The 90s

For me the 90s represented a vast change in the way we perceived movies. In some ways it meant more of the same, but in others, it meant branching out to new venues to bring in an audience.

Of course when it came to Hollywood, the all mighty dollar meant more than ever, we saw sequels from 80s franchises like "Die Hard", "Lethal Weapon", and "The Terminator". It seemed as long as people were going to these movies, they would continue to be made.

New leaps and boundaries took place in technology headed by James Cameron with his film "Terminator 2: Judgement Day", which refined CGI technology. Cameron himself would helm some of the biggest blockbusters of the decade, finishing in '97 with the biggest film ever "Titanic".

A new animation company emerged known as Pixar, and they would soon rule over Disney as the main animated studio, starting with their first feature "Toy Story". Of course before being overrun with computer animation, Disney themselves would see a trio of there most successful films: "Beauty and the Beast", "Aladdin", and "The Lion King", all traditional hand drawn films.

The most successful director of all time Steven Spielberg took a different, and some would say mature tone in this decade. Although he still proved to be a box office king with films like "Jurassic Park", it was "Schindler's List" and "Saving Private Ryan", that would capture most people's attention.

But there was also room for indie filmmakers like Steven Sodebergh to gain some fame with his mainstream success "Out of Sight" in the late 90s, and also The Coen Brothers with their dark crime comedy "Fargo".

But the decade also belonged to new filmmakers coming out of film festivals with a new voice. No one was more exciting on the scene than Quentin Tarantino a cocky young former video store clerk who burst onto the scene with his crime films "Reservoir Dogs" and then two years later even more with "Pulp Fiction". That film would go on to be the surprise winner of the Palm D'or at the Cannes Film Festival, and would go on to influence many imitators. Tarantino ruled the scene and was the epitome of cool cinema in the 90s.

Other filmmakers come up at this time as well such as Paul Thomas Anderson, and Richard Linklater, their films were independent but each one found their own audience.

Perhaps the biggest advancement in the 90s came with the advent of the Internet making one small budget horror film into a big budget success. "The Blair Witch Project" which was released the summer of '99 became the first film to pretty much get it success via the Internet, and thus making this new venue something that could be used to sell your film.

When the 90s ended, we were hearing catchphrases like "I see dead people", and "prequel", but with the new millennium approaching, there would be more and more ways to see a movie than just at the theatre.