Entertainment
50 ’90s Movies With Low Rotten Tomatoes Scores That Aren’t Half Bad
Walt Disney Motion Pictures
The idea behind Rotten Tomatoes is that by offering the viewer an aggregated and balanced critical assessment of a film, you'll have a decent idea of where it stands among the pantheon of its kind. Unfortunately, critics are fallible human beings, swayed by public opinion and blind bias far more than they might like to admit, and plenty of movies get a bad rap without due cause. So here are 50 '90s movies with low Rotten Tomatoes scores that aren't half bad. They aren't the best of the best either — you won't see Kubrick on the list. But they're far better than the Tomatometer would lead you to believe.
There's a noticeable bias against films made by and/or for women. Artist Cindy Sherman's Office Killer, teen witch tale The Craft, beauty pageant murder-mystery Drop Dead Gorgeous, the rebellious ladies of Foxfire, and the cannibal tale Ravenous all got less-than-stellar reviews, but became cult classics with slowly growing audiences. This might be because 78% of critics are white and male, creating a gigantic blind spot in the form of underrepresentation of any alternate views.
Still, some movies designed for that very group — Tommy Boy, So I Married An Axe Murderer, Con Air, Event Horizon — fared little better. Sometimes, like with Johnny Mnemonic and Waterworld, outsize budgets dampened critics' impressions, but aren't as big of an issue now.
Hopefully this list will encourage you to consider that these movies are (at least slightly) better than critical reckoning would have you believe, if only to make for a solid movie night.
1. 'The Avengers' (1998)
RT Score: 16%
Any movie featuring Sean Connery in a giant teddy bear costume can't be all that bad, and this remake of the popular '60s TV show keeps the mod and ups the weird.
2. 'Drop Dead Gorgeous'
RT Score: 45%
Aside from an unfortunate side plot involving a less-than-sensitive portrayal of a person with a disability, the rest of this film is just an all-star cast doing their midwest best.
3. 'In Dreams'
RT Score: 22%
Roger Ebert called it "the silliest thriller in many a moon, and the only one in which the heroine is endangered by apples", but that's just the start of this film's over-the-top ridiculousness, where an artist shares a psychic link with a serial killer (played by Robert Downey Jr. in the world's worst wig).
4. 'Ravenous'
RT Score: 37%
I'm baffled as to why this movie has such a low rating. It's a dark, sardonic look at life on the American frontier, with extended metaphor about greed and consumption turned ludicrously literal.
5. 'Jawbreaker'
RT Score: 11%
The clothes and soundtrack more than make up for the so-so '90s "shock" plot.
6. 'House On Haunted Hill'
RT Score: 28%
The late '90s and '00s were all about remakes with 'tude — in this case, taking a campy Vincent Price vehicle, dialing the overacting up to 11, and throwing in every Marilyn Manson video trick they could copy.
7. 'Blade'
RT Score: 55%
Wesley Snipes! He's a Daywalking half-vampire with knives! Come on, this isn't that complicated, people.
8. 'The Replacement Killers'
RT Score: 36%
Hong Kong director John Woo's flashy style (happily ripped off by American directors like Michael Bay) didn't win over critics, but it still looks great and also features Chow Yun Fat, of whomst there is never enough screen time.
9. 'Knock Off'
RT Score: 8%
This outstanding movie is itself a knock off of director Tsui Hark's other action movies, made ridiculous with Rob Schneider and Jean Claude Van Damme running around in footraces and a soundtrack by Sparks (yes really).
10. 'Con Air'
RT Score: 55%
...But you know, sometimes when American directors rip off Hong Kong, they do it right. This ludicrous movie pits Jesus stand-in Nic Cage against a rogue's gallery of '90s actor bad guys, plus John Cusack as an action hippie.
11. 'Lost Highway'
RT Score: 59%
David Lynch thought he'd missed his own mark with this film, but it's still a compelling, twisted noir pulling from Lynch's obsession with L.A. and equally oddball film Kiss Me Deadly.
12. 'Event Horizon'
RT Score: 23%
Sam Neill seems like he had the most fun in the '90s, with this Hellraiser-in-space gothic horror letting him go totally over the top.
13. 'Gummo'
RT Score: 33%
A great soundtrack for a film that isn't as deviant as it was portrayed to be, but also, unfortunately, not as original as it thinks it is.
14. 'Midnight In The Garden Of Good And Evil'
RT Score: 48%
This film is pure camp gold, with Jude Law's awful southern accent vying with Kevin Spacey's moustache for Most Distracting Element. Possibly the greatest ever Christmas movie?
15. 'Bebe's Kids'
RT Score: 33%
The rare animated independent feature from a black writer and artist deserved — and is — better than the panning it got when it came out. Following the title terrors as they wreak havoc, it's far more fun than given credit for.
16. 'Belly'
RT Score: 13%
What is so wrong with style over substance? Hype Williams' feature debut has a great cast and soundtrack to boot.
17. 'Office Killer'
RT Score: 12%
Cindy Sherman's parody-thriller was misunderstood by critics who saw themselves reflected in its silliness.
18. 'Perdita Durango'
RT Score: 33%
Javier Bardem must have a personal goal to best his worst possible haircut with every movie he makes, and this one (baby bangs with a mullet) takes the cake, even over No Country for Old Men. Based on the graphic novel, this flashy movie entertains, which is what it's supposed to do.
19. 'Mars Attacks!'
RT Score: 53%
People have finally come around on Tim Burton's ode to '50s pulp comic ridiculousness. Stuffed with an amazing cast, it features exactly what the title promises.
20. 'The Craft'
RT Score: 50%
"Teen girl witches" is now rightly an entire genre.
21. 'Fear'
RT Score: 39%
Yes, there's the infamous rollercoaster scene, but there's also the '90s spin on the trope of an obsessive lover taking down someone's entire life!
22. 'Foxfire'
RT Score: 54%
Ok first of all: written by Joyce Carol Oates. Secondly, featuring a nearly all-women cast fronted by Angelina Jolie.
23. 'Brain Candy'
RT Score: 44%
Always too weird for critical appeal, this is a sweet and strange film about the nature of happiness and commercialization.
24. 'Schizopolis'
RT Score: 59%
Before the Oceans movies and critical darlings like Out Of Sight, Steven Soderbergh showed us the true delightful freak that he is.
25. 'Waterworld'
RT Score: 43%
Take away the budget bloat talk and you're left with a perfectly serviceable Mad Max on the ocean (plus a timelier than ever message about global warming).
26. 'Showgirls'
RT Score: 14%
I will defend this movie and its glorious nails to the death. A film about a character who learns absolutely nothing, Showgirls features the perfect American ideal of a "powerful woman."
27. 'Bad Boys'
RT Score: 43%
Shouty, explody, two+ hours of surface gloss and action — it's perfect for summer.
28. 'Double Team'
RT Score: 11%
Jean Claude Van Damme made this list a lot, huh? Now add in Dennis Rodman and Mickey Rourke, and tell me a fight scene set in the Roman Coliseum with landmines, a tiger, and a baby strewn about isn't pure entertainment.
29. 'Tank Girl'
RT Score: 41%
Way more fun than it was given credit for, and featuring a young Naomi Watts, this adaptation of the cartoonish comic book works pretty well.
30. 'Hackers'
RT Score: 32%
Is it a good movie? No. Does it have serious camp value as a '90s cyber-relic? Totally.
31. 'Tommy Boy'
RT Score: 44%
One of the many David Spade/Chris Farley cinematic pairings, this film never aimed for highbrow appeal and firmly misses it while providing slapstick and fart jokes aplenty.
32. 'Johnny Mnemonic'
RT Score: 14%
What is wrong with Rotten Tomatoes?! ICE T. DOLPH LUNDGREN. BEAT TAKESHI. UDO KIER. A TALKING DOLPHIN. All in the same film! Come on!
33. 'Tales From The Crypt: Demon Knight'
RT Score: 37%
Jada Pinkett Smith and Billy Zane make this film more fun and earnest than it should be.
34. 'To Wong Foo, Thanks For Everything, Julie Newmar'
RT Score: 42%
Derided as a Priscilla, Queen of the Desert knockoff, this film stands on its own with Wesley Snipes, John Leguizamo, and Patrick Swayze looking fantastic.
35. 'The Doom Generation'
RT Score: 47%
Director Gregg Araki's responsible for many a Riverdale episode, so it's high time fans take a look back at his directorial debut.
36. 'Angus'
RT Score: 40%
Sweetly endearing with a So-Cal pop punk soundtrack.
37. 'Stargate'
RT Score: 48%
James Spader and Kurt Russell playing against type, plus Egyptian aliens!
38. 'Street Fighter'
RT Score: 13%
This movie is worth it just for Raul Julia's amazing speech as M. Bison to a devastated Chun Li.
39. 'In The Mouth Of Madness'
RT Score: 48%
John Carpenter (Halloween, The Fog) manages to mock and simultaneously beat Stephen King at his own game with this story of a reporter investigating a horror writer whose books drive their readers insane.
40. 'The Hudsucker Proxy'
RT Score: 58%
Y'know, for kids! The Coen brothers take a hard swerve towards screwball in this tale of an earnest inventor saving a company.
41. 'Airheads'
RT Score: 21%
Possibly the most 90s trio ever assembled, Brendan Fraser, Adam Sandler, and Steve Buscemi take a radio station hostage in an attempt to get their music played.
42. 'Cabin Boy'
RT Score: 46%
There was no way a movie this odd would ever succeed, but it was good enough for David Letterman to make a rare appearance.
43. 'Hocus Pocus'
RT Score: 30%
Stellar performances from the lead witches, and absolutely no love from critics.
44. 'Robin Hood: Men In Tights'
RT Score: 48%
Some of the jokes are dated, but when your film's premised on mocking a 1930s Robin Hood film from the jump, it doesn't really matter. Mel Brooks's adaptation is geared towards the 13-year-old goofball in all of us.
45. 'Jade'
RT Score: 16%
The erotic thriller is a genre that reached its apex in the '90s, and this is the most confusingly sexy of them all.
46. 'Heart And Souls'
RT Score: 55%
Robert Downey's at his most charming in this maudlin but decent story of lost souls attached to his young narcissist to fix their unfinished business.
47. 'Don't Tell Mom The Babysitter's Dead'
RT Score: 33%
Cristina Applegate, '90s fashion designs, and a high-concept premise are entertaining enough here.
48. 'So, I Married An Axe Murderer'
RT Score: 50%
Mike Myers hams it up in this screwball comedy involving bad beat poetry and a fear of commitment.
49. 'City Hunter'
RT Score: 47%
Jackie Chan in a slapstick anime adaptation featuring an extended Street Fighter parody fight? Absolutely yes.
50. 'Death Becomes Her'
RT Score: 48%
Bruce Willis is miscast, but the movie's not about him. It's about Goldie Hawn and Meryl Streep chomping scenery and mocking Hollywood and societal demands of feminine beauty.
The Tomatometer's not completely off-base on these films, but they're not as rotten as you'd think. Give them a try and see for yourself!
