I just caught Point Break on cable recently, you know the film where a young Keanu Reeves (post Bill & Ted but pre-Speed and Matrix) is an FBI agent going undercover to get bank robbing surfers.  Patrick Swayze is this adrenline rush guru Bodhi that doesn't act like the conventional bad guy.

You know what struck me about this film?  It's from 1991, but it looks and feels very 90s.  A lot of times some flicks and TV shows from the early 90s, especially 1990 and '91 still have real 1989 asthetic and feel to them.  '91 is a year that is often "less late 80s" then truly 90s, but then here is Point Break.  It just feels so 90s and that was weird to me considering it came out in 1991, the same year so many other late 80ish looking movies came out.  The guys all have this grungy look to them, and it just looks like it came out in 1995, rather then 1988 or 1989, which a lot of 1991 flicks tend to do.

Why do you think this was?  I mean 1991 was a year were so many dudes still ran around wearing those god awful mullets, and some people still wore tight acid washed jeans and white high top sneakers---all more 1988/'89.  My guess is because since it concentrated on surfers and the culture of adrenline rush "cool people" they picked up on all the latest styles and everything that was on the forefront of pop culture of 1991 that hadn't totally creeped into the mainstream yet.  It reminds of how American Gigolo from 1980 has a very 80s feel to it, as opposed to the more 70ish look that other early 80s films have. 

Any other early 90s flicks that look very 90s?       

I haven't seen "Point Break", but I always thought it was kinda a dated, 80esque movie.
Odd.  I've always seen 1991 as the "turning point" year between the '80s and '90s.

I always saw "Point Break" at our local Blockbuster and always passed it up. I guess I couldn't shake off his "Dirty Dancing" role apart from much else. Yet, I'd like to see this movie as it does sound good.

There are some movies that even came out in the 80's that seemed very 90's to me, too. Like when I saw "Fatal Attraction" for the first time in awhile, I was impressed that this movie was from 1987, although a lot of it seemed as if it could have been filmed in 1990 or 1991.

Point Break was good ..... remember watching that in university ......  A very 90's movie, or really a quinessential early 90's movie would have to be Singles though ..... awesome soundtrack too.  Even has bar/club scenes of grunge bands at the time (Alice and Chains I think).  Great show!!  Dyslexic Heart was a wicked tune that is on the soundtrack. 

^Yeah Singles is a very 90ish movie that comes from the early 90s, 1992 I believe.  Not everything from the early 90s was a holdover of the late 80s.

^Yeah Singles is a very 90ish movie that comes from the early 90s, 1992 I believe.  Not everything from the early 90s was a holdover of the late 80s.


No, of course not everything was.  You'd have to be an idiot to think 1992 and 1993 were '80s holdovers, in fact they're peak '90s.  1991 is kind of borderline, 1990 seems like pretty much the '80s but I can slight differences; even 1990 seems watered down compared to say the first half of 1989, although I see little real '90s stuff from 1990 except the dance music from that period and perhaps the New Jack Swing, although that's late '80s too.  1990 and most of 1991 seem simply "less late '80s" rather than truly '90s.  I know the '90s were obviously incoming in 1989-1991, but they weren't really there until late '91/1992.  Sort of like how 1980 wasn't really the '70s, but it was not the real '80s either. 

The only real exception for pre-1992 '90s would be slang, but even that seems to be more non-'80s rather than truly Nineties.

Also, I know that while far from mainstream, in 1990 and even late 1989 some people in the know did begin to wear flannel and such based on film I've seen, but it wasn't anywhere close to common until the fall of 1991 when it exploded into mainstream society overnight.  And fashion hasn't changed since  ;D

Yes, also Terminator 2, which also came out in '91, could totally pass for a new movie today, in my opinion. Or at least '99. Plus, in my opinion, Rocky IV (1985) and Summer School (1987), could easily pass for the early 90's. Summer School especially. It has a very early 90's "Saved by the Bell" vibe to it.