The 8 Best Movies of 1999, Ranked

1999 was stacked. These are the top 8 by movie.guru score, the blend of critics and audiences. I agree with maybe five of them.

Number one isn't The Matrix. It's the strangest movie of the year.

1. 8
   Fight Club (1999)7.2

   Way too low. Theaters missed it, everyone else didn't.

   Only $38M domestic on a reported $63M to $65M budget, CinemaScore B−. Now 2.67 million IMDb votes at 8.8. A 7.2 score is criminally polite. Guru's Take: 8.4.
2. 7
   Magnolia (1999)7.3

   A gorgeous mess audiences graded like a pop quiz.

   CinemaScore C−, the worst grade on this list, while critics gave it a 78 on Metacritic. Tom Cruise has never been this unhinged, and that's a compliment.
3. 6
   The Sixth Sense (1999)8.1

   Everyone remembers one line. The acting deserved more credit.

   $672.8M worldwide on a reported $40M budget. Haley Joel Osment and Toni Collette carry it, and critics still only gave it a 64 on Metacritic. Rude.
4. 5
   The Green Mile (1999)8.1

   Audiences overrate it. I'm siding with the critics here.

   Audiences beat 95% of movies, critics only 57%. Michael Clarke Duncan is incredible, but the movie knows exactly when to pull the tear lever. Guru's Take: 7.4.
5. 4
   The Matrix (1999)8.2

   Fourth? This should be #1 and it's not close.

   $473.3M worldwide on a reported $63M budget, IMDb 8.7 from 2.29 million voters. Guru's Take is 9.1. Every action movie since owes Keanu a thank-you card.
6. 3
   American Beauty (1999)8.5

   Too high. It aged like milk on a porch.

   Metacritic 84 and critics beat 90% of movies, but Guru's Take is 6.1. The plastic bag looks great. The suburban sneering has not held up.
7. 2
   The Iron Giant (1999)9.3

   Bombed in theaters, still outclasses almost everything here.

   $23.2M domestic on a reported $48M to $50M budget. Then 96% on Rotten Tomatoes and a 9.3 movie.guru score. Brad Bird made a giant robot that makes grown adults weep.
8. 1
   Being John Malkovich (1999)9.3

   The weirdest movie of 1999 is also the best.

   Metacritic 90, the highest on this list, on a reported $13M budget. Only $23.1M worldwide, though. A portal into an actor's head. Makes no sense, works perfectly.

$283.71 says someone types "there is no spoon" in the comments before reading past #8.

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Current mood: ready to fight about it