It’s been a quarter-century since these gems first made a splash. Feel old yet?
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Sure, time flies when you’re having fun, but it’s still hard to believe that it’s been 25 years since these pop culture-defining movies and shows broke onto the scene.
Here’s a look back at the halcyon days of 1992, when I was pre-teen’ing hard and my favorite movies each had a spotlight performance (or two) that made it a classic that still holds up all these years later.
The Bodyguard
First thing’s first: RIP Whitney, aka Rachel Marron, both Queens of the Night. I had loved Whitney for years by the early 90s (I got her debut album on tape as a pre-school graduation gift), but she became my diva du jour when The Bodyguard came out. It was the first R-rated movie I was allowed to see in the got-it-after-it-had-already-been-out-for-a-month discount theatre near my parents’ house, and it was a baby gay’s dream: The diva antics! The outfits! The intrigue! The sassy quips! THE SOUNDTRACK! Let’s be real: The music from this movie is one of the best of all time, period. I would jam—and I mean, JUH-AM—to it on my Walkman, with I Will Always Love You on regular rewind-and-repeat rotation at the highest volume possible without inflicting deafness. Awesome then, and still great now.
My Cousin Vinny
If the movie had Marisa Tomei’s biological clock tickin’ like this, it also had all of us laughin’ like that. Nothing against Joe Pesci—who did his best Joe Pesci in the flick—but this one belonged to Marisa, and she has the Best Supporting Actress Oscar to prove it. (When it comes to all the chatter about her not really winning and the wrong name being read, all I have to say is: Hollywood haters gonna hate.) It’s hard to believe that the studio initially wanted her Mona Lisa Vito cut from the film, until the screenwriter added that famous boot-stomping scene on the porch that changed their minds. Between that, and her rousing climactic testimony on the stand, it’s hard to imagine the movie without her hilarious, heavily accented performance at the center.
Aladdin
With its magic carpet ride and exotic setting, Aladdin showed us a whole new world, and well, it was pretty awesome. The titular song that had that iconic airborne adventure as a backdrop was just one of a handful of hummable ditties that Disney hitmaker, Alan Menken, whipped up for the best-selling soundtrack. But this version of Aladdin (a live-action remake is currently in production) was owned lock, stock and shiny lamp by Robin Williams as The Genie (again, RIP). An Olympic-level feat of voiceover work if there ever was one, Williams was utterly triumphant as he shed one impersonation for another at a breakneck pace that few—if any—could come close to keeping up with. It’s criminal that his work wasn’t recognized by the Academy, though they found a way to make up for it with his win for one of my 20-year anniversary favorites, Good Will Hunting. Consider it a delayed wish come true.
Wayne’s World
Party on with your Bohemian Rhapsody lip syncing, head-banging, schwing’ing selves, Wayne and Garth. When Mike Myers and Dana Carvey’s basement-dwelling, cable access TV show-starring characters made the leap from Saturday Night Live to the big screen, expectations were low but returns ended up being high (perhaps in more ways than one). A surprise hit that launched its two leads to comedic stardom and is responsible for countless catchphrases that are still in rotation today, Wayne’s World was as goofy as it was heartfelt, cementing its ‘best of’ place in pop culture.
Sister Act
Can I get an AMEN for the beyond entertaining misadventures of Deloris Van Cartier/Sister Mary Clarence?! Whoopi Goldberg joined forces with the fab-u-lous Dame Maggie Smith, Kathy Najimy and a convent’s worth of funny nuns to create one of the most absurdly original classics from the early 90s. A smart comedy that spawned both a sequel (Back In the Habit, ya’ll!) and Broadway musical, this one is chock full of cutting one-liners and rocking renditions of Vegas-meets-church choir classics, but it’s Whoopi who werks it out in a truly divine lead performance. She and some of the ladies got together on The View a few weeks ago to celebrate the movie’s 25 year anniversary, and I was there for every blessed minute of it. Check out it out below.