Top 30 Movies of 1997

by bm8080 | created - 19 Mar 2013 | updated - 20 Mar 2013 | Public
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1. Donnie Brasco (1997)

R | 127 min | Biography, Crime, Drama

77 Metascore

An FBI undercover agent infiltrates the mob and finds himself identifying more with the Mafia life--at the expense of his regular one.

Director: Mike Newell | Stars: Al Pacino, Johnny Depp, Michael Madsen, Bruno Kirby

Votes: 332,356 | Gross: $41.91M

2. Good Will Hunting (1997)

R | 126 min | Drama, Romance

71 Metascore

Will Hunting, a janitor at M.I.T., has a gift for mathematics, but needs help from a psychologist to find direction in his life.

Director: Gus Van Sant | Stars: Robin Williams, Matt Damon, Ben Affleck, Stellan Skarsgård

Votes: 1,068,563 | Gross: $138.43M

3. L.A. Confidential (1997)

R | 138 min | Crime, Drama, Mystery

91 Metascore

As corruption grows in 1950s Los Angeles, three policemen - one strait-laced, one brutal, and one sleazy - investigate a series of murders with their own brand of justice.

Director: Curtis Hanson | Stars: Kevin Spacey, Russell Crowe, Guy Pearce, Kim Basinger

Votes: 617,998 | Gross: $64.62M

4. Boogie Nights (1997)

R | 155 min | Drama

86 Metascore

Back when sex was safe, pleasure was a business and business was booming, an idealistic porn producer aspires to elevate his craft to an art when he discovers a hot young talent.

Director: Paul Thomas Anderson | Stars: Mark Wahlberg, Julianne Moore, Burt Reynolds, Luis Guzmán

Votes: 282,140 | Gross: $26.40M

5. Titanic (1997)

PG-13 | 194 min | Drama, Romance

75 Metascore

A seventeen-year-old aristocrat falls in love with a kind but poor artist aboard the luxurious, ill-fated R.M.S. Titanic.

Director: James Cameron | Stars: Leonardo DiCaprio, Kate Winslet, Billy Zane, Kathy Bates

Votes: 1,280,844 | Gross: $659.33M

6. Gattaca (1997)

PG-13 | 106 min | Drama, Sci-Fi, Thriller

64 Metascore

A genetically inferior man assumes the identity of a superior one in order to pursue his lifelong dream of space travel.

Director: Andrew Niccol | Stars: Ethan Hawke, Uma Thurman, Jude Law, Gore Vidal

Votes: 323,314 | Gross: $12.34M

7. Chasing Amy (1997)

R | 113 min | Comedy, Drama, Romance

71 Metascore

Holden and Banky are comic book artists. Everything's going good for them until they meet Alyssa, also a comic book artist. Holden falls for her, but his hopes are crushed when he finds out she's a lesbian.

Director: Kevin Smith | Stars: Ben Affleck, Joey Lauren Adams, Ethan Suplee, Scott Mosier

Votes: 143,826 | Gross: $12.02M

8. The Fifth Element (1997)

PG-13 | 126 min | Action, Adventure, Sci-Fi

52 Metascore

In the colorful future, a cab driver unwittingly becomes the central figure in the search for a legendary cosmic weapon to keep Evil and Mr. Zorg at bay.

Director: Luc Besson | Stars: Bruce Willis, Milla Jovovich, Gary Oldman, Ian Holm

Votes: 506,448 | Gross: $63.54M

9. Open Your Eyes (1997)

R | 119 min | Drama, Mystery, Sci-Fi

A very handsome man finds the love of his life, but he suffers an accident and needs to have his face rebuilt by surgery after it is severely disfigured.

Director: Alejandro Amenábar | Stars: Eduardo Noriega, Penélope Cruz, Chete Lera, Fele Martínez

Votes: 73,263 | Gross: $0.37M

10. Austin Powers: International Man of Mystery (1997)

PG-13 | 89 min | Adventure, Comedy

51 Metascore

A world-class playboy and part-time secret agent from the 1960s emerges after thirty years in a cryogenic state to battle with his nemesis Dr. Evil.

Director: Jay Roach | Stars: Mike Myers, Elizabeth Hurley, Michael York, Mimi Rogers

Votes: 257,237 | Gross: $53.88M

11. As Good as It Gets (1997)

PG-13 | 139 min | Comedy, Drama, Romance

67 Metascore

A single mother and waitress, a misanthropic author, and a gay artist form an unlikely friendship after the artist is assaulted in a robbery.

Director: James L. Brooks | Stars: Jack Nicholson, Helen Hunt, Greg Kinnear, Cuba Gooding Jr.

Votes: 318,510 | Gross: $148.48M

12. Funny Games (1997)

Not Rated | 108 min | Crime, Drama, Thriller

69 Metascore

Two violent young men take a mother, father, and son hostage in their vacation cabin and force them to play sadistic "games" with one another for their own amusement.

Director: Michael Haneke | Stars: Susanne Lothar, Ulrich Mühe, Arno Frisch, Frank Giering

Votes: 84,138

13. Contact (1997)

PG | 150 min | Drama, Mystery, Sci-Fi

62 Metascore

Dr. Ellie Arroway, after years of searching, finds conclusive radio proof of extraterrestrial intelligence, sending plans for a mysterious machine.

Director: Robert Zemeckis | Stars: Jodie Foster, Matthew McConaughey, Tom Skerritt, John Hurt

Votes: 293,183 | Gross: $100.92M

14. The Spanish Prisoner (1997)

PG | 110 min | Drama, Mystery, Thriller

71 Metascore

An employee who develops a lucrative secret process for his corporation is tempted to betray the company when higher ups attempt to take the process from him. Dastardly intrigue ensues.

Director: David Mamet | Stars: Steve Martin, Ben Gazzara, Campbell Scott, Ricky Jay

Votes: 25,862 | Gross: $10.20M

15. Starship Troopers (1997)

R | 129 min | Action, Adventure, Sci-Fi

52 Metascore

Humans, in a fascist militaristic future, wage war with giant alien bugs.

Director: Paul Verhoeven | Stars: Casper Van Dien, Denise Richards, Dina Meyer, Jake Busey

Votes: 321,285 | Gross: $54.81M

16. Wag the Dog (1997)

R | 97 min | Comedy, Drama

74 Metascore

Shortly before an election, a spin-doctor and a Hollywood producer join efforts to fabricate a war in order to cover up a Presidential sex scandal.

Director: Barry Levinson | Stars: Dustin Hoffman, Robert De Niro, Anne Heche, Woody Harrelson

Votes: 88,484 | Gross: $43.02M

17. Kiss the Girls (1997)

R | 115 min | Crime, Drama, Mystery

46 Metascore

Police hunting for a serial kidnapper are helped when a victim manages to escape for the first time.

Director: Gary Fleder | Stars: Morgan Freeman, Ashley Judd, Cary Elwes, Alex McArthur

Votes: 81,228 | Gross: $60.53M

18. Selena (1997)

PG | 127 min | Biography, Drama, Music

67 Metascore

The true story of Selena, a Texas-born Tejano singer who rose from cult status to performing at the Astrodome, as well as having chart-topping albums on the Latin music charts.

Director: Gregory Nava | Stars: Jennifer Lopez, Edward James Olmos, Jon Seda, Jackie Guerra

Votes: 31,644 | Gross: $35.42M

19. Jackie Brown (1997)

R | 154 min | Crime, Drama, Thriller

62 Metascore

A flight attendant with a criminal past gets nabbed by the ATF for smuggling. Under pressure to become an informant against the illegal arms dealer she works for, she must find a way to secure her future without getting killed.

Director: Quentin Tarantino | Stars: Pam Grier, Samuel L. Jackson, Robert Forster, Bridget Fonda

Votes: 375,120 | Gross: $39.67M

20. Air Force One (1997)

R | 124 min | Action, Drama, Thriller

62 Metascore

Communist radicals hijack Air Force One with the U.S. President and his family on board. The Vice President negotiates from Washington D.C., while the President, a veteran, fights to rescue the hostages on board.

Director: Wolfgang Petersen | Stars: Harrison Ford, Gary Oldman, Glenn Close, Wendy Crewson

Votes: 210,150 | Gross: $172.96M

21. Men in Black (1997)

PG-13 | 98 min | Action, Adventure, Comedy

72 Metascore

James, an NYC cop, is hired by Agent K of a secret government agency that monitors extraterrestrial life on Earth. Together, they must recover an item that has been stolen by an intergalactic villain.

Director: Barry Sonnenfeld | Stars: Tommy Lee Jones, Will Smith, Linda Fiorentino, Vincent D'Onofrio

Votes: 613,113 | Gross: $250.69M

22. Con Air (1997)

R | 115 min | Action, Crime, Thriller

52 Metascore

Newly-paroled ex-con and former U.S. Ranger Cameron Poe finds himself trapped in a prisoner-transport plane when the passengers seize control.

Director: Simon West | Stars: Nicolas Cage, John Cusack, John Malkovich, Colm Meaney

Votes: 319,360 | Gross: $101.12M

23. The Rainmaker (1997)

PG-13 | 135 min | Crime, Drama, Thriller

72 Metascore

An underdog lawyer takes on a fraudulent insurance company.

Director: Francis Ford Coppola | Stars: Matt Damon, Danny DeVito, Claire Danes, Jon Voight

Votes: 82,903 | Gross: $45.86M

24. Deconstructing Harry (1997)

R | 96 min | Comedy

62 Metascore

Suffering from writer's block and eagerly awaiting his writing award, Harry Block remembers events from his past and scenes from his best-selling books as characters, real and fictional, come back to haunt him.

Director: Woody Allen | Stars: Woody Allen, Judy Davis, Julia Louis-Dreyfus, Stephanie Roth Haberle

Votes: 47,825 | Gross: $10.69M

25. Face/Off (1997)

R | 138 min | Action, Crime, Sci-Fi

82 Metascore

To foil a terrorist plot, FBI agent Sean Archer assumes the identity of the criminal Castor Troy who murdered his son through facial transplant surgery, but the crook wakes up prematurely and vows revenge.

Director: John Woo | Stars: John Travolta, Nicolas Cage, Joan Allen, Alessandro Nivola

Votes: 401,005 | Gross: $112.23M

26. The Ice Storm (1997)

R | 112 min | Drama

72 Metascore

In suburban New Canaan, Connecticut, 1973, middle-class families experimenting with casual sex and substance abuse find their lives beyond their control.

Director: Ang Lee | Stars: Kevin Kline, Joan Allen, Sigourney Weaver, Henry Czerny

Votes: 59,978 | Gross: $7.84M

27. Lolita (1997)

R | 137 min | Drama, Romance

46 Metascore

An English professor falls for a minor, and has to face the consequences of his actions.

Director: Adrian Lyne | Stars: Jeremy Irons, Dominique Swain, Melanie Griffith, Frank Langella

Votes: 66,571 | Gross: $1.40M

28. Grosse Pointe Blank (1997)

R | 107 min | Action, Comedy, Crime

76 Metascore

Martin Blank is a professional assassin. He is sent on a mission to a small Detroit suburb, Grosse Pointe, and, by coincidence, his ten-year high school reunion party is taking place there at the same time.

Director: George Armitage | Stars: John Cusack, Minnie Driver, Dan Aykroyd, Joan Cusack

Votes: 99,637 | Gross: $28.01M

29. Lost Highway (1997)

R | 134 min | Drama, Mystery, Thriller

53 Metascore

Anonymous videotapes presage a musician's murder conviction, and a gangster's girlfriend leads a mechanic astray.

Director: David Lynch | Stars: Bill Pullman, Patricia Arquette, John Roselius, Louis Eppolito

Votes: 153,245 | Gross: $3.80M

30. Love and Death on Long Island (1997)

PG-13 | 93 min | Comedy, Drama

81 Metascore

Giles De'Ath (Sir John Hurt) is a widower who doesn't like anything modern. He goes to movies and falls in love with movie star Ronnie Bostock (Jason Priestly). He then investigates ... See full summary »

Director: Richard Kwietniowski | Stars: John Hurt, Jason Priestley, Fiona Loewi, Sheila Hancock

Votes: 4,157 | Gross: $2.54M



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