In the '90s, Hollywood movies were a little more critic-proof than they are today,
with the general public flocking to theaters due to advertising
or word-of-mouth. As a result, audiences were sometimes more fond of those films than the
critics. Here are the '90s movies audiences loved and critics hated.
Director Michael Bay certainly has his fans, but he's never been very popular with the critics.
Rarely has a successful director made more hugely popular films that are so widely loathed
by reviewers — with Bay's Transformers movies being arguably the most infamous.
But the 1998 asteroid adventure Armageddon came in for special critical disdain.
Legendary film critic Roger Ebert, for example, wrote:
"The movie is an assault on the eyes, the ears, the brain, common sense and the human
desire to be entertained. No matter what they're charging to get in, it's worth more to get out."
The Washington Post, meanwhile, called it a film only a dentist could love. But the people? Well,
in 1998, the people wanted Armageddon — making it the #2 box office success released that year
with domestic grosses of just over $200 million. So what exactly was the appeal? Well,
for one, it featured Bruce Willis, a beloved action movie star at the top of his game.
Perhaps more importantly, the film also starred Ben Affleck, who had become an instant star and
tabloid celebrity after the mega-success of Good Will Hunting the year prior, for which he had won
an Oscar. Or perhaps it was the movie's can-do American spirit of enterprise, which resonated
deeply with a country far less divided than it is today. Whatever the reason, Armageddon proved
to be one of the worst reviewed films of 1998 — and one of its most popular at the same time.
Saturday Night Live has minted many movie stars over the years, though perhaps none quite as
successful as Adam Sandler. Comedies like Billy Madison and Happy Gilmore, which played to the
fantasy that you can refuse to grow up and still get the girl, seemed to strike a chord
with '90s audiences. Critics have also pointed out that Sandler's comedy seemed to give voice
to repressed male anger. The Waterboy, a movie about a sad sack who becomes a football star,
epitomizes this, with Bobby Boucher venting his rage being a big part of the movie's appeal.
The Waterboy represented a quantum leap in the evolution of Sandler's popularity with fans,
grossing more than $160 million, more than four times what Happy Gilmore had made just
two years earlier. Charting at only 34% on the Tomatometer, however, the movie failed
to impress critics. Sandler would eventually gain critical respect for movies like Punch Drunk Love
and Uncut Gems, but the initial critical consensus was that his movies were lowbrow,
asinine, and borderline offensive. The Waterboy was no exception, with the BFI calling it:
"A witless and utterly predictable comic fantasy."
And SFGate writing:
"The Waterboy is an unabashed wallow in the moronic humor of
Adam Sandler — good news for his fans, but most others may want to keep away."
Saturday Night Live wasn't the only television sketch show making movie stars in the '90s.
In Living Color ran from just 1990-'94, but many of its cast members crossed over
to success on the big screen. The biggest success of all, however, was Jim Carrey,
who found instant movie stardom on the heels of his time on the show.
Carrey had acted in movies for a decade before the 1994 triple whammy of Ace Ventura: Pet Detective,
The Mask, and Dumb and Dumber blew him into the stratosphere.
Unlike Adam Sandler, the rubber-faced comic actually enjoyed a great deal
of critical success right out of the gate, too — although, in this sense,
Ace Ventura: Pet Detective turned out to be one of his lesser efforts.
"Alrighty then!"
But if the first movie was a critically reviled success, then the sequel,
When Nature Calls was both more critically reviled and more popular, becoming the fifth biggest hit
of the year. Audiences evidently couldn't get enough of Carrey talking nonsense to animals;
critics, on the other hand, mostly wondered why the sequel didn't actually try to improve on
the first movie. For example, The New York Times' Janet Maslin wrote that:
"[When Nature Calls] has enough schoolboy gags and pratfalls to keep Ace's least
demanding fans awake, but it doesn't have certain basics — like a screenplay."
The Bodyguard was a movie sold on the strength of both its stars and
an all-time best selling soundtrack. At 33% on the Tomatometer, however, critics didn't like
much else about it. Peter Rainer of the Los Angeles Times summed up the prevailing view:
"Just about everything that can go wrong with this film does,
and yet it's compulsively watchable (So is a train wreck)."
But Kevin Costner was a top five box office draw in 1992,
coming off the mega-hit Oscar champion Dances with Wolves in 1990, as well as the crowd-pleasing
comedy Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves in 1991. His star would fall precipitously throughout the '90s
after a series of epic misfires, but in that moment, he was box office gold.
As for Whitney Houston, The Bodyguard may have been her cinematic debut, but she was hardly a
showbiz neophyte. Houston was already a global pop star at the time, with a number of multi-platinum
albums and #1 hits under her spangled belt. It was her majestic voice that turned the elegant but
simple Dolly Parton tune "I Will Always Love You" into one of the most cherished of all pop ballads,
as well as one of the best-selling songs of all time. Together, she and Costner pushed
the film past critical objections to more than $120 million at the domestic box office.
If there was ever an unexpected box office conqueror, it was the 1990's Home Alone.
Made without any real stars for a measly $18 million, the movie grossed nearly $477
million at the global box office. As it turned out, audiences went absolutely wild for the
fresh-faced Kevin McCallister as he fended off a couple of inept burglars at Christmas time.
And while the first movie wasn't exactly loathed by critics, they weren't especially impressed
either — not that it mattered to Fox, who ended up with one of the most profitable movies ever.
"Kevin!"
The inevitable sequel, Home Alone 2: Lost in New York, doubled down on much of what critics found
uninspired in the first film. Specifically, the wild implausibility of the premise and
the schmaltzy festive sentimentality. More than that, however, reviewers found the follow-up
more mean-spirited than the original. In the Chicago Tribune, Dave Kehr wrote:
"The pleasures here are entirely cruel,
with an unhealthy concentration on the suffering of the victims."
Meanwhile, Janet Maslin of The New York Times observed:
"It's much more violent than the first film's comparable set of dirty tricks."
None of that mattered to holiday audiences, however, who turned out in droves for more
Kevin McCallister, making the sequel one of the top-grossing films of the year.
It was a premise that couldn't go wrong: Robin Williams, fresh off two back-to-back
Best Picture-nominated films, cast as a grown-up Peter Pan who has to go back to Neverland so he
can remember what's really important in life. Dustin Hoffman, who played Captain Hook himself,
was only a few years removed from his own smash hit Best Picture, Rain Man. And Julia Roberts,
who had found superstardom a year earlier with Pretty Woman, was cast as Tinkerbell.
Match that cast with one of Hollywood's most successful directors, and the result was... well,
profoundly underwhelming, actually — at least according to critics. In the end, what seemed
like an unsinkable blockbuster became one of director Steven Spielberg's biggest misfires.
Critics called it overstuffed, uneven, and forced, and today it has a Tomatometer score of just 29%.
It made a decent amount of money, however, although the gross intake of $120 million
was a far cry from Spielberg's mega-hits from the 1970s and '80s.
Still, audiences seemed to more or less like it, and the movie has maintained a fan following
over the decades, and is today counted as one of Robin William's most beloved cult movies.
"Lying, crying, spying, prying ultra-pig."
"You lewd, crude, rude, bag of pre-chewed food dude."
"Bangarang, Peter!"
Has any actor ever enjoyed so many career ups and downs as Robin Williams? Every time his
critical reputation seemed to be in jeopardy in the '80s and '90s, Williams would bring it back
with an Oscar-nominated box office sensation. Of course, occasionally his worst movies could
be truly terrible, with Williams finding support from neither critics nor audiences.
One exception, however, was Patch Adams, which was based on the true story of a
doctor who used humor to treat his patients. One of Williams' most unabashedly sentimental movies,
it was also one of his most popular, becoming the tenth-highest-grossing film of 1998.
Williams had just won his Oscar for Good Will Hunting a few months before Patch Adams opened,
likely boosting the movie's mass appeal. Critics weren't having it, though.
Joe Morgenstern of the Wall Street Journal wrote:
"Like too many of Mr. Williams's recent movies,
Patch Adams wastes the genius of a peerless clown."
And Time's Richard Corliss said:
"Comics who want to do Hamlet often end up, as here, serving big, sticky slices of ham."
Sitting today at 22% on the Tomatometer, few blockbuster movies from the 1990s
were more hated by critics — and more loved by audiences — than Patch Adams.
Eddie Murphy absolutely owned the 1980s. Saturday Night Live made him a star at 21,
and his first movie, 48 Hours, was an enormous hit that showcased his undeniable marquee wattage.
Everything he touched during the decade turned to gold — even critical turkeys
such as The Golden Child and Beverly Hills Cop II. But soon, his lack of discernment in
choosing scripts began to turn off critics and moviegoers alike. By the mid-'90s,
his star had long-faded, even before the 1997 legal scandal that threatened his whole career.
In the wake of that scandal, the unexpected happened: Murphy transformed himself into
a star of family movies, appearing in or lending his voice to such blockbusters as Mulan, Daddy Day
Care, and the Shrek movies. But it was the remake of Dr. Dolittle that kicked it all off. Critics
weren't particularly enamored with the movie, which currently sits at 42% on Rotten Tomatoes.
Despite the critics, however, audiences were apparently clamoring for an Eddie Murphy who
talked to animals. The movie actually has a surprisingly low audience score on Rotten
Tomatoes today, suggesting time hasn't been kind to Doctor Dolittle. But at the time,
it was massive — and grossed over $144 million in the U.S., making it the sixth biggest hit of 1998.
Directed by soft-core fantasist Adrian Lyne, who had previously titillated audiences with Fatal
Attraction and the infamous 9 1/12 Weeks, the 1993 drama Indecent Proposal became a surprise hit,
crossing the $100 million mark without a big box office draw.
Robert Redford was past his prime at the time and Woody Harrelson was only just transitioning from
television to the movies. Demi Moore was well known, especially after Ghost, but she could
hardly open a picture on her own. None of this mattered, however, as this inexpensive production
became a global hit and improbably entered the cultural zeitgeist based on its premise: a rich
stranger offers a cash-strapped couple one million dollars to sleep with the wife. Much like Doctor
Dolittle, the benefit of hindsight hasn't done much for Indecent Proposal's audience score, but
in the '90s, the chance to consider that proposal for themselves proved irresistible to audiences.
Critics didn't find much to love about the movie beyond that premise, however,
and it currently sits at 35% on the Tomatometer. In his review,
titled "Hook, Lyne And Stinker," David Ansen of Newsweek wrote that:
"Director Lyne frantically flexes his technique, turning a mundane household quarrel over the
laundry into a food-throwing donnybrook, whipping up MTV-style sex scenes utterly devoid of passion.
But not once in the whole silly exercise does he approximate a genuine emotion."
There was a considerable feminist backlash against the film as well,
with critics objecting to the objectification of Moore's character. To add insult to injury,
the movie was nominated for seven year-end Razzie Awards.
Few movies in the 1990s more widely divided both film critics and audiences.
Check out one of our newest videos right here! Plus,
even more Looper videos about your favorite movies are coming soon.
Subscribe to our YouTube channel and hit the bell so you don't miss a single one.