Join The Community
Star Wars Episode 1: The Phantom Menace (1999)
If It Was Made Today: It'd come with Mickey Mouse ears.
Ringu (1998)
The Moment: Ryuji Takayama (Hiroyuki Sanada) reckons he's helped to break Sadako's curse, until the ghost crawls out of his TV set and frightens him to death.
Only In The '90s: Videotape as a source of horror.
If It Was Made Today: Killer Blu-rays! Lethal downloads! Homicidal Netflix streaming!
The Big Lebowski (1998)
The Moment: The decade's weirdest dream sequence, as Jeff Lebowski (Jeff Bridges) imagines himself floating through a bowling match with Saddam Hussein and a Valkyrie Julianne Moore.
Only In The '90s: The Coens could do pretty much anything and it turn to gold.
If It Was Made Today: Can these elder statesmen of American cinema kick back and have the same kind of fun they did with Lebowski ?
Titanic (1997)
The Moment: Jack (Leonardo DiCaprio) and Rose (Kate Winslet) attempt to find safety aboard the Titanic's top deck, only for the boat to snap in half and send them down into the icy waters.
Only In The '90s: Huge budget + groundbreaking FX + old-school epic romance = the biggest (unadjusted) box-office take of all time.
If It Was Made Today: James Cameron is too busy beating his own box-office record with his giant 3D Smurfs.
Out Of Sight (1998)
The Moment: Fugitive bank robber Jack Foley (George Clooney) and the Federal Marshall on his tail, Karen Sisco (Jennifer Lopez), take a 'time out' by meeting-cute as 'Gary' and 'Celeste,' their flirting intercut with pre-sex undressing.
Only In The '90s: Steven Soderbergh could go from has-been to hotshot by casting him off E.R., future pop diva J. Lo. and dicking about with the chronology.
If It Was Made Today: It'd be further proof that, contrary to hearsay, Soderbergh has absolutely zero intention of retiring from movies any time soon.
The Full Monty (1997)
The Moment: A gang of amateur strippers led by Gaz (Robert Carlyle) perform their routine to Tom Jones' You Can Leave Your Hat On , finally fulfilling their promise to go 'the full monty.'
Only In The '90s: British cinema turned kitchen-sink realism on its head by transforming tales of poverty and despair into uplifting, feel-good hits.
If It Was Made Today: Judging by Magic Mike , the 'recession stripper comedy' is still a viable sub-genre.
The Thin Red Line (1998)
The Moment: The war film like you've never seen it before, Part 1, as Private Witt (Jim Caviezel) prefers communing with the natural world of Guadalcanal to fighting the Japanese.
Only In The '90s: Terrence Malick's return to filmmaking after a two-decade absence proves such a big draw that everybody wants to work with him... and most end up on the cutting room floor in favour of a guy you've never heard of.
If It Was Made Today: If you miss a Malick audition, don't worry, there'll be another film from Mr Suddenly Prolific soon enough.
Saving Private Ryan (1998)
The Moment: The war film like you've never seen it before, Part 2, as Spielberg stages a staggering re-enactment of the D-Day landings.
Only In The '90s: Mixing old-school in-camera techniques with post-production wizardry to achieve an authentic period look to the footage.
If It Was Made Today: First-person gamer-style.
The Sixth Sense (1999)
The Moment: Cole Sear (Haley Joel Osment) couldn't make it plainer when he tells Malcolm Crowe (Bruce Willis) that "I see dead people... They don't know they're dead," and the psychologist still can't figure it out.
Only In The '90s: A film's entire marketing budget can be spent teasing audiences that there's a twist ending.
If It Was Made Today: Ideally, given his recent track record, somebody other than M. Night Shyamalan should make it.
Terminator 2: Judgement Day (1991)
The Moment: The T-1000 (Robert Patrick) shows what it's made of at the mental asylum, by rising from a chequered floor, walking through the bars of a cell door, withstanding several shotgun blasts to the chest and then turning its hands into hooks.
Only In The '90s: CGI that serves a proper narrative function rather than being FX eye-candy.
If It Was Made Today: Robert Patrick would have spent the shoot in a mo-cap suit.
