February 1, 2023 4.4k votes 905 voters 38.2k views
Voting Rules
Vote up the comedies that deserve a spot in the '90s canon.
The 1990s was something of a golden age for film comedy, and it was particularly notable for the significant number of comedy stars who came to dominate the box office. However, it’s important to point out how even those who achieved true superstardom also had their fair share of flops and underappreciated films.
Indeed, there is a great deal to be said for just these types of films, which help to shine an important light on just how talented and hard-working many of the decade’s most important actors truly were. Perhaps just as importantly, even the most underrated films from 1990s film stars managed to be incredibly funny, arguably the most important task of a comedy movie.
Thanks in large part to his performances on Saturday Night Live and subsequent films like Billy Madison and Happy Gilmore, Adam Sandler became one of the biggest stars of the 1990s. However, he was not immune from having his own fair share of flops, including Airheads. Though derided at the time, it’s still well worth a look, in large part because of the undeniable strength of its cast, particularly Brendan Fraser, Adam Sandler, and Steve Buscemi.
The film focuses on a band desperate for attention who go so far as to take over a radio station. There is spectacular chemistry among the leads - Sandler, Buscemi, Fraser all are at the top of their games - even if the script sometimes lets them down. What’s more, the film is also notable for another reason. Sandler apparently pressed mightily to have Fraser included in it, a move which no doubt was a huge help to the young actor.
The late Robin Williams was one of the most talented actors of his generation, and though he was extraordinary in dramatic roles, his lasting legacy will always be in comedy. In The Birdcage, he brings his considerable talents to bear as Armand, a gay man living in South Beach with his partner Albert. Their life is turned upside-down when their son gets engaged to the daughter of a conservative politician, and they have to pretend to lead a very different life than they really do.
Though he’s not quite as zanily energetic as he is in some of his other ‘90s roles, Williams’s comic timing in The Birdcage is as sharp as ever. Moreover, he brings a profound human warmth to the role, allowing the viewer to see the relationship of Albert and Armand as worthy of dignity and respect, encouraging the audience to laugh with rather than at them. It’s a sublime performance from one of Hollywood's most talented comedians.
Bill Murray has long been seen as the master of understated comedic performances. In some of his most beloved roles, he manages to engender a laugh through his ability to evoke the absurdities of life and through his evocation of a strange sort of downtrodden pathos. This is particularly true in What About Bob? in which he plays a mental patient who suffers from disabling phobias and pursues his doctor to his country home, where he soon manages to endear himself to the various members of the good doctor’s family.
The film is notable not just for Murray’s skill as an actor but also for his undeniable chemistry with his co-star Richard Dreyfuss. Each of the veteran actors brings out the best performance from the other, and they are both guided by Frank Oz’s expert direction, which manages to keep the outlandish humor and antics alive and well.
Though his biggest successes of the 1990s would be as a performer in Saturday Night Live, the first two Austin Powers films, and in Wayne’s World, Mike Myers was also in a number of other, more underappreciated gems. One of these is So I Married an Axe Murderer, which focuses on Myers’s Charles MacKenzie, who marries a woman who might, in fact, be a serial killer.
The film is a fun blend of comedy, romance, and murder, and though the revelation of who the serial killer is might not come as a surprise, So I Married an Axe Murderer is nevertheless more than enjoyable. In particular, it shows that, in addition to his comedy bonafides, Myers was also quite skilled at playing a romantic leading man. His own enjoyable performance is buttressed by those of his costars, including Nancy Travis, Anthony LaPaglia, and Amanda Plummer.
Throughout her career, Goldie Hawn has shown remarkable versatility, capable of acting in almost every genre. She puts her magnetic charisma to excellent use in Death Becomes Her, in which she co-stars with Meryl Streep as one of two women who, competing for the affections of the same man, drink a potion without fully reckoning with its potential side effects.
Hawn is, naturally, absolutely enchanting, and the film as a whole is filled with the kind of absurdist humor which could have only come out of the 1990s. Moreover, it is also a fascinating look at the power of female friendship, and there’s no denying that both Hawn and co-star Streep are giving it their all. It might have gone unappreciated at the time, but it has grown significantly in the years since, and it has become particularly popular among members of the drag community.
The 1990s was a particularly rich decade for Martin Lawrence, who was the star of his own sitcom (which bore his name), as well as many successful comedy films. One of the more underrated of these is Life which, told as a flashback, relates the extraordinary friendship of Martin Lawrence’s Claude Banks and Eddie Murphy’s Ray Gibson.
Life expertly threads the needle of comedy and drama, and it’s clear that there is engaging chemistry between its two leads. While both stars are known for their exuberant comedic impulses, they both give remarkably restrained - and poignant - performances. The film never fails to be funny, of course, but where it truly excels is at showing the extraordinary bond between these two men, and both Lawrence and Murphy reveal why they should be appreciated not just as comedians but as actors dedicated to finding the depths of their characters.
