1990s Movies: Hits, Misses, and What Still Holds Up

I'm Joe Kramer, composer of Mission Impossible

Rogue Nation. Your mission, should you choose

to accept it, is to listen to this podcast from

the Geekcast Radio Network. You're listening

to the Geekcast Radio Network. Unleash the geek

in you. Beg your pardon. Forgot to knock. Hello

and welcome to Geekcast Radio. This is episode

96. I am one of your hosts, TFG1Mike, and joining

me is our new Comic Concierge, but everyone pretty

much knows him as Movie Revolt Dan, because we're

here to talk about the 90s movies. Oh boy. Hey

man, how's it going? It's going. Really, really

wish it would stop sometimes. But yeah, we've

hit TV, we've hit cartoons, we're now hitting

movies for the 90s, so who knows what's gonna

happen next. I will be teasing the next episode,

obviously, at the end of the show. But yeah,

90s movies, oh boy, when we were young and crazy,

and a little background, folks. I am four years

older than Dan. so three or four years older

than Dan so the juxtaposition of how we each

watched films when we were that age in the 90s

teenage years almost teenage years might might

be a little different and that's always a good

thing so what yeah what do you remember about

watching movies in the 90s from like 90 to 99

Mean it was definitely a lot different for me,

you know throughout the decade because I started

the decade as six and ended up being 16 so it's

a that's a pretty you know, I'll be big change

of what type of movies you watch but for me like

when I think about back to the 90s watching movies

during that time period like the type of movies

I tend to think about a lot of my childhood or

the Different sports movies kids sports movies

that really dominated that decade for much of

it, you know Things are like from the Sandlot

to Mighty Ducks to Little Giants. There was just

this cavalcade of all these different Family

-friendly type of movies that were directed towards

sports at the time and I you know I grew up playing

sports and stuff like that. So it I think shaped

my childhood just as much as anything Yeah, for

me I was 10 to 19 in the decade, so yay Yeah,

like I do remember the sports movies like Angels

in the Outfield and Little Big League Was it

Little Big League? Yeah, Little Little Big League

is the one where it's Billy that owns the owns

a sports team or whatever the only reason why

I remember Little Big League is because He got

caught watching night nurses from Jersey in the

hotel room It's the only reason why I remember

that movie. The 90s also had, obviously, stuff

like Basic Instinct and Lethal Weapon and all

of that. Obviously Lethal Weapon 1 was 87, but

92 was Lethal Weapon 3, I think? I don't know.

We'll figure that out later. But yeah, for me

it was like... and my mom let me pretty much

watch whatever. I saw... Nightmare on Elm Street

when I was 7 and 87 so You know and back then

there was no instant gratification in the 90s

We weren't there yet. I mean we just started

getting the internet in the late 90s, but you

know Back then you had to wait. You know you

saw a movie in theater You had to wait at least

a good year and a half before it hit VHS Because

DVDs didn't start until like the mid 90s, I think

Somewhere around there. Yeah. Yeah, I mean in

yeah, I mean go to the big part of the 90s for

me was going to the the video store, you know,

we There was one that was like in We ride our

bikes too and on the weekend and they had like

a forget what the deal was It was like three

dollars for certain days like you went on like

Tuesdays in the summer you got three movies for

three dollars and I got so many things like I

remember getting a lot of the artist movies and

But yeah, like you said it you couldn't just

turn on Netflix. You had a go get to be a chest

and To watch many of your films and one of the

stuff I watch much of it like I didn't see in

theaters I saw on VHS or when eventually got

it got on television Yeah, there are very few

movies. I saw in theaters It was a super special

occasion, but going to the theaters in the 90s

Was wow like the early 90s 90 91 92 so you know

93 around there I wasn't going all that often

obviously, but as I got older By the time I hit

between 14 and 17 I would go to the theater a

lot but those early years like I remember seeing

Batman Returns in theaters sometimes I wish I

wouldn't because God that movie is horrible people

say Batman forever and Batman and Robin are bad

I'm sorry Batman Returns is bad what else going

to the theaters in the 90s versus now You could

actually get away with sneaking food in you didn't

have to spend exuberance amounts of money But

there are people that do that and movie theaters

now Oh my god, if anyone in the 90s saw a movie

theater not like basically take the movie theaters

now throw them in the Tardis or the DeLorean

or whatever and send them back in time people

would be like You can get beer at the movies.

You can have dinner at the movies. What crazy

futuristic stuff is this? Yeah It certainly has

changed with that technology Becoming they've

really had a kind of differently market the way

movies are treated, you know combining a lot

of making it more of an experience adding in

the ability that kind of combine restaurants

and movies just to try to bring people in. So

and I think in a lot of ways, yeah, things are

more expensive, though. Let's not kid ourselves

when their prices were expensive in 90s. Comedians

are making jokes about how expensive food was

in the movie theaters ever since they existed.

Oh, yeah. But certainly, I think the quality

of theaters have greatly improved, you know,

from the seating to. Just your presentation Now,

of course, it's a lot more expensive and now

we have 3d and everything like that. It certainly

is When you combine all the head it is a lot

more and we don't have remember one of things

we went to a lot in the 90s was like the dollar

50 theater Oh, yeah, and and like that was always

a lot of fun because it's you know, you could

see Legitimately a movie for buck 50. It was

like it just was out of regular theaters and

But you got the upper like I saw a Jurassic Park

for the first time in a dollar 50 theater Batman

mask of the phantasm the the american classic

water world uh... what what why you you need

to turn in your mobile card right now you saw

water world in theaters why i was a case with

the sea whatever you know i was a thing you know

we had a mall that was next to a movie theater

and you're a teenager and it was there's not

a whole lot to do so you went to the mall we

went to the movie theater you don't want to the

arcade beforehand and then whatever was we try

to find something and water world was supposed

to be this really you know was before the internet

existed it looked kind of cool you know um it's

funny you mentioned malls and movie theaters

being next door to each other because nowadays

at least for the last 20 years or so um there

are malls in the their movie theaters in malls

now uh... and i remember going to uh... the green

tree mall in clerksville indiana at the time

southern indiana slash louisville kentucky kind

of thing uh... and there was a poster for kevin

smith small rats my fourteen fifteen -year -old

brain at the time There are rats in the mall.

Oh, we better get out of here Like I didn't make

the I didn't know who Kevin Smith was back in

94 95, you know 96 so obviously more rats came

out 95 so I'm like, oh god. Man, I can't believe

this shit. Why are we sitting here trying to

figure out where we went wrong with our significant

others? I think we just nailed it in your case.

No, no, there is something out there that can

help ease our simultaneous double loss. Ritual

suicide? No, you idiot the fucking mall! One

of the saddest ones, the saddest thing I have

to admit, and I can't believe I'm gonna admit

this, I actually saw the remake of Sabrina in

theaters. With Harrison Ford and... Whoever Julia

Ormond and whoever played the brother I forget

off the top of my head. So yeah All right, anything

else I'm going to the theaters back then you

want to talk about or bring up? No, I think that's

pretty much it. All right, so I went ahead folks

and like we did in the TV episode and the cartoon

episode, Optimus Solo had gotten things from

the 10 years of the movie, of the topic, so I

went ahead and did that for the movie. So right

now I'm going to list off from each year from

90 to 94 the top 10 grossing films of each year.

1990 at number 10 we had Kindergarten Cop. I

love that movie. Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles

comes in at number 9, Presumed Innocent at 8,

Die Hard 2 at number 7, Back to the Future 3

at number 6, Total Recall at number 5, Dances

with Wolves at number 4, Pretty Woman at number

3, Home Alone at number 2, and Ghost at number

1. Wow. We really need to do a podcast comparing,

um... Top 10 grossing films of the 90s to now

because holy crap for movie theaters a lot different

back releases for movies a lot different back

than they are now Yeah, I mean that's that's

surprising like I forget I always think kindergarten

cop was one of those movies that didn't make

as much money for Schwarzenegger But man, I mean

maybe it didn't compare to something like true

lies or something like that. But no, yeah Yeah,

you in ghost was I forget how huge a phenomenon

Ghost was, but that was gigantic at that time.

Yep. Good old Patrick Swayze and Demi Moore and

Whoopi Goldberg. In 91 we had at number 10 City

Slickers, number 9 Hotshots, number 8 Cape Fear,

number 7 The Addams Family, number 6 JFK, number

5 The Silence of the Lambs, number 4 YOUR FAVORITE

MOVIE, HOOK! uh... number three beauty and the

beast number two robin hood prince of thieves

and number one t two generator two nothing's

too super surprising there i mean The only reason

why I said it's his favorite movie, folks, is

because he wrote something up about it recently

in the last couple of years on GCR and basically

lambasting the movie and I'm like, it's not that

bad. It's actually kind of funny. It's right

along the lines of Mrs. Doubtfire and that kind

of thing, except it's Peter Pan. review of every

Steven Spielberg movie up to that point and I

didn't give that a passing grade. It's by far

not his worst movie. It's probably not even.

Robin Hood Prince of Thieves was the first time

I think I ever saw Christian Slater. What I love

is later when, I think it was when Men in Tights

came out and Cariel was like, I can actually

do an English accent unlike some other Robin

Hoods. That was hilarious. I'm not surprised

that JFK is on the list, but I'm surprised that

it's so low. And I remember seeing that back

then, because I could have sworn one of our high

school history teachers basically made us watch

it or something after it hit VHS, but I really

don't remember that movie, and I'm surprised

it's at number six and not higher. I mean, it

did lead to one of the best Seinfeld episodes

ever. But yeah, I mean, I don't know. Like, I

want to see if he asked me if it was... JFK a

top ten movies a top ten film Grossing lies the

year came out. I probably would have guessed

no, but obviously like you mentioned It's very

different comparing it. We're used to franchises

and comic book movies Yeah, don't very often

see like, you know, that was not many for best

picture and we don't tend to see those in the

top ten anymore Yeah, no 1992 the top ten was

Wayne's World at number ten Bram Stoker's Dracula

at nine sister act at number eight You can't

handle the truth at number seven with a few good

men My least favorite Batman film Batman returns

at number six lethal weapon three at number five

basic instinct at number four Home Alone 2 lost

in New York at number three and the bodyguard

at number two with Aladdin being number one That's

not surprising. I mean like there were quite

literally my dad would not take me to see Aladdin

because the lines were Out the door and around

the corner Yeah, that's that's one thing we didn't

talk about and I should have mentioned was like

yeah obviously the 90s the thing I think about

to use the the Disney Renaissance from Beauty

and the Beast to Aladdin Lion King, which we'll

get to but bringing up the body guy Because a

big thing that helped that was the fact that

that had one of the biggest you know That soundtrack

was huge as well. So yeah that that also was

Again, something that doesn't happen as much,

soundtracks are not what they once were. Yeah,

it's funny you say soundtracks aren't that big

of a deal Now they kind of are and they kind

of aren't it just depends on if people are soundtrack

enthusiasts That's a discussion for another day,

but yeah, I mean like the point what I mean by

that is that they're in pop culture they aren't

as impactful when it comes to actually like You

used to have soundtracks would actually be a

part of marketing in the sense of often getting

people into the theater Yeah, well, that's not

nearly the case thing. No, it really isn't And

I've said this several times on this show and

other podcasts. We do here at GCR and me I'm

a soundtrack score guy like you put John Williams

Anything in front of me and I'm gonna love it.

You do let's say Jerry Goldsmith Michael came

in any of that and some of the more recent stuff

pretty much anything Brian Tyler does as long

as I Want to see the film. I'm going to want

to hear his his his music for it Don't care what

anyone says the Iron Man 3 score is amazing Yeah,

I do like a lot of his Marvel stuff is really

good. Yeah, it is Alright, so 1993 the top 10

was at number 10 the pelican brief, which is

a John Grisham novel that updated at a adapted

to film. Number nine was Philadelphia. Number

eight was Sleepless in Seattle. Number seven

was Cliffhanger. Number six was Indecent Proposal.

Number five was another John Grisham novel adapted

to film, The Firm with Tom Cruise. Number four

is Schindler's List. Number three is The Fugitive.

Number two is Mrs. Doubtfire herself. And number

one, those giant dinosaurs in Jurassic Park.

93 was a weird year. 93 was a really original

year if you look at this top 10 grossing films

because no sequels. Yeah, I can't remember. I

mean, I don't know, last time, well, that's happened

recently. I mean, it's probably been, it might

be 93 actually. Yeah, yeah, but no, I mean, I

remember they, Schindler's List is another one

they used in school for us once it got released

to VHS. I, out of all the John Grisham novels

that have been adapted that I've seen between

the Pelican Brief and the Firm, I like the Firm

better because I like the book better, Sleepless

in Seattle, I just saw that about three years

ago. I had never seen it. Never had any interest

or anything like that. Everybody knows In Decent

Proposal, you know, a million bucks to sleep

with your wife. I know you know, but clarifying

for people here. 94, top 10 was at number 10,

Clear and Present Danger with Harrison Ford.

Number 9 was Interview with the Vampire. Number

8 was Four Weddings and a Funeral. Number 7 was

Dumb and Dumber. That should have never had a

sequel. Number 6, this is shocking, The Flintstones

with John Goodman as Fred Flintstone. You forget

how huge that movie was it was super huge Yeah,

yeah, it's it was it was the backstory that movie's

kind of interesting how like it was in development

forever and Eventually someone just it was supposed

to be dark at one point like this like it's much

It was almost a lot different than it was but

yeah people forget that it was one of the biggest

movies of that given year And it gave us of course

the McRib was because of the Flintstone. Yep,

exactly. And the McRib rears its ugly head every

few years, just like the Szechuan sauce. Number

five was speed. God, that damn bus. Number four

was Jim Carrey in The Mask. Number three was

true lies. So can you guess what beat out true

lies? What is it, 94? Uh -huh. Or 95? 94. Uh,

was it... Lion King? That is number one, but

number two? Life is like a box of chocolates.

Forrest Gump, yeah. Number two is Forrest Gump.

Obviously number one was Lion King. Um, once

again, I don't know why, like, this was purely

just a, I guess a day off of school. We were

at school, but they were giving us some sort

of recreation time. This had to have been 95,

96 at this point. when I'm saying this. Again,

I did not see Lion King in theaters. I wanted

to, but I didn't. I saw it at school for some

odd reason. I don't know why. Interesting. The

Lion King was the very first movie I saw in theaters.

Oh, really? Yeah. I came, like you mentioned,

like your family let you watch anything. My family

was like the opposite. My parents were really

controlling over what I was allowed to watch

for much of it. So I didn't go to the theaters

very often, especially with my actual family.

When I was older and I could go by myself, I

went much more, which I think is why I go, I

went so often when I was older because it was

like, now I can go. But yeah, it was the very

first movie I saw in theaters was The Lion King.

Wow. So, yeah. Very cool. Yeah, I... I really

enjoyed Speed. I enjoy Speed now more than I

did back then, mainly because it's Dennis Hopper

versus Keanu Reeves. It's like The Matrix before

The Matrix was The Matrix. True Lies, I actually

hate that movie. Really? The ending is the best

part, not because it ended, but because he's

in the jet and all of that, or the daughter's

in the jet and he's hanging off the jet. Most

of that movie, I felt that Arnold and Jamie Lee

Curtis had zero chemistry. I mean, they're kind

of supposed to not like each other for the material.

That's true. All right, so those are the first

five years of the 90s. We're going to now talk

about two more topics. First up is 90s movie

trends. What movie trends in the 90s can you

think of off the top of your head? Well, we talked

about a couple of them already with sports films

and the animation and that the animation was

really big and we saw like a In the sense of

like a lot of people try to copy the success

of Disney and some of the companies attempted

but didn't have it But also the trend began with

computer animation With Toy Story coming out

and I think another trend that was really Big

was like extreme sports at the time. Mm -hmm.

Like there'd be like Film films for some reason

where suddenly there's a rolling bling brain

blading sequence the king of Mighty Ducks for

example, like the starting of Mighty Ducks 2

is there's just rollerblading that was really

huge but and He comedies also in the sense of

like we had a like there were a lot of slapstick

comedies after Jim Carrey became big and had

detective was huge even though it wasn't like

you know the top grossing movie of the year it

was certainly very popular and that i think led

to again a lot of copycats of people trying to

the fairly brothers i think broke out and um

we kind of got more comedies along that line

once again and more pg -13 rather than a lot

of the r -rated comedies that were existing in

the 90s or 80s 80s yeah that's that's the biggest

transition i noticed in movies from the 80s to

the 90s everything went As soon as PG -13 was

in existence, they all aimed, like very, and

I mentioned this to Steve Megatron the other

day on one of the records, I said something about,

nowadays you don't really see rated R trailers,

like unless it's specifically a horror film,

like the only rated R movie that I know that's

in pop and or geek or any kind of culture right

now is Deadpool 1 and 2. Like it shocked me like

three or four years ago when I went back and

I realized that Robocop from 87 was rated R I

forgot that movie was rated R and I know that's

the thing and that's the thing about the 90s

is the transition from the 80s into the 90s like

you said they there are some Look at all these

lists I just listed off. There are plenty of

action films in the early 90s, but as you said,

most of it's going towards the comedy angle.

I don't like later where the comedy angle goes

because I blame the 90s for all the grotesque,

stupid comedies that they have now for the last

10, 15 years. Because once they did the whole...

You know like something like there's something

about Mary or whatever not just that one or dumb

and dumber or whatever it doesn't matter I Feel

since those movies have been released 20 years

ago people from 2000 and now pretty much try

to amp up the the vulgar factor on Comedies like

what's the grossest joke we can do and still

make people laugh, and that's just Don't mind

slapstick. I grew up with the three stooges slapstick

is amazing, but today's comedy films are just

not my thing I would much rather watch the mask

right now than watch whatever current comedy

is out I Mean I think the best comedies right

now is typically obviously in TV, but yeah there

we do get some good comedies here and there I

don't know if I feel like we get I think it's

the opposite really where Most of the comedy

is dialed back and we don't get a lot of R -rated

comedy because people are too scared to have

R -rated comedy because once you make something

R -rated you're limiting who can go see it so

everything kind of gets put in that PG -13 area

and you're stuck with things that are just like

trying to be edgy but are a little bit... Pitch

and hold and in their in their mold and I mean

gross out comedies have been around forever I

think really kind of what started it was probably

like the 70s with like Animal House and You know

80s had a lot of them as well. Certainly the

90s like it up the ante and something like hangover

came in recently and then Thinking of last year

a girls trip was like one of the biggest R -rated

comedies and that certainly had its it was like

The girl the woman version of the R rated comedy

and had some gross out moments But I think if

anything what we saw after the 90s early 2000s

were a lot of just like things in the middle

of PG -13 though we didn't get some I see that

with like at the end of the 90s we got like American

Pie and then that led to way too many sequels

Yeah, but I don't know it I feel like Either

goes one way or another. Either it's too far

or not far enough. But I think there's some good

stuff out there. But of course, none of it's

coming to me right now. Yeah. All right, so let's

talk about 90s air quotes good and air quotes

bad movies. I will admit to several things that

I loved watching in the 90s, but I know it's

just because I enjoyed it. I'm not saying it's,

you know, a great movie overall by any means,

but most people would consider half the stuff

that I'm going to talk about here bad movies.

You mentioned rollerblading earlier. My first

thought was to 1993's Airborne with Shane McDermott,

Britney Powell, Chris Conrad. Basically about

Seth Green is in there. It's probably the first

film I ever saw Seth Green in. Jack Black too.

Yeah, Jack Black. Yeah, exactly. I absolutely

love that movie. As bad as it was, Surf Ninjas.

uh... uh... it it had to you know when it from

turtles that are erased junior in itself you

know there's that uh... but it's like nowadays

you you mentioned any any movie from the nineties

as a matter of the comedy action whatever and

people be like how can you like that earlier

we had i had mentioned that uh... die hard to

was in the top ten uh... list for one of the

years here uh... I know people are gonna be like

die hard to actually made money. We hate that

movie. I Don't know yeah, I mean, I mean that

was back then when I Don't know what the overall

temperature of it was at the time if it was considered

a flop I didn't I don't hate dire to but I think

it's Hasman which for sure. It's not nearly as

good as the original but obviously I know but

like I think you know again that that was in

time and place when When you became a movie star

that almost any you like your own automatically

bankable for the most part like if you were Bruce

Willis You and you you you knew it at the lowest

amount It's gonna make this if you have if you

were Tom Cruise or Arnold Schwarzenegger and

in the night and that started You know the sway

a little bit, you know Bruce Willis in some movies

that didn't work as well I mentioned water world

and people thought that would be a huge hit and

that flopped But yeah, there was a time and place

where I think a lot of Lot of the time instead

of it being attached to a franchise in the 90s

and prior the big thing was whatever names are

attached Really were the things that were driving

what people want to go see well, that's because

the the culture back then was Whoever the top

-billed stars were that you went to go see them

because you liked them in whatever other movie

you saw them before in or like You know from

Ace Ventura to the mask okay You saw Jim Carrey

as a pet detective who was a bumbling idiot half

the time of course you're gonna want to go see

him as this alternate dimension demon kind of

thing in a green mask that You know can basically

eat bullets and whatever whatever The mask was

the first time I had ever seen Cameron Diaz in

a movie Because she was in that as Tina. Yeah.

Yeah, I think that's really what broke her out.

Yeah Yeah, absolutely And good and bad movies.

It's all perspective folks Like nobody's gonna

take away your geek cred while some people might

just because you like a certain like Okay, we

all know National Lampoon We all know vacation

Christmas vacation European vacation to a lesser

extent Vegas vacation and then the reboot that

they did National Lampoon had done other things

I You know as a teenager back then I really dug

National Lampoon senior trip. I thought that

was hilarious To this day. It's probably the

only Tom Green movie I can actually watch with

him in it all the way through the film because

Charlie's Angels doesn't count You know the Chad

was only in there for like the first five minutes

Yeah But yeah, so folks what are some of good

and bad movies in the 90s that you remember.

Why don't you listen to the rest of the episode,

sound off, and let us know in the comments. Now

we're gonna get to the top -grossing films of

1995 to 1999. This is gonna be a crazy five years.

95, the top 10, was Jumanji at number 10. Hey,

they just released a reboot of that recently.

Waterworld at number nine. Why Casper at number

eight This is I did not do this I I grabbed this

information from a website that shall not be

named Brad Pitt Morgan Freeman when I say those

two names what movie comes to mind in the 90s

in the 90s it would be Oh, why am I forgetting

the name Oh It's in the box. I can't think of

the heads in the box. That's right Seven the

movie seven is that number seven? Top grossing

films of ninety like really come on. That's a

little on the nose Batman forever at number six

Pocahontas at number five GoldenEye at number

four I Love GoldenEye. I just that is one Bond

film I can watch on repeat all the time i just

love that movie apollo 13 at number three die

hard with a vengeance at number two number one

movie in 1995 to infinity and beyond toy story

yeah not obviously not surprised that toy story

was number one again and not a Outside of Die

Hard, not a lot of sequels. It's surprising Waterworld

was that high, because you think back to it.

You think all the talk was about how that was

a huge bomb, and I don't think we would consider

any movie currently, and maybe... For the most

part like a gigantic bomb if you're in the top

six Of course, it probably didn't make nearly

as much money as the budget was at the time But

it's funny because you look at the budget of

that movie compared to like it's like Microscopical

microscopic compared to that of like the Avengers

now. So Yeah, exactly. There were not a lot of

billion dollar movies in 95 96 this is an interesting

list in my mind Number 10 is Arnold Schwarzenegger

and James Kahn in Eraser with Vanessa L. Williams

in there as well. Yeah, I'm surprised Eraser

got a top 10 all -time grossing listing. Jerry

Maguire at number nine. Human head weighs eight

pounds, Jerry. uh... another professor at number

eight ransom at number seven one hundred one

dalmatians the live action version and number

six i mean i really don't think i need to clarify

that is obviously the animated version came out

way long before this but and it's really yeah

some people may not know uh... number five the

hunchback of nother dame number four sean connery

nicholas cage the rock Number three, Mission

Impossible, everybody's favorite IMF agent, Ethan

Hunt, in his first adventure for Mission Impossible

franchise. That is one franchise I absolutely

love. Asking her to resume a prior relationship,

not do anything she hasn't already done. Voluntarily,

I might add. No. She's got no training for this

kind of thing. But to go to bed with a man and

light him, she's a woman. She's got all the training

she needs. I don't think I can get her to do

it. You mean it'll be difficult? Very. Well,

this is not mission difficult, Mr. Hunt. It's

mission impossible. Difficult should be a walk

in the park for you. Join the IMF. See the world.

On a monitor. In a closet. Yeah. Oh, I can't

wait for Fallout. Oh, God. Number two, Twister,

and number one... Will Smith. Oh, God, I just

blanked on his name. Jeff Goldblum. Um... Bill

Pullman and everybody else, you know, this is

your Independence Day That was huge that you

like I know it's Will Smith I know it's this

I know it's that but that movie It was freaky

when that movie came out I mean there was a movie

that made Will Smith into Will Smith before that

he wasn't the big of a star and then yeah Kind

of led that was a big part of why he became the

biggest movie star for much of the 90s and early

2000s Exactly, yeah The thing about Independence

Day is what what I reason why I say that movie

is freaky is because I Believe it released on

either July 2nd 3rd or 4th. I forget it was basically

July 4th weekend I'm not looking it up online

to see what the actual release date was but basically

it released that weekend Movie opens with July

2nd July 3rd July. I'm like damn I love Independence

Day Eraser is kind of a guilty pleasure. I don't

watch it all that often I've seen it a couple

of times over the years Jerry Maguire who doesn't

You know quote Jerry Maguire every so often you

know Everybody going into their boss for a raise

show me the money. You know I mean how do you

not say that? Well, you probably don't want to

get fired, but still I'm surprised the Hunchback

of Notre Dame is in here, because that's an animated

thing from Disney, I believe. This is the shift.

We mentioned earlier how the Disney Renaissance

was kicking back up. 96 to the mid-, the early

to mid -2000s, Disney kind of lost me. I think

after Pocahontas, I was done watching Disney

stuff until later. Yeah. I mean, I still think,

like, Hunchback is one I think is a little underrated,

but yeah, it's certainly, like, Was not hitting

the same height of you know, Lion King is where

it basically peaked and then It's slowly maybe

not slowly. But you know Pocahontas wasn't as

good Probably hunchback. I think it's still good

but not nearly to that level and then I think

it they started that Renaissance started to slowly

kind of wither away and as Pixar and you know

in CGI animation started taking over. Yeah, absolutely

all right in nineteen ninety seven ninety seven's

an interesting year the full monty at number

ten the fifth element at number nine which i'm

really surprised that that made top grossing

uh... uh... my best friend's wedding at number

eight liar liar at number seven as good as it

gets at number six Air Force one at number five

tomorrow never dies at number four, which is

the second of the Brosnan Bond films Men in black

at number three. So another year for Will Smith

the Lost World Jurassic Park at number two and

of course Sadly because we just can't keep them

frozen. Our hearts will go on with Titanic as

number one. I Hate that movie Really, I don't

I don't hate it. I hate the situation I was in

at the time for that movie cuz you know Young

love and blah -blah -blah, and you're willing

to do a grand gesture and a grand gesture and

at 17 and 97 for me was basically sitting in

a theater for three hours for this girl that

I liked and that didn't go anywhere because apparently

I Wasn't super heavy into religion at the time

so it wasn't gonna work because of that. Whatever.

Obviously. I'm here now. But yeah, no, that...

I can go back every once in a while and watch

that movie. I think the coolest Titanic reference

in 21 years was Victor Garber. on the legends

of tomorrow right before he left there was an

episode where they were gonna go back to look

at the titanic and he goes absolutely not i will

not set one foot on that ship it was built so

horribly uh... because he played jack andrews

the the person who built the ship in the movie

but that was super hilarious uh... but yeah ninety

seven interesting year for top ten grossing I

don't remember the last time I saw it as good

as it gets. I remember what the movie is, but

I just, that's a movie that I just don't remember.

Glenn Close going from Cruella De Vil to the

First Lady in Air Force One. There's that. Men

in Black, I liked it. I don't know how much I

enjoy it now anymore. Because that was the early

Will Smith slapstick comedy type of film. Yeah,

I know I still like men in black It's been I

have not you know watched it in yeah time but

like I remember even liking men in black 3 more

than I thought I would but it is like it is a

weird movie that it was as popular as it was

and again, I think I had a lot to do with the

the popularity of Will Smith, but It's it's it

certainly has certain elements of pop culture

that like that permeate public culture since

then you know the minor race tool that often

comes up in different conversations so But uh,

but yeah, I don't I don't know. It's like i'd

be interested in revisiting that movie because

it's I have not seen it sometime Yeah 98 was

Lethal Weapon 4 at number 10, Shakespeare in

Love at number 9, number 8 was Dr. Dolittle,

number 7 was Mulan, number 6 was Deep Impact,

number 5 was A Bug's Life, number 4 was There's

Something About Mary, number 3 was Godzilla,

number 2, Saving Private Ryan, and number 1,

Armageddon. Yeah, man Michael Bay back before

you were ruining giant robot movies Yeah, it's

just like looking at like the comparison of seeing

how movies of all I think about it We started

in 90 with ghost which is a romantic heavy romance

Supernatural film and yeah, then and then we

had Titanic but like it seems it could be back

and forth where yeah with The gigantic like Jurassic

Park to now of course that yeah, absolutely um

I think Quality wise Oh Yeah, Jurassic Park Park

is much better It's just I don't know. I think

for me. I think like I said I saw Jurassic Park

and that's pretty much the only one I've seen

because By that point I was kind of losing my

little kid my young little kid brain of really

loving dinosaurs I was moving on to other things

and after that movie. I was like okay What's

next kind of a thing? I'm surprised that Eddie

Murphy has two movies here I'm surprised and

not surprised, but I'm surprised one of them

is a comedy which he's known for anyway But I'm

also surprised that the other one is an animation

one because Mulan he was Mushu the dragon in

that. I've never seen Deep Impact. I think that's

the one with Morgan Freeman and a bunch of other

people, something about a quake or something,

because that year... Asteroid. Asteroid, okay.

Well, that's right. That's what I remember about

98. You had Armageddon versus Deep Impact, because

they were both asteroid world -destroying films.

Not seemed in a deep impact to the state either.

I have seen my armageddon many times. Yeah, I

love that movie I don't care what anyone says.

I love Armageddon. It's one of the best 90s action

films of the late 90s anyway 1999 once again

interesting year starts of some things ending

of other things or not really ending but Kind

of putting on hiatus kind of thing number 10

is something I have never seen normal Do I ever

care to see? The Blair Witch Project. Number

nine, American Beauty. Number eight, May You

Rest In Peace Q, The World Is Not Enough, the

third Brosnan Bond film, the last film for Desmond

Llewellyn as Q. Never let them see you bleed

and the second always have an escape That was

rough, I mean I know the guy passed away and

all that but yeah watching that movie and realizing

that that's his last One that's a little rough

number seven knotting hill number six the mummy

number seven or not numbers Number five, Tarzan.

Number four, The Matrix. Number three, Toy Story

2. Number two, The Sixth Sense. We see dead people.

Number one, number one, it's all about the midichlorians,

because Star Wars episode one, The Phantom Menace.

Oh, man. This is embarrassing to say, but that

was the first Star Wars film I saw in theaters.

Well, I mean the the other ones came out like

what 84 was the police of 83 for Jedi 77 for

it was 77 80 and 83 Yeah, so I mean I wasn't

I was born the year after yeah, I did see the

new hope I did see the The relawn or new hope

in theaters, but what's one they did the You

know this they had for a limited time. They brought

back a new hope and the Empire Strikes Back and

Return of the Jedi in theaters once they did

the special edition. So I've never seen the originals

in But I you know But weirdly enough, I never

saw Phantom Menace in theater. I don't know why

I just never went when it came out that year.

So I Did it was okay. I mean At the time the

the experience of going to see it the action

on screen was great obviously that kind of stuff

Star Wars The Phantom Menace on its own We have

like we have two episodes folks of movie we can

review we're in total we spent five hours on

the Star all six Star Wars films just go back

and listen to those episodes if you want my thoughts

on on the prequels But yeah 99 Another interesting

year. Tarzan was huge that year. Like I know

I said earlier that Disney was kind of on a decline

thing, but I mean, one of the biggest reasons,

two big reasons why Tarzan was huge. Number one,

Phil Collins. Yeah, the song that Pete claimed

Canada for the Oscar. Yep. Number two, Tony Hawk,

Pro Skater. The reason why I say this is because

the behind the scenes for Tarzan is that they

had Tony Hawk come in and that's when Tarzan

does his animated tree, you know, sliding through

the trees thing, it's Tony Hawk doing his skating

moves. I remember that as a behind the scenes

thing for that film. uh... the matrix freaked

me out even though i was nineteen years old i've

never been one for you know giant baby farms

in a futuristic dystopian world i love the matrix

in principle yes i love the movie itself but

that one scene just creeped me out the rest of

it is fine uh... So those are the ten years of

the 90s top grossing films we got two more topics

here then we're gonna get the heck out of here

Films we love rewatching from the 90s. What are

some movies that you go back and you can rewatch

that you absolutely love watching? The Sandlot

is number one. It's one of my favorite films

of all time. I watch it a Lot back when it used

to be unlike ABC family of a punch, but it's

one that it's like I get the itch every now and

then, and I might throw it in. Jurassic Park,

of course, one of my favorite phones of all time

as well. Even if it's just like picking out certain

scenes, we watch it over and over again. And

now that I have a kid as well, we're visiting

a lot of the classic Disney movies of the time.

Aladdin is probably number one on that list,

along with even Toy Story and Lion King as well.

But, and then one of my favorite films of the

90s, Goodfellas, is fantastic. And one thing

I didn't talk about in Trench, which I should

have, was in the 90s, it was also the breakout

of a lot of the new independent scene, which

was started by, spirited by, you know, Kevin

Smith, who we brought up, with Clerks, and of

course, Quentin Tarantino, and Pulp Fiction,

again, is another movie from the 90s that I tend

to watch. Looking at the films that we watch

the most, that's... up there as well. It's so

funny that I was in GameStop the other day and

recently I have not necessarily become obsessed

but I've become a Funko Pop collector and they

had three characters from Super Troopers that

are now Funko Pops. They had Mac, Farva, and

Ramathorn. Later this month, on the 28th of May,

they're releasing the Sandlot Funko Pops. The

Beast is getting his own Funko Pop with the baseball

in his mouth. It's amazing. I know they're just

these little things, but it's just so super cool.

Um, yeah, I love the Sandlot the Sandlot is one

of those the Sandlot the Mighty Ducks Honestly,

I know people are gonna lambaste me for this

but honestly all three of the Mighty Ducks films

obviously the first is the best but I love that

entire trilogy of films because There have been

hockey films before that and since then but those

were really some of the best ones we have to

so it remains my my favorite out of the two other

three i should say yeah uh... yeah but the sandlot

i mean you can't go wrong with that movie and

what i'm surprised to see on on this grossing

list when i'm surprised that isn't here a league

of their own like i'm really surprised that didn't

get I know that's not a kids baseball film, but

that was pretty huge. I mean, you had Tom Hanks,

you had Rosie O'Donnell, you had Madonna, you

had Gina Davis, you had, you know, Gary Marshall.

You had all these people in that movie that basically

gives a sort of history of, you know, women in

baseball during the war. I'm really surprised

that didn't hit the top -grossing list for the

year it came out in 92. Yeah, I'm sure I'm sure

it's probably like, you know within the top 20

years of probably yeah. Yeah Other movies from

the 90s. I like rewatching Like I mentioned pretty

much the three Bond films that came out I just

love watching Pierce Brosnan as James Bond. That

may or may not be blasphemous because, like you

said earlier, with the Star Wars stuff, you know,

we had to actually watch them on VHS or whatever.

So with the Bond movies, yeah, Timothy Dalton

was the Bond when I was a kid in the late 80s,

but, like, I think I remember seeing License

to Kill once and... Okay, sure. Timothy Dalton

to me is not James Bond. He's Neville Sinclair

from The Rocketeer. I mean, it's just the way

he is. It's just the way I think of him. And,

you know, I had watched Remington Steel as a

kid with my grandmother, so seeing, basically,

Pierce Brosnan come back and do Bond, I just

absolutely love that. I'm sure there are other

ones that I do enjoy rewatching. Okay. Sad one.

I don't watch it sad on my own part. Not necessarily

a sad movie, but I don't watch it all that often

But I used to rewatch a baseball every couple

of years I Watched that a lot as a kid because

it was always on stars or something like that.

Yeah, I would find myself watching I've not yeah,

you know Probably ever should have yeah probably

Okay, so last question, last topic. Does the

decade of film the 90s gave us still hold up?

Not talking about movies individually, but the

decade on a whole, the movies that came out in

these ten years, most of them, not just the top

-grossing ones, but all of them. Do the trends,

do the this, do the that, does all of it still

hold up? What do you think? Mean certain aspects

don't like I mentioned if it's like I'm watching

the Avengers and suddenly I see Captain America

role -blading down the street like that's or

you're not doing some Some something of that

nature Certainly not I think a lot of the film

making techniques a lot of the you know things

that were spearheaded I think a big change we

saw was how the way dialogue was handled in films

drastically adjusted because of things like Quentin

Tarantino and Kevin Smith where You had characters

that would spend a lot of time just conversing

about things of the now or fandom in general

and I think that does hold up if anything it

if It's so common now that it just seems when

you go back and watch it, especially if you weren't

Aware of the movie at the time just seems normal,

but it was something that was brand new But there

I mean, I think looking at the best films of

that period in time You know drastic park at

special effects well documented still hold up

pretty well I think still set the standard especially

anything that was animatronic But there are certain

things that maybe don't Early CGI In certain

cases even like Terminator 2 which was groundbreaking

at the time some of those sequences don't look

as good today But as a whole, you know, I think

there are more more things that do than don't

Yeah Absolutely. I mean, the 90s as a whole for

films in the decade I think does hold up, because

you have a lot of hidden gems that people may

or may not remember. Not that I really care about

this, but because outside of A Clockwork Orange...

full metal jacket I'm not really a Kubrick fan

but like Eyes Wide Shut was huge in 99 you know

like I said before the Mission Impossible film

that launched that franchise like you said all

the all the sports films and things like that

the transition from more action to comedy was

still interesting and we still have more of a

mix now I know yes nowadays it's kind of oversaturated

with superhero films and things like that but

I think at some point we're gonna just basically

go back and compare 1990 to 2010 or something

and just look at each of those years films and

see you know how different they were and just

talk about the differences from decade to decade

uh... nineties movies are just at this point

in time they're pure guilty pleasure back then

it it was super exciting to have like a you know

eraser or true lies or even though i don't really

care for that movie true lies but you know those

action films that did come out mission impossible

the comedies with ace ventura The mask and there's

something about Mary and things like that dumb

and dumber It's not all bad. I get it. There

are some There are plenty of bad 90s movies There

plenty of bad 80s and 70s movies as well and

there's plenty of bad movies today But it's not

all bad. And like I said earlier, it basically

just comes down to perspective and what you like,

you know, I Guess I don't know. Yep All right,

where can the people find you online sir? What

do you got going on all kinds of stuff? You just

launched a new show on the network comic concierge,

so if you want to break all that down for us

Yeah, so have comic concierge on decathreator

.com and what I do on that is I Usually do two

episodes a week where one I run through the week

that was in comics and then another I bring someone

on that's not typically a fan of comics and recommend

a book to them based upon their other like Send

things like movies TV's and books and we talk

about it Not sure when this is going up. But

one of the recent episodes I spoke with Jason

Michael of Atlantic Screen Connection podcasts

about the comic lady killer from Dark Horse Spoken

with regarding, you know a variety of different

comics to fade out Gotham Central with DJ Valentine

has been a common gas on many key cast right

video episodes But you can find that a geek cast

reader calm and also cinema geeks, which we're

doing a variety of different things Awesome,

where do the people find you online Twitter or

any of that kind of stuff? I'm on Twitter at

movie Revolts. All right, I am at TF2 and Mike

uh... you know that the casserole on twitter

and face book all that stuff really look at this

as they said is the website the cast radio dot

com we've got a lot coming up we've got some

changes we've got a whole brand new website we're

working on and next episode we're going to have

a super special episode because for the last

almost nine ten years optimus solo has been uh...

Blowing his brains out with the math of how many

episodes and how many hosts and how many this

and how many that he's we're gonna be doing the

history of the GCR and Next time you hear us

on geek cast radio not counting any mayhem Mike's

episodes that may come before this one, but The

next big thing for GCRN is our history. Optimus

Solo is going to take us back in time with the

DeLorean over the last nine and a half, ten years.

And we're going to talk about all things GeekCast

Radio Network because we very rarely often do

that. So it's going to be huge, it's going to

be amazing, and it's going to be interesting

for you guys to hear just how far we've come

in nearly a decade of GCRN. Unleash the geek

in you and we will catch you next time. So, uh,

what do we do now? What's the plan? You, uh...

You do have a plan, don't you? We're working

on it. Contingency plans for something like this

don't exist. The situation's never been contemplated.

Well, you better start contemplating, because

this is a situation that needs to get unfucked

right now! Joe Kramer here, composer from Mission

Impossible Rogue Nation. This podcast from the

Geekcast Radio Network will self -destruct in

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