Personally I’d go with Independence Day if I had to pick a movie that felt the most 90s.
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 funny, at the time we probably would’ve said Reality Bites.
American Pie or My Big Fat Greek Wedding.
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.
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.
HACKERS
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.”
Mallrats
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
Con Air is the most 90’s movie that ever 90’s its way through the 90’s.
Second post, but I realized the answer might actually be Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles 2: The Secret of the Ooze.
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.
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.
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
