Browse: Home / Movies by the Fives: March 1995

Menu

Skip to content
  • Home
  • Who We Are
  • About
  • Privacy
  • Contact Us
  • Login

The-SoluteLogo

A Film Site By Lovers of Film

Menu

Skip to content
  • Features
  • Reviews
  • Long Reviews
  • News
  • Articles and Opinions
  • Other Media
  • Sometimes the Narrative Is Pure
  • The Solute Book Club: FURNACE (An Introduction)
  • TV on the Internet: PAUL T. GOLDMAN
  • Year of the Month: DRY SUMMER (SUSUZ YAZ)
  • New on DVD and Blu-Ray

Movies by the Fives: March 1995

Posted By Julius Kassendorf on March 6, 2015 in Features | 2 Responses

This new segment of The Solute looks at 5 movies that came out this month in previous years by factors of fives. Today, we look at March 1995.


Top of the Box Office: Outbreak

Outbreak

March 1995 was rather dismal for the box office. Even though Outbreak was the highest grossing release of the month, it only made $67m and ended up at #24 of the year. Outbreak was a fictional adaptation of the best selling novel, The Hot Zone, about the Ebola origins. However, despite being an A-list film, the marketing went the route of The Asylum and marketed it as a knock-off of Michael Crichton’s Congo to be released later that year. Yes, the marketing of Outbreak made an ebola film look like it was about killer monkeys.

The movie itself doesn’t fare much better, taking an fairly good non-fiction novel – think And the Band Played On but shorter and more inspired by Robin Cook – and turning it into a conventional Movie of the Week with a big budget and big stars. The cast is pretty all star – Dustin Hoffman, Rene Russo, Morgan Freeman, Kevin Spacey, Cuba Gooding, Jr, Donald Sutherland – and it had an A-list director, Wolfgang Peterson, but that still didn’t add up to a good movie. Back in 1995, mega-openings weren’t the be-all end-all at the box office, because some movies with softer openings could have legs and last forever in theaters. The bad word of mouth chopped the legs off this one fast.


High Profile Cult: Tommy Boy

tommy boy

The ’90s were a high time for Saturday Night Live spin-offs and Lorne Michaels films. 1992’s surprise smash Wayne’s World ushered in an era that would lead to Coneheads and Stuart Saves His Family. Smack in the middle of the crazy was the first Chris Farley and David Spade adventure, Tommy Boy, a shining light of stupid comedy. Farley excels at being the braindead son of an auto-parts manufacturer who, when his father dies, has to prove his company’s sustainability by selling 500k auto parts so the company can secure a bank loan. Spade is the necessary magic in this film, perfecting the snarky antagonistic sidekick who comments on the stupidity he’s observing. The duo would only team up one more time, in 1996’s Black Sheep, before Farley’s unfortunate death in 1997.


Hidden Gem: Dolores Claiborne

Dolores Claiborne

Spoiler: this is a Stephen King movie. Even though this directly followed The Shawshank Redemption, that movie had come at the end of a four-year string of failures, both theatrical and televised. In addition, this was based on a non-Dark Tower book in King’s lackluster 90s career. With insignificant marketing, no traditional horror hook, and overlooked source material, Dolores Claiborne was ignored more than anything. Which is a shame because, Claiborne is a genuinely good film that barely resembles anything Stephen King ever made. Kathy Bates is a widowed mother of an estranged daughter. She is a servant to an old rich woman who, after falling down the stairs, leaves all her money to Bates. Now, Bates is accused of murder, and has to reconcile her past with the present. I’d term this one Northeastern Gothic. Give it a chance, it has never had its time to shine.


Indie Hidden Gem: Exotica

Exotica

Frequently underappreciated director Atom Egoyan made his breakthrough in 1995 with a movie about a guy obsessed with a stripper. But, the country was still hungover from the erotic thriller phase that had most recently seen Body of Evidence and Color of Night rocket to fame. Besides, Egoyan’s film wasn’t a traditional erotic thriller, turning tropes inside out and making you wonder about the characters more than the sex. Exotica became a cult classic of sorts, more an indie darling, on which Egoyan would build his future career. To say much more than this would be to reveal the movie where surprise is key.


Instant Cult: Tank Girl

Tank Girl 2

Riot Grrrls and comic books! Where can this movie go wrong? The biggest problem with the movie is that it feels compromised. Rachel Talalay, who had previously directed Freddy’s Dead: The Final Nightmare and Ghost in the Machine, set out to make the ultimate grrrl movie. Later, she complained that the studio heavily interfered with the script and feel of the movie, resulting in a compromised vision. Despite having a $25m budget, the movie looks and feels like a haphazard punk riot movie of post-apocalyptic doom. Still, there’s a lot of winningness in Lori Petty’s overamped performance as a quirky punk of action. And, the movie, damaged it may be, became a cult success for people craving a great punk girl action movie.

Posted in Features | Tagged 1995, atom egoyan, Dolores Claiborne, Exotica, March, March 1995, Movies by the Fives, Outbreak, Peter Segal, Rachel Talalay, Tank Girl, Taylor Hackford, Tommy Boy, Wolfgang Petersen

About the Author

Julius Kassendorf

Julius Kassendorf is the founder of The-Solute, and previously founded The Other FIlms and Project Runaways in 2013. There, he dabbled in form within reviews to better textualize thought processes about the medium of film.

Previously, he has blogged at other, now-defunct, websites that you probably haven’t heard of, and had a boyfriend in Canada for many years. Julius resides in Seattle, where he enjoys the full life of the Seattle Film Community.

Julius’ commanding rule about film: Don’t Be Common. He believes the worst thing in the world is for a film to be like every other film, with a secondary crime of being a film with little to no ambition.

Related Posts

Men (Derogatory): THE BABYSITTER (1995)→

Year of the Month: CARNOSAUR→

Film on the Television: RAY on Starz→

20 Years: FROM DUSK TILL DAWN→

  • Comments
  • Popular
  • Most Recent
  • j*****@yahoo.com'
    mr_apollo on Year of the Month: Mon OncleWonderful piece, Sam. It's made…
  • j*****@yahoo.com'
    mr_apollo on Year of the Month: Mon OncleFellow heretic here. I've never…
  • n***********@gmail.com'
    Ruck Cohlchez on Film on the Internet: AN AMERICAN CRIMEI wouldn't have called it…
  • j***********@gmail.com'
    Son of Griff on LIFE ITSELFGlad to hear back from…
  • n*********@gmail.com'
    Jake Gittes on Film on the Internet: AN AMERICAN CRIMEThis is the single most…
  • “The End” of SAVAGES

    33250 views / Posted November 10, 2014
  • What the fuck did I just watch? SPHERE

    27267 views / Posted March 19, 2015
  • The Untalented Mr. Ripley: The Craft of Standup Comedy and the Non-Comedy of TOM MYERS

    24588 views / Posted June 26, 2018
  • Scenic Routes: SHOWGIRLS (1995)

    19943 views / Posted November 20, 2014
  • Yvonne, or: CASABLANCA In One Character and Three Scenes

    10914 views / Posted August 21, 2014
  • Don't they look comfy?

    Sometimes the Narrative Is Pure

    February 1, 2023 / Gillianren
  • The Solute Book Club: FURNACE (An Introduction)

    February 1, 2023 / CM Crockford
  • TV on the Internet: PAUL T. GOLDMAN

    February 1, 2023 / Ruck Cohlchez
  • Year of the Month: DRY SUMMER (SUSUZ YAZ)

    January 31, 2023 / Sam "Burgundy Suit" Scott
  • New on DVD and Blu-Ray

    January 31, 2023 / Greta Taylor

Last Tweets

  • Sometimes the Narrative Is Pure - https://t.co/EMnSPhPe3P, 13 hours ago
  • The Solute Book Club: FURNACE (An Introduction) - https://t.co/nM1pl98Pee, 19 hours ago
  • TV on the Internet: PAUL T. GOLDMAN - https://t.co/6p35fILNOI, 19 hours ago

©2014 - 2016 The-Solute | Hosted, Developed and Maintained by Bellingham WP LogoBellinghamWP.com.

Menu

  • Home
  • Who We Are
  • About
  • Privacy
  • Contact Us
  • Login
Do NOT follow this link or you will be banned from the site!