What are your top 10 favorite movies from the 1990s?!

clout

clout

Hall of Fame
Since we love discussing strong and weak eras on this forum, I think we can all agree the 1990's was an incredibly strong era for Hollywood films. Here is my personal top 10 fav movies from the final decade of the millennium:

1. Shawshank Redemption (1994)

2. Silence of the Lambs (1991)

3. Fargo (1996)

4. Forrest Gump (1994)

5. Pulp Fiction (1994)

6. Toy Story (1995)

7. Schindler's List (1993)

8. Se7en (1995)

9. Saving Private Ryan (1998)

10. Goodfellas (1990)

HM:

Terminator 2: Judgment Day (1991)

Fight Club (1999)

Usual Suspects (1995)

Home Alone (1990)

Toy Story 2 (1999)
 
clout said:
Since we love discussing strong and weak eras on this forum, I think we can all agree the 1990's was an incredibly strong era for Hollywood films. Here is my personal top 10 fav movies from the final decade of the millennium:

1. Shawshank Redemption (1994)

2. Silence of the Lambs (1991)

3. Fargo (1996)

4. Forrest Gump (1994)

5. Pulp Fiction (1994)

6. Toy Story (1995)

7. Schindler's List (1993)

8. Se7en (1995)

9. Saving Private Ryan (1998)

10. Goodfellas (1990)

HM:

Terminator 2: Judgment Day (1991)

Fight Club (1999)

Usual Suspects (1995)

Home Alone (1990)

Toy Story 2 (1999)
Click to expand...
All worthy but I have to fit these in:

The English Patient

L.A. Confidential

Philadelphia

Unforgiven
 
1. Shawshank Redemption

2. Good Will Hunting

3. Fargo

4. The Matrix

5. Forrest Gump

6. Terminator 2: Judgement Day

7. Silence of the Lambs

8. Legends of the Fall

9. A River Runs Through It

10. Jurassic Park

Edit: I'd probably throw Unforgiven in there somewhere between 4-8, bumping everything else down, come to think of it.
 
Home Alone 2>>1
Also:

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Top 10 (arbitrary order):
- A Few Good Men
- Good Will Hunting
- 10 Things I Hate About You
- As Good as It Gets
- American Beauty
- Pretty Woman
- Jerry McGuire
- Mrs Doubtfire
- The Fugitive
- Apollo 13

Honorable Mentions:
- Clerks
- Titanic
- Clueless
- Braveheart
- Ground Hog Day
- Mr. Holland's Opus
- Being John Malkovich
- There's Something About Mary
- Grosse Pointe Blank
-The Sixth Sense
- Forrest Gump
- Jurassic Park
- Trainspotting
- Pulp Fiction
- The Matrix
- Rush Hour
- The Piano
- Sister Act
- Ghost
 
SystemicAnomaly said:
Top 10 (arbitrary order):
- A Few Good Men
- Good Will Hunting
- 10 Things I Hate About You
- As Good as It Gets
- American Beauty
- Pretty Woman
- Jerry McGuire
- Mrs Doubtfire
- The Fugitive
- Apollo 13

Honorable Mentions:
- Clerks
- Titanic
- Clueless
- Braveheart
- Ground Hog Day
- Mr. Holland's Opus
- Being John Malkovich
- There's Something About Mary
- Grosse Pointe Blank
-The Sixth Sense
- Forrest Gump
- Jurassic Park
- Trainspotting
- Pulp Fiction
- The Matrix
- Rush Hour
- The Piano
- Sister Act
- Ghost
Click to expand...
Such an incredibly weak era...Roger Ebart.
 
You people are either all lunatics or film snubs for not including my boy Nicolas Cage's movies. This man was the peak of the 90s action block busters. During this period, he fine tuned his German Expressionism which would later evolved into his own unique acting style, and I quote the man, "The Nouveau Shamanic" method of acting. :sneaky:
maxresdefault.jpg


My 90s Top 10 in the various categories:

Block Buster Actions
The Rock (1996)
Con Air (1997)
Face Off (1997)
Speed (1994)
Hunt of Red October (1990)
Die Hard with a Vengeance (1995)
Mummy (1999)
Under Siege (1992)
Mission: Impossible (1996)
Point Break (1991)

Small Films
Before Sunrise (1995)
Love Letter (1995 Japanese)
Rushmore (1998)
Leaving Las Vegas (1995)
Sixth Sense (1999)
Groundhog Day (1993)
Primal Fear (1996)
Bridges of Madison County (1995)
Buena Vista Social Club (1999)
It could Happen to You (1994)

Crude Comedies
Ace Ventura 2 (1995)
There’s Something About Mary (1998)
Office Space (1999)
Liar Liar (1997)
American Pie (1999)
Austin Power (1991)
Big Lebowski (1998)
City Slicker (1991)
White Men Can't Jump (1992)
The Wedding Singer (1998)

Cult Hits
Pulp Fiction (1994)
Boogie Nights (1997)
Usual Suspect (1995)
Reservoir Dogs (1992)
Good Fellas (1990)
True Romance (1993)
Natural Born Killer (1994)
Thelma & Louise (1991)
Trainspotting (1996)
American History X (1998)

Sci-Fi
Gattaca (1997)
Starship Trooper (1997)
Ghost in The Shell (1995)
Matrix (1999)
Contact (1997)
Neon Genesis Evangelion Movies (1997)
Terminator 2 (1991)
Twelve Monkey (1995)
Total Recall (1990)
The Fifth Elements (1997)
 
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Bartelby said:
The nineties was an incredibly weak era for film. It just looks good because of what came after.
Click to expand...
I think the 90s had a very unique flavor with a mix of big studio block busters, extremely crude but entertaining comedies, Sci-Fi that were on the verge of actually entering the millennium, the emergence of very edgy scripted movies and the dawn of popularization of japanese animation films (I haven't even include all those early 90s Ghibili films). Weak, may be, but certainly plenty of entertaining movies from many different studios in sizes and flavours.
 
Fedinkum said:
You people are either all lunatics or film snubs for not include my boy Nicolas Cage's movies. This man was the peak of the 90s action block busters. During this period, he fine tuned his German Expressionism which would later evolved to his own unique acting style, and I quote the man, "The Nouveau Shamanic" method of acting. :sneaky:
maxresdefault.jpg


My 90s Top 10 in the various categories:

Block Buster Actions
The Rock (1996)
Con Air (1997)
Face Off (1997)
Speed (1994)
Hunt of Red October (1990)
Die Hard with a Vengeance (1995)
Mummy (1999)
Under Siege (1992)
Mission: Impossible (1996)
Point Break (1991)

Small Films
Before Sunrise (1995)
Love Letter (1995 Japanese)
Rushmore (1998)
Leaving Las Vegas (1995)
Sixth Sense (1999)
Groundhog Day (1993)
Primal Fear (1996)
Bridges of Madison County (1995)
Buena Vista Social Club (1999)
It could Happen to You (1994)

Crude Comedies
Ace Ventura 2 (1995)
There’s Something About Mary (1998)
Office Space (1999)
Liar Liar (1997)
American Pie (1999)
Austin Power (1991)
Big Lebowski (1998)
City Slicker (1991)
White Men Can't Jump (1992)
The Wedding Singer (1998)

Cult Hits
Pulp Fiction (1994)
Boogie Nights (1997)
Usual Suspect (1995)
Reservoir Dogs (1992)
Good Fellas (1990)
True Romance (1993)
Natural Born Killer (1994)
Thelma & Louise (1991)
Trainspotting (1996)
American History X (1998)

Sci-Fi
Gattaca (1997)
Starship Trooper (1997)
Ghost in The Shell (1995)
Matrix (1999)
Contact (1997)
Neon Genesis Evangelion Movies (1997)
Terminator 2 (1991)
Twelve Monkey (1995)
Total Recall (1990)
The Fifth Elements (1997)
Click to expand...
How did I not abide The Dude? It should be in your cult category though...there is a yearly global get together of Dudeists and the Coens raised their artistic level beyond “crude comedy.” The dream sequence alone outweighs all of Jeff’s f-bombs!
 
stringertom said:
How did I not abide The Dude? It should be in your cult category though...there is a yearly global get together of Dudeists and the Coens raised their artistic level beyond “crude comedy.” The dream sequence alone outweighs all of Jeff’s f-bombs!
Click to expand...
In retrospective, I think you are correct. Big Lebowski certainly deserves a spot on the Cult Hits, but I refuse to take it off from the Crude Comedy list:p.

May be I can bump off American History X but I really like that movie, 90s Edward Norton was untouchable (He had a clean run of great films: Primal Fear, The People vs Larry Flynt, American History X, and Fight Club). I gotta leave a spot for my man Norton. :cool:
 
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Fedinkum said:
In retrospective, I think you are correct. Big Lebowski certainly deserves a spot on the Cult Hits, but I refuse to take it off from the Crude Comedy:p.

May be I can bump off American History X but I really like that movie, 90s Edward Norton was untouchable (He had a clean run of great films: Primal Fear, The People vs Larry Flynt, American History X, and Fight Club). I gotta leave a spot for my man Norton. :cool:
Click to expand...

Edward Norton is one of my favourite "new" actors (can't believe that I call a 50 y o "new", but whateverer), and he should have gotten more recognition for his role in the American History X. A quality work throughout both as an actor and a filmmaker.

smiley_emoticons_santagrin.gif
 
Tennis_Hands said:
Edward Norton is one of my favourite "new" actors (can't believe that I call a 50 y o "new", but whateverer), and he should have gotten more recognition for his role in the American History X. A quality work throughout both as an actor and a filmmaker.

smiley_emoticons_santagrin.gif
Click to expand...
90s Norton was my 2000s Bale, both had a great run of a variety of really good movies within a decade. Then both had misfire after their respective golden decade.
 
Bartelby said:
The Three Colours trilogy has to be on the list.
Click to expand...
White is my gem (I should have added a foreign film category). I always thought what a biatch she was in White, then I realized she was the same actress in Before Sunrise during one re-watch of White...after all these years. My all time top 20 Soundtrack.
 
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Fedinkum said:
90s Norton was my 2000s Bale, both had a great run of a variety of really good movies within a decade. Then both had misfire after their respective golden decade.
Click to expand...

I think that his work as a filmmaker might have had something to do with that, but it is difficult to say with people like him who are so singularly-minded.

smiley_emoticons_santagrin.gif
 
Five of my top10 fave of the 90s were not mentioned here so far:

Jacob's Ladder
Dark City
The Crow
Thirteenth Floor
Die Hard 2
 
Mon Pere ce hero was charming as was Green Card, not top ten material but good.
 
That's a fair summation. Many of the films mentioned I've found entertaining, but not exactly Trojan-worthy.

Fedinkum said:
I think the 90s had a very unique flavor with a mix of big studio block busters, extremely crude but entertaining comedies, Sci-Fi that were on the verge of actually entering the millennium, the emergence of very edgy scripted movies and the dawn of popularization of japanese animation films (I haven't even include all those early 90s Ghibili films). Weak, may be, but certainly plenty of entertaining movies from many different studios in sizes and flavours.
Click to expand...
 
There are too many,I think I've seen almost 2000 movies just from the 90s so I could just put down the first movie that I come up with from each year as the one that comes to mind as outstanding without thinking about it too much:

1990: Goodfellas
1991: Barton Fink
1992: The Player
1993: Naked
1994: Hoop Dreams
1995: Safe
1996: Fargo
1997: The Ice Storm
1998: Happiness
1999: Eyes Wide Shut
 
Were the 70s greater than the 90s?

Too many good movies to name. The Godfather, Taxi Driver, China Town, The Exorcist, One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest, Apocalypse Now, The French Connection, Solaris (Russian), Stalker (Russian), Jaws, A Clockwork Orange, The Deer Hunter, Kramer vs Kramer, Rocky, Enter the Dragon, The Way We Were, Star Wars, The Omen, The Conversation, The Texas Chain Saw Massacre, Saturday Night Fever etc.

I only named the ones I saw but I am sure there a lot more good ones left in the bucket.

Wish 2001: A Space Odessey was from the 70s. That would have made the 70s really great. The Shining was also missed just by one year.
 
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Many good movies on the lists!
Here are some of mine, in no particular order:

Groundhog Day
Forest Gump
Mediterraneo
Black Cat, White Cat
There's Something About Mary
Matrix
The 5th Element
Pulp Fiction
Dances with Wolves
We are not Angels

Sent from my SM-G965W using Tapatalk
 
Favorite does not necessarily imply the best.

Groundhog day
Galaxy Quest
Rushmore
Clueless
Magnolia
Joe Versus the Volcano
Wild at Heart
Quigley Down Under
Rushmoore
Galaxy Quest
 
Last edited:
Good Fellas
Rounders
Good Will Hunting
Forrest Gump
Shawshank Redemption
Matrix
Ground Hog Day
Titanic
Primal Fear
City Slickers
 
Goodfellas
Barton Fink
The Player
One False Move
Unforgiven
The Last of the Mohicans
The Remains of the Day
The Sweet Hereafter
LA Confidential
A Simple Plan
 
Miller's Crossing (1990)
Crumb (1994)
Babe (1995)
Heat (1995)
Trainspotting (1996)
Boogie Nights (1997)
Jackie Brown (1997)
Lost Highway (1997)
Happiness (1998)
Eyes Wide Shut (1999)

Coen bros also did Barton Fink and Fargo, PTA Magnolia, Lynch Twin Peaks: Fire Walk with Me, Cruise was in the first MI so I just picked one among them
 
If I'm being completely honest the one '90s movie I've probably watched more than any other is Clueless. Granted mostly in bites and pieces - the last time I gave it a full whirl was about two years ago when my roomie had his short-term GF come over - but it's ridiculously quotable and one of the best Austen adaptations ever, in fact possibly the very best screen version of probably the best Austen novel. And while the girls (particularly Silverstone) rightly get the lion's share of the credit Dan Hedaya's Mel is one of the all-time great comic performances. My fave zinger (starts around 0:43 in this collection of highlights):


Mel: Cher, get in here!
Cher: What's up, Daddy?
Mel: What the hell is that?!
Cher: A dress.
Mel: Says who?
Cher: Calvin Klein!
Click to expand...

Very interested to see how the latest Emma. (with a dot, apparently) compares with the '90s classic. And while I'm at it I'll also stick up for the much-maligned (among the Janeites, at any rate) 1996 version starring Gwyneth Paltrow, which sizzles with wit and bonhomie among the first-rate cast enhanced even further by Rachel Portman's delicious score (which justly won the Oscar against substantial competition):


Another fave:

victorcruz said:
Titanic helllloooooooooooooooooo

Every night in my dreams, I see you I feel you
Click to expand...

At this point I'm quite confident this hugest blockbuster (and arguably queer masterpiece) will have more staying power than just about every other movie of the '90s. When I saw its 2017 re-release (in Dolby Vision 3D) on a weekday evening there was still a sizable crowd of about two dozen, and several members were still having a lively discussion well after the end credits. Oh and for her latest feature Portrait of a Lady on Fire Sciamma totally stole her portrait scene of the lovers in bed from its counterpart (you know which one) in Titanic. (Anyone who's seen both and says they don't see the connection is, uh, lying.) I can't think of any other movie of the last three decades or so that has managed to appeal to such a wide-ranging slice of the snobs and the plebs and it's only a matter of time before the arthouse holdouts come to see the error of their dogmatic ways.

Bartelby said:
The Three Colours trilogy has to be on the list.
Click to expand...
Fedinkum said:
White is my gem (I should have added a foreign film category). I always thought what a biatch she was in White, then I realized she was the same actress in Before Sunrise during one re-watch of White...after all these years. My all time top 20 Soundtrack.
Click to expand...

Dekalog is Kieslowski's masterpiece, but since it's technically an '80s work I'll second the trilogy as one of the '90s' best with the obvious caveat that we're cheating a bit. I'll add I've long found White rather underrated and prefer it to Blue (Red is still the best of the bunch, though).

That's three so far which leaves us with seven, in chronological order only (again with the necessary caveat that I haven't thought this through quite yet):

A Brighter Summer Day (Yang, 1991)
Center Stage/Actress (Kwan, 1991)
Before Sunrise (Linklater, 1995)
La Cérémonie/The Ceremony (Chabrol, 1995), an antidote to the extravagant hype over Bong's recent Parasite
Flowers of Shanghai (Hou, 1998)
Eyes Wide Shut (Kubrick, 1999)
The Wind Will Carry Us (Kiarostami, 1999) if included in the '90s (it didn't open till '00 in most parts of the US) [if not Through the Olive Trees (1994) though Close-Up (1990) is probably a greater work]
 
NonP said:
If I'm being completely honest the one '90s movie I've probably watched more than any other is Clueless. Granted mostly in bites and pieces - the last time I gave it a full whirl was about two years ago when my roomie had his short-term GF come over - but it's ridiculously quotable and one of the best Austen adaptations ever, in fact possibly the very best screen version of probably the best Austen novel. And while the girls (particularly Silverstone) rightly get the lion's share of the credit Dan Hedaya's Mel is one of the all-time great comic performances. My fave zinger (starts around 0:43 in this collection of highlights):




Very interested to see how the latest Emma. (with a dot, apparently) compares with the '90s classic. And while I'm at it I'll also stick up for the much-maligned (among the Janeites, at any rate) 1996 version starring Gwyneth Paltrow, which sizzles with wit and bonhomie among the first-rate cast enhanced even further by Rachel Portman's delicious score (which justly won the Oscar against substantial competition):


Another fave:



At this point I'm quite confident this hugest blockbuster (and arguably queer masterpiece) will have more staying power than just about every other movie of the '90s. When I saw its 2017 re-release (in Dolby Vision 3D) on a weekday evening there was still a sizable crowd of about two dozen, and several members were still having a lively discussion well after the end credits. Oh and for her latest feature Portrait of a Lady on Fire Sciamma totally stole her portrait scene of the lovers in bed from its counterpart (you know which one) in Titanic. (Anyone who's seen both and says they don't see the connection is, uh, lying.) I can't think of any other movie of the last three decades or so that has managed to appeal to such a wide-ranging slice of the snobs and the plebs and it's only a matter of time before the arthouse holdouts come to see the error of their dogmatic ways.




Dekalog is Kieslowski's masterpiece, but since it's technically an '80s work I'll second the trilogy as one of the '90s' best with the obvious caveat that we're cheating a bit. I'll add I've long found White rather underrated and prefer it to Blue (Red is still the best of the bunch, though).

That's three so far which leaves us with seven, in chronological order only (again with the necessary caveat that I haven't thought this through quite yet):

A Brighter Summer Day (Yang, 1991)
Center Stage/Actress (Kwan, 1991)
Before Sunrise (Linklater, 1995)
La Cérémonie/The Ceremony (Chabrol, 1995), an antidote to the extravagant hype over Bong's recent Parasite
Flowers of Shanghai (Hou, 1998)
Eyes Wide Shut (Kubrick, 1999)
The Wind Will Carry Us (Kiarostami, 1999) if included in the '90s (it didn't open till '00 in most parts of the US) [if not Through the Olive Trees (1994) though Close-Up (1990) is probably a greater work]
Click to expand...

Dekalog is Kieslowski's masterpiece
Click to expand...

agree

Red is still the best of the bunch
Click to expand...

agree. among my favorite films from the 90-ies.

Eyes Wide Shut is on my Top 90ies list;
Before Sunrise I liked a lot, as well as Kiarostami, although I don't like Close-up very much.
La Cérémonie didn't impress me personally, but it's a good film.

Flowers of Shanghai is on my "To Watch" list

and I'm just about to watch A Brighter Summer Day tonight! :D
 
Tarkovsky said:
Eyes Wide Shut is on my Top 90ies list;
Before Sunrise I liked a lot, as well as Kiarostami, although I don't like Close-up very much.
La Cérémonie didn't impress me personally, but it's a good film.

Flowers of Shanghai is on my "To Watch" list

and I'm just about to watch A Brighter Summer Day tonight! :D
Click to expand...

EWS is probably among Kubrick's very best (along with 2001, Barry Lyndon and Dr. Strangelove, roughly in that order of preference), and though like most first-rate Kubrick it had its detractors the film has grown richer since then.

I always go back and forth between Sunrise and Sunset, and though I leaned towards the latter just last year I'll probably reverse my decision now. That listening-booth scene may well be the best portrayal of innocent love in film history, and if not it's the best thing Linklater has done in his career:


And yeah, like many I find Close-Up easier to admire than to love. It's been a while since I last revisited it but when I do I'll most likely be missing the gentle humor of its two successors I mentioned.

I saw La Cérémonie before reading about the Papin murder case and the Genet play so I concede the possibility of having been unduly influenced, but it's almost certainly the best film from Chabrol's late period (I say "almost" because this most prolific of all French New Wave masters has probably had the most trouble getting his works distributed in the US) and as such one of the very best of the '90s. Much as I like Bong the cinephile he's not ready to challenge top-drawer Chabrol quite yet.

A Brighter Summer Day is one of the few Blu-rays/DVDs I own, and though Hou is probably the greatest of all Taiwanese directors as well as the greatest narrative filmmaker alive Yang's masterpiece is most likely the single greatest Taiwanese film ever made. (Can't say I'm as enthusiastic about Yi Yi, though, whose whole is less than the sum of its parts.) Hope you enjoy it!
 
NonP said:
La Cérémonie/The Ceremony (Chabrol, 1995), an antidote to the extravagant hype over Bong's recent Parasite
Click to expand...

I personally didn't like it much either but its a terrific movie and Hubert happens to be one of my favourite actors, so there's that too.

NonP said:
I always go back and forth between Sunrise and Sunset,
Click to expand...
For me it has always been Sunset over Sunrise :) The last scene was probably one of the best scenes.
 
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