Best Films of the '90s

by garivenbark | created - 30 Dec 2014 | updated - 30 Dec 2014 | Public

A pretty good decade

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1. Toy Story 2 (1999)

G | 92 min | Animation, Adventure, Comedy

88 Metascore

When Woody is stolen by a toy collector, Buzz and his friends set out on a rescue mission to save Woody before he becomes a museum toy property with his roundup gang Jessie, Prospector, and Bullseye.

Directors: John Lasseter, Ash Brannon, Lee Unkrich | Stars: Tom Hanks, Tim Allen, Joan Cusack, Kelsey Grammer

Votes: 619,858 | Gross: $245.85M

2. The Sixth Sense (1999)

PG-13 | 107 min | Drama, Mystery, Thriller

64 Metascore

Malcolm Crowe, a child psychologist, starts treating a young boy, Cole, who encounters dead people and convinces him to help them. In turn, Cole helps Malcolm reconcile with his estranged wife.

Director: M. Night Shyamalan | Stars: Bruce Willis, Haley Joel Osment, Toni Collette, Olivia Williams

Votes: 1,051,661 | Gross: $293.51M

3. The Matrix (1999)

R | 136 min | Action, Sci-Fi

73 Metascore

When a beautiful stranger leads computer hacker Neo to a forbidding underworld, he discovers the shocking truth--the life he knows is the elaborate deception of an evil cyber-intelligence.

Directors: Lana Wachowski, Lilly Wachowski | Stars: Keanu Reeves, Laurence Fishburne, Carrie-Anne Moss, Hugo Weaving

Votes: 2,053,966 | Gross: $171.48M

4. The Prince of Egypt (1998)

PG | 99 min | Animation, Adventure, Drama

64 Metascore

Egyptian Prince Moses learns of his identity as a Hebrew and his destiny to become the chosen deliverer of his people.

Directors: Brenda Chapman, Steve Hickner, Simon Wells | Stars: Val Kilmer, Ralph Fiennes, Michelle Pfeiffer, Sandra Bullock

Votes: 146,428 | Gross: $101.22M

5. American History X (1998)

R | 119 min | Crime, Drama

62 Metascore

Living a life marked by violence, neo-Nazi Derek finally goes to prison after killing two black youths. Upon his release, Derek vows to change; he hopes to prevent his brother, Danny, who idolizes Derek, from following in his footsteps.

Director: Tony Kaye | Stars: Edward Norton, Edward Furlong, Beverly D'Angelo, Jennifer Lien

Votes: 1,186,595 | Gross: $6.72M

6. Elizabeth (1998)

R | 124 min | Biography, Drama, History

75 Metascore

The early years of the reign of Elizabeth I of England and her difficult task of learning what is necessary to be a monarch.

Director: Shekhar Kapur | Stars: Cate Blanchett, Liz Giles, Rod Culbertson, Paul Fox

Votes: 105,146 | Gross: $30.08M

7. Saving Private Ryan (1998)

R | 169 min | Drama, War

91 Metascore

Following the Normandy Landings, a group of U.S. soldiers go behind enemy lines to retrieve a paratrooper whose brothers have been killed in action.

Director: Steven Spielberg | Stars: Tom Hanks, Matt Damon, Tom Sizemore, Edward Burns

Votes: 1,496,929 | Gross: $216.54M

8. The Truman Show (1998)

PG | 103 min | Comedy, Drama

90 Metascore

An insurance salesman discovers his whole life is actually a reality TV show.

Director: Peter Weir | Stars: Jim Carrey, Ed Harris, Laura Linney, Noah Emmerich

Votes: 1,196,946 | Gross: $125.62M

9. Titanic (1997)

PG-13 | 194 min | Drama, Romance

75 Metascore

A seventeen-year-old aristocrat falls in love with a kind but poor artist aboard the luxurious, ill-fated R.M.S. Titanic.

Director: James Cameron | Stars: Leonardo DiCaprio, Kate Winslet, Billy Zane, Kathy Bates

Votes: 1,280,858 | Gross: $659.33M

10. Amistad (1997)

R | 155 min | Biography, Drama, History

64 Metascore

In 1839, the revolt of Mende captives aboard a Spanish owned ship causes a major controversy in the United States when the ship is captured off the coast of Long Island. The courts must decide whether the Mende are slaves or legally free.

Director: Steven Spielberg | Stars: Djimon Hounsou, Matthew McConaughey, Anthony Hopkins, Morgan Freeman

Votes: 82,817 | Gross: $44.18M

11. Good Will Hunting (1997)

R | 126 min | Drama, Romance

71 Metascore

Will Hunting, a janitor at M.I.T., has a gift for mathematics, but needs help from a psychologist to find direction in his life.

Director: Gus Van Sant | Stars: Robin Williams, Matt Damon, Ben Affleck, Stellan Skarsgård

Votes: 1,068,578 | Gross: $138.43M

12. Grosse Pointe Blank (1997)

R | 107 min | Action, Comedy, Crime

76 Metascore

Martin Blank is a professional assassin. He is sent on a mission to a small Detroit suburb, Grosse Pointe, and, by coincidence, his ten-year high school reunion party is taking place there at the same time.

Director: George Armitage | Stars: John Cusack, Minnie Driver, Dan Aykroyd, Joan Cusack

Votes: 99,639 | Gross: $28.01M

13. Jerry Maguire (1996)

R | 139 min | Comedy, Drama, Romance

77 Metascore

When a sports agent has a moral epiphany and is fired for expressing it, he decides to put his new philosophy to the test as an independent agent with the only athlete who stays with him and his former colleague.

Director: Cameron Crowe | Stars: Tom Cruise, Cuba Gooding Jr., Renée Zellweger, Kelly Preston

Votes: 287,105 | Gross: $153.95M

14. Dead Man Walking (1995)

R | 122 min | Crime, Drama

80 Metascore

A nun, while comforting a convicted killer on death row, empathizes with both the killer and his victim's families.

Director: Tim Robbins | Stars: Susan Sarandon, Sean Penn, Robert Prosky, Raymond J. Barry

Votes: 101,801 | Gross: $39.39M

15. Heat (1995)

R | 170 min | Action, Crime, Drama

76 Metascore

A group of high-end professional thieves start to feel the heat from the LAPD when they unknowingly leave a verbal clue at their latest heist.

Director: Michael Mann | Stars: Al Pacino, Robert De Niro, Val Kilmer, Jon Voight

Votes: 719,652 | Gross: $67.44M

16. Toy Story (1995)

G | 81 min | Animation, Adventure, Comedy

96 Metascore

A cowboy doll is profoundly threatened and jealous when a new spaceman action figure supplants him as top toy in a boy's bedroom.

Director: John Lasseter | Stars: Tom Hanks, Tim Allen, Don Rickles, Jim Varney

Votes: 1,068,890 | Gross: $191.80M

17. To Die For (1995)

R | 106 min | Comedy, Crime, Drama

86 Metascore

A beautiful but naïve aspiring television personality films a documentary on teenagers with a darker ulterior motive.

Director: Gus Van Sant | Stars: Nicole Kidman, Matt Dillon, Joaquin Phoenix, Casey Affleck

Votes: 53,013 | Gross: $21.28M

18. Se7en (1995)

R | 127 min | Crime, Drama, Mystery

65 Metascore

Two detectives, a rookie and a veteran, hunt a serial killer who uses the seven deadly sins as his motives.

Director: David Fincher | Stars: Morgan Freeman, Brad Pitt, Kevin Spacey, Andrew Kevin Walker

Votes: 1,799,669 | Gross: $100.13M

19. Clueless (1995)

PG-13 | 97 min | Comedy, Romance

71 Metascore

Shallow, rich and socially successful Cher is at the top of her Beverly Hills high school's pecking scale. Seeing herself as a matchmaker, Cher first coaxes two teachers into dating each other.

Director: Amy Heckerling | Stars: Alicia Silverstone, Stacey Dash, Brittany Murphy, Paul Rudd

Votes: 245,991 | Gross: $56.63M

20. Apollo 13 (I) (1995)

PG | 140 min | Adventure, Drama, History

78 Metascore

NASA must devise a strategy to return Apollo 13 to Earth safely after the spacecraft undergoes massive internal damage putting the lives of the three astronauts on board in jeopardy.

Director: Ron Howard | Stars: Tom Hanks, Bill Paxton, Kevin Bacon, Gary Sinise

Votes: 315,687 | Gross: $173.84M

21. Braveheart (1995)

R | 178 min | Biography, Drama, War

68 Metascore

Scottish warrior William Wallace leads his countrymen in a rebellion to free his homeland from the tyranny of King Edward I of England.

Director: Mel Gibson | Stars: Mel Gibson, Sophie Marceau, Patrick McGoohan, Angus Macfadyen

Votes: 1,091,626 | Gross: $75.60M

22. The Usual Suspects (1995)

R | 106 min | Crime, Drama, Mystery

76 Metascore

The sole survivor of a pier shoot-out tells the story of how a notorious criminal influenced the events that began with five criminals meeting in a seemingly random police lineup.

Director: Bryan Singer | Stars: Kevin Spacey, Gabriel Byrne, Chazz Palminteri, Stephen Baldwin

Votes: 1,145,731 | Gross: $23.34M

23. Léon: The Professional (1994)

R | 110 min | Action, Crime, Drama

64 Metascore

12-year-old Mathilda is reluctantly taken in by Léon, a professional assassin, after her family is murdered. An unusual relationship forms as she becomes his protégée and learns the assassin's trade.

Director: Luc Besson | Stars: Jean Reno, Gary Oldman, Natalie Portman, Danny Aiello

Votes: 1,246,272 | Gross: $19.50M

24. The Shawshank Redemption (1994)

R | 142 min | Drama

82 Metascore

Over the course of several years, two convicts form a friendship, seeking consolation and, eventually, redemption through basic compassion.

Director: Frank Darabont | Stars: Tim Robbins, Morgan Freeman, Bob Gunton, William Sadler

Votes: 2,889,789 | Gross: $28.34M

25. Forrest Gump (1994)

PG-13 | 142 min | Drama, Romance

82 Metascore

The history of the United States from the 1950s to the '70s unfolds from the perspective of an Alabama man with an IQ of 75, who yearns to be reunited with his childhood sweetheart.

Director: Robert Zemeckis | Stars: Tom Hanks, Robin Wright, Gary Sinise, Sally Field

Votes: 2,257,976 | Gross: $330.25M

26. The Lion King (1994)

G | 88 min | Animation, Adventure, Drama

88 Metascore

Lion prince Simba and his father are targeted by his bitter uncle, who wants to ascend the throne himself.

Directors: Roger Allers, Rob Minkoff | Stars: Matthew Broderick, Jeremy Irons, James Earl Jones, Whoopi Goldberg

Votes: 1,142,762 | Gross: $422.78M

27. The Piano (1993)

R | 121 min | Drama, Music, Romance

89 Metascore

In the mid-19th century a mute woman is sent to New Zealand along with her young daughter and prized piano for an arranged marriage to a farmer, but is soon lusted after by a farm worker.

Director: Jane Campion | Stars: Holly Hunter, Harvey Keitel, Sam Neill, Anna Paquin

Votes: 95,185 | Gross: $40.16M

28. Dazed and Confused (1993)

R | 103 min | Comedy

82 Metascore

The adventures of high school and junior high students on the last day of school in May 1976.

Director: Richard Linklater | Stars: Jason London, Wiley Wiggins, Matthew McConaughey, Rory Cochrane

Votes: 199,654 | Gross: $7.99M

29. The Fugitive (1993)

PG-13 | 130 min | Action, Crime, Drama

87 Metascore

Dr. Richard Kimble, unjustly accused of murdering his wife, must find the real killer while being the target of a nationwide manhunt led by a seasoned U.S. Marshal.

Director: Andrew Davis | Stars: Harrison Ford, Tommy Lee Jones, Sela Ward, Julianne Moore

Votes: 318,768 | Gross: $183.88M

30. Much Ado About Nothing (1993)

PG-13 | 111 min | Comedy, Drama, Romance

80 Metascore

Young lovers, and soon to wed, Hero and Claudio conspire to get verbal sparring partners and confirmed singles, Benedick and Beatrice, to wed as well.

Director: Kenneth Branagh | Stars: Kenneth Branagh, Emma Thompson, Keanu Reeves, Kate Beckinsale

Votes: 52,010 | Gross: $22.55M

31. Sleepless in Seattle (1993)

PG | 105 min | Comedy, Drama, Romance

72 Metascore

A recently widowed man's son calls a radio talk-show in an attempt to find his father a partner.

Director: Nora Ephron | Stars: Tom Hanks, Meg Ryan, Ross Malinger, Rita Wilson

Votes: 190,928 | Gross: $126.53M

32. Jurassic Park (1993)

PG-13 | 127 min | Action, Adventure, Sci-Fi

68 Metascore

A pragmatic paleontologist touring an almost complete theme park on an island in Central America is tasked with protecting a couple of kids after a power failure causes the park's cloned dinosaurs to run loose.

Director: Steven Spielberg | Stars: Sam Neill, Laura Dern, Jeff Goldblum, Richard Attenborough

Votes: 1,067,514 | Gross: $402.45M

33. Aladdin (1992)

G | 90 min | Animation, Adventure, Comedy

86 Metascore

A kind-hearted street urchin and a power-hungry Grand Vizier vie for a magic lamp that has the power to make their deepest wishes come true.

Directors: Ron Clements, John Musker | Stars: Scott Weinger, Robin Williams, Linda Larkin, Jonathan Freeman

Votes: 467,054 | Gross: $217.35M

34. The Last of the Mohicans (1992)

R | 112 min | Action, Adventure, Drama

76 Metascore

Three trappers protect the daughters of a British Colonel in the midst of the French and Indian War.

Director: Michael Mann | Stars: Daniel Day-Lewis, Madeleine Stowe, Russell Means, Eric Schweig

Votes: 187,715 | Gross: $75.51M

35. Beauty and the Beast (1991)

G | 84 min | Animation, Family, Fantasy

95 Metascore

A prince cursed to spend his days as a hideous monster sets out to regain his humanity by earning a young woman's love.

Directors: Gary Trousdale, Kirk Wise | Stars: Paige O'Hara, Robby Benson, Jesse Corti, Rex Everhart

Votes: 479,753 | Gross: $218.97M

36. Terminator 2: Judgment Day (1991)

R | 137 min | Action, Adventure, Sci-Fi

75 Metascore

A cyborg, identical to the one who failed to kill Sarah Connor, must now protect her ten year old son John from an even more advanced and powerful cyborg.

Director: James Cameron | Stars: Arnold Schwarzenegger, Linda Hamilton, Edward Furlong, Robert Patrick

Votes: 1,174,479 | Gross: $204.84M

37. The Silence of the Lambs (1991)

R | 118 min | Crime, Drama, Thriller

86 Metascore

A young F.B.I. cadet must receive the help of an incarcerated and manipulative cannibal killer to help catch another serial killer, a madman who skins his victims.

Director: Jonathan Demme | Stars: Jodie Foster, Anthony Hopkins, Scott Glenn, Ted Levine

Votes: 1,548,707 | Gross: $130.74M

38. Dances with Wolves (1990)

PG-13 | 181 min | Adventure, Drama, Western

72 Metascore

Lieutenant John Dunbar, assigned to a remote western Civil War outpost, finds himself engaging with a neighbouring Sioux settlement, causing him to question his own purpose.

Director: Kevin Costner | Stars: Kevin Costner, Mary McDonnell, Graham Greene, Rodney A. Grant

Votes: 290,756 | Gross: $184.21M



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