Putting together last week's list of my favorite screenplays of the 2000's was relatively easy. I came up with about ten worthy candidates and narrowed from there. When I started putting together this week's list -- my favorite screenplays of the 1990's -- things got a lot more complicated. I had a much larger list of worthy candidates to choose from. It made me realize that a) the 90's, particularly the late 90's, was a genuinely incredible time for film, and b) I was going to have to split my list into two halves: 1995 -- 1999 and 1990 -- 1994.

So, in support of all the great screenwriters currently on strike, what follows is my favorite screenplays produced between 1995 and 1999. Read that last sentence carefully! If you've got movies you'd add to or subtract from my list, I would love to hear them, but make sure your choice fits the criteria. On my 2000's list, I was getting comments like "How DARE you not include Citizen Kane, you freaking idiot?"

Now then, with all apologies to the scripts it killed me to leave off (Office Space, A Simple Plan, As Good As it Gets, Chasing Amy, Lone Star, Three Kings, Swingers, Jackie Brown, Kingpin, I could go on and on), here is my alphabetical list:

Sure, it's easy enough to find the up-side of the handsome hunks of horror film. Hunks are easy. They're (mostly) hot, with their nicely whitened teeth and their hair product-styled to perfection, their six-pack abs, their ... sorry, where was I? Oh, right. Hunks versus Slashers. Jeff and Monika have already brought you the hottest hunks and chicks of horror; guess who drew the short straw and had to pick the slashers? (Actually, I volunteered for this one, so I guess that says something freaky about me ... ) My mission: to determine the hottest horror slashers (at least, according to me). These are the bad boys of horror you just can't stop thinking about, the ones who keep popping up in your dreams ... or nightmares. Whether they slash with blades on their fingers, roque mallets, or your basic kitchen knife, these are the boys you don't want to bring home to introduce to the folks over Sunday dinner ... unless you want your family to be the main course.

Anthony Perkins as Norman Bates (Psycho) My mother always told me: Never date a mama's boy. Little Normie's devotion to his mother was sweet, sure, but his methods of showing it left a little to be desired. But you have to admit, there's something about a guy who might stab you through the shower curtain if the mood strikes that guarantees that you'll never be bored while getting ready for your big date night. Anthony Perkins' striking performance as Norman Bates set the bar for horror slashers for decades -- even after all these years, watching Psycho still sends shivers up your spine. (View the trailer for Psycho or go straight to the gallery!)

Doug Bradley as Pinhead (Hellraiser) Sure, all those nails stuck into his skull give new meaning to the word "hammered" -- not to mention making it a little tricksy to coordinate outfits for those hot dates to movie premieres -- but at least, in his own bizarrely twisted way, Pinhead had a sense of fair play. Of course, if you make the wrong choice, your evening is gonna go downhill in a hurry. There's nothing like giant fishhooks pulling your flesh 14 different ways to put a damper on date night. On the plus side, though, you're probably pretty safe being walked home after dinner by a guy who looks like he had a close encounter with a nail gun, on purpose. (View the trailer for Hellraiser ... or go straight to the gallery!)

Over at Cracked.com, they've made a list of the top ten worst twist endings of all time. Obviously that list has a lot of spoilers, but I'm going to attempt to write this post without revealing any of them. Why? To make sure you go over there, of course. So, if you're not worried about ruining the endings to some movies you probably shouldn't see anyway, then head over and read the hilariously confusing explanations, or attempts at explanations, and/or how some endings don't make enough sense to bother with explanations. I will let you in on the titles of the movies, just in case you are interested in seeing any of them in the future and would like to go in spoiler free. The ten, in order from "least asinine" to "most asinine", are: Stay (2005); High Tension (2003); Signs (2002); Hide and Seek (2005) and Secret Window (2004), which tie for #7, because they're considered the exact same plot (is that spoiling it for you guys? probably -- oh well, I tried); The Forgotten (2004); Basic (2003); Perfect Stranger (2007); The Number 23 (2007); Planet of the Apes (2001); and The Life of David Gale (2003).

I haven't seen the number one movie, but I can't imagine it's worse than the others that I have seen, especially Planet of the Apes. Basically, I think Cracked.com considers it the worst because it stars Kevin Spacey, who also starred in The Usual Suspects, which pretty much, along with The Sixth Sense, obviously, got Hollywood on this crappy twist kick to begin with (He was also in Se7en, which had another so-so twist ending). Look at those films; they all came out between 2001 and 2007. And what was the most common twist? The main character did it. Either he or she has a split personality, or amnesia, or suffers from some other psychological ailment. Other idiotic yet easily written twists include: aliens did it; it's all a dream (as if you need to steal from Bob Newhart, come on!); and, in the fashion of Suspects, it's all just made-up stories. Personally, I'm upset to not see my least favorite twist ending. It involved a whole crop of great actors who just so happened to be explained as existing inside the imagination of some mental patient. That one had the split personality plus the dream plus the Suspects idea that none of what we watched is real. Can you name it?

As you may have noticed from some of my previous posts here at Cinematical, I love technology. Gadgets, gizmos, devices and the machine that goes "Bing!" are among some of my favorite things of all time. Of course, as I also have a love for all things film, when I can combine these two passions, it makes things even more perfect. So, its especially interesting to me when I get to take a peek inside the creative process to see how technology is used to help make films happen.

One such example of this is currently up over at Apple's Final Cut Pro site. There, as we previously noted, director David Fincher, of Fight Club, Se7en and Alien 3 fame, explains how he used Final Cut Pro to edit his most recent film Zodiac. It's an interesting glimpse into the technology of post-production as well as into Fincher's creative process. With Zodiac, Fincher shot the film digitally using the Viper cam and then it was edited with Final Cut Studio -- a camera system that's only been around for a few years and software you can buy today and use at home on your own Mac. Pretty cool.

Yes, I realize the video is completely pro-Apple but what can I tell you -- it's Apple's website. Still, with all the pro-Apple spin, the video is pretty informative and makes you think about the current state of filmmaking technology and how it benefits and enhances a filmmaker's creativity. Really, do you expect them to tell you how great it is to edit feature films using Windows Movie Maker or some other system like AVID? I don't think so. Enjoy the video.

Geek news I found while taking out the Christmas tree:

-- Marvel's newest foray into the world of animated superhero films, The Invincible Iron Man, has a collection of new material over at the official website. Who doesn't love animated Marvel?
-- The Japanese version of the Transformers movie trailer is on YouTube, as is seemingly every piece of anything filmed by mankind these days. It comes minus a few scenes from the American version, but plus a few extra bits we didn't get.
-- Speaking of the popular video sharing site, the official Hellboy Animated webpage suggests you swing by the YT for an early look at Hellboy: Blood and Iron.
-- According to CBR, talented comics writer David Mack is turning his pen to the sixth installment of the graphic novel series Se7en. This is surely a dark and powerful union of writer and material.
-- AICN is running with a rumor claiming Alan Dale has landed some sort of role in The Dark Knight. Nothing but vague rumor to this one so far.

According to the folks over at Bloody Disgusting, they have in their hands a treatment for a film called Virtue that's currently being sent around to different writers. Okay, nothing new there, however, they claim this script is in fact a prequel to the hit 1995 pic Se7en. Say what? Now, supposedly, this has nothing to do with those graphic novels we talked about over the summer. Oh no, this is the real deal ... or so they say.

Oh, but here's the kicker: The film will not be marketed as a prequel. Instead, they will include a "revelation" of some sorts towards the end of the pic that lets everyone know they're watching a prequel to Se7en. Now, either someone forgot to take their stupid medicine or those demons from BD are messing with us. As the Movie Blog points out, why on earth would a studio try to keep a prequel to a highly successful film a secret for that long? And, even if for some odd reason they voted to go that route, a secret like that would find its way onto the net in no time -- I mean, the sucker is already out of the bag and the freaking script hasn't even been written yet. BD promises to write up a mini-review of the treatment soon, so I guess we'll see what this so-called Virtue is all about. Stay tuned to Cinematical for more details as they become available.