Jay
To be honest I’m not a massive fan of 90’s movies, because when I think of movies from the 90’s I get visions of Titanic, Armageddon and Pretty Woman and in my opinion all these so-called great films are garbage!
I could have chosen more obvious films like The Matrix, Jurassic Park and Terminator 2, but like our 80’s Movie Playlist I’m gonna choose a selection of alternative movies, because I actually like them and not because they were over-rated box office hits.
So here is a marathon of 90’s movies for you to try. Some you may have seen. Some you may not have even heard of, but I hope you enjoy all of them.
Get the popcorn ready. Switch your phone onto airplane mode and draw those curtains. We got 90s movies to watch.
8am – JUMANJI
Year: 1995
Director:
Starring – Robin Williams, Kirsten Dunst, Bradley Pierce, David Alan Grier, Bonnie Hunt, Jonathan Hyde, and Bebe Neuwirth
The thing that makes this movie is Robin Williams. If Williams wasn’t in this movie I wouldn’t even had given it much of a chance. You just have to look beyond the ropey special effects and see this is a great story and cast. It almost feels like this part was written for him. It’s just a good family friendly and funny film from start to finish.
It is an adaptation of the 1981 children’s book of the same name by Chris Van Allsburg. The story is about a young Alan Parrish, who becomes trapped in a board game while playing with his best friend Sarah Whittle in 1969. Twenty-six years later in 1995, siblings Judy and Peter Shepherd find the game, begin playing and then unwittingly release the now-adult Alan. After tracking down Sarah, the quartet resolve to finish the game in order to reverse all of the destruction it has caused.
It’s a shame we are getting a reboot of this beloved film due out next year starring Dwayne ‘The Rock’ Johnson, but this time it’s set in a video game. Will it be any good? Who knows!
10am – DUMB AND DUMBER
Year: 1994
Director: The Farrelly Brothers
Starring – Jim Carrey, Jeff Daniels, Lauren Holly, Teri Garr
This is a film that people either love or they hate. It’s the first feature film of the Farrelly Brothers who are now famous for their gross-out comedies such as There’s Something About Mary and Shallow Hal. I know that one particular scene still has me in stitches to this day, and it’s the broken toilet scene!
The film tells the story of Lloyd Christmas and Harry Dunne, two dim-witted friends from Providence, Rhode Island who set out on a cross-country trip to Aspen, Colorado to return a briefcase full of money to its owner, only to be pursued by a group of criminals who are after the briefcase.
Jeff Daniels is amazingly well cast as one half of the dumb duo and he wasn’t even a comedy actor before this film.
12pm – NOTHING TO LOSE
Year: 1997
Director: Steve Oedekerk
Starring – Tim Robbins, Martin Lawrence
You’ve more than likely never heard of this film, but it’s a real comedy gem. It stars Tim Robbins and Martin Lawrence (when he used to be funny!)
Advertising executive Nick Beam (Tim Robbins) thinks his life is going very well—until he returns home from work and discovers that his wife Ann (Kelly Preston) is apparently having an affair with his boss, Philip Barlow (Michael McKean). On the edge of a nervous breakdown, Nick drives around the city until small-time carjacker T-Paul (Martin Lawrence) jumps into Nick’s SUV and attempts to rob him. Turning the tables on his mugger, Nick accidentally kidnaps T-Paul on the spot and drives him to the desert. After T-Paul robs a gas station in the Arizona desert, the mismatched pair devises a scheme to rob Philip in revenge for the affair.
The standout scene involves a spider, Tim Robbins with his feet on fire and the song ‘Scatman’.
2pm – FIGHT CLUB
Year: 1995
Director: David Fincher
Starring – Brad Pitt, Edward Norton, Helena Bonham-Carter, Meat Loaf, Jared Leto
This is a cleverly crafted film and there is so many subliminal messages and images throughout the film to give you a clue at the big twist. If you’ve ever watched the TV series Mr. Robot then the whole plot may seem a bit familiar!
Norton plays the unnamed protagonist, an “everyman” who is discontented with his white-collar job. He forms a “fight club” with soap maker Tyler Durden, played by Pitt, and they are joined by men who also want to fight recreationally. The narrator becomes embroiled in a relationship with Durden and a dissolute woman, Marla Singer, played by Bonham Carter.
4:30pm – POINT BREAK
Year: 1991
Director: Kathryn Bigelow
Starring – Keanu Reeves, Patrick Swayze, Gary Busey
People always go on about how ‘Speed’ aka ‘The bus that couldn’t slow down’, was Keanu Reeves action hero break out movie. No, it wasn’t! He made this movie in 1991, three years before that movie and I’m sure this role was pretty much a deciding factor in giving Keanu the lead in Speed. Hey, that rhymes!
Reeves stars as rookie FBI agent Johnny Utah, who is investigating a string of bank robberies possibly being committed by surfers. Johnny goes undercover to infiltrate the surfing community and develops a complex friendship with Bodhi (Swayze), the charismatic leader of a gang of surfers.
Watch this movie. It’s got high-octane thrills. It’s got surfing. It’s got free-fall parachuting. It’s got guys wearing dead presidents masks who rob banks, it’s got a crazy and for once I can stand the late Patrick Swayze!
6:15pm – THE TRUMAN SHOW
Year: 1998
Director: Peter Weir
Starring – Jim Carrey, Ed Harris
Okay it’s another Jim Carrey film, but this film really showed us that Carey is more than pulling faces and goofing around. We see him at the other end of the spectrum here. This film proved he could be a serious actor if he wanted. It’s all about reality TV way before reality TV became what it is today.
The film stars Jim Carrey as Truman Burbank, an unwanted baby raised by a corporation inside a simulated television show revolving around his life, until he discovers it and decides to escape; additional roles are provided by Laura Linney, Noah Emmerich, Natascha McElhone, Holland Taylor, and Ed Harris.
8pm – FALLING DOWN
Year: 1993
Director:
Starring – Micheal Douglas, Robert Duvall,
Michael Douglas is having one bad day in this movie. The film follows Foster as he treks on foot across the city of Los Angeles, trying to reach the house of his estranged ex-wife in time for his daughter’s birthday party. Along the way, a series of encounters, both trivial and provocative, cause him to react with increasing violence and make sardonic observations on life, poverty, the economy, and commercialism. Robert Duvall co-stars as Martin Prendergast, an aging LAPD Sergeant on the day of his retirement, who faces his own frustrations, even as he tracks down Foster.
It’s the perfect rebel against the system movie. It’s about a guy fighting for his rights. Whether it be the cut off time for fast food breakfasts. Standing up against nazi sympathizers or getting revenge on those pesky roadworks!
10pm – BOYZ N THE HOOD
Year: 1991
Director: John Singleton
Starring – Cuba Gooding Jnr, Ice Cube, Maurice Chestnut
This is the film debut of Ice Cube and Maurice Chestnut and brilliantly acted by all the main characters. This film really gives you an insight of how tough it can be growing up where gang violence thrives in places like South Central, LA.
Tre (Cuba Gooding Jr.) is sent to live with his father, Furious Styles (Larry Fishburne), in tough South Central Los Angeles. Although his hard-nosed father instills proper values and respect in him, and his devout girlfriend Brandi (Nia Long) teaches him about faith, Tre’s friends Doughboy (Ice Cube) and Ricky (Morris Chestnut) don’t have the same kind of support and are drawn into the neighborhood’s booming drug and gang culture, with increasingly tragic results.
If your brain is quite frazzled by this time you have a choice of 2 movies for the final slot. A complex mystery crime thriller or horror comedy…
Choice 1
Midnight – THE USUAL SUSPECTS
Year: 1995
Director: David Fincher
Starring – Kevin Spacey, Gabriel Byrne, Benecio Del Toro, Stephen Baldwin, Kevin Pollock, Pete Postlethwaite.
This film is what earned Kevin Spacey his first Oscar and it’s well-deserved. This is another movie in our list with a brilliant final twist. The standout moment of the whole film though is the police line-up scene which will have you in stitches.
The film follows the interrogation of Roger “Verbal” Kint, a small-time con man who is one of the only two survivors of a massacre and fire on a ship docked at the Port of Los Angeles. He tells an interrogator a convoluted story about events that led him and his partners in crime to the boat, and about a mysterious mob boss known as Keyser Söze who commissioned their work. Using flashback and narration, Kint’s story becomes increasingly complex.
Choice 2
Midnight – ARMY OF DARKNESS
Year: 1993
Director: Sam Raimi
Starring – Bruce Campbell
We end this playlist on another Evil Dead movie. This is the third and final in the series of Evil Dead. Although not as good as the second movie it’s all a bit of fun that doesn’t take it’s self too serious, if at all!
Ash (Bruce Campbell) finds himself trapped in medieval times. He must quest for the Necronomicon, a book of evil which can return him to his time. Unfortunately, he releases the evil trapped inside the book and unleashes an army of the dead.
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