Our full lookback at Alien 3 is here.

15. Two Hands (1999)

It seems 1999 really was the year Heath Ledger broke through – this was the film that put him on the map in Australia and led to 10 Things I Hate About You. Two Hands is also a brilliant, if unknown, film in its own right, a tightly told crime thriller with a surreal edge, featuring Ledger as Jimmy, a small-time crook who ends up deep in debt to serious gangsters.

Ledger is a magnetic presence and carries the film, although he is ably supported by romantic interest Rose Byrne. The film undercuts its gritty, serious edge by having Jimmy’s dead older brother act as a zombie guardian angel throughout, firmly putting the film into tongue in cheek territory, but also playing up the realism of the grimier side of Sydney well. A searing soundtrack led by the mighty Powderfinger doesn’t hurt, either.

14. Strange Days (1995)

A gritty and frenetic cyber-punk story from Kathryn Bigelow, Strange Days is certainly flawed, but has enough ambition, thrills, and ideas to overcome its failings and become something of a minor triumph.

Set in a dystopian LA on the brink of the millennium, Ralph Fiennes plays Lenny Nero, an ex-LAPD officer now turned dealer in SQUID – recordings/memories taken directly from a person’s cerebral cortex and replayed via what is basically a MiniDisc (remember those?).

After receiving a warning from a SQUID client, and later a recording of her violent death, Lenny and his compatriots (Angela Basset and Tom Sizemore) are dragged into a conspiracy which threatens to tear the entire city apart. Visually bold and with striking performances, Strange Days paints a possible future world with frightening believability, and dazzles the viewer with high-concepts and physical filmmaking.

13. The Cable Guy (1996)

Following the massive successes of Ace Ventura and Dumb & Dumber, this dark comedy seemed for many to mark the first misstep in Jim Carrey’s career. With hindsight, however, it’s clear that far from being an end of a period, it actually heralds the next phase of comedy – the Judd Apatow years.

Produced and written by Apatow, and directed by Ben Stiller, The Cable Guy tells the story of nice guy Steven Kovaks (Matthew Broderick) whose life spirals out of control after he reluctantly befriends psychotic cable engineer Chip (Jim Carrey).

What follows is extreme act after extreme act, featuring highlights such as a fight at a medieval banquet, Carrey serenading a party with Somebody To Love, and an awkward family game of porno password. Also providing some of the funniest scenes is Ben Stiller in dual roles as a child star on trial.

Despite audiences’ initial discomfort with the dark tone, the fact that the biggest comedies today are far more extreme (think The Hangover) proves that The Cable Guy was simply ahead of its time.

12. The Game (1997)

The Game is one of those films that people often mention but seldom watch. Ask the average person to name David Fincher’s films, and it’s doubtful this would make their list. It is, however, exemplary and worthy of your attention.

A complex film within a film, the simple set-up of a rich man bored with his life becoming entangled in a game which may or may not be real acts as a launch-pad for Fincher to have a lot of fun. The Game rewards repeat watches in a way few films do, as each viewing offers new clues and perspectives on what is or is not reality for Michael Douglas’s lead character.

Douglas himself offers one of his finest performances, getting the audience to genuinely invest in a billionaire with the perfect life, and Fincher’s control of dramatic suspense, wit and pulp conventions is second to none. We revisited the film in more detail, here.

11. Tremors (1990)

Tremors is not just a horror-comedy to rival the likes of Evil Dead, I would also say that it kick-started one of the best horror franchises ever, yet one which rarely gets the true recognition it deserves. However, mention Tremors to anyone who’s seen it, and you’ll be engulfed with a wave of affection. Kevin Bacon leads the cast as a maintenance worker in the tiny town of Perfection, Nevada, whose tiny population of 14 come under attack from Graboids, a form of giant, deadly sand worms.

After building up the initial mystery, the film quickly becomes an inventive battle of survival between the townsfolk and Graboids, with some ingenious kills and ways of disposing of the monsters. Tremors’ main strength is the world it builds; despite its fantastical concept and wicked sense of humour, it never stretches credibility too far, and remains true to both its characters and concepts.

10. Stir Of Echoes (1999)

Oh look, it’s Kevin Bacon again. His work ethic is immense, as is his choice of film. Take this supernatural thriller, for instance. Initially dismissed as nothing more than a Sixth Sense rip off, due to a child’s ability to commune with the dead, it’s actually a creepy and effective murder mystery, which also lifts the lid on just what the most normal of people hide underneath the surface, and what they can do when pushed.

Bacon is, of course, superb as the family man who discovers that everything he thought he knew about the world is wrong, and his portrayal of obsession is on a level with Michael Shannon’s amazing performance in Take Shelter.

9. Office Space (1999)

Based on Mike Judge’s Milton cartoon series, Judge opted to go live-action instead when bringing Office Space to the screen, and the result is the on-the-nose comedy about the banality of everyday life in an office.

It takes the form of a loose series of sketches set in office cubicles, before a botched bout of hypnotherapy leads Ron Livingston’s Peter Gibbon to stop caring. The plot is slight, but that’s not really the point. Instead, the razor sharp script expertly spears target after target, whether it’s the ‘pieces of flair’ Jennifer Aniston’s waitress is forced to wear in order to promote her happy ‘individuality’, or the HR mistakes which lead to office worker Milton’s eventual breakdown.

You can easily imagine these things genuinely happening – indeed, most of what you see will be depressingly familiar to anyone who has worked in the corporate world, but the humour rescues it from being a horrible social-realist piece. Office Space is an enduring cult classic, referenced in everything from Family Guy to World of Warcraft.

Here’s our full lookback.

8. LA Story (1991)

This gets my vote for the best romantic comedy of the 90s, and possibly Steve Martin’s most underrated film. It’s not full of the comic excesses and highs of some of his work, but in LA Story he finely marries together the pathos, the surrealism, and the warm humour which made him the star he is.

Martin plays Harris K Telemacher, a TV weatherman in a dead-end relationship who begins to receive cryptic romantic advice from a freeway sign. Pursuing relationships with both a sophisticated British journalist, as well as an aspiring promotional model (a young Sarah Jessica Parker), it also charts the absurdity of living in LA, that most modern of cities, dedicated to the cult of celebrity we’ve built around ourselves, and a place where it’s very easy to be lonely.

Only the fact that LA Story contains three Enya songs counts against it.

7. Miller’s Crossing (1990)

Personally, I think this film should be on everyone’s list of favourite films, but time and time again I’m amazed by the amount of people, including Coen Brothers fans, who haven’t seen this masterpiece. Based loosely on the works of pulp writer Dashiell Hammett, this film noir set in Prohibition-era America details a power struggle between two rival gangs, in which Gabriel Byrne finds himself in the middle of.

Beautiful and elegiac, with a multi-layered plot, it’s handled with the assured confidence of filmmakers at the top of their game. The dialogue, much culled directly from Hammett himself, is whip-sharp and delivered with relish by the incredible cast, of whom stand-outs are Albert Finney, and Jon Turturro, who as bookie Bernie Bernbaum is probably at his very finest, with his scene at Miller’s Crossing, where he pleads for his life (“Look into your heart”), being an iconic stand-out. Perhaps the Coens’ finest work.

6. Pump Up The Volume (1990)

For all those many, many fans of Empire Records, I implore you to check this earlier effort from director Allan Moyles out as well. Mainly because – whisper it – it’s better. Christian Slater is outstanding as Mark Hunter, a loner at high-school who has a secret – he’s the host of a popular night-time pirate radio show.

Using a harmonizer to disguise his voice and going under the pseudonym of Happy Harry Hard-On, he is the mouthpiece of a disaffected youth. However, this influence soon proves so disruptive within the community that he faces a fight to stay on the air. With a generation-defining soundtrack (featuring Pixies and Soundgarden) propelling the film, it’s funny, sharp and has a genuine message of importance for its audience. It also captures the possibility of the 90s perfectly, freed from the ostentatious shackles of the 80s; this was Gen X’s time to shine, and to prove they had a voice and the will to use it.

Our more detailed lookback at the film is here.

5. Zero Effect (1998)

The directorial debut of Jake Kasdan, Zero Effect is a detective story with a difference. Bill Pullman plays Darryl Zero, the world’s greatest detective, but also a social misfit who cannot leave his house to meet clients. Instead, he employs an assistant, Steve Arlo, played by Ben Stiller, to carry out his work.

Based on the 1930s series Nero Wolfe, as well as the Sherlock Holmes story A Scandal In Bohemia, the plot details Zero investigating a mysterious blackmail case, where in fact the blackmailer may be the one who needs the help. Engaging, funny, and totally absorbing, Pullman and Stiller make a great crime fighting partnership, but one that is definitely modern, with all the pressures that entails.

Zero’s unique problem creates a real dramatic and intriguing puzzle for the writers to work round, but in fact it becomes the film’s strength.

4. Jackie Brown (1997)

I’m going to come out and say it: Jackie Brown may well be Quentin Tarantino’s best film. It’s certainly his most confident – the one and only time where he let the film tell its own story, free from any tricks or genre play. It was a shame that Jackie Brown was so poorly received, as it pushed Tarantino further down his pastiche/homage path, which is starting to veer into self-parody.

Based on the Elmore Leonard book Rum Punch, Jackie Brown is a twisting tale of a gangster’s money and the double-crosses that happen in order for people to get their hands on it. Reviving the careers of both Pam Grier and Robert Forster, it cemented Samuel L Jackson’s reputation as the coolest mutha on the planet (his Kangol hat look is iconic, as is his love for the AK-47).

It was a brave choice of project to follow up his masterpiece Pulp Fiction, and sadly was savagely compared to it – unfairly so. Give Jackie Brown another chance, and you won’t be disappointed.

3. A Simple Plan (1998)

This film proves that, with the right material, Sam Raimi is a masterful director, whatever the genre. The thriller concerns two brothers (Bill Paxton and Billy Bob Thornton) and their friend, who discover a crashed plane and $4.4 million in cash in rural America. Cue a series of cover-ups, arguments, murders and a deepening of the mystery of just where the money came from.

Complex and painfully tense, A Simple Plan gives nothing away, and wastes no scenes at all. Everything propels the taut narrative forward to its shocking, inevitable and satisfying ending, while at the same time fleshing out the characters so you genuinely care about their fates, even as they dig themselves deeper into a hole of their own making.

With this and The Gift, Sam Raimi showed the world he was a director of real substance, and not just a comic influenced horror kid.

2. Devil In A Blue Dress (1995)

An electric, powerful, neo-noir thriller from director Carl Franklin, Devil In A Blue Dress was a breath of fresh air in the detective genre upon release. While its plot about Denzel Washington’s rookie private eye was nothing new, the investigation of racial tension in post-war Los Angeles, the exploration of the importance of usually unheralded community ties, and the elegant direction of it all was something to make this film stand head and shoulders above the competition.

The visuals are incredible, proving once again why film is the transcendent visual medium, and how a picture can explore so much more than words. Rounding off the film, and truly cementing it as worthy of watching, is a tremendous performance from Don Cheadle as the homicidal Mouse, a friend of Washington’s who acts as a spark to the powder keg situation. He steals the film with his performance.

1. Ghost Dog: The Way Of The Samurai (1999)

Jim Jarmusch truly is a genius. Whether its directing post-modern black and white western Dead Man, or the metaphorical comedy-drama Broken Flowers, he brings care, detail, and above all talent to everything he does. Case in point is this incredible crime action thriller, which fuses together gangster and samurai movies, while also mixing themes of family, loyalty, duty and revenge amongst an incredibly high body count which just builds and builds.

Forest Whitaker is awesome as Ghost Dog, saved by mobster Louie, and therefore bound to him by the code of bushido. Caring only for his pigeons, he is betrayed by the mob and realises it is either them or him. As well as setting up an epic confrontation, the film also finds time for Ghost Dog to pass on his ethos to a new pupil, come to terms with his own choices, and have a life affirming friendship with a Haitian ice-cream salesman who doesn’t speak any English. Finally, it also features an all-conquering soundtrack from RZA, worthy of an article of its own, and one of the finest soundtracks of recent years.

Hopefully, there’s some films in there that you haven’t seen, that you’re tempted to give a try to. Leave your own suggestions in the comments below…