Was 1999 the best year for movies ever? if not what surpasses it?

Here's a slight reworking of both 1984 lists, with a couple of additions:

• The Terminator
• Ghostbusters
• Gremlins
• Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom
• A Nightmare on Elm Street
• Beverly Hills Cop
• The Karate Kid
• This Is Spinal Tap
• Romancing the Stone
• Sixteen Candles
• Purple Rain
• Police Academy
• Revenge of the Nerds
• Splash
• Starman
• Johnny Dangerously
• The Neverending Story
• The Muppets Take Manhattan
• The Last Starfighter
• Cloak and Dagger
• Dune
• Amadeus
• Footloose
• Blood Simple
• Red Dawn
• Repo Man
• Once Upon a Time in America
• The Adventures of Buckaroo Banzai...
• A Soldier's Story
• Top Secret!
• Night of the Comet
• Streets of Fire

For reasons both sincere and ironic, 1997 is the best year for movies. This is only slightly true, because Blade came out in 1998, and almost swings the vote all by itself. I randomly bolded some movies I like just a little more than others.

• Titanic
• THE FIFTH ELEMENT
• STARSHIP TROOPERS
• Men in Black
• Boogie Nights
• L.A. Confidential
• THE GAME
• Contact
• Austin Powers
• Event Horizon
• BATMAN & ROBIN
• Alien: Resurrection
• JACKIE BROWN
• Gattaca
• PRINCESS MONONOKE
• FACE/OFF
• The Lost World: Jurassic Park
• The Postman........
• CON AIR
• SPAWN
• Donnie Brasco
• I know What You Did Last Summer
• LIAR LIAR
• Cube
• Tomorrow Never Dies
• ANACONDA
• Seven Years in Tibet
• The Full Monty
• Dante's Peak
• VOLCANO
• Orgazmo
• AIR FORCE ONE
• G.I. Jane
• The Saint
• The Jackal
• Cop Land
• FLUBBER
• Wag the Dog
• AIR BUD
• Spice World
• DOUBLE TEAM
• STEEL

Old man moment: In general, the 90s are the last bastion of classic action movies, before things are utterly washed away into the heartless world of CG. This is best exemplified by The Matrix & The Phantom Menace. The former was Blade Runner-esque, and showed us so many ideas (many incredibly-well executed) of how movies can use modern technology to tell new & interesting stories and make some dope action. The Phantom Menace showed us how technology can override and ruin everything... As George Lucas once said, "special effects without a story is a pretty boring thing!"

I agree and the 90's was the last great decade of music in my opinion but that's for another thread.

1984 is a great choice, and wins it for me from what's in this thread. But I need to suggest 1939 for consideration as well:

• The Wizard of Oz
• Gone With the Wind
• Mr. Smith Goes to Washington
• Goodbye Mr. Chips
• Of Mice and Men
• Stagecoach
• Wuthering Heights
• Ninotchkia
• Gunga Din
• Midnight
• The Women
• The Hound of the Baskervilles / The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes
• Each Dawn I Die
• Drums Along the Mohawk
• The Man in the Iron Mask

And a huge number of other movies that aren't as well remembered but are still extremely good.

@geraltitude: dude, most of those movies from 1997 are real bad. I enjoy some of the bad ones but come on, Batman and Robin? Flubber? The Jackal? The Saint? Spawn? Steel?

These are some of the worst large budget films ever made.

@ltsmash: yeah this year is definitely a strong contender. (1984)

@geraltitude: Yeah of year where i was alive, 1997 was a great year. I remember seeing Flubber in the theater as a 7 year old kid that movie was great. But it's probably one off those movies that doesn't hold up at all.

@horseman6: Starship Troopers is the most underrated movie off all time.

I wouldn't say the best, but I forget how important of a year 2001 was for movies

• Hannibal
• Enemy at the Gates
• Memento
• Shrek
• The Fast and the Furious
• A.I.
• Final Fantasy: Spirits Within
• Zoolander
• Monsters Inc.
• Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone
• Ocean's Eleven
• Vanilla Sky
• The Lord of the Rings: Fellowship of the Ring
• A Beautiful Mind
• Mulholland Drive

A lot of weird shit like the movie that almost killed Square Enix and maybe the weirdest Tom Cruise movie ever, but also some giant franchise that we are still seeing sequels and spin offs to 16 years later, plus arguably the best David Lynch movie.

@jec03: Even the people I know who love many modern acts wouldn't disagree with that. Honestly don't know which of the two mainstream industries is more of a bummer to me.

@soulcake: massive ass high fives, all around. Starship Troopers is among the ultimate classics. Flubber does and doesn't hold up. Tbh if you are a Robin Williams fan pretty much everything he did holds up. Just the effects and surroundings have fallen off.

@horseman6: dude, it's in my post! :D for reasons both *ironic* and sincere! I really enjoy laughing at and watching bad movies. One of the saddest old man things I can say about modern movies is that when they suck they rarely make me laugh. Just sigh. I mean... yeah... Steel is a nightmare. But Batman & Robin gave us so many incredible one-liners. And Spawn? Spawn!

(I mean, my post is somewhat in jest, but also somewhat real. It's impossible to pick A year, so I picked any that I liked and went with that, was also a good excuse to have my old man moment about movies!)

The 30's, 40's , 50's and 60's hold like 95% of the great movies out there.

@tom_omb said:

You forgot the best movie of 1999:

If we're talking box office numbers, then absolutely. God, that movie was a complete letdown :/