8 Underrated Movies From the 1990s You Owe an Apology

These '90s movies score big on movie.guru and pull a fraction of the votes the decade's hits get. You were busy. Time to say sorry.

#1 won over the critics and lost everyone else. I'm taking its side.

1. 8
   Dark City (1998)8.0

   The moodiest sci-fi of the decade, and nobody showed up.

   $27M reported budget, $27.2M worldwide. Rufus Sewell wakes up in a city that rearranges itself overnight. Audiences rate it above 88% of movies. Theaters never got the memo.
2. 7
   Misery (1990)8.3

   Kathy Bates gives the scariest nurse performance ever filmed.

   8.3 movie.guru score and an A minus CinemaScore, with James Caan stuck in one bed for most of it. Rob Reiner turns a farmhouse into a pressure cooker.
3. 6
   The Crow (1994)8.4

   Darker and better than most comic book movies that followed.

   8.4 movie.guru score, audiences beat 91% of movies. Michael Wincott's villain sounds like gravel gargling gravel. Alex Proyas made two films on this list and Hollywood shrugged twice.
4. 5
   Clerks (1994)8.7

   Shot for pocket change and funnier than most studio comedies.

   $27K reported budget, $3.15M domestic. 8.7 movie.guru score. Two guys argue about nothing behind a counter and it somehow turns into a philosophy class.
5. 4
   What's Eating Gilbert Grape (1993)8.7

   Teenage DiCaprio outacts everyone here, including grown-up Johnny Depp.

   8.7 movie.guru score on an $11M reported budget, and it made $10.03M domestic. Depp plays the quietest guy in a small town while DiCaprio steals every scene.
6. 3
   The Iron Giant (1999)9.3

   The best animated movie of the '90s. Yes, including those.

   9.3 movie.guru score, 96% on Rotten Tomatoes, $23.3M worldwide on a reported $48M to $50M budget. Vin Diesel voices a giant robot with more feelings than most humans.
7. 2
   La Haine (1995)9.5

   The best movie of 1995, and almost nobody paid to see it.

   9.5 movie.guru score, Elite band, beats 99% of movies with audiences. $815,549 worldwide. Vincent Cassel and two friends drift through one long day in the Paris suburbs and it still rattles.
8. 1
   Shakespeare in Love (1998)8.5

   Shakespeare in Love is genuinely great. Stop dunking on it.

   92% on Rotten Tomatoes, 87 on Metacritic, critics rate it above 94% of movies. IMDb voters gave it a 7.1. Geoffrey Rush and Colin Firth are having way too much fun.

$571.83 says you queue up La Haine tonight and text a friend about it before the credits finish.

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Current mood: ready to fight about it