The nineties was a decade known for its cynicism, but it still produced some epic romances, like Titanic. But the genre also delivered some duds too.

After the sentimental warmth and flashy pop of 80s movies, 90s movies captured the nihilism and too-cool-for-school attitude of Generation X with much more cynical fare like Fight Club and Reality Bites. This put love stories in a tough spot, because romance requires writers to be earnest and emotional, but the social climate called for the exact opposite.

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Naturally, the 90s brought some terrible movie romances, just as any decade does, but it also brought some great ones. Oddly enough, one of the greatest 90s love stories came from the mind of Quentin Tarantino. Here are the five best and five worst romance movies from the 90s.

It can be easy for a movie like Groundhog Day to use its high-concept premise as a crutch and fall into clichs, but Danny Rubins masterfully crafted screenplay remains inspired and story-minded in every single scene.

A lot of movie romances dont give their characters a reason to fall in love, which ends up ringing false, but in Groundhog Day, getting stuck reliving the same day forces Bill Murrays curmudgeonly character Phil Connors to grow as a person and learn from his mistakes as he tries to woo Andie MacDowells Rita Hanson.

Alec Baldwin and Kim Basinger fell in love on the set of The Marrying Man, and according to reports from the set, it made them both a nightmare to work with. Baldwin threw temper tantrums in which he broke equipment around the set and Basinger refused to do more than one take on any scene (so its no wonder her performance was nominated for a Razzie).

This movies screenplay is credited to Neil Simon, one of the greatest comedy writers who ever lived, which is confusing because the finished movie is entirely devoid of wit and humor.

Tony Scott brought Quentin Tarantinos script for True Romance to the screen as a masterpiece. The only changes the director made to Tarantinos original script were linearizing the story and switching out the tragic ending for a happy one.

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The movie combines a pulpy crime tale with a gripping love story about an escort who falls for her first client. They steal some cocaine from her pimp and head to Hollywood to sell it. Christian Slater and Patricia Arquette have fantastic chemistry in the lovable lead roles.

Mickey Rourke returned to the role of John Gray from Adrian Lynes 9 Weeks in 1997 for a sequel called Love in Paris (or Another 9 Weeks, as its called in some markets).

The first 9 Weeks movie at least got some excitement out of its erotic overtones; in the sequel, the eroticism falls flat and, against all odds, grows boring.

Cameron Crowes Jerry Maguire starts off as the story of a sports agent, played by Tom Cruise, who leaves his firm and tries to break out on his own, struggling to get anyone to go with him. But the film morphs into a love story when he falls for Rene Zellweger.

Jerry Maguire is the source of some of the most romantic quotes in movie history, including You had me at hello.

Sandra Bullock and Ben Affleck have each starred in plenty of bad romantic comedies in their time, so it came as no surprise when they paired up for a romcom and it was reallybad.

The plot of Forces of Nature stumbles from scene to scene and Bullock and Affleck dont have a dash of chemistry.

Robert Zemeckis Forrest Gump is about a lot of things. Throughout the title characters life, we get a Disney-fied take on major milestones in 20th century American history the Vietnam War, the Watergate scandal, the Black Panther Party, the rise of Apple, the HIV crisis etc. but at the heart of it all is Forrests love for Jenny.

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Its not a particularly great romance, since Jenny leads on Forrest for decades and only has pity sex with him when shes got an incurable STD, but the fact that Forrests adoration gets him through incredibly tough times is heartwarming.

As the story of two teenage cousins going through puberty alone and falling in love, the first Blue Lagoon movie was pretty creepy, but it was a masterpiece compared to the sequel.

In Return to the Blue Lagoon, Milla Jovovich and Brian Krause star as two new characters who similarly get stranded on a tropical island, come of age, and fall in love. Somehow, it was even worse the second time around.

James Cameron reportedly only made Titanic so that Fox executives would pay for him to dive down and look at the remains of the shipwreck, but for a movie made to fund a hobby, its a cultural landmark.

Cameron uses foreshadowing brilliantly as Leonardo DiCaprio and Kate Winslet fall in love, headed toward an inevitable tragedy that only the audience knows is coming.

Nathaniel Hawthornes The Scarlet Letter is one of the most classic works of literature ever written. Unfortunately, the same cannot be said of this 1995 adaptation, which deviated wildly from the source material, and not for the better.

The only way to enjoy this version of The Scarlet Letter is to view it as an unintentional comedy. Taken as a parody of the classic story, its hilarious.

NEXT:The 5 Best (& 5 Worst) 2000s Romance Movies

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Ben Sherlock is a writer, filmmaker, and comedian. In addition to writing for Screen Rant and CBR, covering a wide range of topics from Spider-Man to Scorsese, Ben directs independent films and takes to the stage with his standup material. He's currently in pre-production on his feature directorial debut (and has been for a while, because filmmaking is expensive). Previously, he wrote for Taste of Cinema and BabbleTop.

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