Fanboys Anonymous

TOP 10 FAVORITE FILMS OF 1990

1. Home Alone
2. Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles
3. GoodFellas
4. Edward Scissorhands
5. The Godfather Part III
6. Back to the Future Part III
7. Total Recall
8. Kindergarten Cop
9. Misery
10. It

If you polled me as a kid, the top 4 movies would still be up there. But so would Ernest Goes to Jail, surprisingly. I used to watch that movie a TON as a kid. Eventually, I watched it as a teenager, and it is just awful, like so many other movies I enjoyed as a child.

Supposedly, I was super freaked out by Arachnophobia as a kid when my parents were watching it. I don't know if that means I've seen it and don't remember, or if I was only in the room at the time.

For the most part, the top 2 are tied, with GoodFellas just below them as if there's an S+ tier and S-tier, then, Edward Scissorhands and The Godfather Part III would be A+ tier, even though it pales in comparison to the first two by an absurd margin.

Amazing how there's a Captain America movie that came out this year, and it'll be the only one that you don't see on this top list, because its awful.

Maybe if I rewatch Robocop 2 or Dances with Wolves or Rocky V it'll make the cut, but I doubt it.

Blind Spot Movies = Darkman, Die Hard 2, The Hunt for Red October, Men at Work, Pretty Woman and more. I know I've seen Dick Tracy, but I can't remember a damn thing about it.

TOP 10 FAVORITE FILMS OF 1991

1. Terminator 2: Judgment Day
2. The Silence of the Lambs
   
3. Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles II: The Secret of the Ooze
   
4. Hook
5. The Addams Family
6. Hot Shots!
7. Beauty and the Beast
8. Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves
9. JFK
10. What About Bob?
    

Terminator 2 is my favorite movie of all time. The Silence of the Lambs and TMNT 2 are favorites that I've seen countless times. Hot Shots! is super funny. The Addams Family is a classic, as is Hook. Rufio! Rufio!

There's a drop off for Beauty and the Beast, as it isn't one of my go-to Disney films, but I can appreciate it.

Then, we get into another drop-off. Prince of Thieves is a movie I've only seen once and mostly just so I could get the references from Men in Tights to come later in this list JFK was an interesting watch, and Bill & Ted's Bogus Journey was something I remember watching as a kid, but can't attribute too much to it, whereas I know that I enjoyed What About Bob? as a kid, at least. Then again, I liked Drop Dead Fred back then, so maybe if I rewatched it, it would be trash. For my initial ranking of this, when I started to figure out the decade breakdown, What About Bob? ended up actually being around the #182 mark. I'm sure it will only go down over time when I see more movies.

Apparently, the trolls in Ernest Scared Stupid legitimately scared me as a child, watching it in the theater. Go figure.

Blind Spot Movies = Backdraft, Cape Fear, City Slickers, Father of the Bride, My Girl, Point Break, The Rocketeer, Thelma & Louise and more.

TOP 10 FAVORITE FILMS OF 1992

1. Reservoir Dogs
2. Batman Returns
3. Aladdin
4. Home Alone 2
5. Glengarry Glen Ross
6. Scent of a Woman
7. The Muppet Christmas Carol
   
8. Lethal Weapon 3
9. Sister Act
10. The Mighty Ducks
11. A League of Their Own

Hell yes! This is a great year. Just look at all those movies in bold, wherein the top five are movies I've seen too many times to count. They're infinitely rewatchable and you'll see how high up they go on my decade list. Scent of a Woman isn't quite on the same level, especially compared to something like Reservoir Dogs where I've seen that something like 200 times compared to SOAW maybe like six, but it is close enough to justify giving it a bold.

The Muppet Christmas Carol was a staple of my childhood, and I have such fond memories of Sister Act and A League of Their Own as well as The Mighty Ducks. That was such a golden era of "fun for the whole family" movies that I really did enjoy when I was younger and could see myself still enjoying as an adult.

Plenty other movies from this time frame were fun back then, like Encino Man and The Ladybugs, but didn't leave as much of an impression. This is the year of the first 3 Ninjas movie, after all. Those are trash in retrospect, but I was mesmerized in my youth.

Also, I know I've seen Wayne's World, but I was too young to get it and haven't watched it a second time even when I became a teenager.

Funny that we got Bram Stoker's Dracula and Buffy the Vampire Slayer this year.

Blind Spot Movies = A Few Good Men, Bad Lieutenant, Basic Instinct, The Bodyguard, Malcolm X, My Cousin Vinny, Patriot Games, Unforgiven, White Men Can't Jump and more.

TOP 10 FAVORITE FILMS OF 1993

1. Robin Hood: Men in Tights
   
2. Jurassic Park
   
3. Grumpy Old Men
   
4. Mrs. Doubtfire
   
5. Groundhog Day
   
6. Batman: Mask of the Phantasm
   
7. The Sandlot
8. Addams Family Values
9. Hot Shots! Part Deux
10. Weekend at Bernie's 2

Hell yeah! Another really good year of movies to pick from.

Robin Hood: Men in Tights is my favorite comedy of all time. Easily one of the films I've watched the most, ever.

Jurassic Park needs no explanation.

Grumpy Old Men and Mrs. Doubtfire hold such special places in my heart, and while I came into Groundhog Day much later in life, I instantly loved it.

Gotta show some love to the Bruce Timm Batman series with Mask of the Phantasm and seeing that in theaters. Awesome memory.

A movie like The Sandlot scores higher than Rookie of the Year, but I still enjoyed that a lot as a kid. And no, Free Willy doesn't make the list just for one iconic shot. For that matter, am I the only one who instantly can recall the VHS box cover art for Homeward Bound: The Incredible Journey or what?

Look. I know Schindler's List and even Carlito's Way and Falling Down are better movies than Weekend at Bernie's 2 by a long shot. But I watched that stupid dead guy dancing on the beach on television way more times as a kid. It's ridiculous. I wonder if Son in Law has any jokes that hold up, or Coneheads.

I really want to rewatch how awful Super Mario Bros. was for a future FanTracks. Also, notice the absence of Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles III because it totally sucks?

I also distinctly remember seeing RoboCop 3 in theaters with my dad at the same time my mom and sister were seeing Look Who's Talking Now and not being impressed, but being so taken aback when they killed off a certain lead character and had RoboCop flying around. Speaking of which, you're probably surprised Last Action Hero isn't on this list.

Blind Spot Movies = A Bronx Tale, Dazed and Confused, Demolition Man, The Firm, The Fugitive, Rudy, Tombstone and more.

TOP 10 FAVORITE FILMS OF 1994

1. The Shawshank Redemption
2. Pulp Fiction
3. Dumb and Dumber
4. Clerks
5. Forrest Gump
6. The Lion King
7. The Mask
8. Street Fighter
9. Ace Ventura: Pet Detective
10. Airheads
11. Speed
    

Look at this list!! Yes, there's a massive drop at one point, but the ones in bold? C'mon!

This was the toughest group to sort at the top, because all six of them are absolute S-tier. The Shawshank Redemption is my go-to answer for "best film of all time" and Forrest Gump is in that top five, for reference. The Lion King is tied with Aladdin and Toy Story for best animated film. Clerks and Dumb and Dumber are two of my top five favorite comedies. Pulp Fiction is one of my top overall favorite movies I've seen enough times to be able to quote practically the whole script by memory.

The rest, as you can imagine, are childhood fun, despite how they aren't anywhere near the same caliber quality. Yes, Airheads is dumb and Street Fighter is an absolute mess. I thought both were super fun back then (well, Airheads more so in my early teen years when it would rerun on Comedy Central constantly)

Shout out to Interview with a Vampire for being a film I just watched for the first time in 2022 and liked quite a bit.

No True Lies or Junior despite how big of an Arnold Schwarzenegger fan I was as a kid. Neither of them resonated with me quite the same as a few others.

We're in that golden era of family-friendly little boy sports films to continue with a movie like Little Big League and D2: The Mighty Ducks and Little Giants which don't make the cut, along with Major League II in its own right.

Unfortunately, The Next Karate Kid doesn't hold a candle to the rest of the series.

Blind Spot Movies = City Slickers II: The Legend of Curly's Gold, Clear and Present Danger, The Crow, Legends of the Fall, Leon: The Professional, Quiz Show and more.

TOP 10 FAVORITE FILMS OF 1995

1. GoldenEye
   
2. Toy Story
   
3. The Usual Suspects
4. Mallrats
   
5. Four Rooms
   
6. Grumpier Old Men
   
7. Batman Forever
8. Billy Madison
9. Casino
10. Dracula: Dead and Loving It
11. Mighty Morphin Power Rangers: The Movie
12. Heavyweights
    

A few movies that should be higher up on my list, but I really need to rewatch them, are Heat, Seven, Clueless, and Get Shorty. I know Se7en is great, but I watched it one time, for instance. For that matter, noticeably absent here that I'm sure you'd call attention to would be Tommy Boy, Pocahontas, Jumanji, Ace Ventura: When Nature Calls, Desperado and Braveheart.

My favorite joke in Dracula: Dead and Loving It is the line "Scheduled???" My favorite line in Heavyweights that I also still quote to this day as well, is "This pleases me."

One of my least favorite movies ever came out this year in Tank Girl. Terrible.

Blind Spot Movies = Apollo 13, Bad Boys, Dead Man Walking, Jury Duty, Waterworld and more.

TOP 10 FAVORITE FILMS OF 1996

1. Bio-Dome
2. Happy Gilmore
3. Jack
4. Kingpin
5. Mission: Impossible
6. Sling Blade
7. Phenomenon
8. Black Sheep
9. Eraser
10. Independence Day

Are there good movies that came out this year? Of course. Lots of people will praise something like Fargo like crazy (but I think it is overrated) and The People vs. Larry Flint was solid. But 1996 was a year that didn't host many of my personal favorite movies.

Simply put, look at how many above are in bold. Even Happy Gilmore isn't a movie that I loved as much as Billy Madison, for instance. Realistically, you'll see where all these go on the overall 1990s decade list.

That's not to say they're bad. Some of these are iconic. But remember, this is a list of my personal favorites, rather than my rankings on their quality. If that were the case, wouldn't Sling Blade be far above Bio-Dome? But which one did I watch once and which one did I own and watch tons of times as a kid?

Shout out to Hamlet for being a movie almost nobody would ever admit to enjoying, but it has thus far been my favorite interpretation of that play. Primal Fear was neat. From Dusk Till Dawn was interesting.

And no. I wasn't a Space Jam kid as much as most others. I appreciate its place in the film landscape and my childhood, but I never felt the urge to own it back when it was at its peak and it certainly doesn't hold up over time.

Blind Spot Movies = Broken Arrow, Don't Be a Menace to South Central While Drinking Your Juice in the Hood, The English Patient, The Fan, The Hunchback of Notre Dame, The Phantom and more.

TOP 10 FAVORITE FILMS OF 1997

1. Tomorrow Never Dies
   
2. The Batman/Superman Movie: World's Finest
   
3. Austin Powers: International Man of Mystery
4. Contact
5. Nothing to Lose
6. Batman & Robin
7. The Lost World: Jurassic Park
8. Good Will Hunting
9. Liar Liar
10. Face/Off
11. Boogie Nights
12. The Game

This is the year we got both Dante's Peak and Volcano. It's always funny when those parallel sister films get released so close together.

Tomorrow Never Dies isn't one of my absolute top favorite 007 films when compared to something like GoldenEye, but I can watch it at any time. Shout out again to Bruce Timm's DCAU for World's Finest. Austin Powers was great.

Contact is a movie I watched later in life (in my 20s, during my great binge year of watching about 300 movies and several full television series) and thought was just so good that I can't imagine I wouldn't have been rooting for that to be Best Picture for that year if I weren't 10 years old and focused on Batman & Robin instead, which is just terrible, but fun.

Boogie Nights is the other movie I would have likely had toe-to-toe with it. I only watched that in 2018 and really enjoyed it. I'm just not a huge Titanic fan.

Not on the list, but a movie I've seen more than once and enjoyed, is The Devil's Advocate.

By the way, Chasing Amy had the distinction of being easily my least favorite of Kevin Smith's movies for the original stint up until he made Jay and Silent Bob Reboot, which makes it look like a masterpiece. It just doesn't bring the same energy as the other films and isn't as quotable.

Blind Spot Movies = Event Horizon, The Fifth Element, Grosse Pointe Blank, Starship Troopers, Vegas Vacation, Wag the Dog and more.

TOP 10 FAVORITE FILMS OF 1998

1. Meet Joe Black
2. Rush Hour
3. Jane Austen's Mafia!
4. Lethal Weapon 4
5. Half Baked
6. The Waterboy
7. Can't Hardly Wait
8. The Big Lebowski
   
9. The Mask of Zorro
10. City of Angels
11. Wrongfully Accused
12. Batman & Mr. Freeze: SubZero
13. Armageddon
14. Deep Impact
15. Patch Adams
16. Ronin
17. The Faculty
18. American History X
19. The Truman Show
20. Mulan
21. Saving Private Ryan
22. What Dreams May Come

This isn't the strongest year, but it has some good things going for it for sure. Effectively, this is a collection of C+ and B- movies in a lot of ways.

But I really like Meet Joe Black a considerable lot and Rush Hour is a classic from this time.

Mafia! is underrated for spoof comedies. Lethal Weapon 4 isn't the best of the series, but it maintains quality.

Half Baked and The Waterboy and Can't Hardly Wait are certainly of their eras, as is a romance film like City of Angels, that I was surprised to enjoy as much as I did the one and only time I watched it.

A lot of the movies with a strikethrough are ones that I'd have to watch a second time to rank in a better way, like The Truman Show.

But let's be honest. The actual #9 spot here goes to ONE scene in Wild Things and not the rest of the movie. You know what I'm talking about.

Blind Spot Movies = A Bug's Life, Antz, Apt Pupil, Out of Sight, Pi, Pleasantville, Rounders, Shakespeare in Love, Snake Eyes, Sphere, U.S. Marshals and more.

TOP 10 FAVORITE FILMS OF 1999

1. Fight Club
2. Star Wars: Episode I - The Phantom Menace
3. American Beauty
4. The World is Not Enough
   
5. Office Space
6. South Park: Bigger, Longer and Uncut
7. Austin Powers: The Spy Who Shagged Me
8. Man on the Moon
9. Dogma
10. Life
11. The Matrix
12. Toy Story 2
13. Big Daddy
14. American Pie
15. The Green Mile

This is one of the strongest years, by far. You know that when The Matrix is booted out of the top 10 along with Toy Story 2 and even Big Daddy and The Green Mile, which easily would trump so many others in different years.

Fight Club is amazing and one of my top 10 "best" movies of all time, along with American Beauty.

The Phantom Menace is criminally underrated. It has its flaws, of course, but I bet those sequels are making you second-guess how bad it is now, right?

The World is Not Enough is one of my more watched Bond films, and Office Space is an absolute treasure, along with South Park and Austin Powers 2 just nailing it in so many ways.

Man on the Moon is a movie I grow to appreciate more with each watch. Jim Carrey should have gotten an Oscar.

While I don't like Chasing Amy all that much, Dogma has some real fun parts to it.

The real out of left field pick here is Life with Eddie Murphy and Martin Lawrence. This is a movie I've seen a few times when it would air on television and it is just an easy watch. It also has a quote in it that I love repeating to this day, which is "You gonna eat your cornbread?"

Blind Spot Movies = 8mm, Bicentennial Man, The Blair Witch Project, Bowfinger, Entrapment, Galaxy Quest, Girl, Interrupted, The Iron Giant, The Mummy, The Talented Mr. Ripley and more.

TOP 100 FAVORITE FILMS OF 1990s DECADE
BONUS ROUND

1. Terminator 2: Judgment Day  (1991)
2. GoldenEye (1995)
3. Robin Hood: Men in Tights (1993)
4. Reservoir Dogs (1992)
5. The Shawshank Redemption  (1994)
6. Home Alone (1990)
7. Pulp Fiction (1994)
8. Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (1990)
9. Fight Club (1999)
10. Batman Returns (1992)
11. Dumb and Dumber (1994)
12. Clerks (1994)
13. Forrest Gump (1994)
14. Aladdin (1992)
15. Toy Story (1995)
16. The Lion King (1994)
17. Jurassic Park (1993)
18. The Silence of the Lambs (1991)
19. Star Wars: Episode I - The Phantom Menace (1999)
20. Home Alone 2 (1992)
21. The Usual Suspects  (1995)
22. The World is Not Enough (1999)
23. Tomorrow Never Dies (1997)
24. Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles II: The Secret of the Ooze (1991)
25. Office Space (1999)
26. American Beauty (1999)
27. Grumpy Old Men (1993)
28. GoodFellas (1990)
29. Glengarry Glen Ross (1992)
30. Mallrats (1995)
31. South Park: Bigger, Longer and Uncut (1999)
32. The Batman/Superman Movie: World's Finest (1997)
33. Austin Powers: International Man of Mystery (1997)
34. Meet Joe Black (1998)
35. Rush Hour (1998)
36. Mrs. Doubtfire (1993)
37. Four Rooms (1995)
38. Scent of a Woman (1992)
39. Grumpier Old Men (1995)
40. Austin Powers: The Spy Who Shagged Me (1999)
41. Groundhog Day (1993)
42. Batman Forever (1995)
43. Man on the Moon (1999)
44. The Muppet Christmas Carol (1992)
45. Edward Scissorhands (1990)
46. Bio-Dome (1996)
47. Dogma (1999)
48. Life (1999)
49. Lethal Weapon 3 (1992)
50. Sister Act (1992)
51. Lethal Weapon 4 (1998)
52. Jane Austen's Mafia! (1998)
53. The Matrix (1999)
54. Toy Story 2 (1999)
55. Contact (1997)
56. Nothing to Lose (1997)
57. Batman & Robin (1997)
58. Batman: Mask of the Phantasm (1993)
59. Billy Madison (1995)
60. Half Baked (1998)
61. The Waterboy (1998)
62. Happy Gilmore (1996)
63. Casino (1995)
64. Can't Hardly Wait (1998)
65. The Sandlot (1993)
66. Hook (1991)
67. The Big Lebowski (1998)
68. Ace Ventura: Pet Detective (1994)
69. The Mask (1994)
70. Jack (1996)
71. Dracula: Dead and Loving It (1995)
72. Street Fighter (1994)
73. Airheads (1994)
74. Mighty Morphin Power Rangers: The Movie (1995)
75. The Mighty Ducks (1992)
76. A League of Their Own (1992)
77. Heavyweights (1995)
78. The Addams Family (1991)
79. Addams Family Values (1993)
80. The Godfather Part III (1990)
81. Big Daddy (1999)
82. The Lost World: Jurassic Park (1997)
83. Good Will Hunting (1997)
84. Liar Liar (1997)
85. American Pie (1999)
86. Kingpin (1996)
87. Hot Shots (1991)
88. Hot Shots! Part Deux (1993)
89. Mission: Impossible (1996)
90. Back to the Future Part III (1990)
91. Face/Off (1997)
92. Total Recall (1990)
93. The Green Mile (1999)
94. The Sixth Sense (1999)
95. The Mask of Zorro (1998)
96. City of Angels (1998)
97. Boogie Nights (1997)
98. Get Shorty (1995)
99. Wrongfully Accused (1998)
100. Chasing Amy (1997)
     

Just look at this list. Now you see why I couldn't limit it to top 10, 20, 25, or 50.

What are your favorite movies from every year?
Drop your thoughts in the comments below!