Top 100 Movies Of The 1990's: #20 Sleepers

Box Office: $53.3 Million

Oscar Nominations: Best Dramatic Score

Oscar Wins: None

MovieRankings.Net: 79/100

Available To Stream: Amazon Prime ($3)

I'm sure this pick will go over well.

There are two ways to make a list like this. You can make a list of the well regarded favorites and just re-order them. I think it's a lot more interesting if it's a personal list. There's only 19 spots left. Even if you're one of the seven people who love Sleepers as much as I do, I'm sure I'm going to leave movies out that you love off the list entirely. 

I know a ton of people hate that I have Braveheart at 75. That's totally OK. No one's top 100 list is going to match someone else's. If I made this list expecting people to agree, I'd be a crazy person. People are supposed to disagree with a list like this. That's half of the fun. 

I also understand that Sleepers at 20 is more unusual than Braveheart at 75. Real film snobs don't like Braveheart at all and say it's one of the worst Best Picture winners ever. I'm more in the middle of the two camps. When it comes to Sleepers, I don't think anyone in any camp thinks Sleepers should be this high. But it's a movie that I think is truly great. 

Before I begin this review, I will say if you haven't seen this yet, check it out. Even if I think is better than most, I don't know many people who dislike Sleepers. It has an incredible cast, great director and tells a dark and interesting story about revenge. Also, you can't shit on Sleepers at 20 on this list if you've never seen it.

It's crazy that a movie starring Robert De Niro, Brad Pitt, Dustin Hoffman, Kevin Bacon and directed by a Best Director Oscar winner (Barry Levinson for Rain Man) would have slipped through the cracks of time, but that's exactly what happened. Sleepers isn't remembered badly. It's just not remembered. 

That's in pretty stark contrast to when this came out. It was based on a best seller by Lorenzo Carcaterra that become very controversial because he claimed it was a true story. There is no record of anything in this movie actually happening. That doesn't bother me as much as a viewer as I think it would if I was a reader especially where this was written in the first person. 

The question of whether it was real or not did cloud the movie to some extent. I know they say "there is no such thing as bad publicity" but when you are competing with movies like The English Patient and (#71) Jerry Maguire for Oscar nominations, it was. The funny thing is Fargo, which also came out in 1996, makes a joke that it's a true story (it wasn't) and no one cared.

 

This is a movie split pretty equally in two halves. You have the stuff from the 60's with the kids and then the 80's when they are grown. Having Robert De Niro (brilliant as Father Bobby) be the constant between these two sides is perfect. He is such a calm presence throughout this movie which goes down some truly horrific roads. It shows what great range De Niro has when you look at his performance in something like (#77) Cape Fear. I know Cuba Gooding Jr.'s performance as Rod Tidwell is more memorable but De Niro is so much better in this. It's a shame he didn't even get nominated.

You can make a real case for Kevin Bacon too. He might be the best actor never to get an Oscar nomination and his portrayal of Nokes is one of absolute evil. I don't know if you'll see many more horrific people on screen. It seems like he's having a bit of a career revival with MaXXXine and Beverly Hills Cop: Axel F. Hopefully, that means he'll get another great role sooner rather than later.

This isn't a perfect movie. The first hour is much more dramatic than the second half and the kid actors are often better than the adult versions. This was also made in this short time in history when Hollywood was desperate to make Jason Patric a star. It didn't work in Speed 2: Cruise Control and it didn't work here. He's just too bland. It's not that he hurts the movie but he sure doesn't help it. Luckily, whether it be Brad Pitt, Robert De Niro or Minnie Driver, he's always on screen with a very good actor so they can carry the scenes.

If you think Sleepers was just kinda OK, you're not alone. Roger Ebert gave it three stars. It got one minor Oscar nomination. It's been mostly forgotten by movie fans. But this is my list and I think it's one of the very best revenge stories ever made. 

20. Sleepers

21. Schindler's List

22. Rushmore

23. Fight Club

24. Saving Private Ryan

25. True Romance

26. Dumb & Dumber

27. Kingpin

28. Donnie Brasco

29. Heat 

30. Terminator 2: Judgement Day

31. Rounders

32. Unforgiven

33. Trainspotting

34. The Game

35. Out Of Sight

36. Carlito's Way

37. Seven

38. L.A. Confidential

39. Speed

40. Gattaca

41. Misery

42. Tombstone

43. Ransom

44. Wayne's World

45. The Insider

46. Back To The Future Part III

47. A Bronx Tale

48. The People Vs. Larry Flynt

49. Eyes Wide Shut

50. The Sandlot

51. Happy Gilmore

52. Contact

53. The Green Mile

54. Man On The Moon

55. Boyz N The Hood

56. Grosse Pointe Blank

57. Independence Day

58. The Rainmaker

59. Go

60. The Firm

61. Magnolia

62. The Talented Mr. Ripley

63. Tommy Boy

64. The Usual Suspects

65. In The Line Of Fire

66. My Cousin Vinny

67. Awakenings

68. JFK

69. Toy Story

70. Home Alone

71. Jerry Maguire

72. Titanic

73. Billy Madison

74. Apollo 13

75. Braveheart

76. Edward Scissorhands

77. Cape Fear

78. The River Wild

79. What's Eating Gilbert Grape?

80. 12 Monkeys

81. Stir Of Echoes

82. Mission: Impossible

83. Total Recall

84. Quiz Show

85. For Love Of The Game

87. Men In Black

88. Scream

89. Alive

90. Three Kings

91. Glengarry Glen Ross

92. Die Hard With A Vengeance

93. The Blair Witch Project

94. Twister

95. Dirty Work

96. Election

97. Tremors

98. Any Given Sunday

99. The Wedding Singer

100. Clerks