The Best 90s Action Movies to Binge This Weekend
Image Credit: EddieHolly on Deviant Art.
Some generations absolutely nailed their contributions to movies and music. Some…not so much. While the 1990s was a mixed bag of wardrobe choices and other trends, they unquestionably killed it in the arena of action flicks. Here are the best ’90s action movies the decade had to offer.
- Point Break (1991)
- Bad Boys (1995)
- The Fugitive (1993)
- 007: Tomorrow Never Dies (1997)
- Mission: Impossible (1996)
- Tombstone (1993)
- The Mummy (1999)
- Blade (1998)
- The Fifth Element (1997)
- Speed (1994)
Point Break (1991)
Cast: Keanu Reeves, Patrick Swayze, Lori Petty
Budget: $24 Million
Box office gross: $83.5 Million
This quintessential ’90s film stars Keanu Reeves as undercover FBI agent Johnny Utah. His task is to catch a gang of surfing bank robbers that wear rubber masks of former presidents. Yeah. That’s right.
The gang is headed by Patrick Swayze’s character Bhodi, and Utah quickly becomes friends with the gang. He falls for one of them (Petty), compromising the investigation.
Stream it on Amazon Prime here.
Bad Boys (1995)
Cast: Will Smith, Martin Lawrence, Tea Leoni
Budget: $23 Million
Box office gross: $141.1 Million
Two detectives in Miami lose it when they realize that the $100 Million worth of heroin that they confiscated has been stolen.
Believing the theft was an inside job, the duo is given just five days to solve the crime…or they’ll have to shut down the entire narcotics division.
Rent or purchase it on Amazon Prime here.
The Fugitive (1993)
Cast: Harrison Ford, Tommy Lee Jones
Budget: $44 Million
Box office gross: $368.9 Million
Wrongfully accused of murdering his wife, Robert Kimble (Ford) is on the run, trying to find his wife’s killer and clear his name while evading capture by US Marshals.
Rent or purchase it on Amazon Prime here.
007: Tomorrow Never Dies (1997)
Cast: Pierce Brosnan, Johnathan Pryce, Michelle Yeoh
Budget: $110 Million
Box office gross: $333 Million
In this epic James Bond movie, 007 and his partner, secret agent Yeoh, head to China to stop a media mogul’s (Pryce) plan to pretty much pit the US and China at war, all so he can obtain global media coverage.
Rent or purchase it on Amazon Prime here, or watch on TubiTV.
Mission: Impossible (1996)
Cast: Tom Cruise, Ving Rhames; John Voight, Jean Reno
Budget: $80 Million
Box office gross: $457.7 Million
In this iconic action-adventure, Cruise plays Ethan Hunt, a US government operative on a covert mission with his menor Jim Phelps (Voight), becomes the main suspect when Phelps is murdered.
Hunt employs the help of a hacker (Rhames) and a pilot (Krieger) to sneak into a CIA facility, searching for evidence to clear his name.
Stream it on Amazon Prime here.
Tombstone (1993)
Cast: Kurt Russell, Val Kilmer, Bill Paxton, Sam Elliot
Budget: $25 Million
Box office gross: $56.5 Million
This 1990s western is based on true events that took place in Tombstone in the 1880s. The Earp Brothers (Russel, Paxton, and Elliot) decide to give up their outlaw ways, but become targets nonetheless and have to take back the once again lawless land.
Rent or purchase it on Amazon Prime here, or stream it on Disney+ here.
The Mummy (1999)
Cast: Brendan Fraser, Rachel Weisz, Arnold Vosloo
Budget: $80 Million
Box office gross: $416.4 Million
Set in 1925, explorers in the Sahara Desert find a tomb and mistakenly awaken a 3,000-year-old mummy. But not just any mummy: a vengeful, evil reincarnation of an Egyptian priest, who was sentenced to an eternity as a living dead.
When the mummy awakens, he brings curses of biblical proportions. The explorers must defeat him before he becomes mortal again.
Stream it on Amazon Prime here.
Blade (1998)
Cast: Wesley Snipes, Kris Kristofferson, Stephen Dorff
Budget: $45 Million
Box office gross: 131.2 Million
Wesley Snipes plays a half-mortal out to purge the world of vampires while avenging his mother’s death.
These aren’t just your normal bloodsuckers, though: the vampires are modern-day and technologically advanced. They seek only his special blood type that is needed for their plan to wipe out the human race.
Rent or purchase it on Amazon Prime here, or stream it on HBO Max.
The Fifth Element (1997)
Cast: Bruce Willis, Milla Jovovich, Gary Oldman, Chris Tucker
Budget: $90 Million
Box office gross: $263 Million
Set in the 23rd century, this near-future action flick centers around a cabbie in New York (Willis) whose passenger, Leeloo (Jovovich) happens to be the embodiment of the earth’s fifth element.
Needless to say, the fate of the world is now in the cabbie’s hands: Leeloo needs to be reunited with the other four elements, or a great impending evil will destroy the world.
Watch it on Amazon Prime here, or stream it with Xfinity Stream.
Speed (1994)
Cast: Keanu Reeves, Sandra Bullock, Dennis Hopper, Jeff Daniels
Budget: $28 Million
Box office gross: $350.4 Million
Reeves plays Jack, an L.A. police officer who angers a retired bomb squad officer by foiling his plan to take hostages. As revenge, the thwarted villain arms a bus with a bomb that will detonate if the bus’s speed drops below 50 MPH.
With help from a passenger (Bullock) and his partner (Daniels), Jack must keep the bus up to speed while finding a way to rescue everyone on board.
Stream it on Amazon Prime or Disney+.
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The 1990s brought us more than slap bracelets, Nintendo 64, and boy bands, and the beginning to the rise of Danny Trejo coming to the movie scene. The best ’90s action movies stand the test of time and continue to deliver pulse-pounding plots and great entertainment almost three decades later. So, during your next movie night be sure to give these a try when you’ve ran out of your favorite pandemic movies or psychological thrillers.
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