What is the most quintessential 90s movie?
What is the most quintessential 90s movie?
Personally I'd go with Independence Day if I had to pick a movie that felt the most 90s.
Clerks
Clerks is a lot closer to real people's experience of the '90s, as opposed to quintessential '90s fictions, like Pulp Fiction or Hackers.
I almost said Mallrats but Clerks is also pretty iconic for the era.
I came in here to post Mallrats, so you're not wrong on that either.
Clerks is definitely more iconic, but it feels like the transition from the 80s into the 90s. I put my vote with Mallrats, which is 90s through and thorough - hell, there's even a 90210 reference delivered directly to Shannen Doherty.
💯. If you grew up in the 90s, this movie captures the experience pretty well.
Yall probably forgot about Hackers because it's a documentary but it's pretty 90s
HACK THE PLANET!
the fashion, music and hyperbolic/complete misunderstood depiction of cyber security cements Hackers as the quintessential 90s movie
Terminator 2 is in a weird spot since it's a sequel to an 80s movie but is itself a 90s movie. But I'd nominate it for this award.
It's a quintessential 90s movie sequel to a quintessential 80s movie
And Terminator 3 follows that trend: A quintessential 00's movie - as forgettable as many other sequels from the same period, despite previous titles in the series being great
Back when it came out, 1996 seemed about the same as 2027 feels now. Near future, who knows what could be different.
It’s an interesting choice, because there was really no present-day sci fi tech in the movie save for a video game that articulated as the player flew a plane (which may have existed but I hadn’t seen before in 1992).
So they chose to make the movie take place in the present day technology-wise, but still in the future. Just slightly in the future.
Clueless, anyone?
Ugh, as if.
90s, or timeless?
It's a 90s movie about the internet, but it's all technobabble magic and represented in a very made-for-TV way. Just the right balance of interesting plot and complete cringe which is pretty much how I remember the 90s.
Can I add Johnny Mnemonic to this list? Classic Keanu
"I NEED to get on-line. I NEED a computer!"
"Hack the planet!"
I’d add Speed. Sandra Bullock was the 90s it actress. And Keanu has already been mentioned in a couple of essential 90s titles.
“Mozart’s Ghost! The hottest new site on the internet!”
Space Jam, for sure.
The fifth element
Yeah, the 90s were a good time for movies that could not have been mainstream in any other decade. I'd place Judge Dredd, Demolition Man and Total Recall in the same "corny, but excellent" league as the 5th Element.
Then you had unofficial double features of sorts: Smoke/ Blue In The Face, Casino/ Goodfellas.
12 Monkeys needs to be mentioned as well, it's probably the most palatable movie on my list.
In the "disconcerting, but unforgettable" league, I'd place As Good As It Gets, The Crossing Guard and, of course, the grisly "8 mm."
Wayne's World
Feels leftover 80s to me. Or that weird transition period
that weird transition period
You’re describing the 90’s
When I saw it years later I misunderstood what Wayne meant when, talking of Stacey having bought him a gunrack and being mental, he says "get the net!"
To late 90s me it sounded like he was talking about the internet, sarcastically telling Stacey to "get the internet" as in "be cool, get with the times, stop being a dork"
When pointed out to the me he's referring to the much older trope of catching crazy people with giant butterfly nets, I realised how solidly pre-internet Wayne's World is. And can't be quintessentially 90s for me for that reason.
Pulp Fiction.
Has an 80ies vibe to me. I had to check, it was made in 94, but towards the end of the decade, pulp fiction already felt old, a classic.
The Matrix and Jurassic Park come to mind.
There's a filter that I apply to these kinds of questions, and it's that there are some works that are of a particular time, but they ascend beyond that time and just become a part of culture, broadly. Like, Wizard of Oz just IS, Bohemian Rhapsody just IS; they aren't bounded by their decades of origin.
I'd argue that at least Jurassic Park, and arguably also The Matrix, are above and beyond the '90s in ways that other movies can't quite achieve.
Jurassic Park was ahead of it’s time. I don’t really think of it as a 90s movie.
Got Jurassic Park in 4k on my Plex server.
Looks absolutely amazing still.
It would only be not ahead of its time only after we casually clone dinosaurs.
Home Alone. It's a movie that really couldn't take place today due to cell phones and the Internet making easier to communicate with someone if the landlines are down. Also, the family wouldn't have been able to get through the airport like they did back then thanks to 9/11.
Angry upvote. It fits.
How will you have internet without landlines (DSL) or coax? Satellite?? IN THIS ECONOMY??!!
For not-the-best-90s-movie-but-most-strongly-dated-to-the-90s I'd have to go with You've Got Mail
If someone had told me Independence Day was early 2000s (pre 9/11) I wouldn't have doubted it. Same with the Matrix really.
But You've Got Mail seems rooted to that mid to late 90s early internet feel. Two massive stars. Lots of 90s fashion etc
Possibly also Mrs Doubtfire. Reasons there being very 90s exploration of divorce, prosthetics that weren't available in the 80s and a theme (man sneaking into kids lives in disguise) that I don't think would have gotten traction 2000s onwards for being too creepy. Makes it a very 90s film.
The Matrix was basically 2000's. It's a 90's movie only a technicality; it was released to theaters in early 1999 and the home release was in May of '99. However, going into the 1999 -> 2000 holiday season the presence of that movie in particular on disc sold a lot of DVD players and Playstation 2's.
Y2K or thereabouts is precisely when a lot of people experienced the first Matrix.
You've Got Mail almost feels like a 1980s movie.
Definitely The Mummy starring Brenden Fraiser and Rachel Weisz
Tempted to say The Matrix but it’s late in the decade.
Maybe Scream?
I think The Matrix can work! It feels very 90s to me as well!
Scream’s a good one. Postmodern horror flick.
The Matrix
Wow, I forgot it came out in 1999, I guess, technically. It's one of my favorite movies ever of all time, but it was too far ahead of its time for me to think of it as 90s movie.
Ace Ventura
I was going to say The Mask
I was thinking of that one too. Many of the movies where Cameron Diaz plays the protagonists love interest can be summed up as a quintessential 90's movie.
I heard animals in there, Ventura. I heard them again in there this morning, scratching around.
Yes, Satan?
For me and my friend group: trainspotting
The trainspotting and the Jackie Brown soundtrack were the only CDs people wanted to hear at parties for a time. I learned to hate them both. The only boy who could ever teach me... And: I got a lust for life... Really annoy me now because of that.
The only boy... is from Pulp Fiction.
Other'n a couple others named? My Cousin Vinny.
(Some quotes to help my arguement: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0104952/quotes/ )
"What is a yute?"
My absolute favorite comedy.
Yep, it's really a lot of fun. A little hard on some parts of both southern culture and NY culture, but just enough to make it even funnier. Not just Pesci as a lawyer and all the lawyer jokes; making a judge out of Fred Gwynne so he could make all those facial expressions he'd perfected was a casting winner. So was Marisa Tomei. And the characters that played witnesses ... to this day when I'm saying 'I guess' it always comes out with that drawl. Every scene in the film was comical first, and never let up. Masterpiece.
Falling Down (1993), Freeway (1996) are two that I saw fairly recently and the 90's were jumping off the screen.
Pauly Shore had 90's career. Encino Man (1992), Jury Duty (1995), Bio-Dome (1996). His only movie of the 2000's was Pauly Shore is Dead (2003) which was about no one caring about him anymore.
Falling Down is a movie we should all watch again.
Along with Falling Down, watch Boyz n the Hood https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0101507/ and Juice https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0104573/
All really the same story of the grungy 1990s.
His only movie of the 2000's was Pauly Shore is Dead (2003) which was about no one caring about him anymore.
Apt.
Falling Down captures the downturn in the economy of the 1990s and the grunge of it.
Freeway was a lot of fun.
Can't Hardly Wait.
JLH was unbelievably hot in that movie. that blue shirt and skirt. Whew.
Hit me right in the late teens.
Hackers
Romeo + Juliet
I'll toss in Empire Records - the store set, the costumes, the music, the actors, the meandering listlessness... all scream "this is a 90's movie about the 90's". Plus the whole Rex Manning plot is absolutely what happened to so many 70's and 80's artists. Not perfect by any means, but a great encapsulation of the decade.
That was a throw back to the 1980s Brat Pack, so you can group in the late 80s.
Hackers
Definitely my first thought
Interesting that Point Break (1991) and The Matrix (1999) book ended the decade. Point Break focuses on white 20 something kids that dropped out and started surfing, the The Matrix focuses on a 30ish white guy going through an existential crisis. At the beginning of the 90s there was still some hope, that a person could find a small counter-culture and create if not a wealthy life, of something satisfying. By 1999 all hope was gone.
Point Break would be my pick too despite the fact the early 90s had many sensibilities that look more like the 1980s to us now.
Last Action Hero https://youtu.be/ShBw43KJoLk?si=m8U5c_65a8BXU5je
Its so self aware of its genre and all the tropes up to that point.
HACKERS
Reality Bites.
Point Break or Speed
Yep! I'm going for something like those two, stuff like Con Air or The Rock.
You mean to tell me The Rock is a tourisht attraction?
I had a "back to the 90s" chill day with my brother this spring. Johnny Mnemonic got us in the feels the hardest :).
Just rewatched that as well. Some of my favorite parts:
- It's set in 2021
- His brain implanted hard drive holds a whopping 80GB. He uses a "doubler" to increase his capacity to 160GB. The whole plot of the movie is that he loads 320GB in, which leaks into his brain, and he has to get it back out before it kills him.
- The encryption key to the data is photos of a tube television screen that have to be faxed to the recipient.
- One futuristic aspect to his hotel room is that the TV wakes him up with a personal message on screen and then he uses it for a video call.
- The local rebels are a group called the Low-Teks - led by Ice-T. They end up having the highest end tech.
- The best doctor around is Henry Rollins.
Johnnys head would probably explode if he even heard of the data storage clusters I was (and still am) working with on a daily basis in 2021.
Can't believe no one mentioned Men In Black and Mulan.
Tremors, graboids!
I feel like Forrest Gump might deserve consideration, but I'm not sure it tops some of the other picks here.
Edit: Also Aladdin and The Lion King
The first Mission Impossible movie is a fun time capsule in many ways. It has some fun stuff with early 90s depictions of computers, hacking, the internet and email, back before anyone knew what any of that actually looked like.
But it's also a great example of the 90s naivete that the US had about conflict and global politics. There's an entire monologue about how intelligence agencies are obsolete because the cold war is over. There was this vague notion in the 90s that world peace had broken out and things were just going to get better and better. And Hollywood sometimes struggled to come up with villains now that they no longer had soviets for that, so you don't see it reflected as much in films, especially since optimism doesn't make for good popcorn flicks, but Mission Impossible captures the thinking if not the warm and fuzzy feeling.
My other suggestion would be Contact. My theory has always been that 2001 A Space Odyssey, Contact, and Interstellar are really the same movie made in different times. As the 90s incarnation, Contact has no international conflict, only internal politics. It's got that I'm spiritual but not religious" vibe that was everywhere in the 90s. It has a vague message about hope, and belief and trying to understand the universe and what's out there in order to understand ourselves... it's hard to put it all in words, it's just the whole tone and vibe of the thing, it's all just so sincere and idealistic.
(For a great big dose of 90s optimism and hope for the future, I highly recommend watching the Adventures of Brisco Country JR. I'd have nominated that, but it isn't a movie)
Jesus. Can I subscribe to your blog?
I still think Mission Impossible is the best one in the series. Although the third was pretty good and the scene where Philip Seymour's character is going to shoot Ethan's girlfriend is the best acting Tom Cruise ever did, in my opinion. That was a powerful scene.
I know a few other people have already said it, but I'll agree: Hackers, 100%. Late DOS/early-GUI computers + skate punk aesthetic? Can't get more '90s than that!
Biodome
Biodome
Sadly this might be the most 90s of 90s movie. Others like Terminator are sequels, or movies like You've Got Mail are scripts written 10 years prior. Biodome is a time capsule of mid 1990s.
Few more I can offer up are Freejack Tank Girl Don't be a menace
What, do you think you're so smart? Think you're some rocket scientist?
Yes
...sorry
Man it has been at least 10 years since I thought of Pauly Shore
As a counterweight to all the american movies on this thread:
I recall Taxi being very 90s as well!
Maybe it's just because my mid teens were the late 90s, but my vote would have to be for either Half Baked or American Pie.
Space Jam?
Speed or mallrats depending on what kind of vibe you’re going for
edit: upon reflection I will change my Sandra bullock movie to “the net”. Terrible, but strong 90s vibes
Mallrats 100%, followed by the Action Park documentary
Friday 1995
Second post, but I realized the answer might actually be Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles 2: The Secret of the Ooze.
John Frankenheimer’s Ronin (1998) but not in the way you maybe mean. This movie simply has to take place when it does in the 90s. The plot just wouldn’t work otherwise.
It also has to be 90s because no way De Niro would've punked Boromir out like that
The Sandlot
F O R E V E R
Ninja turtles or surf ninjas
Man we had a whole ninja thing for a while there didn’t we
We sure did. Tmnt, surf ninjas, 3 ninjas, Beverly Hills ninja... I know there are more, but those are the "best" in my opinion.
I'm saying Fern Gully.
Gremlins 2. Not sure any other movie quote captures the absolute cocaine fuelled Hollywood of the early 90s.
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=x01l_jMhjVM
There's also a terrible John Leguizamo movie called The Pest, that I'm genuinely amazed didn't end his career right there. The wife was suprised I hadn't seen it, and as we started she just went "you're going to hate it".
She was not wrong.
See, that's cocaine fuelled Hollywood done right.
What the question is asking is "what's the most 90s movie of all time" and the answer can only be Kazaam, starring Shaquille O'Neil himself, and the Mars corporation products.
It's exactly as peak 90s as Space Jam without any of the charm or personality, which makes Kazaam precisely as soulless as that entire decade. It's perfect
New answer: Clerks.
True Romance
While reading up on The Last Boy Scout, I found this:
Shane Black and Tony Scott both expressed dissatisfaction with the final film, and said in later years how the original script was far better. Scott accused Joel Silver of interfering with the production and swore off working with the producer again. His next film, True Romance, features an unflattering film producer character patterned after Silver.
The Big Lebowski
Great movie, but what makes it about the 90ies.
Main characters are mid-life Vietnam veterans, the movie made White Russians cool (probably more from the cult following it got in the 00s), also bowling alleys( and LA ;) had their heyday in the 90s
Am I the only person who watched Singles (1993)? OK, pretty forgettable romcom, but absolutely the soundtrack of the 90s.
Nah, I loved that movie. Great music and a lot of fun lines here and there. Definitely not an academy award contender, but still pretty fun.
Oh, yeah. It unofficially spawned "Friends," too. Also, if you watch the music videos of the OST songs, you'll find many (all?) of them have a "Singles" movie poster hanging somewhere. What an amazing level of coordination.
Mallrats
Con Air is the most 90's movie that ever 90's its way through the 90's.
Half-Baked
Yeah man!
The super Mario bros. Movie
Akira
Okay, it's actually 1988, but it definitely got that 90s anime feel.
Sparked the worldwide anime boom, so yeah, pretty iconic.
Wayne's World.
Wayne's World was trying to recapture Mike Myers' childhood in the 70s and early 80s. So doesn't capture spirit of the 90s.
Hrm, I think you're more right than I was.
False. Wayne’s world captures the spirit of today, but back when it was a counter culture.
What people don’t realize is the kind of snark and goofy jokes that exist all throughout the movie used to be unusual. Now it’s basically how everyone talks.
Reservoir Dogs (1992)
SubUrbia is the 90's distilled for me.
https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0086589/
As for movies from the 90's, Jurassic Park would be my pick, with Forrest Gump a close second, but points docked for not being based wholey in the 90's.
Speed.
This isn't the most quintessential 90's movie, or even a good movie, but the fever dream of Romeo+Juliet (1996) is the most 90's thing I've ever seen in my life.
Do the Right Thing - Spike Lee
Prep for the 90s.
Slacker (1990)
The Birdcage and Get Shorty are tied for me
It's funny, at the time we probably would've said Reality Bites.
Crimson Tide
PCU
Aliens/Alien3
American Pie or My Big Fat Greek Wedding.
Late to the party: Scary Movie
Adventures of Ford Fairlaine? Though it might be 80's rather 90's, despite the movie itself came out in 90'...