In many ways, the 1990s were a great decade, filled with fashion trends, iconic TV shows, and an explosion of award-winning films across genres. Even though times have changed and some movies have aged, there are some gems of the ’90s that will stand the test of time and remain fan favorites, especially when it comes to the romance flicks of the decade.
Sure, there’s the typical boy-meets-girl, boy-and-girl-falling in love-and-live-happily-forever story, but in the 1990s, directors knew there had to be more. that. The love movies that came out of the 1990s also launched many current celebrity careers, with beautiful storylines that are not only intriguing, but mixed in with a healthy dose of fairy tales and real life situations.
ten 1990 – Pretty woman
• Available on Fubo TV
Start the decade in style, A pretty woman gave the world a strange love story between two people from different worlds. When Edward Lewis, played by Richard Gere, is in Beverly Hills on business, he tries to make his way to Hollywood Boulevard in search of an escort for the week, who will have neither attachment nor the occasion of heartbreak.
Edward finds Vivian Ward, played by Julia Roberts, who accepts the plan, and receives a whole new look to match these upper-class events. Things change when Vivian and Edward get to know each other, and at the end of the week, they fall in love with each other. Although it wasn’t Julia’s first role in Hollywood, her portrayal of Vivian in A pretty woman launched his career in superstar status.
9 1991 – The man in the moon
• Available on YouTube, Tubi and Pluto TV
With Sam Waterston, Tess Harper and a young Reese Witherspoon, Man in the moon has to be one of the best romance films released in 1991. Based in rural Louisiana and set in 1957, Elvis Presley was all the rage. Dani Trant, played by Witherspoon, is a 14-year-old girl who is discovering adolescence and growing up. When a widow and her children move in next door, everything apparently changes.
Dani falls in love with 17-year-old Court Foster, even though he doesn’t necessarily feel the same way. After falling in love with Dani’s sister, Maureen, Dani experiences her first grief, her loss and how much her family means to her in the end. Reese Witherspoon has appeared in numerous films since 1991, but Man in the moon will be known as her first big movie and one of her best roles.
8 1992 – The avant-garde
• Available on Prime Video and Fubo TV
In 1992, director Paul Michael Glaser made a fun little romantic film called On the razor wire. With DB Sweeney as Doug Dorsey and Moira Kelly as Kate Moseley, their meeting was very fortuitous. Doug, a professional hockey player for the US team at the 1988 Olympic Winter Games, was injured and sidelined. Across the pond, Kate is also aiming for a gold medal, as a talented figure skater, until she takes a bad fall during her program and ruins her chances that year.
After meeting many partners so far, Kate is paired with Doug, who just wants to skate again and make it to the Olympics. After trial and error, long days on the ice and a lot of disagreements, they begin to fall in love with each other as their next chance for gold draws near.
7 1993 – Insomnia in Seattle
• Available on Paramount +
Tom Hanks and Meg Ryan are not only known as great movie stars, but also as the main characters in one of the most well-known films of the 1990s: Insomnia in Seattle. Tom Hanks is Sam, father and widower. He moved to Seattle with his son to start over. Months later, at his son’s instigation, Sam takes part in a radio show to talk about how much he misses his wife, while thousands of women across the country listen.
When Annie Reed, played by Meg Ryan, hears Sam on the radio, she wants to meet him, despite her engagement. That’s when Sam and Annie fall in love with each other from afar, not knowing who they are. Tom Hanks has racked up a lot of great movies during his career and his role as Sam in Insomnia in Seattle is one of them.
6 1994 – Forrest Gump
• Available on Showtime
Tom Hanks was busy making memorable movies in the 1990s and another of his most famous roles is Forrest in Forrest Gump. There really isn’t any other movie like this, and Tom was the perfect actor to play the part. Some people might argue that this movie is more of a drama, but it also has an underlying love story. Forrest Gump is a man from Alabama with some learning disabilities, but he shows that anyone can make their dreams come true if they work for it.
After going through a bully infested childhood Vietnam, jogging across the country and being a successful ping pong player, all Forrest really wants is to reunite with his childhood sweetheart, Jenny Curran. , a struggling woman who lived life fast. It doesn’t matter to Forrest, and the movie shows how persistence and true love last. There are some very successful films from the 90s, but without a doubt, Forrest Gump is the one who defined cinema.
5 1995 – Before sunrise
• Available on Showtime
Before sunrise follows Jesse, played by Ethan Hawke, who is a tourist in France. By chance, he meets Celine, a local, and connects with her so well that he asks her to spend the day with him before his flight back to America.
They don’t have a lot of time, but with the time they have they are connecting on a deep level at a rapid pace. They share everything among themselves, thinking that they will never see each other again. Although the next day is on their minds, the connection they have is real, touching, and terribly romantic.
4 1996 – Romeo + Juliet
• Available on YouTube
In 1996, director Baz Luhrmann took a beloved story written by William Shakespeare and turned it into a turn-of-the-century film about the simplicities and hardships of young love. Romeo + Juliet, based on the famous play, is reworked into a brilliant and exaggerated film in the suburbs of Verona about two children who find each other despite their family’s differences.
Romeo is played by beloved co-stars Leonardo DiCaprio and Claire Danes as Juliet. They have a nice connection to each other which tells the classic story well. There may be differences between the play and the novel, but nonetheless, Baz Luhrmann’s take on Romeo + Juliet was iconic.
3 1997 – Titanic
• Available on Pluto TV, Netflix and Paramount +
Staying on the DiCaprio Train is a film that dazzled every other movie released in 1997, and the decade as a whole, to become one of the most beloved love stories in movie history. Director and screenwriter James Cameron took his love for the tragic story of the sunken ship of 1911 and updated it with a specific fictional backstory of two people from different sides of the tracks.
Rose Dewitt Bukater is a young woman about to marry a wealthy, older man. She travels with him and his mother to America and is very unhappy. After a chance meeting, Jack and Rose begin their bizarre relationship, before the fate of the RMS Titanic kicks in. Not only are Leo and Kate’s careers taking off at this point, Titanic has also become one of James Cameron’s best directed films.
2 1998 – Meet Joe Black
• Available on Prime Video
Meet Joe Black is a unique film about death itself, love and life. Joe Black is Death, disguised as a man brought to Earth to follow a media mogul named William Parrish, played by Anthony Hopkins. In the process, Joe, played by Brad Pitt, notices William’s daughter, Susan, and takes a liking to her, which uproots the process of taking William Parrish to the afterlife.
That’s when Joe begins to love the Earth and what she brought to his front door. It’s a very unique story unlike anything other than ’90s romance fans.
1 1999 – Notting Hill
• Available on Peacock
Notting hill tells the simple story of a lonely bookstore owner named William Thacker and a popular actress named Anna Scott. Anna walks into William’s bookstore and their lives change forever. They meet again over the next few days and unknowingly begin to fall in love with each other.
William can’t believe he has the attention of one of the most beautiful women in the world, but he also realizes that being with a woman like her means a lot of attention. Some movies have aged a bit since the 90s, but Notting hill remains a great romantic comedy.
.jpg)