Almost Vintage- The Movies of 1990

Before I started this post on movies that came out twenty years ago, I tried to guess what movies came out that year without peeking on the internet. To do so, I thought of where I was in 1990 and what I might have seen at the movie theaters.

In 1990 I would have graduated from high school and been 17 or 18 years depending on the time of the year. Because my mom was very strict I hadn’t seen a lot of movies, so being on my own I made sure to get my fill of R-Rated movies once I was able to get into them.

The first movie I guessed that was from 1990 was correct and my first guess was

Goodfellas.

Goodfellas was indeed from 1990; unfortunately however my memory is pretty poor and the other movies I guessed that were from 1990 were mostly 80′s movies and a few later into the 1990s. So without boring you on the details of my foggy memory and my poor powers of deduction,  I will just cut to the chase and highlight  some of the movies from 1990. In alphabetical order we have (note that these are not all the movies that came out in 1990).

• Another 48 Hours starring Eddie Murphy and Nick Nolte in the sequel to the 1982 film 48 Hours. I don’t  know did we need Another 48 Hours? I didn’t see the first one either so you decide.

• Awakenings is a wonderful movie that I have seen half a dozen times. It stars Robin Williams and Robert DeNiro. Robin Williams plays Dr. William Sayer who administers L-Dopa to patients who are catatonic from suffering from encephalitis lethargica. DeNiro is one of the patient who is “woken” up. If you haven’t seen this film I highly recommend you rent it.

• Back to the Future III The third movie in the Back to the Future Trilogy starring Michael J. Fox and Christopher Lloyd. I personally think they should have stopped at the first film- which was actually pretty entertaining about a time machine made out of a DeLorean.

• Betsy’s Wedding Basically another Molly Ringwald movie- only she is all grown up and getting married. Got the plot-now you don’t have to see it.

• The Bonfire of the Vanities had lots of A-list actors in a B movie. The movie starred Tom Hanks, Melanie Griffith, and Bruce Willis. I have never seen it, but have heard the book is much better.

• Child’s Play 2 The sequel to the 1988 horror film Child’s Play features a ‘lovable’ little serial killer doll named Chucky.

• Die Hard 2 The Sequel to Die Hard starring a Bruce Willis with hair.

• Edward Scissorhands is a gothic classic starring a young Johnny Depp and his then girlfriend Winona Ryder about a gentle, young man with scissors for hands.  The film is written and directed by Tim Burton known for his dark, daring films.

• Ernest Goes to Jail Okay- so I am ashamed to admit I have seen this or any Jim Varney movies about Ernest, but in my defense my mom loves Ernest. So you do what you have to do to take mom happy, that includes going to a drive in with her to see Ernest Goes to Camp.

• Flatliners starred Keifer Sutherland, Julia Roberts, and Kevin Bacon as medical students who experiment with dying to see if there is anything on the other side.
  

• Ghost starring the late Patrick Swayze and Demi Moore is a chick flick classic. The scene with Sam and Molly making pottery on a pottery wheel is iconic.

• Goodfellas was nominated for six Acadmey Awards, although only netting one for Joe Pesci as a supporting actor. Directed by Martin Scorsese, Goodfellas is the definitive mob movie after the Godfather films and is based on the true story of Henry Hill (played by Ray Liotta). After things go very much awry for Henry as a mobster, he enters the FBI witness protection program- which he later gets kicked out of for committing to many drug related crimes. (Go Figure!)

And this is where I will stop- this is just a partial list of the movies A-G which were made in 1990. How many do you remember? How many do you wish you could forget?

Next time- I’ll continue with the rest of the movies from 1990. If you haven’t seen some of these movies, stop by your local library and check them out.