By The Decade: Your Recommendations From The 1990s

There’s been another great response to this week’s By The Decade, and the recommendations cover pretty much every genre you can think of!

I got the impression that if it was tough to choose a shortlist of films from the 1970s and 1980s, the 1990s was even harder. Doubly so if you were trying to avoid the blockbusters, but you guys managed it with some really great suggestions.

As always, you can catch up with all of the By The Decade pieces in their very own section of the site, but here are the recommendations you lovely people offered for movies from the 1990s.

• Tremors (1990)
• The Last Boy Scout (1991)
• Twin Peaks: Fire Walk With Me (1992)
• True Romance (1993)
• In The Mouth of Madness (1994)
• Se7en (1995)
• Crash (1996)
• Chasing Amy (1997)
• Dark City (1998)
• The Talented Mr Ripley (1999)
• Jurassic Park (1993)
• Terminator 2: Judgement Day (1991)
• Batman Forever (1995)
• Independence Day (1996)
• True Lies (1994)
• Hocus Pocus (1993)
• Scream (1996)
• Aladdin (1992)
• Sister Act (1992)
• Miller’s Crossing (1990)
• JFK (1991)
• The Rocketeer (1991)
• Chaplin (1992)
• Courage Under Fire (1996)
• The Full Monty (1997)
• You’ve Got Mail (1998)
• The Mask Of Zorro (1998)
• Hana-bi (1997)
• Being John Malkovich (1999)
• All About my Mother (1999)
• The Big Lebowski (1998)
• Ghost In The Shell (1995)
• A Brighter Summer Day (1991)
• The Age of Innocence (1993)
• Close-Up (1990)
• Fargo (1996)
• Mrs Parker & The Vicious Circle (1994)
• Casino (1995)
• Land & Freedom (1995)
• Underground (1995)
• Nixon (1995)
• The Straight Story (1999)
• Chungking Express (1994)
• Unforgiven (1992)
• I Hired a Contract Killer (1990)
• Trust (1990)
• Liberty Heights (1999)
• Delicatessen (1991)
• Man Bites Dog (1992)
• Strictly Ballroom (1992)
• The Mummy (1999)
• The Fifth Element (1997)
• Beauty and the Beast (1991)
• Jackie Brown (1997)
• Much Ado About Nothing (1993)
• Sense and Sensibility (1995)
• The Crow (1994)
• Heat (1995)
• Mallrats (1995)
• Die Hard: With A Vengeance (1995)
• The Usual Suspects (1995)
• Trainspotting (1996)
• Léon (1994)
• Sister Act 2: Back In The Habit (1993)
• Dances with Wolves (1990)
• Memphis Belle (1990)
• The Russia House (1990)
• Grand Canyon (1991)
• Thelma & Louise (1991)
• Jennifer 8 (1992)
• Thunderheart (1992)
• Falling Down (1993)
• Shadowlands (1993)
• The Remains Of The Day (1993)
• In The Line Of Fire (1993)
• The Shawshank Redemption (1994)
• The Hudsucker Proxy (1994)
• Mary Reilly (1996)
• Shakespeare in Love (1998)
• A Civil Action (1998)
• The Insider (1999)
• Galaxy Quest (1999)
• A Few Good Men (1993)
• The Exorcist III (1990)
• The Reflecting Skin (1990)
• Basic Instinct (1992)
• Lake Placid (1999)
• Twelve Monkeys (1995)
• Following (1998)
• Reservoir Dogs (1992)
• Fight Club (1999)
• Desperado (1995)
• Goodfellas (1990)
• Edward Scissorhands (1990)
• The Sixth Sense (1999)
• Tommy Boy (1995)
• Happy Gilmore (1996)
• Pulp Fiction (1994)
• El Mariachi (1992)
• Cliffhanger (1993)
• Total Recall (1990)
• Starship Troopers (1997)
• The Fugitive (1993)
• Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves (1991)
• 12 Monkeys (1995)
• Batman Returns (1992)
• Darkman (1990)
• Bottle Rocket (1996)
• Rushmore (1998)
• Clerks (1994)
• Waterworld (1995)
• The Rock (1996)
• Con Air (1997)
• Mission: Impossible (1996)
• Fried Green Tomatoes At The Whistlestop Cafe (1991)
• Misery (1990)
• Babe (1995)
• Pretty Woman (1990)
• Beauty and the Beast (1991)
• Toy Story (1995)
• Groundhog Day (1993)
• Silence of the Lambs (1991)
• Freaked (1993)
• Speed (1994)
• Bill And Ted’s Bogus Journey (1991)
• Hoop Dreams (1994)
• Metropolitan (1990)
• My Own Private Idaho (1991)
• Breaking the Waves (1996)
• The Long Day Closes (1992)
• The Dream Life of Angels (1997)
• The Crying Game (1992)
• Naked (1993)
• Nil By Mouth (1997)
• Un Coeur En Hiver (1992)
• Festen (1998)
• Jungle Fever (1991)
• Deep Cover (1992)
• Strange Days (1995)
• Homicide (1991)
• Trust (1990)
• My Cousin Vinny (1992)
• Saving Private Ryan (1998)
• Forrest Gump (1994)
• Dumb and Dumber (1994)
• Beau Travail (1999)
• The Thin Red Line (1998)
• The American President (1995)
• Ringu (1998)
• The Nightmare Before Christmas (1993)
• Hot Shots! (1991)
• Nikita (1990)
• Howard’s End (1992)
• Serial Mom (1994)
• Muriel’s Wedding (1994)
• Bound (1996)
• The Long Kiss Goodnight (1996)
• Joe Versus The Volcano (1990)
• Six Degrees Of Separation (1993)
• The Last Seduction (1994)
• Showgirls (1995)
• Out Of Sight (1998)

As always, some great responses to this week’s By The Decade (including a few from our Late Reviews section too!), so huge thanks to everyone who offered up their suggestions – a few more first-timers this week too, which is really great to see!

When I put the original post together, I deliberately left out some of the big hitters from that decade, safe in the knowledge they’d be put forward by you guys, and most if not all of them turned up so it’s nice to know we’re on the same wavelength.

I think this is probably the list with the fewest on there I haven’t already seen, but there are a few I’m really curious about – I’ve heard of but never seen Ghost In The Shell, Hanna-bi and In The Mouth Of Madness, for example, and there are a few others like Land And Freedom and I Hired A Contract Killer which I’ve never heard of, but will look out for on these recommendations.

As always, thanks so much to everyone who helped make social media a slightly better place by joining in this little weekly game.

Thanks also to comedian Nick Helm called this week’s By The Decade “a cruel game”, and proceeded to recommend a couple of dozen of (admittedly cracking), films for the list.

It’s really good to know some of you look forward to it each week, and I’ll get my thinking cap on about what we can do once we’re up to date with the decades!

See you in the noughties!

• You can read By The Decade: 3 From The 30s here, and the reader suggestions here.
• You can read By The Decade: 4 From The 40s here, and the reader suggestions here.
• You can read By The Decade: 5 From The 50s here, and the reader suggestions here.
• You can read By The Decade: 6 From The 60s here, and the reader suggestions here.
• You can read By The Decade: 7 From The 70s here, and the reader suggestions here.
• You can read By The Decade: 8 From The 80s here, and the reader suggestions here.