The Best of 90s Cool - The Genre that Time Forgot
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 23 ต.ค. 2023
- This video for me was a lifetime in the making. When I watched the “Blade” review by Redlettermedia, when Jay mentioned “90s cool” I had a lightbulb moment. There were so many of these movies that I grew up loving, that as Jay described it were all about “leather, sunglasses and techno”.
Digging deeper, I realized that while these films had so many unifying features, there was no genre to unify it. I mean, Blade and the Matrix are clearly so similar, but they’re not both “Cyberpunk” or “dark fantasy”. They’re something different.
I think “90s cool” as Jay called it is a perfect fit for this genre. It doesn’t mean they were released in the 90s. It’s moreso the version of “cool” that was created IN the 90s. I went back and made a list of every film I feel fits in this genre, and will present what I feel are the best movies it has to offer.
Tags
The One, The Punisher (2004), Existenz, XXX, Resident Evil, Vampires, Tomb Raider, Hackers, Romeo Must Die, The Craft, Kiss of the Dragon (2001), The Replacements, Returner (2002), SWAT, Swordfish, Final Fantasy 7, Vampire the Masquerade Bloodlines, Enter the Matrix (the Matrix games), Devil May Cry, Headhunter, Riddick, Metal Gear Solid, bloodrayne, Dark City, Resident Evil, Deux Ex, Fight Club, Doom, Oni, Perfect Dark, Fear Effect, bloodrayne, Postal 2, Shadow Man, red steel, Beyond Good and Evil, WWF: No Mercy, Dead or Alive, stranglehold, The Matrix, Ghostrider, Daredevil 2003, Underworld, X-Men 2000, Blade, The Boondock Saints, Pitch Black, The Chronicles of Riddick, Pitch Black, Bulletproof Monk, Spawn 1997, Desperado, Kill Bill Vol 1, Tomorrow Never Dies, Mortal Kombat 1995, Hellboy 2004, Face/off, Blade 1997, The Crow, Highlander, Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Angel, I Robot, Constantine 2005, Equilibrium 2002, Ultraviolet, - บันเทิง
You lost me at "Black trench-coat and techno aged horribly"
That's Jay's opinion, not mine. I still dig the look.
Me too. ....if that has aged horribly then show me the NEW COOL that's replaced it. These people just talk complete crap to get attention.
@LifeofSlicey1 - If you don't agree with that pathetic comment, why give it any shred of credibility by including it it in your video?
Two reasons:
1) I handled this video like I would write a college paper. Since I'm a nobody, it's good to have "quotes" from subject matter experts. I'm using Redlettermedia to introduce the "techno music and sword fights" concept and strengthen the argument.
2) By making a video lovingly discussing this style, in a way I'm indirectly saying I disagree with him on that point.
I agree. Having the guys from Red Letter Media saying that phrase as an opener maybe wanna click out of the video.
Nothing will ever be cooler than the nightclub scene in Blade or the hallway scene in the Matrix. Sorry. We reached peak cool in 1999.
You can generally tell a blockbuster 90s movie apart because it's actually fun and maybe even good.
Well said, so many movies like Ultraviolet that were kind of shit, but still lot of fun, the 90s movies definitely put fun first.
The definition of style over substance, another great example of it would be Equilibrium
@@DenethorDurrandirultraviolet was cheezy but cool as hell
Let's be honest, as a kid who revelled in those movies back in the day, unfortunately these days they REALLY start to look dated. Or at least that's how it's been a couple of years ago...
Come to think of it after watching this video, they are maybe starting to look better again...
I'll never tired to mention this in, FROM DUSK TILL DAWN Is Essential 90's Cool! It's got Gangsters, Vampires, Hostage Situation, Strip Bar, DIY Vampire Weapons, Ancient Pyramids with a Stacked cast of George Clooney, Quentin Tarantino, Salma Hayek, Juliette Lewis and Harvey Keitel.
Just a few months away from 40, and I gotta say, the 90s were so damn fun aesthetically and musically. Cinema, music, and games hasn't been the same since.
Also soon 40, the next February. Where did the time go... 😭 Anywho, I agree 100%. '90s and early 2000's was when entertaiment hit its peak, be it videogames or movies. Outside of John Wick the modern movies rarely have any sense of style. I miss the '90s.
The 90's were awesome in so many ways. It was definitely the creative peak of movies and music. It was all downhill from there, unfortunately.
It was pre 9/11 when you could drive all you wanted and not worry about the cost of gas. Women had brains to go with their bodies, and their worth was not mutually exclusive to either or. Men were still men, inspired by other classic examples of the stoic hero: aggressive, intelligent, moral. Cost of living was reasonable, and opportunities were aplenty. Education was better, producing better prepared youths. Creativity and critical thinking were far more encouraged and valued. People were more intuned with each other and built relationships in person, opposed to over a cellphone. The culture was not caught up in a digital fantasy world that it is today. The Matrix is more relevant today than it was in the 90's. The 90's wasn't perfect, but it was a damn site better than the world of today.
Sometimes, I think of all the cool action movies and their characters from the 90's. I think of the threats they faced and I put them all together in my mind. It almost seems like all the 90's heroes failed to overpower the threats that seem to prevail today. We can't outmuscle things anymore. We're in a psychological battle. Perhaps even a battle for our souls. But the 90's hero archetype is still useful as an inspiration of how to deal with modern problems. Obviously, we can't whip out two pistols and blow the enemy away. But we can be introspective and use our strength of mind and common sense to guide us. We can still be fiercely determined and unyielding in our moral conduct. We can flip off that which is unjust and stands to rob us of the good life, not unlike Stone Cold Steve Austin flipping off Vince McMahon. We can choose to go our own way without fear of fitting in with the crowd. We can go down the rabbit hole while everybody has their steak dinners and sells their souls to the enemy.
Most importantly, we can watch our favorite 90's movies and live those times all over again! Just one movie brings back the feeling of the baggy pants and big sweaters, the CKone drydown smell on my clothes, the smell of my first girlfriends cherry lip balm, Nine Inch Nails; Metallica; and Limpbizkit coming from my CD player, the Doc Martin's, trench coats, Blockbuster, and all the other good stuff. So long 90's. I will remember you fondly.
@@MaaZeus could extend that mindset into the 80s. A lot of classics from that era as well. Some of my favorite movies are from that period. Entertainment in general was...well... entertaining.
@@gregorydacosta2102 you really went into depth, didn't you? But well spoken. I can agree with everything you said. and who knew that music could get so terrible coming off the heels of bands like Metallica and NIN? You'd think it could only be an upward trajectory at that point, but music fell off quick, especially in the metal scene. There's still good new music (and movies) that come out but it's so few and far between that a lot of the time I don't even bother. But when it does come out it reminds me of a better time indeed.
@ModeSOLOgaming Yeah, I am good at rambling. Forgive me. I have Covid and commenting on videos is about all I can do right now.🤣
Imagine thinking swords, black trench coats, and techno have aged terribly LMAO
Thanks for the vid showing why 90s cool is STILL COOL
Hell yeah
Yeah, 90's cool will never go out of style.
Trench coats haven’t aged well… the only people who wear them nowadays is the weird fedora kid in high school lol
@@NorthWestPvPlolrektnoobTrench coats are fine but they’re definitely not children’s fashion. They look perfectly normal and reasonable on the average adult
uhhh yeah its quite literally the exact opposite. swords and techno are massively popular today
I never realised I based my entire personality on 90s cool movies
One of my favorite things about 90's cool is how any movie made between 95 and 05, regardless of genre or budget, had to have a killer techno/nu metal track over the credits. So many new movies would really benefit from ending with Prodigy.
Dark City and The Matrix were both shot in Sydney, Australia. This is why you get the art deco along with sterile modernism that is in each of these 2 films. They both get differing but similar urban goth looks from same city. Dark Deco you might call it. Love the 90s, world cant handle cool anymore
I love dark city just picked it up at goodwill I should put it on. Seen it a billion times. Yay for richard O'Brian. I'm in a rocky horror cast now finally
Very informative comment! I like that name, Dark Deco. Would be perfect for a band or youtube channel.
@@LifeofSlicey1 It was first coined for Batman: The Animated Series, which definitely was an example of 90s cool with its dark and brooding protagonist and the oppressive retro-futuristic atmosphere of Gotham.
And y'know, the Burton Batman movies that it spun off from (in spirit, if not in the story), was definitely a big influence on 90s cool as a whole.
I wouldn’t say that’s why you get it in Dark City, it’s a very deliberate choice in Dark City to go along with its whole retro noir thing. With The Matrix though it’s probably just a factor of reusing some Dark City set.
@@DIOBrando-ij2bp There were a few very specific parts of the city used that have that art deco architecture in some scenes in Dark City. Sydney has a lot of this, the old warehouses near Harbour Bridge is one location that springs to mind. but they both could have been probably shot anywhere.
robert pattinsons batman was defintely a 90's cool homage.
Check my channel I made an edit that makes that movie look a lot more 90s
I can tell the guy that wrote it watched the crow +20 times.
Thats not an insult. The crow was awesome.
and Seven @@bsaintnyc
As I wanted to hate it.. I agree and watch it all the time
Compared to today’s standard the 90s rocked man 😂
Agreed! 90s/00s were awesome. Modern day movies/pop culture is gay and shitty.
'90s were more focused without a dozen separate streaming services and thousands of other shows available 24/7 online, which probably explains bigger budgets for new stuff instead of endless sequels and reboots. I was impressed with G.I. Joe's explosion count, though.
@@obvioushieidude7668 This is the most 90s comment possible - right on.
I am really glad that I still rememeber time when my farther bought the first DVD player for his whole salary and he also bought "some Matrix" to play something on that. I think it was still pretty good to like 2007, but then, everything changed, movies are not cool anymore. Or they are trying to be cool (like Marvel for example), but it will get you bored after some time and it's not cool anymore, all these modern movies are the same, while between like 1980-2005, every movie was unique and you can easily recognize what movies is that by few shots in TV or by soundtrack.
Yes, it did.
One movie I'm surprised to not see on here is "Men In Black" (1997). It not only had a good amount of gun play, but had weird guns. Sure, the characters weren't leather-clad, but they were your prototypical wise-cracking buddy-cop duo of the time. It featured another theme from the 90s, the period-specific paranormal bent that was popularized X-files. This helped bring about a bunch of movies around that time also cashed in on: Signs (2002), Species (1995), Contact (1997), and Mars Attacks (1996) - a lot of movies focused on alien invasion/discovery dread, with most mixing in conspiracy and distrust of the government, which is often portrayed as impotent.
And, of course, no one can forget one of the 90s main anthems, Will Smith's pop rap banger "Men in Black", from the movie's soundtrack. All and all, this is probably the most "90s cool" movie of that paranormal crowd.
Very good argument for Men in Black. This concept is pretty new and open to interpretation. I'm really glad to see people like you in the comments opening up the conversation about what 90s cool can be.
@@LifeofSlicey1 Thank you! I look forward to your future vid on the less successful movies. You're doing good stuff!
Although I enjoyed the small Golden Age of film that occurred in the '90s (rise of independents films, World Cinema from Asia and Europe, Merchant Ivory prestige films) its unmistakable how things began to look very bland and same. Say what you want about the "gawdy" 1980s- the style of the 80s was unique deeply personal. By the late '90s everybody was coming out of the Black trench-coat, Doc Marten's, & wraparound Sunglasses factory. BORING!
Can't under estimate how popular that dance was as well
Men In Black was basically a comedy, not an action movie.
"The secret to never look older is to never look younger" that sentence works in so many levels!!!
Ancient wisdom: to stay young, start old.
As a teenage boy when Boondock Saints came out I can confirm with authority that it is indeed what a teenage boy would think is the coolest thing ever. I think my group of friends and I watched that movie once a month at least.
I watched it when I was 17 with a bunch of guys on an army base. Pretty much exactly the movie we wanted.
Were you a good judge of cool as a teenage boy in the 90s? Wasn't Tyler Durden a little more cool if you had to pin down what everyone else thought?
@@LifeofSlicey1 lol we met the brothers and director of those movies in Africa on my second deployment. They were there on a USO gig, and they stayed around for days, almost to where they were part of the damn base personnel. Everyone loved them. Sean Patrick Flannery was doing MMA stuff and he sparred with our on-base combatives club.
@@GrahamBartle Extremely subjective stuff
I know a guy who actually got the aequitas, veritas tattoos on his index fingers.
I feel like the original Highlander movie and series deserve some props for being primogenitors of the 90s cool aesthetic
Techno and black trench coat is making a big comeback
These were obviously my formative years. I just watched the crow; matrix and Constantine again and realized I could watch those movies forever, whereas many new movies are instantly forgettable
Hackers, Strange Days, Lawnmower Man, Dark City... so much awesomeness
Yes! Strange Days. Remember i thought this must be the coolest movie ever.
I don't think any film I've seen has captured so well what it's like to not be over a toxic ex
I LOVE how '90s fiction depicts the internet, computers, virtual reality, and related concepts. Ignoring Dark City in your OP (though that is a great film!) those are 3 great installments in what I call "90s cyber." I would say other films in that category include The Matrix (duh!), Virtuosity, Johnny Nmenomic, The Thirteenth Floor, eXistenZ, The Net, Tom Clancy's Net Force (the TV movie and books... which he didn't write), and various softcore and hardcore adult films from that time that have VR in their "plot." I'd love to help put together a list of these films and also include video games, comics, toys/action figures, music, etc. from that era!
This is so the genre I’ve always loved the most out of any other genres
You flat out missed Strange Days and Near Dark. Kathryn Bigelow nailed 90s cool in a way that few directors really could.
Strange Days was really ahead of its time.
And From Dusk Till Dawn, that was the best 90's vampire / gangster movie!
Strange days is massively underrated.
I love that movie. In a way it foreshadowed the future with those pov videos
I came into the comments to point out about Strange Days, eXistenZ and Thirteenth floor
Thank you, good sir
"EDM" wasn't a term in the 90s. It was just called Dance Music, or referred to by its specific genre: Techno, House, Trance, etc
It’s crazy how much better genre films were in the 90s
There was a lot of shit too, but of course it doesn't get mentioned now.
@@ThreadBomb That's not surprising. These days, it's all just shit. There have been very nice movies in the last two decades, but there's nothing like Terminator 2, Jurassic Park, Heat, Saving Private Ryan, Pulp Fiction.
@@greatBLT there is, you just need to find it
@@ThreadBomb You people repeat that sentence like a broken record. Yes there were bad movies then but even those bad movies had more style and flair to them.
Funny thing this is my favorite era in movies. I practically have watched every movie you posted that's when I realized I'm really into this genre
You're missing the influence of the 1982 film "The Hunger", which basically invented the modern urban goth horror sub-sub-sub-genre that ironically made things like goth and post-punk mainstream. Its visual language especially, what with black dusters, sunglasses at night, pale girls with '40's hairstyles, harsh flourescent lighting, 1960's muscle cars, and Catherine Deneuve licking Susan Sarandon's face.
Tony Scott one of the most influental ever🙏 But you don’t see people giving him credit
Another movie I would add to the feel of the 90s cool era would be the movie "Seven" with Brad Pitt and Morgan Freeman. Definitely has the dark edginess of 90s cool.
YES! One of my favorite movies of all time
Seven definitely belongs there. It alone influences modern cinema still.
@tdvh2181 what's in the box? Goop apparently lol sorry I had to make the joke
Now I cannot stop myself from imagining Brad Pitt’s David Mills and Morgan Freeman’s William Somerset wearing cool shades and black dusters while fighting Kevin Spacey’s John Doe with katanas while techno music is playing.
It's too bad I only watched it for the fisrt time a couple of years ago. It didn't hit nearly as powerful stylistically and in terms of "horror" as it would if I were a teenager in the mid 2000-s
The 90s cool is still amazing.
And it created so many great media. Obviously Matrix, Blade, Equilibrium, Mortal Kombat but so much more.
If I were to describe 90s cool with one word, it would be "badass"
I'm behind that choice 👍
Don’t forget Fight Club!
@@LifeofSlicey1 My top cool 90's style movie is "Versus" 2000, a Japanese film so crazy it's totally insane. Have you seen it?
@@amberturdcoloringbook1733 Have you seen "Wild Zero"?
@@amberturdcoloringbook1733 Versus is a fun watch, but corny and over the top. I am mad at the director for those scenes he made in that Metal Gear Solid remake.
This is basically my life time in a list of awesome movies.
Really appreciate this comment. Thank you. A generation was raised on these kind of movies.
@@LifeofSlicey1 definitely was.
Hopefully the channel takes off for you. It's quality work on this video at least.
The opening scene of the first X-Men movie is still utterly the best character intro ever. Absolutely haunting.
i agree, no superhero movie can top how grimly this movie starts.
Invoking the holocaust in a superhero movie and not having it come across as cringe or inappropriate is an achievement in itself.
Johnny Mnenomic, Natural Born Killers, and Sin City are all great 90's Cool movies too.
Johnny Mnemonic 💯 . It was just on the outside looking in of my honorable mentions.
You might wanna look at the Sin City timestamp
@@thenouthe says "90's cool" is the esthetic, doesn't have to actually be from the 90's.
Sin city definitely belongs on the list.
I just have to say Hackers should have been high in this list instead of an honorable mention. You cannot get more 90's or dated "coolness". Truly a great and fun video! Thank you!
A Better Tomorrow and Hard Boiled came out in the 90s. John Woo cool right there. Also, Mortal Kombat, never understood how someone from the 90s couldn't enjoy that movie.
LOVE the original MK - i could watch it any day and it's still fresh and awesome
@@weston407 Same. Street Fighter is some good fun too. Raul Julia helps that one big time.
Those movies came out in the 80s, not 90s.
@@robtoHard Boiled 1992 (but it does feel more end of the 80s rather than 1990s) Time for a rewatch, so thanks for reminding me.
@@brendonross5774 Oh, really? Hard Boiled really does feel like an 80s movie. I'm just new to the all Hong Kong action flicks world, by the way.
I'm 37 and you may say I'm generationally-biased, but IMO this video proves that the 90's were the pinnacle of culture in many different expressions: from music to cinema, but also including comic, videogames or fashion. So glad to have lived these times!
90's and 2000's cool: Highly sci-fi fuelled. Lot's of angs. Black leather coats. Linkin Park, Slipknot, Evanescence, Rob Zombie, The Prodigy, Pendulum, ect. Movies like The Matrix, Titan AE, Dark City, Blade ect.
Holy crap I still miss this aesthetic.
I never linked the Brandon Lee ''Crow'' performance to Heath Ledger's Joker. But I think you're totally right. Awesome List, dude!
it's very obvious once you're aware of it.
The 90s is no different than any other decade. You have your amazing stuff and you have your garbage. But there was a lot of fun things in the 90s and I really enjoyed it.
Thank you for saying this!!! I’m definitely of the same mindset!
I actually think the 90s was a particularly special period. There are kids today that look back at the 90s as a sort of mythical time of awesomeness. And teens today are trying to re-create the grunge style with flannels and converse.
@@HeadCannonPrime interesting!
I miss the music mostly. Even radio music was good, even if it wasn't spectacular. Oasis came on and you'd turn it up. Til R&B took over :( then that never stopped. Now we have people like Arianna Grande :/
The 90s were great because entertainment wise everything was good balance, movies plots were on the surface serious but at the same time there was a degree of tongue and cheek humor underlying it all. The situations were serious, but every now and then a joke would be cracked or something silly would happen lighten the mood, making things not too serious to be overbearing as well make on-screen ridiculous or over the top things that were happening more digestible by acknowledging how silly things were getting, all the while not undermining the stakes of it all. Movies like Independence day or Terminator 2 were good examples of this. Movies weren't afraid to self depreciate themselves.
As a guy who wore a black trench coat and listened to techno in the late 90s, it is fascinating to see how young people just predictably come along and decide what was terrible is now the best thing ever.
It was cool in the 90s then it was the worst in the 00s-10s now a bunch of young people come along and decide it’s cool again. Another ten years from now more young people will come along and tell YOU young people that it sucks and then ten years from THAT a different group of young people will tell THEM that it’s awesome.
I’m getting off this carousel. Take a page from actual 90s cool and like whatever you want to like and leave other people alone.
Damn this list is a trip back in time. I had a really good friend who I grew up with and whenever anything with the 90s Cool Aesthetic (we never called it that, and I barely realised it was a sub-genre till your excellent video) came out at the cinema, we would go an see it. Anything with Kung Fu, Sci-fi concepts, hot girls in tight outfits, brooding and damaged male characters, and guns. Lots of guns. And anything on this list that we didn't see in the cinema, we almost definitely watched on VHS or DVD.
When we weren't huffing on 90s Cool Movies, we were playing Tekken on PS1, watching WWF, and listening to Grunge/Nu Metal/Alternative Rock. We were also big into Warhammer 40k, which I think sits slightly outside of the 90s Cool trend, but definitely has some overlap.
When we got a bit older, we grew out of this, went off to University, and lived completely separate lives. I have barely spoken to the dude for over 15 years now, but this video really took me back to sneaking in the backdoor of a shitty multiplex cinema in Cambridge, UK circa 2003 to go see Daredevil, Underworld, or Matrix Reloaded.
Cheers for the memories bro!
Cheers to you too man. Great story you told there. I enjoyed reading through your experiences at that time. I was a little younger so I didn't experience it as a teenager/young adult. Wish I did.
For me a 42-year-old dude, I think I was 13 when the Crow came out, the music was amazing and lots of it I had never heard of, every song in there is moody and awesome. Combined with the tragic love story, Brandon Lee's epic performance, the Crow is one of the all-time best.
As an xenial this is a great list, but you missed one... The Prophecy with Christopher Walken and Vigo Morrison as Lucifer.
Never heard of it! I'll add it to the master list. Thanks!
I second The Prophecy. It’s a cool movie. If you liked Constantine, I think you’ll dig it.
Interestingly, this video about The Prophecy dropped earlier today - th-cam.com/video/bUcVZYQ-AsY/w-d-xo.htmlsi=lM8WyAGDSviOCGD_
@@LifeofSlicey1It was made by Greogy Widen, who created highlander
90s cool will eventually come back. Just like the 70 and 80s did.
I feel like it has never fully disappeared. It just went underground.
There is still a bit of 90s cool in media. Be it one background character or some of the traits of 90s cool that are still there. We still have long coats, over the top gunfights, sunglasses, and the occasional wire fight.
I've never left it :)
Not sure where you live but in Los Angeles the 1990s are back. Kids are wearing big baggy pants. I walked by two teenage girls in Santa Monica a few months ago and had to do a double take. One of them looked exactly like my girlfriend in 1996. The hair, cloths, shoes, makeup, everything was straight out of the '90s.
For me the pinnacle of 90's cool was the mostly silent and emotionlessly confident dark hero. Someone like Blade, Neo, The Terminator and The Crow. Action movies were still on the goofy side, but you could take them a little more seriously because the writers finally let the protagonists act instead of work lines in for everything that wasn't pure action. A lot of that is on Schwarzenegger as The Terminator, who still had his one liners but they were dramatically dialed back in favor of keeping him a mostly silent killing machine. Much of the rest, like Blade and Neo especially, became this calm, collected persona who expressed more through subtle gestures or brief exchanges than full on dialogue or over-the-top Rambo/Rocky acting. It was like a Clint Eastwood type of hero, if Clint Eastwood was an industrial cybergoth instead of a western cowboy.
I do miss the dedication to goth aesthetics though. I was growing up right around this time, not old enough to really be involved in the subculture, but old enough to appreciate how it influenced the way things looked. Compared to the blend of bad leftover 80's fashion that the 90's was also known for, the whole late 90's early 2000's Tim Burton goth phase was a pretty high mark for fashion and aesthetics, and taken to its mature levels it's honestly why The Matrix doesn't look as dated as it might have otherwise. The all-black look has its own timelessness to it to where if you were to shoot the Matrix again today they could all pretty much wear the exact same outfits without looking like too much of a throwback.
Heath Ledger 100% owes his Joker to The Crow
And they to kiss and kiss to king diamond.. It goes way beyond the crow
And to Alex from a Clockwork Orange
Neo-Noir/cyberpunk of the 90s was peek aesthetic. It permeated pretty much everything in pop-culture and even counter culture. It even managed to stay cool regardless of the context. Something like that can’t really be duplicated today. I guess it requires a sort of cultural homogeny that isn’t really possible in our post-information age.
I will never forget being in 8th grade and my dad showing me The Crow for the first time. That movie blew my edgy 13 year old mind. It also might have one of the best soundtracks of any of the “90s Cool” genre.
90's cool is immortal
The ironic thing about the 90's is the plot to a lot of these movies basically warned us about what was coming, and we didn't listen....
just recently watched Blade in a movie theatre and omg the similarities with the matrix are stunning. i havent seen blade for like 20 years, so i was blown away again. this time as an adult. so damn cool.
It is crazy how similar they are. You could easily insert Blade into the world of the Matrix.
Blade came out first, so the matrix is similar to blade.😊
the 1990s were all about rule of cool.
Goddamn, I'm going to be 50 in 18 months and i think that's kinda cool.
I'm glad you mentioned Tomorrow Never Dies. Maybe it's the fact that it was the first Bond movie I remember watching, and saw it in theatre at 10 years old, but I've always felt it doesn't get enough love.
Having grown up in this era seeing a lot of these movies, this is the most accurate list on the subject.
I really miss the 90s best decade ever.
Great video btw keep up the great work👍
And greetings from the Netherlands🇳🇱
I'd love to go there someday. Greetings from Japan!
@DidierWierdsma6335, 2nd best, the 80s was the BEST.
@@zilvente I was born in the early 80s so i did not experience that decade to it's fullest unfortunately but i do have fond memory's of it.
Truth be told i'm a 90s kid/teen myself but the 80s was also a great decade.
Life back than was so much easier and fun in my honest opinion 2023 SUCKS not gonna lie.
Other than that thank you for the response👍
I hope that you have a great day?😊
@@DidierWierdsma6335 yeah man, I feel the 90s was the last of the great decades indeed, and I thank you too.
@@DidierWierdsma6335 I think a lot of people think that the best decade is the one that they were teenagers during. Enough awareness of the world to have some level of understanding, enough autonomy to participate in it to a limited extent but no real responsibility to drag you down. You're discovering a lot of cultural products like movies and music, developing your tastes so all the stuff being put out at the time seems fresh.
The 90's were kind of a unique time, though, in that they occupied this almost grace period in history for the West - the Cold War was over, democracy was on the rise in formerly authoritarian nations, racism and sexism were fading away, and the Information Superhighway was going to change the way everyone communicated, learned and did business for the better. Then 9/11 put a hard stop to the good times, a long war started and the US government granted itself broader powers to surveil its citizens and foreign civilians as a new paranoia took hold with a Nu Metal soundtrack killing off rock music as the most popular genre.
I wonder if, in 20 years, a bunch of middle-aged Zoomers are going to look back at the 2010s or 2020s as 'the best decade'.
I'm so glad Equilibrium got mentioned. It's been my favorite action movie for decades
That movie makes me feel funny things between my legs. The action so good it curls the toes I get hot and bothered just thinking about the intensity of the gun kata Martial Art exhibit in equilibrium
Yes, 1999 could well have been the peak of human existence.
Aged horribly.... So that's why 80s/90s nostalgia is back and booming today? Proud 90s kid here. And I am thankful everyday for living the 90s. It was a vibe kids today will never experience
Cringe. You sound like a 90s boomer lol
I almost threw you away within the first 15 seconds but my patience prevailed. Great well thought-out video from your perspective. Then I was about throw you away again at Spawn....lol. Great job.
This comment made me laugh. Thank you for sticking with it!
Even though spawned and not do well it's a lot of fun even with the shoddy CDI at times.
Spawn's peak was the HBO series, that was awesome. Probably in the Mount Rushmore of comic adaptations.
"And who am I?"
"I don't know!"
"That's right! You don't know! Let that little mystery keep you up at night!"
Fun list!
I just want to shout out these non-martial arts 90s movies that I think impacted the aesthetic: Darkman, Lost Highway, Edward Scissorhands, and Tim Burton's Batman movies.
All that said no Virtuosity?
Great call on all those movies. All of them, especially the Burton Batman films, were a huge influence.
Never heard of Virtuosity before! I'll have to add that to the master list and check it out. I'm trying to compile as many of these movies as I can, but there's a staggering amount. It's hard to get them all, so thank you for sharing!
But none of those were cool.
@@LifeofSlicey1 fair warning Virtuosity panned when it came out. But it is well acted IMO
If you've got Denzel Washington and Russel Crowe, it better be well acted if nothing else. I'll check it out for sure.
@@LifeofSlicey1 Before the Matrix, and after Jhonny Nuemonic, Virtuosity was peak cyberpunk, highly reccomend
It's basically a kinda precursor to Y2KAesthetics (even ran concurrent to it). It's basically (well usually) proto-cyberpunk mixed with Gothic neo-noire and john woo-isms.
I enjoy watching nostalgic retrospectives.
I'm still a fan of 90's cool.
It's funny how so many character redesigns got dusters/trench coats. Sabertooth, Nightcrawler, Doctor octopus, Bullseye.
Dude listed every single movie I loved and still rewatch. If these movies are no longer cool, then I don't ever want to be cool.
Cool no longer exists. Everything is memespeak or at best ironic nostalgia. Coolness died around 2012.
90s were the best era 👍👍
I agree but I don't miss pulling over to gas stations for directions if you got lost. Also squeeze mayonnaise. Other than that, 90's was peak.
>the 90s cool aged horribly
And this is why I don't watch RedLetterMedia: their opinions are as pedestrian as they are wrong.
Yeah, I never stopped digging the 90s cool. Rewatched The Crow recently and it's freaking divine, talk about a lightning in a bottle movie. And yeah, watched and loved most of the films on this list. Honorable mentions also rock, I mean, come on, Van Helsing, The Punisher? Sign me the hell up.
Great video. Definitely gonna be looking forward to the follow up.
I grew up on 2000's culture (born in '95) but with a lot of 90's stuff (Belgian channels would still air 90's series and films), my whole personnality can be summed up as "Imagine you let a 6 year old play Blood Omen : Legacy of Kain, let him go to a carnival where murals look like a Metal Hurlant Soroyama exhibit, read Spider-Man at a time it was all about looking grim and radical, and then he grows as a teenager and adult with stuff like Underworld, The Crow and WWE's brutalist stage set from 2000-2004, what the Hell you thought he was going to be, Santa Claus?"
Blessed be that decade.
@@Paugose >Blood Omen: Legacy of Kain
We should be friends
@@AllardRT We are "like two rivers that have met and can never be distinct again".
Vae Victis.
I remember seeing The Matrix on theaters and despite loving the movie, when it came to their costumes and music choices I felt like this is what cool is to nerds. and then I saw Granma's Boy and it was confirmed.
SIT ON MY FACE 🤖🤖🤖
This is a great list and analysis. Thank you for your work. I look forward to what you put out in the future.
Thank you Elijah! Much appreciated.
They aged a whole lot better than most of the 80s garbage Jay likes. Although 80s had their fair share of excellent stuff that is legitimately great that people call mediocre, but still
Excellent video essay, mate!
Also, thanks for the hit of nostalgia.
matrix is more relevant now than it was in 1999...
beside that 90s was peak cinema... there is no other decade filled with so good movies
The film 'John Carpenter's Vampires' with James Woods and Thomas Ian Griffith is total 90s cool
i just watched it , and thought the casting was off. James Woods is good, but Kurt Russel and Bill Paxton were supposed to be the co leads ... now THAT would have been a movie.
@@fruit4health329 yeah I was never really convinced with Daniel Baldwin in this movie. Despite popular opinion, I consider him the weakest of the Baldwin brothers commercially. Sheryl Lee, Tim Guinee and Maximilian Schell were perfect in their roles imho.
the old people belly jeans make it 90s cringe lmao
totally agree. Kurt Russel swaggering around in the James Woods role and Bill Paxton bringing levity to the Daniel Baldwin character would have elevated this film to iconic status @@danielsalinas6683
You totally got me when you revealed your #1 😂. I think Reservoir Dogs and Swingers totally embody 90s cool and should at the very least get a mention
He said he was only doing one movie per franchise. Quentin Tarantino is a franchise.
@@ideologybot4592 we can agree to disagree. Yes, QT movies often reference others, but RD and KB to me are VERY different movies stylistically. Dark City and The Crow are different movies, yet very similar sylistically, and they're on this list. Actually, I Robot is also an Alex Proyas movie, so that makes 3 AP movies on this list
@axileus9327 Totally agree, but RD and Swingers very much utilized "cool" in the ways it was shot, the language/jargon/dialogue, the music, the way they dressed, tons of smoking, the group dynamics, etc but different style of "cool" compared to the techno-leather of the aforementioned movies in the video. Mr Blonde alone OOZED cool, same with Trent and Sue in Swingers.
90s cool definitely had some of the best gangster and gangsta flicks. Menace to society and casino off the top of my head.
Dude, this was such a good video. How do you not have more subscribers?? Well, count me as one, because I've been on this 90s-nostalgia binge for a couple of weeks now, and TH-cam recommended me your video. So glad it did, it was really informative and listed a lotta good examples of 90s media to draw nostalgic inspiration from.
Thank you for the support! I've been on a 90s nostalgia binge for the last 10 years.
I think a good idea for a next video on the series about 90’s Cool would be to examine what exactly killed the 90’s Cool subgenre.
I know you mentioned Ultraviolet as somewhat of a culprit, but I also like to think the huge box-office success of Spider-Man in 2002 started a new “colorful” trend in Hollywood - which is certainly a departure from the 90’s Cool of Blade and X-Men - that eventually culminated in Iron-Man 2008, the film that, for me at least, marked the last nail in the coffin of 90’s Cool aesthetic.
(or Tarantino giving up the guns and katanas that made him famous to focus in period-piece films such as Inglorious Basterds, Django Unchained, Hateful Eight, and Once Upon a Time in Hollywood)
It would also be interesting to have another video entirely dedicated on how this subgenre is being revived through recent productions such as the John Wick franchise - black clothes, martial arts, gun-fu, and katanas - or even Mr Robot - hackers, black clothes, conspiracy thriller - and the Sony’s Spider-Man Universe Without Spider-Man Franchise - Venom, Morbius, etc.
Great ideas. I never would have thought of Spiderman, but that probably has a lot to do with it. Spiderman wasn't afraid to be big and colorful like the source material. Columbine is another obvious reason. I'm surprised the aesthetic managed to survive past Columbine as long as it did. I will try to tackle this subject someday.
I take anything 90s over anything of the the last 20 years. 90s culture is exponentially better than todays. You could say anything you wanted without offending many.
People like you just use that as an excuse to be offensive
Just say you like using slurs
Lol, you triggered some soy wanderers with that comment mate.
@@pilot8220 no, it's called jokes. People understood nuance and context back then.
@@pilot8220I think you just proved his point
Love the shoutout for Peter Stormare being one of the best on-screen Lucifers in Constantine- I really wish he had gotten more praise for that. Awesome video!
Thank you for making this. The world needs to know.
Side note: check out Garo. It's a show/movie franchise that basically takes the 90s cool format and never abandons it. Started in 2005, new season starts next year. Obviously you like this stuff and Garo is the last hold out from that era that does it right.
No mention of strange days? It's the GOAT 90s cyberpunk
A crime this is not available on Blu-Ray (in North America) or to purchase Digital. Only available on Max could be a reason it hasn't had as much exposure as the movies in the video.
Such a great video! I enjoyed your style of delivery... a perfect blend of 'matter of fact', subtle sarcasm, and opinion. And yes, I fell for the ending... I was like, "Spawn...No Way... where's The Matr...ohh, there it is."
Thanks Jordan. I thought it was a little too obvious things were leading to the Matrix, so I wanted to throw a little misdirection in there. Glad it worked.
Growing up in the 90s and reveling in 90s cool, this explains so much of my taste in movie tropes. This is probably why I like Zack Snyder's Watchmen as much as I do...it's totally a homage to the 90s cool aesthetic. I'm definitely going to have to binge these movies on the list I haven't seen...I've been dying to feel that Matrix feeling again. Awesome video, bro
This is a well made video man, somebody finally put this strange old world I’ve been obsessed with into a script and analyzed it. Godspeed brother.
Thanks man. Godspeed!
Fantastic Video! I wish you have Ghost in the Shell (1995) in the list since the movie heavily influenced The Matrix and it is a great 90s Cool movie. Strange Days I wish was mentioned in the Honorable Mentioned. Also something interesting when The Matrix they mentioned 90s as the peak of human civilization seem, to me at least, lifted from another anime an 80s OAV called Megazone 23 that concept (in it the 80s was the peak) and The Matrix premise itself.
Thank you for posting about Megazone 23. Never heard of it!
Actually in Singapore ,Techno and this cool black trenchy or post-industrial wear is making a massive splash
This video is my spirit animal. Great work bro!
in your honorable mentions you mentioned The Replacements (1996) and showed footage of Chow Yun Fat - did you mean The Replacement Killers from 1998?
Yes. Mixed the title up with the movie "the replacements"
John Wick is Neo-90s Cool.
It's 90s Cool after working in Corporate America for 20 years.
I'm interested in what the future will call "90s cool" it was definitely an era. The soundtracks are still awesome to me. I would have liked for you to at least have mentioned Strange Days (very underrated). Nice video👍
This is the video I didn't know I needed to watch today cant wait for the next one!
Great video. Lots of fun to see 90s cool laid out like this. You really nailed it! It'd be great to see a take like this from you regarding the Cyberpunk genre.
The crow is way better then the joker 😂
I love them both, but if I had to choose... probably the Crow too. Can't go wrong with Brandon Lee or Heath Ledger.
the crow still to this day is one of my most favorite gothic style movies i ever seen....
That soundtrack man. "The Cure: Burn" is one of the greatest movie themes of all time.
@@LifeofSlicey1 they had a lot of random people play joker from old to young 😭, Brandon Lee will never be replaceable but it’ll be nice to see another crow movie remake but some classic gems dont need to be remade again
I agree. I hope the remake goes in a very different direction. A black Crow would be cool I think. Definitively shouldn't just remake the original. That's Brandon Lee's movie.
Undeniable! If your 35-45. Wonder how everyone sees it.
Priest came in at 2011, but fits the bill nicely. Was surprised by the lack of Dredd.
Your “honorable mentions” is my entire childhood
The perfect dark music during crow made me just have to comment one of my favourite game soundtracks ever. Great video too btw.
Nice list. You also should have mentioned Strange Days and Johnny Mnemonic. Both are great examples of 90s cool. The latter is a guilty pleasure of mine.
I wear my sunglasses at night… so I can, so I can …
U had me nodding at every single mention in this video haha. Good work dude!
Without the movie Dark City, there would be no the Matrix. Its always one that gets way overlooked.
Terrific video! 90s cool was definitely a vibe. Shoutout to Infinite Jest. Bad Boys 1 could’ve been an honorable mention.
I always considered irobot to be more of the futurism 2000s style. Like 6th day or ultraviolet.
I'm surprised it made the list. Sure, it tried to fit in and copy what was cool at the time, but itself was not cool.
This video was... reaffirming. And dope. And well done, well-researched, well-conceived. You can probably tell that the 90s was my favorite decade, and you provided me more ammo for that argument. Great movie references, and your "worst" of 90s cool was fun, as well. You get a sub from me!
I was waiting for Spawn the whole time 😅 I was expecting it in honorable mentions but what you did was way funnier 😂😂😂
The Crow will always be my favorite.
Thinking about this list- Tombstone has a lot of the 90s cool factor.
Congrats on this video. I hope you have continued success on the channel.
Tombstone does have a lot of 90s cool factor. It's a movie that I would call "90s cool adjacent". It's got lots of the qualities, but I wouldn't put it in this bubble. Some other movies I considered like that were V for Vendetta, Leon the Professional, and Batman Forever. And thank you!
@@LifeofSlicey1I would say fast and furious 1 would fit in this list it's got the music, the sunglasses and it has the underground world
Good stuff, dude! You almost had me with Spawn @ #1 too, not gonna lie.
It might have been number 1 when I was 8...
@@LifeofSlicey1
Lol True.
Also - Dang; you got to watch *much* cooler movies than I did at age 8. Only started catching R-rated flicks @friends houses on the dl in my early teens.
I have memories of watching Spawn at a young age and not understanding any of it. I watched it again and enjoyed it as a young teenager. I still like it to this day, but it's not a good movie unfortunately.
Pitch Black is perfect. It stole irony back from hipsters. The most gothic character is goth without trying, which is as goth as it gets.
Constantine was also perfect. It isn't preachy; its sarcastic, sardonic, and paced perfectly without needing a "Gary Stu" character to make the action work.
Dark City is the absolute best. It blends not only eras (literally a plot point) but blends genres.
Blade, The Matrix, The Crow... of course.
I'd throw in some Donnie Darko. Another unintentionally goth character/movie.
This time period is definitely not forgotten, since we keep getting remakes or sequels of movies from then.