The Mid-Nineties: Artistic Apocalypse

I was alive then. Maybe you were too. The Mid-Ninties - the time that everybody thought was okay while it happened, but might have just been worse than the eighties in retrospect. In fact, the eighties weren't even all that bad. They gave us things like MacGyver and New Order. What'd the mid-ninties give us? Seaquest DSV and Hansen.
I had intended this to be a comment on some of the terrible movies that came out of the nineties, but really, the arguments do sort of apply to popular culture over all. And, of course, the antithesis is always present. To say the Mid-Ninties were devoid of anything good is of course not true. I'm talking general trends... what good movies came out in 1995? Braveheart? And?

My point is generally simple - I've been talking movies with Ryan and Paul all day and I've been forced to admit that there have been some times when movies in general were great. Late sixties to early seventies had a lot of classics - notables include Taxi Driver and Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid, Animal House, etc. Not to mention Star Wars. The late eighties and early ninties pulled some real classics - this was the golden age of sequels. A movie was made, if it was successful, a sequel was born, usually within a year. Case in piont: Wayne's World (Wayne's World 2), Ghostbusters (Ghostbusters II), Bill and Ted Excellent Adventure (Bill and Ted's Bogus Journey). Interesting to note that this trend falls within the comedy genre. And yet, you don't see anything like this in '94-'97 What movies with sequels came out in this time period? Species, for one.

Kurt Cobain was dead. Pop took over. Species was a blockbuster hit. Seaquest DSV was on air for three seasons. The mid-ninties were a barren wasteland for pop culture.

Your antithesis? The Shawshank Redemption. The Tragically Hip - Day For Night. Law and Order.