Why Movies Were Just Better In The 1990s

The genre of the mainstream parody movie today seems like a long lost art, but in the '90s they were absolutely everywhere. These were flicks which solely existed to have a pop at and Lampoon mainstream cinema and tropes of the time, with some of them ironically becoming more popular than the pieces they were mocking.

Arguably the king of the parody movie in the 1990s was Mike Myers, who started off the decade with Wayne's World, a goofy comedy including so many jokes and references to classic films it's hard to keep track of them all. He then followed this up in one of the greatest spoof pictures of all time, 1997's Austin Powers: International Man Of Mystery.

The piece is a brilliant send-up of James Bond, British comedy and film culture in general, sending up some of the huge plot holes of the 007 series such as wacky villains with their elaborate lairs who seem to enjoy causing the death of the protagonist in the most seemingly nonsensical and long-winded way possible.

Myers then followed this up with a second Austin Powers, which cemented his status as the king of the pop culture parody.