20 Awesome 90s Movies The World Forgot
It's time to remember these bangers.
The 90s was one of the best movie decades ever, and we all love and cherish the classics.
Goodfellas. Pulp Fiction. Schindler's List. The Shawshank Redemption. Saving Private Ryan. Seven. Toy Story 1 & 2. The Silence of the Lambs. Groundhog Day. Fargo. Terminator 2: Judgement Day. The Matrix. Fight Club. Heat. Magnolia. Princess Mononoke. Trainspotting. Unforgiven. That's only naming a few! Having said that, the big names are just the surface when it comes to quality 90s cinema. There are plenty of other gems that have, frustratingly, been lost in the shuffle.
The following twenty films, though by no means an exhaustive list, are all terrific 90s movies that just don't get the attention they deserve. They are extremely varied, ranging from animated gems to thought-provoking documentaries, from dynamite action flicks to auteur-directed masterworks - what they all have in common is that they are both brilliant and underrated.
So, the next time you want to watch a 90s flick, instead of making a bee-line for one of the popular hits, try one of these instead. You won't regret it in the slightest.
20. The Witches
The cinematic adaptations of Roald Dahl's beloved books are a wildly mixed bag, but some are very good and are rightly celebrated. Both versions of Matilda, Fantastic Mr Fox, Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory... but bizarrely, a strong contender for the best Roald Dahl adaptation of them all doesn't get nearly as much attention. That is 1990's The Witches, directed by the great Nicholas Roeg.
Even aside from the fact that it captures that Dahl-esque mixture of cruelty and whimsy better than any other adaptation of his work, The Witches is a fabulous work on its own terms. A campy, deliciously dark and visually stunning thrill ride that introduces some of the scariest villains in any family film before triumphantly destroying them in the most bad-ass of ways, this is an endlessly entertaining horror story for kids that strikes exactly the right balance. It's scary, but not excessively so. Like virtually all of Dahl's stories, it'll low-key traumatize you but leave you glowing inside by the end.
Factor in a tremendous performance from the legendary Anjelica Huston as the Grand High Witch and some exceptional puppetry courtesy of Jim Henson and his crew and you've got elite family fare and then some. And sure, Dahl himself hated it because it changed the ending... but remember, Stephen King hated The Shining.
So go on, give this little gem a spin. Just make sure not to watch the thoroughly mediocre 2020 adaptation by mistake.