Top 10 Favorite 1990s Movies

Top 10 Favorite 1990s Movies 

There’s a strong argument to be made that the 1990s is the best decade for movies, there’s so many classic and iconic films that come out in that time period. So today I’m sharing my top 10 favorite movies from the 1990s. Let’s get started! 

10. Goodfellas: Possibly Martin Scorsese’s most iconic film to date and rightfully so because it’s a great movie. It’s not my favorite movie of his, but it’s still a great one. It’s a great character study of this guy joining the mobster world and seeing his rise and fall in this world. There’s not a single ounce of fat on this movie, every scene, every frame in here ties into the story. There’s so many iconic sequences in here whether it’s the “funny how” scene or the one take scene through the kitchen, the camera work and how Scorsese directors make them stand out. If you didn’t know, the “funny how” scene was actually improvised by Joe Pesci. Ray Liotta’s reaction in that scene and how scared he looks genuine, he’s not really acting in that scene he was legitimately scared in that scene. Scorsese always gets a world class cast for his movies, here is no exception. Of course, Joe Pesci is the one everybody talks about where he’s stealing scenes and won Best Supporting Actor for a reason. It’s also fun that he did this film and Home Alone in the same year, arguably his two best performances to date. Ray Liotta is a great leading man and can play all of the layers and depths to his character really well. It’s also great to see Samuel L. Jackson before he was the legend we know him to be now. All around, just a fantastic movie and one of the best of the genre. 

9. The Nightmare Before Christmas: For me, this is one of the best and most underrated animated movies of all time. I was late to the party while watching this film, but I’m so glad I did because it’s a great movie with some iconic elements about it. There’s a conversation to be had here whether it’s a Christmas or Halloween movie. I think the answer for this, it’s a Christmas movie with a Tim Burton spin on it. Because of that, it feels very different from other animated movies and Christmas movies. I love the animation style for it, again it makes it stand out. I think the clay nation or stop motion, whatever this style is, is very creative and you can do some weird and trippy things with it. From there, I love the soundtrack for this movie. All of the songs are fantastic. Danny Elfman actually wrote a lot of the songs for it, he’s even the singing voice for Jack Skellington in the movie. I would say this is easily a top 10 Disney soundtrack for me, all of the songs are great in my mind. I love the characters in here, you get a nice romance with Jack and Sally in here. Oogie Boogie, classic Disney villain that’s very creepy. So when you put it all together, you get a great animated movie and a great movie in general. This is one I love to watch every year. 

8. Fight Club: I guess I already broke the first rule of Fight Club, I’m not allowed to talk about Fight Club. But eh, who cares what they are going to do about it? Anyways, this is such a great movie with so many great elements about it. On the one hand, it doesn’t feel like your typical David Fincher movie. He’s great at doing dark mystery thrillers like Se7en, Zodiac, and Gone Girl. This movie is easily his most stylized film, and probably his best directed movie in my mind. The movie tells this interesting story about this insomniac that gets swept up into this world with Brad Pitt’s character and the movie gets crazier and crazier as it goes along. The two lead performances from Edward Norton and Brad Pitt are pretty fantastic, I think both of them are the best of their respective careers. Helena Bonham Carter is great in here as well, I’m so used to seeing her in Harry Potter and this is such a different character from Belatrix Lastrange. It also has a young Jared Leto before he found fame and stardom. Now the twist here did get spoiled for me, so I didn’t have the wow factor that maybe could have moved it higher up on this list. But the movie is still effective, it still works on every level that it’s going for. So easily, it’s one of David Fincher’s best movies, it’s one of the best movies of the 90s and it’s one of the best movies. Period. 

7. A Few Good Men: One of the first Tom Cruise I saw where I realized he was more than just the action guy. This movie showcases that he’s a great world class actor that gives him a great character and script like this and he can deliver a great performance. The movie is most famous for Jack Nicholson and the courtroom scene, which is of course great. But the movie actually has a lot more layers and depth to it, where Tom Cruise’s character is trying to live up to his father’s expectations. So there’s lots of emotions that come from that and it provides a clear character arc for the lead character. Tom Cruise is giving a more dramatic performance while also having a lot of the charm that he normally brings to his role. Now of course you have to talk about Jack Nicholson who’s giving a great performance, the courtroom scene is one of the best written movie scenes of all time. And Jack Nicholson being this world class actor is able to play this antagonist type character really well. A lot of it comes from his acting, but it also comes from his face, the way his eyebrow moves when he’s angry. It also has a fantastic script from Aaron Sorkin, who writes dialogue and scenes so well they stick in your head. 

6. The Mask: One of my favorite comedies of all time and one of the movies I’ve rewatched the most times. There’s so many Jim Carrey movies that I love, whether it’s Liar Liar or Dumb and Dumber or Bruce Almighty. But my all time favorite and one that I feel will be pretty hard to beat is The Mask. It’s a movie I’m surprised isn’t talked about more, it’s not talked about as one of his best movies. That always shocked me and I’m not sure why people don’t talk about it more. It’s very easy to forget, this is a comic book movie that came out before comic book movies were the dominant force at the box office, it was a very successful film. And now in 2023 where comic book movies are these big blockbusters (or maybe used to be), this one is kind of forgotten. I haven’t forgotten about it, I think it’s a great movie that is so rewatchable. Right off the bat, it has a fantastic concept for a movie where a guy finds a mask that when he puts it on it gives him superpowers and turns into this superhero. It’s a concept that gives the opportunity for somebody like Jim Carrey to just run wild with it. So you get a crazy Jim Carrey performance that’s so much fun and brings all of his energy to the screen. It’s so quotable where all along the way you get these great one liners from Jim Carrey or the supporting cast that put a smile on your face. The Cuban Pete scene is probably the best scene in any Jim Carrey movie. This was Cameron Diaz’s first movie, she’d never acted prior to this movie coming out. This is the film that launched her into stardom for many years. All around, just a fantastic film and I think it is one of the funniest movies ever made. 

5. The Lion King (1994): One of the greatest animated movies of all time and it’s a movie that is of course a classic Disney animated movie. But it’s a movie that in a lot of ways doesn’t feel like a Disney animated movie and I mean that in a good way, that’s absolutely a positive for this movie. Several Disney movies take inspiration from other Disney movies, a lot of them follow the same story template. This one takes inspiration from Shakespeare and more specifically Hamlet. Hamlet is just great source material for a movie and applying that through the Disney movie template you get something really special. It’s a movie that’s almost 30 years old but holds up so well as being one of the greatest movies ever made. From top to bottom pretty much everything about the movie is iconic and awesome. The songs are some of the best that Disney has done, there’s a strong argument to have that this is the best soundtrack for a Disney movie. It has fantastic characters inside of it that flesh out the whole movie so well. Simba is a great protagonist that has a clear arc. I think he’s one of the characters in an animated movie. Timon and Pumbaa are fantastic side characters that steal every single scene they’re in. Scar is the best animated movie villain of all time, he’s so scary and menacing and played so well by the legendary Jeremy Irons. It has everything you expect from a Disney movie but does something very different with it and delivers some of the best elements that Disney has ever done. 

4. The Matrix: A movie that takes a bunch of inspiration from different genres, styles of movies, and philosophical ideas puts them all into a blender, blends it up and delivers a fantastic movie. This movie has so much world building going on inside of it, there’s so much us as the audience is learning about this world. We know very quickly who the good guys and who the bad guys are. We know the rules and what this world is. They dump all of this on it but it’s done in such an interesting manner. It’s easy to forget the first hour of this movie is all exposition. But you don’t care, you’re not bored because you’re having so much fun learning about this world and these characters. It’s great on that level, it’s so immersive with what it’s doing. On an action level, this one of the best action movies ever made. Where they didn’t go for simple action, it’s very stylized using martial arts techniques that were inspired by John Woo martial arts movies. It’s mixed with the sci-fi elements and the two blended together make for some of the best hand to hand fights of all time. The Wachowzki’s are great with shooting the action, you can see everything that is happening. It also has a great cast inside of it. Keanu Reeves was already pretty well established by this point in time. Everybody knew and loved him. This is one of the movies that helped launch both Hugo Weaving and Laurence Fishburne into the A-list. So all around, this is a movie that has so many elements about it that make it one of the best of all time. 

3. Se7en: This is what’s fun about doing a list like this, every movie is very different from the one. This is a movie that I’ve talked about a lot over the years and that’s because I just love this movie and I think it’s one of the best movies ever made. At face value, it’s just another one of these movies. Where you have two cops, one is the older one getting ready to retire and the new rookie trying to find a killer with a gimmick. But there’s so many more layers to each scene, character, and detail on what’s happening. It’s one of David Fincher’s best directed movies, maybe his best directed film. Where it’s so dark and disturbing, but it has all of the elements that David Fincher is so good at. This is the film where David Fincher was given creative control to tell that story he wanted to tell. He directed Alien 3 before this, but that’s a franchise film with a lot of studio interference happening. In a lot of this is the directorial debut of the David Fincher we all know and love. It has a series of twists and turns all along the way leading up to a fantastic finale that’s satisfying to the film. But it’s not a happy ending, it throws in one extra twist that I think makes for the best final scene in movie history. 

2. The Silence of the Lambs: Man, I love this movie. I love this movie so much and along with Se7en I think it’s one of the greatest movies ever made. It’s a fantastic psychological thriller that some people view as a horror movie, I wouldn’t agree with that. But what’s great about it is that it gets under your skin, it messes with your head as you’re just scared and terrified of what’s happening in the film. It’s this creepy environment with these unsettling characters that do very disturbing things. Of course, the big thing to talk about here is Anthony Hopkins as Hannibal Lecter which is one of the most celebrated movie performances of all time. He only has a few minutes of screen time, but does all of these little things with the way he speaks, makes sounds with his tongue, or just talks to other people. It makes him this character that you remember after you watch the film. I would argue that this performance is one of the best performances of all time, it’s easily a top 3 favorite for me. Even Buffalo Bill is equally as disturbing with what he’s doing, and he’s the true villain of the movie. He’s again super memorable with these comments about lotion and wearing a skin jacket. It’s disturbing stuff that always sticks in your head. But even some of the way it talks about gender roles is very interesting, where characters aren’t full of villains. But some of them are more antagonistic and mean spirited with some of the ways they’re treating Jodie Foster’s character. Speaking of Jodie Foster, another fantastic performance delivering one of the best performances of all time too. So it’s a movie that isn’t for everybody, some people won’t like it for how dark and disturbing it is. But I love it and it’s right up my alley. 

1. Jurassic Park: This is a movie that I’ve been watching ever since I could remember and I’ve always loved this movie. I truly think this is one of the best movies ever made. I think it’s Steven Spielberg’s best movie, of the ones I have seen. I think this is a pretty fantastic movie with so many different ingredients that make it as good as it is. First up, you have a world class filmmaker in Steven Spielberg directing this movie and he brings all of his skills and talents on display. He directs certain scenes so they’re filled with tension. Each dinosaur action scene has multiple layers of conflict so it’s not just simple as our characters need to do this. No, it’s our characters who need to do this while doing this and make sure this doesn't happen. So he finds all of these ways to make each sequence pop and stand out. The two best ones in my mind would be the T-Rex scene as well as the kitchen scene that are some of the best directed scenes in cinematic history, and frankly just some of the best movie scenes in general. Second, the characters are very interesting and fun to be around. One they’re played by great actors who have great chemistry with one another. Two, they all have a different worldview for what John Hammond is doing. All of them think he should and shouldn’t do certain things, so it creates this nice ensemble of characters. All of them are different from each other. Third, it has a fantastic score from John Williams and depending on the day, this is my favorite film score of all time. So easily, it’s one of the best movies ever made and I think it’s the best film of the 90s.