1. Fargo
Year of Release: 1996
Overall Rating: 3.2 out of 4 stars
Language: English
Genre: Crime/Thriller
MPAA Rating: R
Director: Joel Coen
Actors: William H. Macy, Steve Buscemi, Frances McDormand, Peter Stormare, John Carroll Lynch, Tony Denman
Plot: A an indebted man hires hit men to kidnap his wife when it all goes wrong and he tries to fix the problems.
2. Trainspotting
Year of Release: 1996
Overall Rating: 3.1 out of 4 stars
Language: English
Genre: Crime/Drama
MPAA Rating: R
Director: Danny Boyle
Actors: Ewan McGregor, Ewen Bremner, Jonny Lee Miller, Kevin McKidd, Robert Carlyle, Kelly Macdonald
Plot: A man is deep into drugs and drug dealing as he tries to get out despite the influence of his addict and his pals.
3. Sling Blade
Year of Release: 1996
Overall Rating: 3.1 out of 4 stars
Language: English
Genre: Drama
MPAA Rating: R
Director: Billy Bob Thornton
Actors: Billy Bob Thornton, Dwight Yoakam, John Ritter, J.T. Walsh, Robert Duvall, Lucas Black
Plot: An institutionalized man is released to live in a small community and start a new life, even though he killed his parents when he was very young.
4. Primal Fear
Year of Release: 1996
Overall Rating: 3.1 out of 4 stars
Language: English
Genre: Drama/Thriller
MPAA Rating: R
Director: Gregory Hoblit
Actors: Richard Gere, Laura Linney, Edward Norton, John Mahoney, Frances McDormand, Alfre Woodard
Plot: A powerful, hotshot defense attorney takes on a case of a altar boy accused of murdering a respected Catholic archbishop who cared for him.
5. Ghost in the Shell ( Kôkaku kidôtai )
Year of Release: 1996
Overall Rating: 3.0 out of 4 stars
Language: Japanese
Genre: Anime/Action
MPAA Rating: R
Director: Mamoru Oshii
Actors: Mimi Woods, Richard Epcar (as George Richard), William Knight (as William Frederick), Tom Wyner (as Abe Lasser), Phil Williams, Christopher Joyce
Plot: In the year 2029 the world has become completely information oriented and the world's worst criminals are hackers. Section 9 is formed is formed to combat these criminals, made up of cyborgs with the ability to access any network. When a rogue virtual agent, The Puppet Master, is released it must be destroyed before it gets out into the real world.
6. Secrets & Lies
Year of Release: 1996
Overall Rating: 3.1 out of 4 stars
Language: English
Genre: Comedy/Drama
MPAA Rating: R
Director: Mike Leigh
Actors: Timothy Spall, Phyllis Logan, Brenda Blethyn, Claire Rushbrook, Marianne Jean-Baptiste, Elizabeth Berrington
Plot: Adopted as a child, the now-grown up and successful Hortense thinks it is
time to track down her birth mother. It leads to a the rather lonely,
isolated working-class Cynthia - who does everything she can to deny the
lineage even as it exposes secrets long buried.
7. Paradise Lost: The Child Murders at Robin Hood Hills
Year of Release: 1996
Overall Rating: 3.1 out of 4 stars
Language: English
Genre: Documentary/Crime
MPAA Rating: NR
Director: Joe Berlinger, Bruce Sinofsky
Actors: Joe Berlinger, Bruce Sinofsky, Jessie Miskelly, Jason Baldwin, Damien Wayne Echols, Christopher Byers
Plot: When a triple murder rocks the community of West Memphis, Arkansas, three boys with ties to Satanism are charged with the crime. Seen as guilty by man before the trail began, Paradise Lost takes a look at every angle and how justice can easily be clouded.
8. Independence Day
Year of Release: 1996
Overall Rating: 2.8 out of 4 stars
Language: English
Genre: Action/Sci-Fi
MPAA Rating: PG-13
Director: Roland Emmerich
Actors: Will Smith, Jeff Goldblum, Bill Pullman, Judd Hirsch, Randy Quaid, Mary McDonnell
Plot: The world watches as alien ships hover over major cities world-wide - but their intentions are anything but peaceful.
9. A Time to Kill
Year of Release: 1996
Overall Rating: 2.9 out of 4 stars
Language: English
Genre: Crime/Drama
MPAA Rating: R
Director: Joel Schumacher
Actors: Matthew McConaughey, Sandra Bullock, Samuel L. Jackson, Kevin Spacey, Oliver Platt, Charles S. Dutton
Plot: In the town of Clanton, Mississippi a young black girl is raped and beaten by two white men. The father, deciding to take justice in his own hands, kills the men in court. With racial tensions about to break on both sides, a young lawyer takes on the case but it may cost him his practice or even his life.
10. Breaking the Waves
Year of Release: 1996
Overall Rating: 3.0 out of 4 stars
Language: English
Genre: Drama/Romance
MPAA Rating: R
Director: Lars von Trier
Actors: Emily Watson, Stellan Skarsgård, Katrin Cartlidge, Jean-Marc Barr, Adrian Rawlins, Udo Kier
Plot: In a deeply religious community the naive Bess enters into a relationship with oil-rig worker Jan. When she prays to have Jan stay home for good - her prayers are answered in the form of an accident that leaves Jan paralyzed from the neck down. She stays, but there is no longer any physical contact between the two. Jan urges her to take on a lover and tell him the details - but as the trysts become more intimate and deviant, Bess if convinced it is all a part of God's plan.
