Top 10 '90s Movies that Haven't Aged Well

CGI has really come along way since the mid-'90s. “Dragonheart” stars Sean Connery as a fire-breathing dragon named Draco who forms a partnership with Dennis Quaid’s Bowen in order to take down the evil king Einon. Rob Cohen's action-adventure flick received average reviews upon release, but the visual effects were largely praised and Roger Ebert gave it a 3 out of 4. While it was great for the time, nowadays, the CGI is about as believable as Sean Connery's Russian accent in “The Hunt for Red October”.

This might be hard to believe, but “The Phantom Menace” received many positive reviews upon its release. For the time, the special effects were groundbreaking and fans were just excited for more “Star Wars”. Sure, Jar-Jar was generally hated and the script had problems, but the overwhelming negativity view only set in a few years later and has even softened some since. But compared to the original trilogy, “The Phantom Menace” seems to have gotten worse with each viewing, especially once the initial hype subsided. By this point, “The Phantom Menace”'s flat acting, terrible dialogue, and green screen are so infamous that not even nostalgia and Darth Maul can save Episode one.

Plot twists can make or break a movie. Unfortunately, “She's All That”'s revelation that Rachael Leigh Cook is actually attractive fell kind of flat. While hardly a critical darling, this “My Fair Lady” reimagining walked away with eight awards, mostly thanks to the charming cast. “She's All That” centers around a silly bet to see whether Zack can turn the geekiest girl into the prom queen, and it ends with them becoming a couple. The moral? Apparently, girls should try their best to look like models and please their man. Yeah, no.

“GoldenEye” inspired one of the best first-person-shooters of the '90s, so it makes sense that the sequels played out more like video-games than movies. “Tomorrow Never Dies” deserves credit for satirizing Rupert Murdoch, but Brosnan's Bond era focused too much on being hip and cool, which in turn made them feel dated. At release, “The World Is Not Enough” received mixed reviews, but a few unnecessary action sequences and a less than interesting plot dragged it down. Also, is there anything more '90s than a nuclear scientist named Christmas Jones played by Denise Richards?

Based on Dave Stevens' comic series of the same name, this pulpy superhero flick was largely greeted with a shrug when it hit the big screen, before earning a cult following. “The Rocketeer” follows the adventures of stunt pilot Cliff Secord who finds a jetpack and ends up embroiled in a Nazi conspiracy. The movie's slow pace and slapstick nature make for a less than thrilling ride, but the flying scenes have aged the worst. What once served as the biggest reason to watch “The Rocketeer” is now only good for a laugh and a shake of the head.

Somehow, 1961's “The Absent-Minded Professor” holds up better than the much more recent remake. In the '90s, CGI was the buzzword of the cinematic world, with every major studio getting in on the action. Rather than the comedy or Robin Williams, “Flubber”'s main selling point was the animated title character and the film made a decent return at the box office. Since then, special effects have improved greatly and became rather commonplace, so there is just nothing that exciting about watching dancing anthropomorphic snot-like bubbles.

Angsty teenagers, frantic typing, and Angelina Jolie - Hollywood really understands hacking. Focusing a story on a trendy piece of technology tends to be a recipe for disaster, as significant innovations can happen quickly. “Hackers” is filled with smart-sounding technobabble and futuristic laptops that are, honestly, just laughable by today's standards. The 'cool' heroes -who belong on a runaway and not behind a computer - feel more like parodies of the '90s than real people, as they fight the man while taking absolutely no responsibility for their actions.

Christopher Nolan's “Dark Knight” trilogy really did not do Joel Schumacher's films any favors. As the third film in the Burton-Schumacher Batman film series, and the first to be directed by Joel Schumacher, “Batman Forever” received a mediocre reception, with certain critics praising the special effects and the cast. Schumacher's neon-coated Gotham has aged worse than Burton's, mostly due to how fake everything seems. Val Kilmer was a good choice for Bruce Wayne, but his interpretation, when compared to Keaton or Bale, has very little of the nuisance or psychological depth associated with the comic character. “Batman Forever” works best when viewed as a family film rather than a serious superhero movie.

Once in awhile, a movie comes along that manages to simultaneously be right on the money and completely off base. “The Net” is one of those movies. Released when the internet was starting to become a thing, this Sandra Bullock vehicle reflects the paranoia about the lack of privacy associated with the digital age. While “The Net”'s ideas are timeless, their presentation is about as realistic as an episode of “Animaniacs”. The filmmakers did not even come close to accurately predicting how the internet would look in the future, turning most of this serious thriller into an unintentional comedy.



Before we unveil our top pick, here are a few honorable mentions.



“The Lawnmower Man” (1992)





“FernGully: The Last Rainforest” (1992)





“Twister” (1996)

For those thinking about re-watching this Michael Jordan/Looney Tunes mash-up; do yourself a favor, and leave the memories alone. Despite being an obvious marketing ploy, “Space Jam” was inescapable, earning around 90 million at the US box-office. Who didn't want to watch Bugs Bunny play basketball with Michael Jordan? In hindsight, “Space Jam” has too much Jordan and not enough Looney Tune, with Jordan's acting skills being almost non-existent. By Warner Bros' lofty standards, the humor is rather tame and the less said about the plot, the better. We’ll just have to wait and see what happens in the 2021 sequel with LeBron James, which is set to be released almost 25 years after the first.