5 Fabulous 90s Movies Worth Another Look

In these dog days of summer, these five classic movies are worth another (or perhaps, a first) look. From Christmas calamity to suspense in space, here are five films that helped define the 1990s.

Home Alone (1990): When Family’s Love Touches the Funny Bone

What?  You haven’t seen Home Alone?

While supposedly a heartwarming story of the love of family, it’s also flippin’ funny.

For those not hip to the plot, a little kid named Kevin (a cute Macauley Culkin) is inadvertently left behind when his family flies away on a Parisian Christmas vacay. A couple of loser lowlifes (Joe Pesci and Daniel Stern) try to take advantage of and everything of value from what they believe is an empty, upscale home.  But young Kev has other plans for the doofus duo. And they are not, shall we say, of the season’s typical charitable variety.

One of many memorable moments from Home Alone is the pizza delivery guy scene.  While the dude is certainly not up to anything sinister, Kevin isn’t taking any chances.

Pacific Heights (1990): Terrifying Tenant!

There is perhaps no movie that will make you more frustrated, aggravated, anxious, and pissed off than the psychological mystery thriller Pacific Heights.  What this diabolical dude does to a young couple of new landlords is beyond petrifying.

It may also give anyone second thoughts about using their property as an Airbnb. Just saying.

Michael Keaton’s performance as a conscience-free sociopath will make your blood boil.  You wish you could jump through the screen and whack him with a 2×4.  Repeatedly.

In the end, however, Keaton’s conniving, callous, creepy-crazy character ends up “getting the point” from Melanie Griffith.

Glengarry Glen Ross (1992): Cutthroat Conniving

Sales is a tough business.  Some of us know this intimately.  The wicked workplace drama Glengarry Glen Ross is about as vicious as the vocation gets.

Al Pacino, Jack Lemmon, Alan Arkin, Ed Harris, and (pre-wrecked reputation) Kevin Spacey are all at the top of their games here.

The pervasive vibe is claustrophobic.  Which follows, as the film is based on a David Mamet play.  It serves perfectly in intensifying the tension saturating this treacherous tale of ruthless rivalry and barbarous backstabbing.

Dazed and Confused (1993): …And Loving It

There are those among us who will identify with the teenage dramedy Dazed and Confused significantly more than others.  If you came of age in the 1970s, you are included.

Filmmaker Richard Linklater’s homage to his own high school daze is both funny and familiar to dudes and chicks of the era.  If you played schoolboy football, the hazing may not have been part of the deal.  Leastwise, it wasn’t for some spirited souls who put on the pads in south Houston, Texas.  Go Falcons! 

Apollo 13 (1995): Nearly Lost in Space

Tom Hanks shines as astronaut Jim Lovell in the space exploration docudrama Apollo 13.

We all know how this breath-robbing moment in history ended.  But to learn just how damn close it came to not returning these three American astronauts back to earth in 1970 is stunning.

Here’s to the continuing brilliance of the men and women of the United States Space Program.  And long live NASA.

-John Smistad

Photo: Getty Images