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Apologies to anyone who can remember the 1990s well, but that decade was a considerable amount of time ago now, and one thing that time does, without fail (or a special DeLorean) is march onward. Lots of movies came out during the 1990s, and not all can be remembered fondly, especially because these movies are now roughly between 25 and 35 years old.
Looking over all the comedies released during this decade and finding some lesser-known ones is interesting. Indeed, most of the following have been forgotten to some extent, either being very obscure or the sorts of movies that just didn’t seem to stick within public consciousness. It’s hard to rank such films, but most have been picked because they featured well-known directors and/or actors attached to them; people whose other works have stuck around in pop culture to greater extents.
10 ‘Life Stinks’ (1991)
Director: Mel Brooks
As a director, Mel Brooks was arguably at his peak during the mid-1970s, with 1974 being an especially fruitful year, what with the releases of both Young Frankenstein and Blazing Saddles. His final directorial efforts ended up coming out in the 1990s, with his penultimate film, Robin Hood: Men in Tights, being a decent comedy, and his final film, Dracula: Dead and Loving It, being kind of underwhelming.
Still, those are probably more well-known than Brooks’ third-last – and overall most obscure – film, 1991’s Life Stinks. It’s about a wealthy man making a bet that he can survive being homeless for an entire month, and learning a valuable lesson from the whole ordeal, blah, blah, blah. It’s not particularly funny or insightful, and unlike some of the soon-to-be-mentioned movies, it’s understandable why Life Stinks has been more or less forgotten.
9 ‘Getting Any?’ (1994)
Director: Takeshi Kitano
By 1994, Japanese filmmaker Takeshi Kitano had directed some fairly explosive crime/yakuza movies, and would go on to do more following 1994, with that genre being what he’s best known for. He’s well known in Japan and might be fairly recognizable to some Western viewers, too, owing to roles he’s had in movies he didn’t direct, like Merry Christmas, Mr. Lawrence and Battle Royale.
Getting Any? isn’t a yakuza film, though, and while some of Takeshi Kitano’s crime films have darkly comedic energy to them, none go to quite the same absurd lengths Getting Any? goes to. It’s a cross between a sex comedy and a parody movie of all sorts of genres popular in Japanese cinema. It’s obscure and odd, even by Kitano’s filmography’s standards, but while it’s hit or miss, some of it is extremely funny, and it’s worth digging up for anyone who values intense unpredictability in their comedies.
8 ‘The Muse’ (1999)
Director: Albert Brooks
Being released at the tail end of the 1990s has done little to help make The Muse memorable, and it’s probably the most underwhelming movie Albert Brooks ever directed. As a satire of Hollywood, it’s a pretty tepid affair, revolving around a struggling screenwriter taking on a muse with the hope that it will improve his chances of writing a hit movie.
It tries to balance comedy, romance, and some fantasy elements, but fails to be cohesive or particularly funny. Like with the aforementioned Life Stinks, the director here has done better before, and it’s understandable why this one’s an obscurity. That is despite The Muse having a relatively stacked cast that includes Albert Brooks, Sharon Stone, Andie MacDowell, and Jeff Bridges, as well as a bunch of famous directors playing themselves in cameos, like Rob Reiner, James Cameron, and Martin Scorsese.
7 ‘Amos & Andrew’ (1993)
Director: E. Max Frye
A film that starred Samuel L. Jackson and Nicolas Cage, released at a time when the former was starting to become well-known and when the latter was fairly well-established, Amos & Andrew nevertheless didn’t make much of an impact critically or financially. It’s a crime/comedy film with a little action and a buddy dynamic between Jackson and Cage, which can admittedly be fun at times.
Still, Amos & Andrew isn’t quite good enough to be fully worth the two talented leads… though with Cage at least, it’s equally accurate to say he’s been in much better movies and far worse ones than this one. It’s all a little dated, and might’ve even felt a bit out of touch in some ways back in 1993, but it’s not entirely terrible… merely hard to recommend to those who aren’t die-hard fans of either star.
6 ‘The Freshman’ (1990)
Director: Andrew Bergman
The Freshman might not quite be a top-tier Marlon Brando film, but it’s also a little better than its general lack of popularity might suggest. The premise here involves a film student getting involved with a mobster, and shenanigans ensuing. Naturally, Brando gets to parody one of his most famous roles: that of Vito Corleone in The Godfather, a film that exists within the universe of The Freshman.
Additionally, Bruno Kirby appears in this film after also having a role in The Godfather Part II, so that’s all kind of amusing. It’s not a terrible comedic riff on classic gangster movies, though it also fails to leave much of an impression outside some of those casting decisions. It’s not exactly an underrated movie, but neither is it abysmal. It just sort of exists, and was thereby not particularly worth remembering for most.
5 ‘Osaka Tough Guys’ (1995)
Director: Takashi Miike
Like Takeshi Kitano, Takashi Miike is also a Japanese filmmaker who’s made his fair share of yakuza movies over the years, though it’s also fair to say Miike’s made lots of movies in general, across a ridiculously wide range of genres. To focus on his crime films, though, Osaka Tough Guys is one of them, and perhaps one of his lesser known, too.
It’s all extremely rough around the edges by design, more or less being a series of chaotic events that occur when two people out of their depths get involved with the yakuza. Those after a specific brand of cinematic anarchy may have some fun here, but Osaka Tough Guys does also get exhausting at a point. Whether something can be “forgotten” if it was never really that well-known in the first place could be debatable, but if it can, then this film applies here.
4 ‘Shakes the Clown’ (1991)
Director: Bobcat Goldthwait
The titular Shakes the Clown from Shakes the Clown joins the fairly large club of terrible and/or terrifying cinematic clowns. He might not be one of the scariest, but he does contribute to the very justified societal hatred of clowns in general, with the film that bears his name following him as his life descends into chaos, with his job in jeopardy thanks to constant bad behavior and other clowns proving more consistent/desirable.
It’s most interesting for some of the cameos/supporting roles it features, including Robin Williams (who later re-teamed with the director of this film, Bobcat Goldthwait, for World’s Greatest Dad), and a very young Adam Sandler, who also plays a clown. Otherwise, it’s very one-note. There’s some initial fun in seeing a dark comedy about a terrible clown for a while, but the film doesn’t do enough to make it sufficiently entertaining for nearly an hour and a half.
3 ‘Forgotten Silver’ (1995)
Directors: Peter Jackson, Costa Botes
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A few years before making a perfect fantasy trilogy, Peter Jackson co-directed perhaps his most obscure, unusual, and smallest-scale film: 1995’s Forgotten Silver, with Costa Botes being the other co-director. Yes, it’s partly here because it has the word “Forgotten” in the title and that’s kind of funny. Speaking of kind of funny: Forgotten Silver itself also is, especially if you know the story behind its creation and initial release.
Those who were fooled by the whole thing probably haven’t forgotten it, but it’s still relatively obscure outside New Zealand, especially considering how big of a name Peter Jackson now is. Costa Botes is also tied with The Lord of the Rings trilogy, given he was tasked with documenting the trilogy’s production and directed some feature-length making-of documentaries as a result.
2 ‘Canadian Bacon’ (1995)
Director: Michael Moore
Michael Moore is best known for his documentary work, with Canadian Bacon standing out due to the fact that it’s very much not a documentary. It’s still a film concerned with political and societal issues, though, much like the documentaries Moore would become famous (or arguably infamous) for making, especially during the 2000s, when he was at his most notorious/provocative/influential.
Canadian Bacon is about the U.S. President considering starting a conflict of sorts with Canada to boost his popularity, with the whole thing not being quite as funny as the war with Canada in South Park: Bigger, Longer & Uncut. Still, it’s far from the worst political satire out there, and maybe could qualify as a tad underrated. There’s also entertainment to be found here from watching Alan Alda play the President of the U.S. about a decade before his character in The West Wing ran for President.
1 ‘Swimming with Sharks’ (1994)
Director: George Huang
Released during a particularly crowded year for cinema, Swimming with Sharks has a few big names attached to it, and a fairly intriguing premise, though it’s also been generally forgotten as time’s marched on. Here, though, maybe some people would rather forget about the film, given some of the dark comedy might hit a little too close to home in a post-2017 world.
There’s a bitterness and anger to the film, with its blend of dark comedy and crime elements, and it might be more uncomfortable nowadays, and perhaps more relevant, too. That puts Swimming with Sharks in an odd position, even compared to other films of its decade that have become forgotten to some extent, because depending on your point of view, this one might deserve to resurface, or might be better off staying underwater.
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