Common elements of films from the 1990s?

(I don't know if this goes here, so correct me if it's in the wrong category)

I am working on a webcomic script that takes place in 1998, and satirizes anime and the 1990s while seeming like (the comic version of) a film from said decade. What are common elements of movies from that decade?

edited 13th May '12 2:44:13 PM by Gringoamericano

That is unbelievably broad. I mean, really broad.

...make everything look like the Matrix.

But the matrix came out in 1999, not 1998

I suppose you could look at all the movies from that era and see what they have in common.

Lets see, Bad Boys, Men In Black, Enemy Of The State, and Wild Wild West have in common?

Nonononono, I mean, for the purposes of satire, make the setting and all the made-up movies look like they're set within the Matrix world. I.e. everything is seedy low-light cyberpunk, even if it's a happy up-beat film.

Imagine, a romantic comedy while everybody romps about in silly leather outfits and shoots at each other in bullet time. Who cares about the years? It's funny because it's a chronological stereotype, just like we make fun of the '60s because "everybody was a hippie" when hippies didn't even show up until '64-'65.

Will Smith. <3

edited 13th May '12 2:53:04 PM by Flyboy

I can kind of imagine that rom-com movie idea happening, but let's replace all of the leather outfits with flannel, and make the entire soundtrack nothing more than a bunch of songs by Nirvana.

edited 13th May '12 3:08:51 PM by Gringoamericano

"Will Smith. <3"

Right. So obviously the 90's = Will Smith era. There has to be a Will Smith character.

So, Will Smith fighting in bullet time while wearing flannel in a romantic comedy set in the grimdark cyberpunk future past present while nothing but Nirvana plays?

Sounds like the '90s to me.

Our page on The '90s might be helpful here

The 90s were characterized by a lot of big budget Sci-Fi and Disaster Movies, and they fell pretty well on the Cynical side of the Sliding Scale, in theme if not always content. Deconstruction and Postmodernism were popular if you wanted an actual story, Stuff Blowing Up if you didn't.

Culturally there were a lot of varied things going on in the 90s. As someone who grew up in the 90s I'd ay it's most defining characteristic was that variety. The simplest example would be it's music; Three Chords and the Truth almost had a full cycle during the 90s, with Grunge and boy band/girl band pop hitting peaks of popularity, and several new musical movements got their foothold in the decade (Electronica, Nu-metal, and various flavors of rap and hip-hop to name but a few).

I saw somewhere a thread that posited that the Mass Effect series was a reconstruction of scifi on a decade by decade basis- 3 corresponded to the 90s- so the idea of satirizing a decade and it's trappings is hardly too broad a subject to be covered

edited 13th May '12 4:52:26 PM by CleverPun

^ Agreed. Take the common elements (Disaster Films starring Will Smith with a Grunge or Hip Hop soundtrack etc etc etc) and turn'em up to 11.

Pre-CGI greatness: physical effects reached their pinnacle before being replaced by CGI. CGI was until the very late 90's still conspicuous. Other character archetypes include a wisecracking Kid Hero/sidekick, and the Action Girl. Hollywood movies started to get a little meta too in this decade, with the George Lucas Throwback becoming rather popular (for example the disaster movie phenomenon was very similar to the disaster movie craze in the 70's).