light and Magic has done more for the movie industry than most average moviegoers even realize.  From Star Wars to the latest blockbusters coming out nowadays, they have continued to innovate and create some of the most jaw-dropping special effects over the years, and their work on Back to the Future Part III still holds up after all these years.  The whole final sequence with Marty and Doc trying to go back to the future on the train is so expertly handled by ILM, with them perfectly integrating the real train footage with that of the model train that they constructed.
Runners-Up
2.) The Hunt for Red October
3.) Total Recall

Best Production Design - Edward Scissorhands
I have never been the biggest Tim Burton fan, but one of the most consistent aspects all of his movies is the production design.  The work by production designer, Bo Welch, on Edward Scissorhands, may be some of the most inspired in Burton's entire filmography.
Runners-Up
2.) Dick Tracy
3.) Dances with Wolves

Best Editing - The Hunt for Red October
Dennis Virkler and John Wright's editing for The Hunt for Red October is a large part of what makes it a great movie.  Overseen by action movie master, director John McTiernan, The Hunt for Red October is another in a line of action/thrillers from the late '80s and early '90s to completely revolutionize the game of editing.
Runners-Up
2.) Dances with Wolves
3.) Die Hard 2: Die Harder

Best Cinematography - Dances with Wolves
Sometimes all I want from cinematography is something beautiful, and that is the case with Dean Semler's work on Dances with Wolves.  The way Semler captured the sweeping prairies of South Dakota is just a marvel to behold and really transports me back to the time when buffalo roamed.
Runners-Up
2.) Dick Tracy
3.) The Godfather Part III

Best Supporting Actress - Catherine O'Hara from Home Alone
One thing I've realized in doing this is that good roles for women were pretty tough to come by even in the early '90s.  With that said, I've always liked Catherine O'Hara's work in Home Alone as Kevin's Mom, primarily because she gives so much of the heart to the movie in her fierce determination to get back to her son for Christmas.
Runners-Up
2.) Mary Steenburgen, Back to the Future Part III
3.) Bonnie Bedelia, Die Hard 2: Die Harder

Best Supporting Actor - Christopher Lloyd, Back to the Future Part III
Can anyone really sum up in words the awesomeness that is Christopher Lloyd as Doctor Emmett Brown in the Back to the Future movies?  With Part III, while it is often the least popular of the trilogy, Lloyd delivered his best performance as Doc, primarily because he had the most to play with.  This whole movie is all about Doc and him discovering what he truly wants in life, and what he wants is the simplicity of the Old West and to live happily ever after with Clara (his 1800s love interest).  Who knew Christopher Lloyd could be such a romantic leading man.
Runners-Up
2.) Robin Williams, Awakenings
3.) Josh Pais, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles

Best Actress - Judith Hoag, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles
Yeah, make fun of me for giving this to April O'Neil, I don't care, I love Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles and I think Judith Hoag is just brilliant in it.  In a great many ways, she is the key to the whole movie working.  Had she not been able to work with the guys in latex suits and sell them as human-sized turtles, the whole movie would not work.  Thankfully the movie does work and will continue to do so for generations of kids to come.
Runners-Up
2.) Mary McDonnell, Dances with Wolves
3.) Eva Gabor, The Rescuers Down Under

Best Actor - Macaulay Culkin, Home Alone
The entirety of Home Alone would not work without Macaulay Culkin.  While he hasn't done a whole bunch since the Nineties, Culkin was the whole reason that Home Alone was as funny and charming as it still is.
Runners-Up
2.) Robert De Niro, Awakenings
3.) Kevin Costner, Dances with Wolves

Best Ensemble - Home Alone
Joe Pesci, Daniel Stern, Catherine O'Hara, John Heard, Macaulay Culkin, and of course, John Candy.  With a cast like that, how can you not say that Home Alone had the best acting ensemble from 1990?
Runners-Up
2.) Awakenings
3.) Dances with Wolves

Best Movie Moment - Mom Comes Home, Home Alone
When it comes to movie moments, the ones that impact me the most are the ones that are the most touching.  When Kevin's Mom comes home in Home Alone is one of the most touching moments in the whole movie and is a moment, that as a kid, always got to me and still does.
Runners-Up
2.) Using the Train to Get Back to the Future, Back to the Future Part III
3.) Communing with Splinter, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles

Best Screenplay - Home Alone
Writer John Hughes is often considered one of the greatest screenwriters in movie history and Home Alone is just another movie in his portfolio that further reasserts that claim.  It is Die Hard with a kid.  It's funny to the point where you're laughing almost nonstop at certain moments, and yet there is a heart to the whole movie that is very warm and fuzzy.
Runners-Up
2.) Dances with Wolves
3.) Awakenings

Best Director - Chris Columbus, Home Alone
Columbus is one of the most influential and forgotten moviemakers from the '90s and early 2000s.  His work on a great many movies, from The Adventures in Babysitting to the first two Harry Potter movies, has impacted many from that era, and Home Alone is one of the cornerstones of his whole career.  Without Columbus, I do not think anyone else could have gotten the performances from the children in the movie, in particular Macaulay Culkin.  Chris Columbus is still a master when it comes to directing child actors and he first proved that with Home Alone.
Runners-Up
2.) Kevin Costner, Dances with Wolves
3.) John McTiernan, The Hunt for Red October

Best Movie -  Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles
I will grant you that this is an unusual choice for Best Movie, but Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles is simply my favorite movie from 1990.  While Home Alone is a close second, and Best Picture Oscar winner Dances with Wolves is a an utter masterpiece that recreates a lost era in American history, Ninja Turtles just takes the cake because it's so much fun.  This movie is just a picture perfect representation of the comic book, and more accurately, the cartoon TV series.  The movie is funny, action packed, and still brings a smile to my face each time I watch it.  That is why it's number one.
Runners-Up
2.) Home Alone
3.) Dances with Wolves
4.) Back to the Future Part III
5.) The Hunt for Red October