While we can’t hop in a time machine and take ourselves back to the decade, we can revisit some of the great movies from the era with ease thanks to streaming and this month, there are plenty of fantastic ‘90s greats available to stream even if you don’t have a subscription to one of the big streamers. Free streaming, like Tubi, Pluto TV, Kanopy, and more, in April has a wealth of great ‘90s movies and we’ve come up with a list of seven of them that you can stream (as well as what free service to stream them on.)
7) Clueless (Available on Pluto TV April 1st)
As if we’d have a list of great ‘90s movies to stream and not put Clueless on it. Directed by Amy Heckerling, the 1995 coming-of-age teen comedy is a loose adaptation of Jane Austen’s novel Emma and follows Cher Horowitz (Alicia Silverstone), a popular, beautiful, and wealthy Beverly Hills high school student who tries to perform “good deeds” by playing matchmaker with her teachers and giving awkward (and unfashionable) new student Tai (Brittany Murphy) a makeover. However, Tai grows to be more popular than Cher and Cher starts to realize that maybe her ex-stepbrother (Paul Rudd) is right about her and her misguided goals. The iconic film also stars Stacey Dash, Donald Faison, Elisa Donovan, Breckin Meyer, and Dan Hedaya.
Infinitely quotable, endlessly fashionable (we once spoke with the film’s costume designer Mona May about the film’s culture-shifting clothes,) and forever beloved, Clueless is the ultimate ‘90s movie but don’t take our word for it; it was selected for preservation in the United States National Film Registry by the Library of Congress in 2025 for being “culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant.” You can catch it for free this month on Pluto TV.
6) Election (Available on Pluto TV April 1st)
Here’s a ‘90s movie that might not have been on your radar when it was released back in 1999 — the film underperformed at the box office — but is a genuinely great movie. Directed by Alexander Payne and based on Tom Perrotta’s 1998 novel of the same name, Election is a satirical black comedy starring Matthew Broderick and Reese Witherspoon. The film is centered around a student body election and sees social studies teacher Jim McAllister (Broderick) attempt to sabotage the candidacy of high achieving student Tracy Flick (Witherspoon) who McAllister just so happens to seriously dislike.
The film was well-received critically for it’s dark humor and strong performances. It’s a very sharp, witty satire that regularly lands on “best of” movie lists. The movie’s ending deviates a big from the book and if you get really invested in the story, Perrotta did release a sequel novel in 2022, but this 1999 film is one you absolutely should check out on Pluto TV for free this month.
5) Mrs. Doubtfire (Tubi April 1st)
While Robin Williams was one of the funniest performers of the 20th century, there’s one of his movies that stands out above all the others as probably is funniest movie of them all. Arriving on Tubi on April 1st, Mrs. Doubtfire is a hilarious and heartfelt classic that pretty much only Williams could bring to life. Looking back, we just can’t imagine anyone else making us laugh and touching our hearts quite the way he did in this film.
Directed by Chris Columbus, Mrs. Doubtfire follows Daniel Hillard (Williams), a divorced voice actor who loses custody of his kids due to being unemployed and homeless, though he is granted weekly visitation and could get shared custody if he manages to find a place to live and a steady job within three months. When his ex-wife posts an ad seeking a housekeeper, Daniel disguises himself as Euphegenia Doubtfire, an elderly British nanny, so that he can get the job to be with his kids. Shenanigans ensue. The film is hilarious and heartfelt and will make you laugh and cry in equal measure. It’s one of not on the best of the 1990s, but of Williams’ career.
4) A Few Good Men (Tubi April 1st)
While A Few Good Men is often reduced to one very iconic scene of Jack Nicholson yelling “you can’t handle the truth,” it’s actually an excellent movie. Released in 1992 and directed by the late Rob Reiner, A Few Good Men boasts a star-studded cast including Nicholson, Tom Cruise, Demi Moore, Keving Bacon, Kevin Pollak, J. T. Walsh, Cuba Gooding Jr. and Kiefer Sutherland. The legal drama follows the court-martial of two Marines (played by Wolfgang Bodison and James Marshall) who are accused of the murder of Private William Santiago. The truth ends up being a much more complicated and darker conspiracy.
The film was both a critical and box office hit, praised for being a contemporary take on the classic courtroom drama. Nicholson’s performance in particular is one of his best, but Cruise is a standout as well as Daniel Kaffee, the JAG lawyer defending Dawson and Downey. The film is iconic and still holds up decades later. You can catch it on Tubi this month.
3) Face/Off (Kanopy April 24th)
If you’re wondering if something that is absolutely bonkers can also be absolutely great, the answer is a resounding yes and Face/Off is proof. John Woo’s 1997 action flick stars John Travolta and Nicolas Cage as an FBI agent (Travolta) and a terrorist (Cage), who swap faces and identities in an effort to stop a terrorist plot. Things get complicated when the terrorist vows revenge and starts some chaos all while in the agent’s identity.
Yes, it’s an unhinged premise, but it’s an incredible movie. The action is top notch, but what is perhaps the greatest thing about Face/Off is the acting. Travolta and Cage are both at the top of their game here not only playing their respective roles but also having to play each other portraying their characters. It’s a complex and fascinating film that will keep you on the edge of your seat. It’s free to stream on Kanopy starting April 24th. If you’re unfamiliar with Kanopy, it’s a free, on-demand streaming service that offers a wide range of programming that you can access with your public library card.
2) Event Horizon (Tubi April 1st)
While the ‘90s was a great decade for sci-fi, not every great movie in the genre got the attention it was due at the time and that is especially true when it comes to Event Horizon. Directed by Paul Anderson, the sci-fi horror film stars Laurence Fishburne, Sam Niell, Kathleen Quinlan, and Joely Richardson and follows a crew of astronauts who are tasked with investigating something strange: a spaceship that had disappeared seven years earlier after sending a distress signal has mysteriously reappeared.
The movie didn’t do well with critics and bombed at the box office, but the film has become a cult classic with a whole new appreciation as audience rediscover it. The film has also gotten a sequel by way of IDW’s Event Horizon: Inferno comic book series. The movie is now available to stream for free on Tubi this month.
1) Galaxy Quest (Pluto TV April 1st)
Image Courtesy of DreamWorks
While it came out at the very end of the ‘90s — it opened in theaters on Christmas Day 1999 — Galaxy Quest certainly deserves its place as one of the great films of the decade and, more than that, one of the best things that Star Trek has ever inspired. Both a parody of and an homage to sci-fi movies and television broadly and Star Trek especially, the film follows the cast of a fictional television series called Galaxy Quest who end up pulled into a genuine interstellar conflict by aliens who are convinced the tv series is actually a documentary.
Not all parody works, but Galaxy Quest does it perfectly. There’s a real love for sci-fi movies that went into this film and you can definitely feel it. The film also has an outstanding cast, including Tim Allen, Sigourney Weaver, Alan Rickman, Tony Shalhoub, Sam Rockwell, Daryl Mitchell and many more. If you haven’t caught this one before (or just want a great movie experience), catch it on Tubi in April.
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