'90s Movies That Critics Were Totally Wrong About

Considering they have to review hundreds of new releases a year, even the most astute film critics can get it wrong from time to time. Sometimes bad buzz can affect your perception of the finished product, especially in an age when gossip columns endlessly report on production delays, budget overruns, and bad behavior. Sometimes a sense of collective piling-on can occur, as everyone wants to kick a loser when they're down. Other times, a movie's true genius isn't quite appreciated in the moment, and it takes time to fully understand what a director was going for. As is the case in any decade, the 1990s are filled with films that were criminally misunderstood in their time, and have since gained a newfound appreciation.

In the spirit of second chances, here are five '90s movies that critics were totally wrong about. The films on this list were detested upon their release, sometimes by both critics and audiences alike. Even just a single bad review can often sink a film's chances of success, while a slew of them can send it to the bottom of the ocean. Yet like a mighty phoenix rising from the ashes, these titles have grown in esteem in the years since taking their critical pummeling. They have become cult classics, home video hits, and mainstays on cable and steaming. They've enjoyed revival screenings, reassessments, and sometimes even stamps of approval from the very critics that panned them in the first place. In short, these are all "bad" movies that are actually quite good.

Ten-year-old Danny Madigan (Austin O'Brien) copes with the death of his father by spending his free time at the movies. He's a huge fan of action movies centered on LA police detective Jack Slater (Arnold Schwarzenegger), which play at a dilapidated theater in New York City. One day, the kindly projectionist (Robert Prosky) gives Danny a golden movie ticket so that he can catch an early screening of the latest Slater adventure. The magic ticket transports Danny into the movie, and he finds in Slater the father figure he's been so sorely missing. But things take a turn when the movie's villain, Mr. Benedict (Charles Dance), steals the ticket and uses it to enter the real world.

When it was released in 1993, "Last Action Hero" became synonymous with critical and commercial disasters. Coming out the same summer as "Jurassic Park" (1993), the John McTiernan-directed action comedy failed to live up to the enormous box office expectations put upon it by the studio, and the bad reviews were the equivalent of beating a dead horse. "The film tries so very hard to be The Movie of Summer '93 that it almost makes you sick for what could have been, what should have been, and, in the end, what it is: soulless sound and fury — action in a vacuum," wrote Marc Savlov (The Austin Chronicle). Yet the film has since been rediscovered as a notorious box office bomb that's actually worth watching due to not just its star-studded stunts but also its satirical take on Hollywood action films. This easily elevates it to one of Arnold Schwarzenegger's best movies.

Aspiring dancer Nomi Malone (Shannon Elizabeth) arrives in Las Vegas with nothing but the clothes on her back, and she quickly sheds those when she takes a job in a seedy strip club to pay the bills. Desperate to make her way into the big leagues, she quickly befriends Molly Abrams (Gina Ravera), who works backstage as a costumer at the Stardust Resort and Casino. Nomi uses her connection to meet the star of the casino's nightly dance revue, Cristal Connors (Gina Gershon), who likens her job at the strip club to prostitution. Yet Cristal and her boyfriend, entertainment director Zack Carey (Kyle MacLachlan), take a liking to Nomi, and find a place for her in the chorus line. Before long, Nomi is ascending the rungs of the ladder, but she quickly realizes there's a price to fame.

Few movies were as thoroughly scorned upon their release as "Showgirls" (1995), a Razzie Award-winner that's actually worth watching if ever there was one. Directed by Paul Verhoeven and written by Joe Eszterhas, it's an NC-17 showbiz parable that was called ugly, sexist, and just plain silly by the majority of critics. "A film of thunderous oafishness that gives adult subject matter the kind of bad name it does not need or deserve" proclaimed Kenneth Turan (Los Angeles Times) of the box office bomb that made back less than half of its $45 million budget. Yet in the decades since, it's gained a cult following from viewers who identified the satirical bent Verhoeven brings to the outlandish material, especially in a post-Weinstein world where sexual exploitation is no longer accepted (or swept under the rug) so readily.

In the year 2047, a distress signal is intercepted from the Event Horizon, a spacecraft that has been missing for seven years. The ships designer, Dr. William Weir (Sam Neill in one of his best movies), hops aboard the Lewis and Clark, a rescue vessel led by Captain S.J. Miller (Laurence Fishburne) that's been dispatched to search for survivors. What they discover instead is a sinister force that has taken over the ship during its time in a black hole. Like the characters in a haunted house movie, the crew of the Lewis and Clark starts getting picked off one by one. Dr. Weir's eccentric behavior calls into question his true motives, leading Captain Miller to take drastic action.

Directed by Paul W. S. Anderson (the man behind the best "Resident Evil" movies, not the Oscar-winning filmmaker of "One Battle After Another"), "Event Horizon" (1997) was the victim of massive studio interference by Paramount Pictures. Rushed into theaters to fill the summer season gap left from the numerous "Titanic" (1997) delays and severely edited for its violence, the film was dismissed by critics and failed at the box office. "Despite game efforts from a first-rate cast and acres of impressive production values, 'Event Horizon' remains a muddled and curiously uninvolving [sic] sci-fi horror show," opined Joe Leydon (Variety). Although the fabled 130 minute director's cut has yet to emerge from the black hole it disappeared into, the version that does exist is as frightening and unsettling as sci-fi horror gets, truly leaning into its cosmic horror elements that have left audiences chilled and wanting more.

When several major cities experience deadly meteor showers, NASA honcho Dan Truman (Billy Bob Thornton) discovers an asteroid the size of Texas hurtling towards Earth. Desperate to explode the asteroid before it reaches the atmosphere, he devises a plan to drill a hole into it and plant a nuclear bomb inside. Rather than train astronauts how to drill, Truman recruits oil driller Harry Stamper (Bruce Willis) and gives him and his team of roughnecks a crash course in space travel. One of the drillers is A.J. Frost (Ben Affleck), who's secretly dating Harry's daughter, Grace (Liv Tyler). With the fate of the world resting on their shoulders, Harry and his men launch towards the stars.

Although it's now considered one of the best disaster movies of all time, Michael Bay's "Armageddon" (1998) was treated as just a regular disaster by critics despite being a massive commercial success. "Here it is at last, the first 150-minute trailer," wrote Roger Ebert (Chicago Sun-Times). "The movie is an assault on the eyes, the ears, the brain, common sense and the human desire to be entertained," he added, and indeed, few films are as big, loud, and overblown as this one is. Yet it didn't take long for the critical worm to turn on "Armageddon," as evidenced by how quickly it joined the esteemed Criterion Collection on DVD complete with a famous Ben Affleck commentary track. The film might be dumb, chaotic, and a bit tough on the ears, but that's all apart of what makes it so much fun. 

Sonny Koufax (Adam Sandler), a 32-year-old slacker, is desperate to prove he's capable of being a grown-up when his girlfriend (Kristy Swanson) dumps him. He gets his chance when five-year-old Julian (Cole Sprouse and Dylan Sprouse) shows up at his doorstep. The long-lost son of Sonny's roommate, Kevin (Jon Stewart), Julian needs a place to stay after his mom dies of cancer. With Kevin away on business, Sonny agrees to look after Julian, teaching him how to pee in public and trip skaters in Central Park. When he learns the kid might get put into foster care, Sonny decides to step it up for the first time. In so doing, he finds a new love with Corrine (Joey Lauren Adams), a lawyer and older sister of Kevin's fiancée (Leslie Mann).

Although popular with audiences, Adam Sandler's particular brand of humor wasn't always the critics' cup of tea, especially in the '90s. One of Sandler's worst reviewed films, the Dennis Dugan-helmed "Big Daddy" (1999) won him his first Razzie as worst actor. "A flimsy sentimental comedy with more product plugs and fewer laughs than might have been hoped for," wrote Janet Maslin (The New York Times) of the film, which attempted to mix Sandler's surrealistic comedy with the sentimentality of Charlie Chaplin's "The Kid" (1921). Yet the box office smash is now considered one of the 15 best Adam Sandler movies, and counts among its fans Paul Thomas Anderson, who cast the Sandman in "Punch-Drunk Love" (2002) shortly after its release.