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Looking back, it’s easy to laugh at the abysmal reviews and early experiments in digital VFX. But us ’90s kids didn’t care: all we wanted was to be transported into a future of floating cities, man-eating snakes, and Shaquille O’Neal in a metal suit. And while we may never have gotten our floating towns in real life, it’s pretty hilarious to take a trip down memory lane and remember all of the forgotten science fiction romps of the decade.
10) Super Mario Bros.
The first Hollywood video game adaptation should have been a hit, but Super Mario Bros. barely resembled the beloved Nintendo franchise. Between Dennis Hopper’s bizarre King Koopa, Goombas with tiny heads and giant bodies, and a cyberpunk dystopian city akin to Blade Runner, the film left critics baffled. Reviews labeled it loud, lugubrious, and wildly off-brand, while Roger Ebert called it “a complete waste of time and money.”
Still, ’90s kids who rented it over and over weren’t bothered. To them, the movie felt like a weird alternate-universe Mario adventure, or perhaps some new world altogether where Bob Hoskins and John Leguizamo were our heroes. The bomb-shaped Bob-ombs, elevator-dancing Goombas, and neon slime had the youth of the time fully hooked.
9) The Island of Dr. Moreau
John Frankenheimer’s The Island of Dr. Moreau is remembered less for its sci-fi premise and more for the behind-the-scenes chaos. The film, starring Marlon Brando in heavy white makeup alongside an eccentric Val Kilmer, was plagued by rewrites and, supposedly, egos. Critics at the time called it an incomprehensible mess. For general audiences in 1996, this movie was a full-blown disasterpiece.
However, for kids who stumbled across it on cable, the grotesque animal-human hybrids were mesmerizing. The creatures looked straight out of a dark comic, and Brando’s tiny companion was seared into our retinas. Even if we didn’t fully grasp the plot, or notice the flawed writing, the imagery captured our imaginations
8) Waterworld
Dubbed “Kevin’s Gate” by the press for its out-of-control budget, Waterworld was the most expensive movie ever made at the time. Unfortunately, it bombed hard, and critics were merciless. The New York Times called its writing “remarkably crude for such an elaborate production,” and others mocked it as a shallow vanity project.
But ‘90s kids with all their excellent taste only saw Mad Max on jet skis starring Kevin Costner with gills. It played like an aquatic video game on a floating city; the Smokers, led by Dennis Hopper (apparently king of bad ‘90s movie villains), were cartoonish fun, and the action sequences were too good not to be reenacted in backyards everywhere. It may have belly flopped at the box office, but for many millennials, it’s an all-timer.
7) Mighty Morphin Power Rangers: The Movie
Sure, it was essentially a poorly pumped-up episode of the TV show with more room in the budget for spandex. But for every ’90s kid, Mighty Morphin Power Rangers was the movie event of the summer in 1995 – with the possible exception of one other movie on this list (see below). Ivan Ooze’s “Smells like…teenagers!” can never truly be forgotten, and the toy Zords got a whole new lease on life thanks to the movie callbacks.
Critics lampooned the cheesy dialogue and thin plot, calling it basically a feature-length toy commercial. But let’s be honest, film critics were never the target audience. MMPR: The Movie gave kids of the era exactly what they wanted: Rangers on the big screen, a boombox-worthy soundtrack, and epic robot battles. What more could we have asked for?
6) Lost in Space
When New Line rebooted Lost in Space, they hoped to launch a new sci-fi franchise. Instead, critics claimed it was a noisy, bloated, disjointed mess with highly questionable special effects. Even the usually on-point Gary Oldman was singled out for being completely misused and out of place.
Still, many kids and teens claim to have watched it endlessly on VHS, and Matt LeBlanc as a space pilot was just enough of a draw for Friends-watching households to give it a shot. The giant CGI spider, time-travel, and talking robot gave the movie enough oomph to stick. Sadly, though, neither this film nor the Lost in Space Netflix reboot has been able to save the franchise.
5) Mortal Kombat
Video game movies understandably had a bad reputation after Super Mario Bros., and Mortal Kombat didn’t exactly do much for the cause. Reviewers derided its stiff acting, thin story, and dumb jokes while a New York Post critic pointed a finger at “screenwriter Kevin Droney’s lame sense of humor.”
But for ‘90s kids, it was a long time coming, and the coolest thing ever when it finally arrived. The theme song became a hype anthem. Scorpion and Sub-Zero’s fights evoked the arcade experience. And even if the fatalities were toned down, it was just edgy enough to feel dangerous, earning a PG-13. If you grew up in the ‘90s, this was likely a movie you bragged to your friends about seeing.
