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.
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.
How will you have internet without landlines (DSL) or coax? Satellite?? IN THIS ECONOMY??!!
Angry upvote. It fits.
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
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.”
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?
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.
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.
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.
And you complete the 90s hacker trifecta with Sneakers
God that’s such a good movie. Probably gonna throw that on soon since haven’t watched it in years.
My wife rolls her eyes how every time I see a Honda Passport I say “My voice is my passport, verify me”.
The cast alone makes the movie worth it
Can I add Johnny Mnemonic to this list? Classic Keanu
“I NEED to get on-line. I NEED a computer!”
Information Overload! Rollins deserves to be an EGOT.
Gotta double the capacity of the 80 GB drive in my head
“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!”
HACKERS
Space Jam, for sure.
Definitely The Mummy starring Brenden Fraiser and Rachel Weisz
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.
You may also remember they were filming for PBS. Broadcast TV.
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.
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.
