re: Empire - The 30 Films That Define The Last 30 Years

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1998 should be Armageddon

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Disagree.

Saving Private Ryan was the most iconic film from that particular year.

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Instead of criticizing... try and make your own list.

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Bravo for this sentiment, i was arguing this about the all SEC team. I won't do a whole list but a couple of quibbles with your list

1993 : I've never been a big fan of Jurassic Park, i was probably to old to be blown away and was never into dinosaurs as a kid, plus it just pales to the obvious comparison Jaws, that said, i don't see how it is not the pick for this year. The F/X alone made this a massive influence. As for Sleepless in Seattle, I'd argue When Harry Met Sally was to rom coms what Scream was to horror. Does Nora Ephron direct SIS without WHMS?

1994: Personally i think any pick besides Pulp Fiction is just back lash. It's like giving the Heisman to Charles Woodson because you don't want to give it to Peyton Manning. It really put Tarantino on the map and solidified him as an important film maker beyond the film nerds. Roger Ebert called it the most influential movie of the 90's and i agree. I could maybe, maybe see a pick for Forest Gump, but certainly not Shawshank, Clerks i love but its just not the right year. This also further shows why i think 1994 is the single greatest movie year of all time.

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It's Scream in '96. Horrors movie had fallen to basically direct to Blockbuster productions at that point.

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Some of their responses were no-brainers (titanic, Jurassic park), some are absolutely idiotic (blade, American psycho).

Scream, however, is their most impressive inclusion. I would have never thought it, but yeah, it redefined and re-established the horror genre.

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1994: Personally i think any pick besides Pulp Fiction is just back lash. It's like giving the Heisman to Charles Woodson because you don't want to give it to Peyton Manning. It really put Tarantino on the map and solidified him as an important film maker beyond the film nerds. Roger Ebert called it the most influential movie of the 90's and i agree. I could maybe, maybe see a pick for Forest Gump, but certainly not Shawshank, Clerks i love but its just not the right year. This also further shows why i think 1994 is the single greatest movie year of all time.

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Fair, but I would point out that both me and Empire put Reservoir Dogs on the list. It's not really backlash, we just put the Tarantino experience with his debut, not the one that went big time. And that's a cheat because 1994 was a ridiculously loaded year while 1992... not so much. I mean, I guess you could go with Singles for the Seattle music thing, but otherwise you're left with Basic Instinct or Wayne's World, neither of which have aged all that well.

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Is there a possibility that some of us didn’t like it because it was a bad movie? I half way think some people defend it because some “alt right” or whatever trolls hated it and talk about “SJW’s”

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Sure. But if you look at the sheer volume of discussion about the movie, very little of it is about the movie, most of it is about the SJW stuff or nitpicking the science, which in a fantasy film is a total absurdity. This isn't an argument that it's the best film, but its not a coincidence that favorability of the movie tended to fall on political liones (not 100%, of course). It's like when people argue about the movie, many people aren't talking about the movie, even on a subconconcious level. It's truly fascinating.

But your last sentence is pretty damn instructive. I agree with that entirely. I don't even think people realize that's the reason why they like or dislike it. IT's embedded in our code.

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It was the first comic book film that could truly be called a blockbuster

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Superman says hi.

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1) Batman
(Tim Burton, 1989)

2) Goodfellas
(Martin Scorsese, 1990)

3) Terminator 2: Judgment Day
(James Cameron, 1991)

4) Reservoir Dogs
(Quentin Tarantino, 1992)

5) Jurassic Park
(Steven Spielberg, 1993)

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Just ranking these five against each other, I could see putting either Batman, Goodfellas, or Jurassic Park at the top of this list. Each for a 100% valid different reason.

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try and make your own list

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*cracks knuckles* But you already did really well:

1989 The Little Mermaid. I like the Do the Right Thing add, but Mermaid changed Disney for the next couple of decades. Not a great film, but influential.
1990 GoodFellas. No question.
1991 Point Break. A deceptively strong year with Lambs, Thelma and Louise, and Fisher King. But I'm going to agree on Point Break as the operatic action film.
1992 Unforgiven. I like the Dogs pick, but Eastwood made his love letter to a film genre.
1993 Jurassic Park. Top 10 Most influential film of all time.
1994 Clerks. I'd stick with Clerks here as well.
1995 Toy Story. Another that should be no question.
1996 Scream. And again.....
1997 Good Will Hunting. Another strong year with a lot of contenders. Affleck and Damon enter the scene. Robin Williams' best performance. Memorable and quotable.
1998 The Truman Show. Boy, was this movie ahead of the technological times. (I'm just going to leave this comment here and tweak it, haha)
1999 The Matrix. It's this or Fight Club as well. Take your pick.

2000 Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon. I think we saw Asian films taken more seriously after this. This somehow was popular and brilliant.
2001 Fellowship of the Rings. I'll take the better movie, but both started the trend.
2002 Spirited Away. This year is easy for me. As much as I love CoG, I think that trend started with CTHD.
2003 X2. Yup, this was the beginning of the real superhero era. And it's a fantastic film to boot. The other option would be Old School and Bro Comedies.
2004 The Passion of the Christ. This has to be a lock. Biggest independent film ever. Incredibly divisive. Pure Mainstream religion.
2005 40 Year Old Virgin. A pretty good analysis of culture as well. I want to put A History of Violence here for almost the exact same reason...
2006 Casino Royale. I think there are a few films responsible for the current digging into the past. This is probably the most important one actually.
2007 Juno. I mean I really, really don't want to put this here. At all. But I have to.
2008 The Dark Knight. No question.
2009 Inglorious Basterds. Tarantino goes even more mainstream. Was that possible?

2010 Inception. Nolan redefines the blockbuster.
2011 Cabin in the Woods. The golden age of horror begins. (I agree here)
2012 Avengers. Marvel makes a comic book come to life. (And here)
2013 Her. I have to put in films that define culture as well, and here you go....
2014 Whiplash. This is why you can't follow Baloo....
2015 Mad Max Fury Road.
2016 Arrival. Has to be, nothing else stands out this year. Rogue One?
2017 It. We're making a guess at this point on how films will define time. My guess is It.
2018 Avengers Infinity War. The Best Superhero Film since TDK, and by doing the most superhero thing possible - bringing it all together. I would pair this with Endgame in 2019 if we were doing that and list Into the Spider-Verse instead.

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It’s chronological, not order of influence.

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Yes.

I know.

Just saying, for those five years, we had three game changing movies.

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Of course Freaux had a lot of my second/third choices, but now that I see the list, I really like his choice of Crouching Tiger in 2000, which opens up Spirited Away for 2002. I think the lack of Miyazaka is a glaring hole in my list. He's right to go that way.

I also didn't even consider The Passion for 2004, which is a great answer. I thought we were light on "chick flicks" so I'll stick by my Eternal Sunshine answer, but I'm a lot less confident in it.

I want Freaux to be right about 2001, because I would much rather the answer be LOTR.

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I can totally see Potter as well. When we say "Define the Years" it's easy to argue one way or the other in a lot of years. I'd probably go put Pulp Fiction in 94. Clerks. PF. Both have their merits for defining the time period.