I just got up to get some water and a thought entered my brain.

I’m part of the first generation that has grown up being able to watch almost any movie anytime we want. We had a VCR and could record movies that showed on Encore or ABC—we even had a VCR that would “mark” commercials and fast-forward through them. We could rent any movie any time. As I’ve gotten older, it has become easier to watch movies that just came out or have been out for years thanks to Netflix, Hulu and some thousands of peers friends across the globe. As I moved into the work-place discussions constantly sprang up that would begin with “You haven’t seen __________!? How could you have grown up in the 80s without seeing that?”

But, the thought that really got me was that so many movies that have come out—or will come out—before or during my kids childhood that will fit that bill for them. A co-worker will look at one of them and say with astonishment, "You haven’t seen __________!? How could you have grown up in the 10s without seeing that?“ And that question will carry the same weight that it has regarding the movies that were unmissable for me as a kid—which will be nowhere near the top of their new list.

That means that it is my duty, as a loving and caring father, to make sure that I not only keep up to date on current cult classics, but educate my children in the movies of the 80s that are not to be missed. So far I’ve done a decent job; they’ve seen Flight of the Navigator, and I plan on introducing them to The Princess Bride in a few years. But what I’m missing are movies from the 90s & 00s that are not to be missed, so, I’m taking suggestions to add to the list.

If you could recommend 1-3 movies from the 90s or 00s that would surprise you had someone not seen them, what would they be? I’m not talking great cinematography or anything like that (so no Godfather or Citizen Kane—look at the movie posters for genre ideas), just great movies that you grew up on that need to be on the list.

(Of course this means that if any movie that comes out in the next 10 years meets the same criteria, you have to tell me about it too.)