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Madonna was still high atop her pop throne in 1991 when the behind the scenes documentary Madonna: Truth or Dare came out. We watched because, well, Madonna was a megastar and the movie purported to give some insight into what she was really like.
We've long since grown tired of Madge's desperate plays for attention in the decades since, so when we see her making fun of Kevin Costner after he gives her a compliment or watch her acting like a spoiled child backstage, it just comes across as obnoxious. This isn't anyone with whom you want to spend time.
- Actors: Madonna, Donna De Lory, Niki Harris, Luis Camacho, Oliver Crumes Jr.
- Released: 1991
- Directed by: Alek Keshishian
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You loved the cartoon Inspector Gadget, so Disney smelled dollar signs and crafted this live-action version starring Matthew Broderick as the bumbling titular security guard. You might have given this a pass back in the day because you were still high on the fumes from the popular cartoon, but let's be honest: this live-action update is charmless and most of the gags fall flat. They don't get any better over a decade later.
- Actors: Matthew Broderick, Rupert Everett, Joely Fisher, Michelle Trachtenberg, Andy Dick
- Released: 1999
- Directed by: David Kellogg
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Some of you out there can still name a Spice Girls song. A few of you can probably even sing one! Spiceworld was made for you and for fans of the bubbly British pop tarts. The problem with movies starring pop stars is that pop stars rarely endure for years, so when they reach the end of their short shelf life, their films end up in the bargain bin.
- Actors: The Spice Girls, Richard E. Grant, Alan Cumming, George Wendt, Claire Rushbrook
- Released: 1997
- Directed by: Bob Spiers
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Jodie Foster has always been very choosy with her roles, so when one of her movies came out, people paid attention to the woman who played Clarice Starling in Silence of the Lambs.
In Nell, Foster plays some kind of oddball mountain hermit who says profound things like "chicka, chicka, chickabee" and other nonsense. It might have seemed avant-garde and brave at the time, but now it just elicits giggles.
- Actors: Jodie Foster, Liam Neeson, Natasha Richardson, Nick Searcy, Robin Mullins
- Released: 1994
- Directed by: Michael Apted
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Remember how excited you were when you found out that America was finally making its own Godzilla film? The ads teased the creature for months with only a glimpse of his foot. Then you saw the movie and, as much as you wanted to like it, you realized that the giant lizard looked all wrong and he/she/it laid eggs and hatched little baby Godzillas.
Today, you would either go old school with one of the Japanese movies or enjoy the King of Monster's eight minutes of screen time in the more recent remake, but few would let this one roar to life in the ol' Blu-ray player.
- Actors: Matthew Broderick, Jean Reno, Maria Pitillo, Hank Azaria, Kevin Dunn
- Released: 1998
- Directed by: Roland Emmerich
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Tim Burton seemed like the perfect director to bring Gotham City to life in Batman and Batman Returns. Director Joel Schumacher tried to keep the momentum going with a new Batman (Val Kilmer) and the introduction of Robin (Chris O'Donnell) in Batman Forever, but it was the beginning of the end for Batman as we knew him.
Sure, the movie still made a lot at the box office and you dug Jim Carrey as Riddler, but can you imagine firing up this neon-colored, homoerotic mess today, after having seen Burton's films and the Christopher Nolan trilogy? Batman somehow went from the Dark Knight to some kind of fetish cosplayer with a bulging codpiece and a sidekick to match.
- Actors: Val Kilmer, Tommy Lee Jones, Jim Carrey, Nicole Kidman, Chris O'Donnell
- Released: 1995
- Directed by: Joel Schumacher
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The marketing for 1999's The Blair Witch Project was genius. Since the movie used actors who were unknown, it was presented to the public as a documentary culled together from found footage after the disappearance of its participants. The public ate it up, the found-footage craze began, and people talked about how terrifying the theater experience was.
When you watch The Blair Witch Project now, you see it for what it is: a gimmicky, not-much-going-on scarefest about young people lost in the woods with shaky cameras that builds and builds to an abrupt, unsatisfying ending... and no Blair Witch to be found.
- Actors: Heather Donahue, Michael C. Williams, Joshua Leonard, Bob Griffith, Jim King
- Released: 1999
- Directed by: Daniel Myrick, Eduardo Sánchez
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Wild Wild West cost a whopping $170 million to make and pulled in about $114 million at the box office. It was supposed to be a big hit for big star Will Smith, but even his star power couldn't save this overblown mess from biting the dust. You would never watch this today, but, admit it: you still work out to Smith's theme song from the film.
- Actors: Will Smith, Kevin Kline, Kenneth Branagh, Salma Hayek, Ted Levine
- Released: 1999
- Directed by: Barry Sonnenfeld
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Remember how excited you were when you heard that George Lucas was finally doing the Star Wars prequels? Everyone got in touch with their inner geek and a new generation was ready to go to a galaxy far, far away. Then they realized it was about... trade agreements? Treaties? Something? Bueller?
Sure, Darth Maul was supercool, but you had that kid playing Anakin Skywalker and an obnoxious alien named Jar Jar Binks who spoke in some sort of Rastafarian baby talk.
- Actors: Liam Neeson, Ewan McGregor, Natalie Portman, Jake Lloyd, Pernilla August
- Released: 1999
- Directed by: George Lucas
Is this actually awful?The 18 Best Characters From 'Star Wars: Episode I - The Phantom Menace,' Ranked By FansSee all
- 1Qui-Gon Jinn46 Votes
- 2Obi-Wan Kenobi50 Votes
- 3Padmé Amidala40 Votes
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If the 1995 adventure movie Congo still has its defenders, they're hiding deep in the jungle somewhere. Back in the '90s, we were on board for this romp about a high-tech African expedition featuring an ape named Amy who could use sign language. If it wasn't apparent at the time, now that we're grown up we can clearly see that all the apes in the movie are men in suits or bad CGI and seem kind of... off.
- Actors: Dylan Walsh, Laura Linney, Ernie Hudson, Tim Curry, Grant Heslov
- Released: 1995
- Directed by: Frank Marshall
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This 1994 live-action remake of the classic cartoon, starred John Goodman as Fred Flintstone and Rosie O'Donnell as neighbor Betty Rubble. Everyone loved the cartoon, so don't pretend you didn't see the movie (it made almost $131 million, so we know at least some of you did). This kind of zany play for nostalgia is so transparent today that it's almost impossible to have any fun in this version of Bedrock.
- Actors: John Goodman, Elizabeth Perkins, Rick Moranis, Rosie O'Donnell, Kyle MacLachlan
- Released: 1994
- Directed by: Brian Levant
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Back in 1995, there was this new-fangled thing called the Internet with all kinds of computers tethered together, sharing information. Hot off her breakout role in Speed, Sandra Bullock starred in the techno thriller The Net as a programmer whose life and identity get messed with via the Internet - er, Net. Now that we have access to the Internet on everything from phones to watches and no one except your mom calls it "the net," this movie is like the '90s version of WarGames.
- Actors: Sandra Bullock, Jeremy Northam, Dennis Miller, Diane Baker, Wendy Gazelle
- Released: 1995
- Directed by: Irwin Winkler
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Back in 1998, were you laughing it up when Eddie Murphy talked to animals in the remake of Dr. Dolittle? You must have been, because the movie made over $144 million at the US box office. CGI and animatronics have improved tenfold since 1998, so this romp with the animals can't help but feel dated.
- Actors: Eddie Murphy, Ossie Davis, Oliver Platt, Peter Boyle, Richard Schiff
- Released: 1998
- Directed by: Betty Thomas
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Before David Fincher's morose Alien 3, Ripley (Sigourney Weaver) had triumphed over the Queen Alien in Aliens and was dreaming in hypersleep alongside Newt and Hicks. In the first few minutes of Alien 3, Fincher blows those memories out the airlock by showing that Newt and Hicks died in hypersleep. Ripley becomes marooned on a desolate prison planet - inexplicably impregnated by an alien - and ends up killing herself in the depressing film's final moments. Ripley is probably the strongest female character in movie history, and Fincher has her dive into a vat of molten metal. Sound like a party you want to revisit?
- Actors: Sigourney Weaver, Charles S. Dutton, Charles Dance, Paul McGann, Brian Glover
- Released: 1992
- Directed by: David Fincher
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In the hit movie The Bodyguard, Whitney Houston plays - what else? - a pop superstar who is getting death threats. She hires a bodyguard, played by Kevin Costner, and they fall in love over the course of this overly melodramatic potboiler. Back in 1992, Houston was at the height of her stardom and you couldn't escape her bombastic hit "I Will Always Love You." Now that Houston's star has faded and she is no longer with us, this brand of cheese seems spoiled.
- Actors: Kevin Costner, Whitney Houston, Gary Kemp, Bill Cobbs, Ralph Waite
- Released: 1992
- Directed by: Mick Jackson
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People forget that Jim Carrey was a huge box office draw in the '90s and that pretty much started with his zany performance as the rubber-faced titular character in The Mask. You thought he was a gas and that Cameron Diaz was hot. Fast-forward to today and the whole dialed-to-11 manic affair will have you reaching for the "stop" button.
- Actors: Jim Carrey, Cameron Diaz, Peter Riegert, Peter Greene, Amy Yasbeck
- Released: 1994
- Directed by: Chuck Russell
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Adam Sandler still has his fans, despite a string of terrible comedies. Back in 1998, he was the king of the comedy box office, and his turn in The Waterboy delighted fans to the tune of $162 million. For this kind of movie to go the distance, you have to really, really love the lead actor, and judging by the performance of Sandler's latest films, maybe the public has benched him.
- Actors: Adam Sandler, Kathy Bates, Henry Winkler, Fairuza Balk, Jerry Reed
- Released: 1998
- Directed by: Frank Coraci
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If you were a kid into basketball in the '90s, you loved Space Jam, that classic a live-action/animation hybrid starring Michael Jordan, Bugs Bunny, and a bunch of the Looney Tunes characters. Just imagine showing a kid today, likely raised on balanced a diet of Pixar and DreamWorks, this 2D flick filled with cartoon characters they've never heard of.
- Actors: Wayne Knight, Theresa Randle, Danny DeVito, Billy West, Dee Bradley Baker
- Released: 1996
- Directed by: Joe Pytka
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This on-the-nose dramedy about a misfit medical student (Robin Williams) with an unconventional approach to healing patients really, really tried to tug on the heartstrings. It must have worked, because the movie pulled in over $135 million domestically. Even if you didn't admit it back then, now you have to confess that this is all so syrupy that it should have come with a stack of pancakes.
- Actors: Robin Williams, Daniel London, Monica Potter, Philip Seymour Hoffman, Bob Gunton
- Released: 1998
- Directed by: Tom Shadyac
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Twister is one of the first in long parade of disaster flicks that were all the rage in the pre-Y2K '90s. People talked about the spectacular special effects and that cow that gets sucked up by the tornado. Audiences will still line up for a decent disaster flick, but the Jurassic CGI in this movie just doesn't blow us away anymore.
- Actors: Helen Hunt, Bill Paxton, Cary Elwes, Jami Gertz, Lois Smith
- Released: 1996
- Directed by: Jan de Bont
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Arnold Schwarzenegger took a break from being the biggest action star of the '80s to star in the Ivan Reitman comedy Kindergarten Cop as an undercover officer who teaches a hyperactive class of six-year-olds. Schwarzenegger isn't given enough credit for being a funny guy, which is probably why we cheered him on as he shed his Terminator image in this movie. Now that the novelty of him playing against type has passed, so has any desire to revisit this goofy flick.
- Actors: Arnold Schwarzenegger, Penelope Ann Miller, Pamela Reed, Linda Hunt, Richard Tyson
- Released: 1990
- Directed by: Ivan Reitman
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As far as films made from Saturday Night Live skits go, Wayne's World is near the top of the heap... for what it's worth. The lowbrow humor of Wayne (Mike Myers) and Garth (Dana Carvey) might have busted some guts back in 1992, but it's so tied to its time that something gets lost in translation decades later.
- Actors: Mike Myers, Dana Carvey, Rob Lowe, Tia Carrere, Brian Doyle-Murray
- Released: 1992
- Directed by: Penelope Spheeris
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Steven Spielberg has made some of the greatest movies ever, so when we heard he was making a movie called Hook about a grown-up Peter Pan, played by Robin Williams, we lined up. Back in 1991, we might have even thought Julia Roberts as Tinkerbell was a terrific idea! Hook made over $119 million at the box office, but if we're being honest with ourselves, this is one of Spielberg's worst movies. The director is susceptible to being overly sentimental, but this is too much.
- Actors: Dustin Hoffman, Robin Williams, Julia Roberts, Bob Hoskins, Maggie Smith
- Released: 1991
- Directed by: Steven Spielberg
Is this actually awful?See What The Kids Of The 'Hook' Cast Went On To Do Decades LaterSee all- 1Charlie Korsmo9 Votes
- 2Dante Basco6 Votes
- 3Gwyneth Paltrow8 Votes
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Independence Day was the highest grossing movie of 1996. It had everything: aliens blowing up national monuments, flashy special effects and the Fresh Prince himself - Will Smith, as a cocky fighter pilot. But when you try to watch this today, you'll cringe when President Bill Pullman gives his gung-ho American speech ("We will not go quietly into the night!") and when Jeff Goldblum uses a Mac computer to upload a virus to an alien spacecraft. Um, yeah.
- Actors: Will Smith, Bill Pullman, Jeff Goldblum, Mary McDonnell, Judd Hirsch
- Released: 1996
- Directed by: Roland Emmerich
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COLLECTION22 LISTS
Revisiting Childhood FavoritesLists that dissect and analyze (and possibly ruin) some of the movies and TV you watched over and over and over and over when you were a kid.
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Fact-checked by:Jason Bancroft
21 MORE LISTS
Revisiting Childhood Favorites
Lists that dissect and analyze (and possibly ruin) some of the movies and TV you watched over and over and over and over when you were a kid.
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