The Ten Most Polarizing Films of the 1990s
The 1990s sure had a lot to offer. Pókemon mania, the Fresh Prince of Bel-Air, grunge fashion, the Macarena, the O.J. Simpson trial, playing Snake on the Nokia... and loads of films to argue about with your friends. Whether you thought they were dope or wack, the 1990s gave us plenty of classic movies it was impossible to stay ambivalent about.
According to the Criticker Community, these are the ten most polarizing films of the 1990s. Check them out... and then call up your best friends from back in the day, and reignite those old arguments!
How was this calculated?
For every film with at a certain number of ratings, we calculate the percentage of people who loved it (percentle greater than 75%) and hated it (less than 25%). The "contentiousness" score is the lower of those two percentiles.
Consider the most contentious possible scenario -- an equal number love and hate it, with nobody in between. That would be 50% - 0% - 50%, for a score of "50". Let's say another film has a "love/ambivalence/hate" ratio of "38/30/32". That gets a score of 32: still extremely polarizing!
But a movie that almost everyone hates? Let's say a breakdown of 4/35/61. That's a score of just 4, which means it's not very contentious at all.
#10.
The English Patient
26.89% High
"The English Patient has that classic old movie feel to it. Very surprising that it's actually an independent film from the 90s. They truly don't make them like this any more. The incredible physical chemistry & sexual heat between the two elegant, refined blondes ( Ralph Fiennes & Kristin Scott Thomas) is what drives this glorious love story. Juliette Binoche is luminous here." - Sapphire
19.5% Low
"This is a boring Oscar-and-Romantic wannabe movie. Problem is it has no credible people or depth to make any dent whatsoever. Instead it's a bore-fest. Skip this and instead watch The Bridges of Madison County or Remains Of The Day for a true romantic experience." - fordtthe
19.7% High
"This movie is sweet in every possible way. Tarantino's best acting job ever, Clooney is a legitimate madman with a heart, and Harvey Keitel plays a believable disillusioned religious man. The movie goes from awesome to "Ohmygawd!!" the second Salma Hayek makes her unforgettable entrance." - fudgieb
19.68% Low
"Just when I was ready to hate this for its painfully '90s tryhard cool and its "Richard McBeef"-esque edginess, I sat through the pulsatingly stupid second half and found a much more compelling reason." - Enthusiast
#8.
Cube
20.39% High
"Fantastic idea for a film. Sure the acting isn't amazing, but the originality of the whole thing more than makes up for it. I love watching a film that is totally unlike anything I've seen before or am likely to see again. It's remarkable that they pulled this off using only a single room to shoot the whole thing." - nauru
19.81% Low
"What could have been an interesting experiment in psychological reaction turned into a repulsive bore due to the filmmaker's desire to make everyone incredibly unlikeable. I don't see any redeeming qualities to it." - auritech
27.16% High
"Absolutely loved it, batshit insane in every way. I usually hate when a movie is overstyled, but here it's so, so ridiculously grotesque, and it just doesn't stop this movie is a constant non-stop stream of insanity" - igormachete
20.3% Low
"The worst type of directing is this hyperactive shit where every gimmick in the book is arbitrarily spilled everywhere with no regard for any artistic coherence. Also that media "satire" is just embarrassing." - peyrin
#6.
Crash
26.32% High
"Cronenberg's masterpiece. An ultra-controlled, fetishistic look at a group of selfish, despicable people going to extreme and destructive lengths to feel alive. The cold eroticism and aesthetics are incredible, all the shiny metal and leather against deteriorating bodies and scarred flesh. The performances are equally beautiful, sad and disturbingly empty. Misunderstood and despised by pretty much everyone, which is a shame." - mattburgess
20.47% Low
"Almost unbelievably stupid. It's one extremely photogenic car crash after another, generally followed by an exposed tit, then sex, or some such ridiculousness. If there actually exists a tiny subset of the population that finds car crashes to be so highly erotic, an interview or two would have been a lot more illuminating." - Timon88
32.45% High
"An odd, stirring masterpiece with brilliant characters, storytelling, visuals and music." - Calexico
20.86% Low
"Let me start by saying that I watch a lot of sci-fi of all types or sub-genres. Normally I really enjoy futuristic films but this one had a real tough time keeping my attention. They set in 9 years in the future and things are so different, come on, really in 9 years! Good actors doing a fine job, personally just had had a hard time connecting with the script. Anyway, maybe I am remembering wrong as I watched this probably 15 years ago." - metalhank
#4.
Titanic
21.8% High
"The pitch: Let's inject a melodramatic fictional love story into a historic event where everyone knows the tragic outcome. Oh and lets also make it the most expensive film ever. This shouldn't work, but it does. Cameron's attention to historical detail is phenomenal on screen, and Leo and Kate make the melodrama work with their undeniable chemistry. It's become a timeless hollywood classic and one I enjoy every few years." - philamental
27.45% Low
"surely one of the most egregious wastes of celluloid ever. so many powerful stories on that fabled ship, any one of which could have made a movie for the ages, and we get... this? this trite and whiny 'love' story (really just an excuse for leonard to hump some nubile child without a trace of intellect or character) THAT NEVER EVEN HAPPENED? is it an example of the death of culture? or just another example of no one ever going broke underestimating the taste of the american public? a: yes." - mtackabery
22.03% High
"Don't ask me why I love this movie, I just do. If the perfect score I've given it f**ks up all my TCIs, so be it. If on death row and given the chance to watch one last movie before being executed, yes, I would choose this over the Shawshank Redemption, 2001 A Space Odyssey, and Mad Max Beyond Thunderdome." - Kojiless
22.63% Low
"Incompetent directing, poor cinematography, illogical and jingoistic story, atrocious dialogue, bad casting and even worse acting. Even the art direction and costume design are horrible. An all around bad movie and my pick for the single worst effort ever put to film." - jwest
#2.
Gummo
34.4% High
"This is a highly experimental film, that challenges its viewer immensely. Inventive. Truly a love it or hate it... and I said that about Julien Donkey-Boy too. That's what Harmony does." - Obdurate
22.06% Low
"At the end of all time, when the apocalypse comes and the 4 horse men arrive, mankind will ask "What terrible act did we commit, to bring about our end? Nuclear war? Global warming?" and the horse men will reply "Last night we watched Gummo"" - Teario
