Back in action: '90s thrillers to be featured at the Jerusalem Cinematheque

It’s almost August, and as the temperature soars, so does our appetite for big summer blockbusters. That’s why the Jerusalem Cinematheque is bringing back some of the great action films of the 1990s, many of which have become genre classics.

It kicks off on August 5 with Heat, by Michael Mann, a cops vs robbers story with an incredible cast. Robert De Niro plays a master thief, and Al Pacino is the dogged police detective on his trail. Their cat-and-mouse game includes a famous showpiece scene in which the two main characters sit down for a cup of coffee and have a chat that is, in the words of Cher Horowitz, the heroine of Clueless, another movie released that year, “way existential.” The supporting cast is equally impressive, and includes Jon Voight, Val Kilmer, and a very young Natalie Portman.

Quentin Tarantino’s first film, Reservoir Dogs, is a gripping, brutal, and at times funny story about a bungled robbery, and it will be shown on August 8 and 10. The cast includes Harvey Keitel, Tim Roth, Michael Madsen, Steve Buscemi, and Tarantino himself, as well as the film’s producer, Lawrence Bender, who was just the guest of honor at the Jerusalem Film Festival. This movie was like a shot of adrenaline that woke up the low-key, tasteful indie movie scene; and because it has been imitated so much, it’s hard to convey how original it was.

No one knows what the title means, but some have suggested it came from Tarantino’s days as a clerk in a video store, where staffers mispronounced the title of the Louis Malle movie Au Revoir Les Enfants. Tarantino has often turned up at screenings of his movies in Israel, but the cinematheque says it isn’t expecting him.

Action movies can be enjoyable to make as well as to watch. Harrison Ford said that when he was filming Air Force One, in which he played a US president kidnapped by commie baddies, the cast and crew called it “Air Force Fun.”

Even if you haven’t seen Bryan Singer’s The Usual Suspects (1995) since it was released 30 years ago, you’ll never forget the twist ending. The movie tells the story of a group of criminals who get arrested and are interrogated by police, who want to find out who is the mastermind behind a crime ring. It has an unusually fine cast, which includes Kevin Spacey, Gabriel Byrne, Chazz Palminteri, Giancarlo Esposito, and Benicio Del Toro. If you go with a friend who has never seen it, don’t give it away, no matter how tempted you are.

The Mission: Impossible movie franchise launched in 1996 with the first film, which stars Tom Cruise and was directed by Brian De Palma. Most still consider it the best film in the franchise, although some feel that the second installment, by John Woo, was even better. But the first one is being shown here, and Cruise’s costars include Emmanuelle Beart and Ving Rhames.

Action movies are mostly a boy’s club, but there are a few here featuring gutsy women. Who could forget Jodie Foster’s vulnerable, brave FBI agent, Clarice Starling in The Silence of the Lambs? Her costar, Anthony Hopkins, created the more iconic character Dr. Hannibal Lecter, but without Clarice to identify with and worry about, the movie wouldn’t have had the impact it did.

Frances McDormand won her first Oscar playing Marge, the devoted, very pregnant small-town Midwestern police detective in the Coen brothers’ Fargo (1996). This is the only movie I can think of where a major character is pregnant and doesn’t give birth in the movie, which is just one of the reasons this brilliant, quirky thriller is so interesting.

Bound is a sexy, violent thriller that was the first feature film by the sibling directing duo known then as the Wachowski brothers and now as the Wachowski sisters, Lana and Lilly, best known for the Matrix franchise.

Jennifer Tilly plays a mobster’s trophy girlfriend who falls in love with a lesbian plumber played by Gina Gershon. Together, they conspire to steal millions in cash and blame it on the mobster boyfriend (Joe Pantoliano, who later played Ralph on The Sopranos). It’s a tightly plotted neo-noir movie, with no hint of the special effects and sci-fi that have since defined the Wachowskis’ careers.