10 Things About 90s Movies Everyone Misses Today

It was a great decade, but where did these classic cliches go?

Jim Carrey Ace Ventura
Warner Bros.

Nostalgia is, by and large, stupid.

It's a tool used by big companies to sell you stuff you think you need, but in reality you only want it because you used to have it when you were younger.

You see it in fashion, in music, and in movies. Boy, do you see it in movies.

Five minutes doesn't pass without the announcement of yet another reboot, remake, or reshuffle of a classic franchise. Disney are systematically working through their animated back catalogue to create live action versions for double the profit - one lot of tickets for the kids, one for the adults who remember the films from their youth.

As we said, nostalgia is usually pretty dumb. But, just this once, let's allow ourselves to don those rose-tinted specs and look back with fondness at one of the most fascinating decades in cinema history.

The 90s gave us plenty of great movies that still hold up to this day, but these ten tropes that helped define the decade have practically vanished.

So, for one night only, allow yourself to be transported back to a world of nu metal and Snake on your cell phone, because we're going back to the 90s.

10. Fewer Franchises

Jim Carrey Ace Ventura
Walt Disney Studios

Not to sound too much like an old man yelling at a cloud, but why is everything a "universe" these days?

Marvel are certainly the biggest offender, but they're not the only culprits. DC, Star Wars, Lord of the Rings, Harry Potter, that stupid "Dark Universe" idea that Universal dropped after about 30 seconds.

What the hell was all that about?

In an effort to serve the almighty dollar and drown fans in content, film studios and producers immediately think "franchise" as soon as anything new gets puts in front of them.

Whilst the 90s certainly had its fair share of big film series, they weren't so in your face about it.

Some of the most popular films of the decade were stand-alones. Titanic, Forrest Gump, Armageddon, and Ghost all rank amongst the highest-grossing releases from the time and none of them were part of wider plan.

What's even worse is that subsequent decades gave us sequels to 90s movies that nobody wanted! A Men in Black II anyone? How about a follow-on to Independence Day 20 years later that only half the original cast are involved in?

It's sickening, it truly is.

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Jacob Simmons has a great many passions, including rock music, giving acclaimed films three-and-a-half stars, watching random clips from The Simpsons on YouTube at 3am, and writing about himself in the third person.