I'm pretty sure that everyone else had a glimpse of it in 2009 - the year of the vampires.
I looked at the popular movies since 1990 and noticed that there's a theme or topic that's common in most of them. Like in 1990 the most popular movies were:
1 Ghost
2 Home Alone
3 Pretty Woman
4 Dances with Wolves
5 Total Recall
6 Back to the Future Part III
7 Die Hard 2: Die Harder
8 Presumed Innocent
9 Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles
10 Kindergarten Cop
Now what's common in most of these? Let's see... In Ghost a guy gets murdered, also it's a love story. In Home Alone there's a pair of criminals after a kid - also it's at Christmas, presumably when people should show their love to each other. In Pretty Woman we watched the luckiest prostitute in the world fall in love. Dances with Wolves doesn't have a clear criminal story, but if we look at it in the way that it's in the times when a white guy befriending Indians is looked at like some kind of pariah, we could include it in the topic. Also it's a love story. Total Recall... again a movie about crime. Back to the Future 3... starts out with the doctor about to get killed. Die Hard... do I need to say it? And the rest of the movies go also without an explanation... I guess 1990 was a year for crime... and love.
1991...
1 Terminator 2: Judgment Day
2 Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves
3 Beauty and the Beast
4 Hook
5 The Silence of the Lambs
6 JFK
7 The Addams Family
8 Cape Fear
9 Hot Shots!
10 City Slickers
Terminator must protect John Connor in this episode after he tried to kill his mother in the first. Robin Hood helps out the poor. Beast falls in love and realizes that being an angry, bad guy is not something to be proud about. Peter Pan must return to Neverland to save his children. An FBI cadet must get help from one criminal to find another one. A district attorney has to save the day after the Kennedy assassination. The Addams family is known by everyone, right? In this movie they have to save their family fortune from a con artist. A corporate attorney (HA!) is stalked by a psychotic rapist for putting him in jail. a talented but unstable fighter pilot must overcome the ghosts of his father and save a mission sabotaged by greedy weapons manufacturers. Two radio ads salesmen have to learn a couple of things about life. Sooo... what's common in these? Crime (again) and one or a few not too normal people who have to grow the fu*k up along their way.
1992!
1 Aladdin
2 The Bodyguard
3 Home Alone 2: Lost in New York
4 Basic Instinct
5 Lethal Weapon 3
6 Batman Returns
7 A Few Good Men
8 Sister Act
9 Bram Stoker’s Dracula
10 Wayne’s World
Aladdin - a kid that has to grow the fu*k up, and who also has an affair with a gal. A pop singer that has to grow the fu*k up - and has an affair with her bodyguard. Another kid - who is both freakishly clever and naive at the same time... and has to grow up. A former rock star who was killed during sex. A police officer (who sometimes has to grow the fu*k up) meets his match in the form of Lorna Cole, a beautiful but tough policewoman. Two people with personality disorders (yes, I do mean Batman and Catwoman) fight each other. A lazy lawyer has to defend two stubborn marines who have been arrested for murdering a colleague. A singer is put into a convent trough the witness protection program. (God I love that movie!) Dracula moves to England to have sex with a bunch of virgins. Oh also, there's a stupid lawyer who has to grow the fu*k up. And, last but not least two guys who need to grow the fu*k up, and also a bass guitarist. So...?
1993...
1 Jurassic Park
2 Mrs. Doubtfire
3 The Fugitive
4 Schindler’s List
5 The Firm
6 Indecent Proposal
7 Cliffhanger
8 Sleepless in Seattle
9 Philadelphia
10 The Pelican Brief
Because of an idiot a bunch of dinosaurs attack people. An idiot ruins a family, then saves the day. Another guy is accused of murder, then saves the day. A greedy businessman saves a bunch of Jews, s woman sleeps with a rich guy for money, a group of people are searching for money... and a huge amount of lawyers. Almost every one of these movies has lawyers in it, in fact.
'94.
1 The Lion King
2 Forrest Gump
3 True Lies
4 The Mask
5 Speed
6 The Flintstones
7 Dumb and Dumber
8 Four Weddings and a Funeral
9 Interview with the Vampire: The Vampire Chronicles
10 Clear and Present Danger
All of these... movies about how the stupidest people could find love among other things.
'95 was a good year to experience new worlds... with Toy Story, Apollo 13, Pocahontas, Casper, Waterworld - and even Jumanji.
'96 was full of movies with unlikely heroes - Independence Day, Twister, Mission: Impossible, The Rock, The Hunchback of Notre Dame, the 101 Dalmatians, Ransom, Jerry Maguire, and Eraser.
'97 was for the emotional people a year worth living for, with movies like Titanic, As Good As It Gets, Good Will Hunting, and why not, the Fifth Element... (Because damn it, that was one hell of a movie!) And with movies like Men in Black, Air Force one, and the Full Monty (I knew I saw Carlyle before somewhere!) added to the best movies that year - I guess the common topic was again about people who weren't supposed to be in the place they managed to find themselves.
'98 was a year for war and catastrophe - I guess after seeing Titanic people didn't have enough of... well... other people dieing. That year there were movies like Armageddon, Saving Private Ryan, Godzilla, Mulan, and Deep Impact (Gee where did I saw that one before?).
In '99 people could have their fill of really fu*ked up movies, with awesome twists in their plots. I'm talking about The Sixth Sense, The Matrix, and Star Wars. (All of which I find incredibly boring movies...) But then again, a year when Austin Powers is in the top 10 must be a twisted alternative reality...
2000 was a year of action - Mission Impossible, Gladiator, The Perfect Storm, X-Men, and What Lies Beneath were sure to give you quite an adrenalin rush.
After that comes my favorite year of all - the year that made teenager's life oh so sweet. The year that had both Harry Potter, and The Lord of the Rings. The year that had Shrek, Ocean’s Eleven, Pearl Harbor, The Mummy 2, Jurassic Park 3, Planet of the Apes, and Hannibal.
And let's admit it... after that year they must have considered that they hit the jackpot. And I'm saying this, because the trend continued into the next year too... and let's step it up a notch... 2002 is the year of the nerds. The Lord of the Rings 2, Harry Potter 2, Spider-Man, Star Wars Episode 2 Attack of the Clones, Men in Black 2, Signs, and Ice Age all in a bunch. Ah those were the years... and it wasn't over, cause 2003 came with The Lord of the Rings 3, Finding Nemo, Matrix 2, Pirates of the Caribbean, Bruce Almighty, Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines, Matrix 3, and X-Men 2.
2004 was the year people finally realized that movies made after books and comics are pretty popular, so they made Harry Potter 3, Spider-Man 2, The Passion of the Christ and Troy. To this they added The Chronicles of Narnia, War of the Worlds, King Kong, Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, and Batman Begins the next year, and Pirates of the Caribbean 2, The Da Vinci Code, X-Men The Last Stand, and Superman Returns in 2006. Also, the next year the goodies were still around, with POTC3, HP, Spider man, Shrek, Transformers, and Ratatouille... Sadly, there were a bunch of other movies too, and I think that was the last year anything decent came out of the movie industry.
2008 was a year that practically begged for attention. They probably tried to save the day with continuations to movies that already should have been considered finished, with movies like the Dark Knight, Indiana Jones, Mamma Mia, Madagascar, and Narnia.
2009 was just as unoriginal, Hp, Ice age, Transformers, Angels and Demons, Night at the Museum, X-men... and, of course it was the year of all those stinking vampires. (As I said... we're all going downhill)
2010 was the year of the supernatural,and of superheroes with movies like Iron Man, Tron, HP, Alice in Wonderland, Kick-Ass, Clash of the Titans, Legion, Prince of Persia, The Wolfman and so on and so forth... It's also a continuation of the vampire era, and probably this was the year the fairy tale stories finally start to get people interested.
2011 continued with this trend again, but with an even worse fall from the graces than before. Sucker Punch, Captain America, Fu*king Twilight, Real Steal, Thor, Green Lantern, Cowboys and Aliens (Really?), Transformers, Super 8 and probably the worst continuation of a perfectly good series - POTC (how could they fu*k that up so badly?).
And so we get to 2012. It's still a bit early but I'm confident I know what this year is all about...
Just look at the upcoming movies and popular T.V shows...
I'm actually hoping this year will bring another golden age in movies. Well, if nothing else they will sure bring our childhoods back with so many stories about fairy tales.
