Skip to main content
  1. Home
  2. Culture
  3. Features

We learned and forgot how to make the perfect movie in 5 years

By
Head, Person, Face
Universal Pictures

I have said it forever: the 80s had the best music, the 90s had the best movies. I will die on this hill. The movie scene in the 90s was unbeatable. Action stars like Jean-Claude Van Damme, Keanu Reeves, Sylvester Stallone, and Bruce Willis brought some of the best thrill rides that are still being chased today. Comedy greats like Jim Carrey and Ben Stiller rose to stardom, and the romantic comedy reached its apex. Horror films like The Sixth Sense and Scream changed how scary movies were made. And movies like Fight Club pushed the boundaries of what audiences were ready for.

But near the end of that era, we, as a society, discovered something: the perfect movie. What made them perfect? Two and a half things. Number one: They crossed more than two genres. This wasn’t just an action comedy, a romantic adventure, or something that brought two big umbrellas together. This was something that felt like it had it all. Action. Comedy. Romance. Adventure. Maybe even a little horror. Number two: These felt like any age could watch these movies and have a good time. From twelve to twenty or fifteen to fifty, these were a good time at the theater for everyone. The half thing: Great performances by the entire cast. These weren’t led by one person at the front who brought up the median performance.

Recommended Videos

Had these happened before? Sure. On occasion, you would get the odd perfection in a movie like Raiders of the Lost Ark or Back to the Future. But from 1999-2004, Hollywood perfected this and then simply walked away to never succeed again.

The Mummy (1999)

Head, Person, Face
Universal Pictures

The first place we have to start is the prototype. The Mummy was a pivotal moment for a lot of movie buffs. I was sixteen when this movie came out, and I can remember the job it did on both boys and girls in the school. We all loved Evie, and they all loved O’Connell. But it was more than that. The chemistry and magnetism of the foursome fighting Imhotep aside, this film took everything we loved about movies like Indiana Jones and dialed everything from the horror to the romance and the adventure to the action up to eleven. And they did it without sacrificing a really kickass storyline.

A Knight’s Tale (2001)

Head, Person, Face
Sony Pictures

This one is another cultural moment that feels like it was lost in the annals of cinematic history until we lost Heath Ledger. Playing off The Cantaberry Tales by Geoffrey Chaucer, the story of William Thatcher changing his stars and becoming a knight by force of sheer will and audacity is intriguing enough. But add in some good ol’ classic rock music and the launching of careers of Alan Tudyk and Paul Bethany, and you have a movie that is hard not to go back to over and over. Another flick that took the action and comedy genres but mixed them with romance, adventure, and a good old-fashioned musical.

Ocean’s 11 (2001)

Clothing, Coat, Jacket
Warner Bros

Go ahead, name a better collection of actors than this movie. I bet you can’t. Not only was this the beginning of one of the best friendships in all of guy lore in George Clooney and Brad Pitt (their only competition is Matt Damon and Ben Affleck or Matthew McConaughey and Woody Harrelson), but it also featured a pre-Jason Bourne Matt Damon, Casey Affleck, Don Cheadle, and Scott Caan. Based on a Rat Pack movie of the same name, watching Hollywood’s biggest and brightest pull off the greatest heist of the century and the most understated comedic timing of the entire cast never gets old. And, other than the $12 million, Danny Ocean (Clooney) is doing all of this for the girl. Oh yeah, it’s only Julia Roberts.

Spider-Man (2002)

Urban, City, Person
Sony Pictures

Let’s be clear, Christopher Reeve and Richard Donner gave us the prototype of what a superhero/comic book movie should be. Then Michael Keaton and Tim Burton darkened it. Then Wesley Snipes and Michael Jai White took it reeeeallly dark. Then Patrick Stewart and his ensemble lived in the dark. Finally, Tobey Maguire and Sam Raimi came along and brightened everything. They gave us the perfect Spider-Man movie, and every age, whether you were a young fan of the cartoon or the father who started reading the comics decades before, flocked to the movies to watch it. To this day, Marvel is still using it. Most of the formulaic MCU origin movies pulled their process right from here. And it fell perfectly into the movie criteria with action, comedy, romance, and even a little science fiction.

Pirates of the Caribbean (2003)

Person, Face, Head
Disney

One look at that picture and you are already whistling the theme song, aren’t you? Are you not? You should be. This is one of the most influential movies of this list. The first appearance of Johnny Depp‘s Jack Sparrow, this launched a massive franchise and still today is one of the greatest characters of all time. But it filled a fantasy too. That is right, ladies, we have all fantasized about being pirates. Swashbuckling miscreants chasing the freedom of the seas and the treasures they contain. High seas adventure, sword-and-ship action, romance, and some supernatural thrills just for kicks.

National Treasure (2004)

Adult, Male, Man
Disney

Nic Cage is a lot. There is nobody in Hollywood who goes further with less fear than Cage. He has done everything from comedy to action and from interesting to downright weird. Some of them are stinkers, but when he is good, he is really good. This is a top movie in his filmography because it takes the fun of Indiana Jones and wraps it up into American History in a way that makes all of us history nerds salivate. Riley Poole is the kind of side character that serves as both the comedic sidekick and the stand-in for the audience to ask questions about things the average viewer may not know off the top of his head. Treasure hunting adventure, romance, comedy, and not to mention, Sean Bean making it to the end of a movie; this is the movie we needed more of.

Ironically, it is also the last on the list. Hollywood stopped. Not making these movies; all but A Knight’s Tale are part of franchises. But none of them seemed to capture the same kind of mix their originals did. They all leaned heavily one way or another, losing the mix of the perfect movie. For some reason, the magic of 1999-2004 got lost when the attention started shifting to the almighty blockbuster. A focus on specific audience demographics. A niche genre. Now that that 20-year experiment is over with and the MCU no longer dominates, maybe we can go back to the perfect movie.

Mark D McKee
Mark D McKee
Editor
Mark cut his teeth in the men’s style world when he sold suits first at box stores such as Men’s Wearhouse and Jos. A. Bank… Read Full Bio
Culture
The Manual Library: 10 action franchises to pass the cold weekends
Cross

Guys need to read more. Every time I start doomscrolling on TikTok or Instagram, the BookTok world is almost exclusively curated for women. That is why we need to start pushing our love for the bang-bang shoot-’em-ups. The debonair spy. The man on his own, cut off from all help, with only his skills and his wits to help him overcome the obstacles between him and his mission. As men, we love these escapes from the mundane lives and diving into the hero fantasy we all have. When women talk about the mental load they carry every day, men are usually creating our own mental load with safety and security: “What would I do if someone attacked from here? Or there?” Really, what we’re asking is, “What would Jason Bourne do?”

I tend to live in this place in my head when I need to escape from the world, but it is more fun to read about it. As the weather begins to turn and our evenings and weekends are colder and darker, we need something to occupy our time to get us from now until we can escape to the great outdoors in the spring. Here are some action and adventure book recommendations to get your heart going and quench that hero fantasy without doing anything dangerous.

Read more
Culture
5 lessons the military teaches you that you don’t learn in school
Saving Private Ryan

This is not a knock on public school. I went to public school. I liked public school. There is a system of life training built into the social fabric of school where we learn a lot about ourselves and the lives we are about to live. But the truth is we don’t learn a lot about life from the actual curriculum in the classroom. We learn that Paul Revere rode through the streets to alarm everyone that the British were coming. We learned that A squared plus B squared equals C squared. We even learned what an electron is. But there are precious little practical life lessons you can take with you. For me, I picked a lot of those through movies (a lot of parents are shaking their heads right now, but don’t knock it completely; there is a lot you can learn from movie perspectives) and my time in the United States Army.

The military teaches you a ton of practical life skills that will elevate your life when applied to your day-to-day. Here are five of them with a couple bonuses at the end.

Read more
Culture
Coffee is for closers: How Blake from Glengarry Glen Ross’s iconic scene teaches you more than sales
Alec Baldwin

There are moments in movies that stand the test of time. They are the first thing we think of when someone uses a turn of phrase or references something that sends your brain down the rabbit hole of movie quotes. These become cultural stalwarts and embed themselves into the very collective consciousness of our society. Some become known for certain industries. Wanna know what law enforcement is like? Check out Training Day or End of Watch. Wanna know what being a firefighter is like? Press play on Backdraft. How about military life? Full Metal Jacket, Jarhead, or Officer and a Gentleman. Want realism? Don’t watch any of them. But what about sales? There are a dozen movies that can teach you how to sell. Boiler Room. The Wolf of Wall Street. But none of them are as iconic as Glengarry Glen Ross. In fact, one scene in that movie every salesman should watch. Blake’s 8-minute tongue-lashing at the office underachievers.

Alec Baldwin took less than ten minutes to cement himself in the lexicon of sales mentors. Walking into the office, he looks at Ed Harris, Jack Lemmon, and Alan Alda and rips them to shreds when one pours himself some coffee.

Read more