The Best Movies Of The '90s, Ranked

There are a lot of superb films that were made within the years 1990-1999. It was a decade that saw the rise of great actors like Will Smith and Uma Thurman, and birthed the directing careers of greats like Quentin Tarantino, Richard Linklater, and Wes Anderson. The 1990s popularized found-footage horror with "The Blair Witch Project," teen party movies with "House Party" and "Can't Hardly Wait," and marked a new era in film animation with Pixar's first feature project. It would be hard to rank the quality of every film made in the 1990s — there are too many different ways to measure creative value and no real framework for adequately comparing the quality of drama and comedy. There are definitely Oscar-winning movies on this list, but critical success according to traditional Hollywood standards isn't the only thing that influenced it.

This list sought to represent a wide variety of genres and allow for different variations of quality. We also looked for movies that have remained very relevant to this day and age, or even those that might not have been big hits way back in the 1990s but that have found new life in 2025. We regret that we can't include more words on the erudite humor of "Being John Malkovich," the whimsical action of "Men in Black," or many other fantastic movies, but there can only be 15.

Pixar is one of the foremost animation houses in the film industry, having produced countless animated hits as an independent studio and then as an arm of Walt Disney. It has brought some of the most joyful pictures of the last 30 years with classics like "Finding Nemo," "The Incredibles," and "Up," which is one of the only animated films that has ever been nominated for best picture (alongside "Beauty and the Beast" and "Toy Story 3," which is also a Pixar film). Before all of that success, though, Pixar made its name with a cute little movie called "Toy Story."

"Toy Story" has the distinction of being an animated film that is just as fun to watch for adults as it is for kids. This is a hallmark of Pixar films, but "Toy Story" was the first to do it, which means it doesn't have the same kind of corporate polish as later films. Pixar is also famous for its easter eggs, and there are definitely references in "Toy Story" that only adult viewers can really understand. The film plays off of the nostalgia of the adults in its audience as well as the joyful interest of their kids. The "Toy Story" movies as a series represent the exuberant innocence of childhood and the bittersweet emotions that comes with growing up. 

Cast: Tom Hanks, Tim Allen, Annie Potts

Director: John Lasseter

Rating: G

Runtime: 1h 21m

Where to watch: Disney+

John Singleton was only 24 years old when he directed "Boyz N the Hood," and when he later earned an Academy Award nomination for best director, he became the first Black director ever nominated in the category as well as the youngest. It should come as no surprise that "Boyz N the Hood," also his feature debut, is one of the best films of the '90s. It was one of the first movies to truly examine what life is like for people of color who live in the hood, and its success solidified hood films as a distinct genre. The film also launched the careers of relative unknowns Cuba Gooding Jr. and Morris Chestnut and marked rapper Ice Cube's entrance into acting.

"Boyz N the Hood" brutally and truthfully depicts the reality of hood life, a life marked by poverty, violence, and a Sisyphean level of toil that's nearly impossible to escape. As soon as it looks like Ricky's (Chestnut) athletic talent and determination to perform well academically might offer him a way out, that hopeful escape is ripped away from him, his family and friends, and the audience with his gang-related death. Even the best and the brightest, the film demonstrates, can fall victim to the chaotic tragedies that were an everyday reality in neighborhoods like South Central in the '90s.

Cast: Ice Cube, Cuba Gooding Jr., Morris Chestnut

Director: John Singleton

Rating: R

Runtime: 1h 52m

Where to watch: Pluto TV

While other '90s pictures from Martin Scorsese, like "Cape Fear" or "Casino," certainly have their merits, "Goodfellas" is his best offering for the decade, and maybe even his whole career. Based on a nonfiction book by Nicholas Pileggi called "Wiseguy," "GoodFellas" follows a man named Henry Hill (Ray Liotta) as he grows up and becomes more and more involved with criminal operations run by the mafia. Henry Hill was a real person, and there's a record of everything that "GoodFellas" doesn't tell viewers about his story, but it gives insight into the mind of a man addicted to the risk and reward of criminal enterprise.

Robert De Niro (Jimmy Conway) and Joe Pesci (Tommy DeVito) give eerily savage supporting performances in "GoodFellas," but it is Liotta's willingness to thrust himself into the flawed nature of Henry that makes the film work as well as it does. "GoodFellas" is one of Looper's highest-ranked gangster movies of all time and is the best post-"The Godfather Part II" gangster movie ever made. Scorsese has tackled the gangster genre with other titles like "Casino" and "The Irishman," but he's never been able to top "Goodfellas."

Cast: Ray Liotta, Robert de Niro, Joe Pesci

Director: Martin Scorsese

Rating: R

Runtime: 2h 26m

Where to watch: HBO Max, Hulu

"Thelma & Louise" follows two best friends named Thelma (Geena Davis) and Louise (Susan Sarandon) who want to get away from Thelma's controlling husband on a trip out of town for the weekend. They encounter men in all forms — good ones, bad ones, criminals, and even part-time boyfriends — but the throughline of the film is Thelma and Louise's friendship and the ennui they share thanks to the bleak reality of their everyday lives. Directed by Ridley Scott and written by Callie Khouri, "Thelma & Louise" was meant to offer a view into what a buddy roadtrip film might look like if it was focused on a female friendship.

Sarandon and Davis both give rich performances in what is an excellent film, but it received a lot of pushback when it came out for basically anything anyone could complain about — a lack of concern about safe sex, for example. The New York Times pushed back on this, explaining peoples' real problem with it: "the men in this story don't really matter. They are treated as figures in the landscape through which these characters pass [...] For male characters, perhaps, this is a novelty, but women in road movies have always been treated in precisely the same way." "Thelma & Louise" is a movie about women attempting to take control of their lives. Unfortunately, this ultimately leads to one of the most gasp-worthy ending moments in movie history.

Cast: Geena Davis, Susan Sarandon, Harvey Keitel

Director: Ridley Scott

Rating: R

Runtime: 2h 9m

Where to watch: Amazon Prime

Easily considered one of the best sci-fi films ever made (and certainly one of the genre's most monetarily successful outputs), "The Matrix" couldn't have been made any sooner than 1999. In fact, someone else tried to make nearly the same film a year earlier and it proved a box office flop. 1998's "Dark City" is not a bad movie, but "The Matrix" is better in many ways. For one, "The Matrix" is far more stylish, with cleaner set pieces and sleek, eye-catching getups for its main cast of good guys. It also benefits from a cast full of actors performing at the top of their game, including action-hero-of-few-words Keanu Reeves (Neo) and sci-fi veteran Laurence Fishburne (Morpheus).

The fight choreography in "The Matrix" is a standout element of the film, placing emphasis on slow-motion, super-human moves and weightless gun duels. It's a great movie from start to finish, and its plot has inspired millions, perhaps billions, of existential moments. What if reality is just a digital matrix? What if aliens have imprisoned the human race and are studying us at this very moment? It seems unlikely that this is the case, but people do occasionally claim to spot glitches in the simulation. A good sci-fi movie entertains and awes, a great sci-fi movie does all of that and poses important, timeless philosophical questions. "The Matrix" is a great sci-fi movie.

Cast: Keanu Reeves, Laurence Fishburne, Carrie-Anne Moss, Hugo Weaving

Director: The Wachowski sisters

Rating: R

Runtime: 2h 16m

Where to watch: Peacock

There is only one Academy Award best picture winner on this list, and that film is "The Silence of the Lambs." A triumph in terror starring Jodie Foster as FBI agent Clarice Starling, "The Silence of the Lambs" is one of the most universally acclaimed films of the '90s, exemplified by its 95% approval rating from both fans and critics according to Rotten Tomatoes. Foster infuses Clarice with authenticity and depth, and Anthony Hopkins gives an incredible performance as Hannibal Lecter, a famous cannibalistic serial killer and master manipulator. 

It's not as common as one might expect to see a harmonious merging of crime fiction with horror. Often, crime stories are told through noir or documentary, but "The Silence of the Lambs" is a true thriller — offering a subjective view into an objectively terrifying premise. After all, the reality of dealing with the deepest depths of depravity into which the human mind can plunge is intimately explored in "The Silence of the Lambs." The pathology of killers like Lecter and Buffalo Bill (Ted Levine) will always be fascinating to those interested in crime and serial murder, but "The Silence of the Lambs" is most remarkable for exploring its main character, a good woman just trying to do her best in a scary world, as intimately as it does its terrifying antagonists.

Cast: Jodie Foster, Anthony Hopkins, Scott Glenn

Director: Jonathan Demme

Rating: R

Runtime: 1h 58m

Where to watch: HBO Max, Hulu

One of the biggest upsets in Oscars history happened at the 1999 ceremony when a lightly charming rom-com called "Shakespeare in Love" beat out one of the greatest war film ever made, "Saving Private Ryan." Director Steven Spielberg committed to depicting the vicious, bleak reality of war, avoiding the glamorization of the subject while still demanding respect for the characters going through it. It's impossible for any movie to perfectly recreate and capture the true reality of war, but Spielberg came very close.

"Shakespeare in Love" won best picture thanks to backdoor nomination politicking, a practice in which Spielberg refused to partake. But "Saving Private Ryan," Spielberg's first film following his critical success with "Schindler's List," is a masterpiece, and its best picture loss began an era in Hollywood of rigorous awards campaigning and publicity obligations. Now that the Academy has instituted a new rule that, in order to vote, every Academy member must watch every movie under consideration for awards, there may be fewer "Saving Private Ryan"-sized upsets.

Cast: Tom Hanks, Ed Burns, Matt Damon

Director: Steven Spielberg

Rating: R

Runtime: 2h 50m

Where to watch: Amazon Prime, Youtube TV

Partially thanks to its place as a sophomore follow-up to the Oscar-winning "Fargo" in the filmography of the Coen Brothers, "The Big Lebowski" was received poorly by a number of critics and didn't do well at the box office. It's a somewhat strange film, following the ups and downs of a man who calls himself The Dude (Jeff Bridges) and really needs a rug to pull his living room together. There is an inherent sense of whimsy in "The Big Lebowski" that fans of the movie especially love, a ridiculousness that connotes humility. 

It's a movie that has fans ranking the best "Big Lebowski" quotes or The Dude's coolest moments, while still offering meaning beyond style and humor. Some lovers of "The Big Lebowski" have derived from it the kind of peace and meaning that only religion provides, with the film serving as something of a guiding text for a philosophy known as dudeism. It also somehow costars Tara Reid and finds a way to make John Goodman unlikable as The Dude's paranoid best bud, Walter. It's almost totally different from "Fargo," and yet there is still an overarching tone of darkly humorous self-awareness, as is the case in most of The Coen Brothers' films.

Cast: Jeff Bridges, John Goodman, Julianne Moore, Steve Buscemi

Director: The Coen brothers

Rating: R

Runtime: 1h 57m

Where to watch: Peacock

The timelessness exuded by the film "Apollo 13" is impressive. The film takes place at the end of the '60s during the launch of the moon mission Apollo 13. Even though it relies so much on depicting specific historical technology, "Apollo 13" feels just as fresh onscreen as it did when it was first released. An epic film, "Apollo 13," charts a team of brave astronauts as they fight to go into space, and then for the conditions they need to return home safely.

Tom Hanks was fresh off a back-to-back win for best actor at the 1993 and 1994 Academy Awards, winning in 1993 for his role as Andrew Beckett in "Philadelphia" and in 1994 for playing the titular "Forrest Gump," when "Apollo 13" hit theaters. Hanks was probably the most recognizable movie star at the time, and "Apollo 13" simply contributed to his star power. With great supporting performances from Gary Sinise and Ed Harris, Hanks gave a confident performance in "Apollo 13" and confirmed all of the leading man potential he needed to live up to.

Cast: Tom Hanks, Kevin Bacon, Bill Paxton

Director: Ron Howard

Rating: PG

Runtime: 2h 20m

Where to watch: Hulu, Youtube TV

Between "Jackie Brown," "Reservoir Dogs," and of course, "Pulp Fiction," Quentin Tarantino's films blazed a path through Hollywood and established him as a popular director among many cinema fans. While any of his three 1990s films would find a nice home on this list, "Pulp Fiction" is arguably Tarantino's best film ever. "Pulp Fiction" has only become more popular as time as gone on, especially since older movies became more available thanks to streaming services. It has never been a mainstream movie thanks to its rampant violence, gore, drug use, and sexual situations, but it is as ubiquitous as an indie film could be. Even people who saw and didn't like "Pulp Fiction" still want to know what was really in that briefcase. 

"Pulp Fiction" marked a creative comeback for lead actor John Travolta (Vincent Vega), whom Tarantino cast for a reason. It also brought to screens Samuel Jackson in fantastic form as Jules Winnfield, a young Uma Thurman as Mia Wallace, and countless other familiar faces including Tim Roth, Harvey Keitel, Ving Rhames, and Bruce Willis. The film tells its story through a fractured, nonlinear storyline and offers dark humor where other crime films prefer ponderous tone setting. One of Tarantino's earlier movies and still one of his best, "Pulp Fiction" is a great example of indie filmmaking in the 1990s.

Cast: John Travolta, Samuel L. Jackson, Uma Thurman

Director: Quentin Tarantino

Rating: R

Runtime: 2h 34m

Where to watch: Paramount+, Youtube TV

Stephen King is a prolific writer, and the vast majority of his work could easily be categorized as horror. He's had many of his stories put to film, but "The Shawshank Redemption," alongside "Stand By Me," was the one he named when asked about his favorite adaptations. "The Shawshank Redemption" is one of the least bloody stories in King's repertoire, and yet it is ultimately incredibly horrifying. "The horror here is not of the supernatural kind," wrote Roger Ebert, "but of the sort that flows from the realization that 10, 20, 30 years of a man's life have unreeled in the same unchanging daily prison routine." 

The film is a beautiful ode to the ideal of integrity and the potential for perseverance in the human heart. Anchored by unselfish performances from actors Morgan Freeman (who plays Red, the film's narrator) and Tim Robbins (who plays Andy, the protagonist), "The Shawshank Redemption" is incredibly heavy, and yet finds a way to distribute that weight so that it's not depressing. Unfortunately for many, prison conditions and penal sentencing haven't improved much in America, which also makes this film an important beacon in the fight to suffuse compassion in the criminal justice system.

Cast: Tim Robbins, Morgan Freeman, Bob Gunton

Director: Frank Darabont

Rating: R

Runtime: 2h 22m

Where to watch: Apple TV+, Amazon Prime

"Jurassic Park" is the kind of movie that makes people love movies. It's a champion in practical effects thanks to its awesome animatronics, it has one of the most memorable film scores in history (courtesy of John Williams), and its story is exciting enough to defy genre — after all, someone could certainly consider "Jurassic Park" to be a horror movie. Unsurprisingly, the film is beloved by critics and audiences alike, with a 91% average approval from both critical and audience aggregate scores. 

Simply hearing a few bars of its iconic score or clicking on an article explaining "Jurassic Park's" science can evoke memories of warm popcorn and jump-scares from a character's sudden ambush by a clever velociraptor. This film also brought us an enticing lead trio in Sam Neill, Laura Dern, and Jeff Goldblum, each one an accomplished performer and timelessly appealing in their own way. "Jurassic Park" is a perfect marriage of craft and accessibility, and certainly the best film to come out of the 1990s. 

Cast: Sam Neill, Laura Dern, Jeff Goldblum, Richard Attenborough

Director: Steven Spielberg

Rating: PG-13

Runtime: 2h 7m

Where to watch: Peacock