Films of 1996
by martengisby | created - 2 weeks ago | updated - 2 weeks ago | Public- Instant Watch Options
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1. Trainspotting (1996)
R | 93 min | Drama
Renton, deeply immersed in the Edinburgh drug scene, tries to clean up and get out despite the allure of drugs and the influence of friends.
Director: Danny Boyle | Stars: Ewan McGregor, Ewen Bremner, Jonny Lee Miller, Kevin McKidd
Votes: 725,740 | Gross: $16.50M
2. Fargo (2014–2024)
TV-MA | 60 min | Crime, Drama, Thriller
Various chronicles of deception, intrigue, and murder in and around frozen Minnesota. All of these tales mysteriously lead back one way or another to Fargo, North Dakota.
Stars: Billy Bob Thornton, Martin Freeman, Allison Tolman, Colin Hanks
Votes: 421,988
3. Pusher (1996)
Not Rated | 110 min | Crime, Thriller
A drug pusher grows increasingly desperate after a botched deal leaves him with a large debt to a ruthless drug lord.
Director: Nicolas Winding Refn | Stars: Kim Bodnia, Zlatko Buric, Laura Drasbæk, Slavko Labovic
Votes: 44,559 | Gross: $0.00M
4. Breaking the Waves (1996)
R | 159 min | Drama
Oilman Jan is paralyzed in an accident. His wife, who prayed for his return, feels guilty; even more, when Jan urges her to have sex with another.
Director: Lars von Trier | Stars: Emily Watson, Stellan Skarsgård, Katrin Cartlidge, Jean-Marc Barr
Votes: 71,575 | Gross: $4.04M
5. Mission: Impossible (1996)
PG-13 | 110 min | Action, Adventure, Thriller
An American agent, under false suspicion of disloyalty, must discover and expose the real spy without the help of his organization.
Director: Brian De Palma | Stars: Tom Cruise, Jon Voight, Emmanuelle Béart, Henry Czerny
Votes: 470,360 | Gross: $180.98M
6. From Dusk Till Dawn (1996)
R | 108 min | Action, Crime, Horror
Two criminals and their hostages unknowingly seek temporary refuge in a truck stop populated by vampires, with chaotic results.
Director: Robert Rodriguez | Stars: Harvey Keitel, George Clooney, Juliette Lewis, Quentin Tarantino
Votes: 340,695 | Gross: $25.75M
7. The Hunchback of Notre Dame (1996)
G | 91 min | Animation, Drama, Family
A deformed bell-ringer must assert his independence from a vicious government minister in order to help his friend, a gypsy dancer.
Directors: Gary Trousdale, Kirk Wise | Stars: Demi Moore, Jason Alexander, Mary Kay Bergman, Corey Burton
Votes: 171,698 | Gross: $100.14M
8. Secrets & Lies (1996)
R | 136 min | Comedy, Drama
Following the death of her adoptive parents, a successful young black optometrist establishes contact with her biological mother -- a lonely white factory worker living in poverty in East London.
Director: Mike Leigh | Stars: Timothy Spall, Brenda Blethyn, Phyllis Logan, Claire Rushbrook
Votes: 47,191 | Gross: $13.42M
9. The Cable Guy (1996)
PG-13 | 96 min | Comedy, Drama, Thriller
A designer makes a grievious mistake when he rejects the friendship of a borderline cable guy.
Director: Ben Stiller | Stars: Jim Carrey, Matthew Broderick, Leslie Mann, Jack Black
Votes: 178,116 | Gross: $60.24M
10. The Frighteners (1996)
R | 110 min | Comedy, Fantasy, Horror
After a tragic car accident that kills his wife, a man discovers he can communicate with the dead, and he uses that gift to con people. However, when a demonic spirit appears, he may be the only one who can stop it from killing the living and the dead.
Director: Peter Jackson | Stars: Michael J. Fox, Trini Alvarado, Peter Dobson, John Astin
Votes: 95,507 | Gross: $16.76M
11. The Rock (1996)
R | 136 min | Action, Adventure, Thriller
A mild-mannered chemist and an ex-con must lead the counterstrike when a rogue group of military men, led by a renegade general, threaten a nerve gas attack from Alcatraz against San Francisco.
Director: Michael Bay | Stars: Sean Connery, Nicolas Cage, Ed Harris, John Spencer
Votes: 358,197 | Gross: $134.07M
12. Crash (1996)
NC-17 | 100 min | Drama
After getting into a serious car accident, a TV director discovers an underground sub-culture of scarred, omnisexual car-crash victims who use car accidents and the raw sexual energy they produce to try to rejuvenate his sex life with his wife.
Director: David Cronenberg | Stars: James Spader, Holly Hunter, Elias Koteas, Deborah Kara Unger
Votes: 66,380 | Gross: $2.04M
13. Scream (1996)
R | 111 min | Horror, Mystery
A year after the murder of her mother, a teenage girl is terrorized by a masked killer who targets her and her friends by using scary movies as part of a deadly game.
Director: Wes Craven | Stars: Neve Campbell, Courteney Cox, David Arquette, Skeet Ulrich
Votes: 388,484 | Gross: $103.05M
14. Romeo + Juliet (1996)
PG-13 | 120 min | Drama, Romance
Shakespeare's famous play is updated to the hip modern suburb of Verona still retaining its original dialogue.
Director: Baz Luhrmann | Stars: Leonardo DiCaprio, Claire Danes, John Leguizamo, Harold Perrineau
Votes: 244,818 | Gross: $46.35M
15. The Hunters (1996)
R | 113 min | Crime, Thriller
A Stockholm cop moves back home to his brother near Norway and Finland. He investigates out of control reindeer poaching. He confiscates rifles with no permits. Everybody, even his brother and local cops, are against him. Things escalate.
Director: Kjell Sundvall | Stars: Rolf Lassgård, Lennart Jähkel, Jarmo Mäkinen, Tomas Norström
Votes: 9,419
16. The Long Kiss Goodnight (1996)
R | 121 min | Action, Crime, Drama
Samantha Caine lives in a small town with her daughter. Eight years ago she emerged, two months pregnant, from a nearby river with no memory of her past or who she is. However, she's getting closer to finding out about her past.
Director: Renny Harlin | Stars: Geena Davis, Samuel L. Jackson, Yvonne Zima, Craig Bierko
Votes: 85,678 | Gross: $33.33M
17. Primal Fear (1996)
R | 129 min | Crime, Drama, Mystery
An altar boy is accused of murdering a priest, and the truth is buried several layers deep.
Director: Gregory Hoblit | Stars: Richard Gere, Laura Linney, Edward Norton, John Mahoney
Votes: 247,110 | Gross: $56.12M
18. The Craft (1996)
R | 101 min | Drama, Fantasy, Horror
A newcomer to a Catholic prep high school falls in with a trio of outcast teenage girls who practice witchcraft, and they all soon conjure up various spells and curses against those who anger them.
Director: Andrew Fleming | Stars: Robin Tunney, Fairuza Balk, Neve Campbell, Rachel True
Votes: 107,736 | Gross: $24.88M
19. Space Jam (1996)
PG | 88 min | Animation, Adventure, Comedy
In a desperate attempt to win a basketball match and earn their freedom, the Looney Tunes seek the aid of retired basketball champion, Michael Jordan.
Director: Joe Pytka | Stars: Michael Jordan, Wayne Knight, Theresa Randle, Manner Washington
Votes: 213,498 | Gross: $90.46M
20. Sleepers (1996)
R | 147 min | Crime, Drama, Thriller
After a prank goes disastrously wrong, a group of boys are sent to a detention center where they are brutalized. Thirteen years later, an unexpected random encounter with a former guard gives them a chance for revenge.
Director: Barry Levinson | Stars: Robert De Niro, Kevin Bacon, Brad Pitt, Jason Patric
Votes: 237,580 | Gross: $49.10M
21. One Fine Day (1996)
PG | 108 min | Comedy, Drama, Romance
The lives of two strangers and their young children unexpectedly intersect on one hectic, stressful day in New York City.
Director: Michael Hoffman | Stars: Michelle Pfeiffer, George Clooney, Mae Whitman, Alex D. Linz
Votes: 48,520 | Gross: $46.15M
22. Kingpin (1996)
PG-13 | 114 min | Comedy, Sport
A star bowler whose career was prematurely "cut off" hopes to ride a new prodigy to success and riches.
Directors: Bobby Farrelly, Peter Farrelly | Stars: Woody Harrelson, Randy Quaid, Bill Murray, Vanessa Angel
Votes: 91,078 | Gross: $24.94M
23. Lilla Jönssonligan och cornflakeskuppen (1996)
90 min | Comedy, Family
The young Jönssonligan's plan to steal "millions of filmisar" faces problem after problem before uncovering something much greater.
Director: Christjan Wegner | Stars: Kalle Eriksson, Jonathan Flumee, Fredrik Glimskär, Jonna Sohlmér
Votes: 1,721
24. Matilda (1996)
PG | 102 min | Comedy, Family, Fantasy
A girl gifted with a keen intellect and psychic powers uses both to get even with her callous family and free her kindly schoolteacher from the tyrannical grip of a sadistic headmistress.
Director: Danny DeVito | Stars: Danny DeVito, Rhea Perlman, Mara Wilson, Embeth Davidtz
Votes: 174,619 | Gross: $33.08M
25. The Pallbearer (1996)
PG-13 | 98 min | Comedy, Romance
A young man's life is thrown into a loop when he is asked to be a pallbearer for the funeral of a classmate he doesn't remember, and his old high school crush temporarily returns to town.
Director: Matt Reeves | Stars: David Schwimmer, Gwyneth Paltrow, Michael Rapaport, Toni Collette
Votes: 11,598 | Gross: $5.61M
26. Happy Gilmore (1996)
PG-13 | 92 min | Comedy, Sport
After his grandmothers house is repossessed by the IRS, bad tempered hockey player takes his talents to golf to earn the big bucks and get his grandmothers house back.
Director: Dennis Dugan | Stars: Adam Sandler, Christopher McDonald, Julie Bowen, Frances Bay
Votes: 248,605 | Gross: $38.62M
27. The Fan (1996)
R | 116 min | Action, Drama, Sport
An all star baseball player becomes the unhealthy focus of a down on his luck salesman.
Director: Tony Scott | Stars: Robert De Niro, Wesley Snipes, Ellen Barkin, John Leguizamo
Votes: 51,412 | Gross: $18.57M
28. The Nutty Professor (1996)
PG-13 | 95 min | Comedy, Romance, Sci-Fi
Grossly overweight yet good-hearted professor Sherman Klump takes a special chemical that turns him into the slim but obnoxious Buddy Love.
Director: Tom Shadyac | Stars: Eddie Murphy, Jada Pinkett Smith, James Coburn, Larry Miller
Votes: 123,680 | Gross: $128.81M
29. Mars Attacks! (1996)
PG-13 | 106 min | Comedy, Sci-Fi
Earth is invaded by Martians with unbeatable weapons and a cruel sense of humor.
Director: Tim Burton | Stars: Jack Nicholson, Pierce Brosnan, Sarah Jessica Parker, Annette Bening
Votes: 243,553 | Gross: $37.77M
30. Jingle All the Way (1996)
PG | 89 min | Adventure, Comedy, Family
A father vows to get his son a Turbo Man action figure for Christmas. However, every store is sold out, and he must travel all over town and compete with everybody else in order to find one.
Director: Brian Levant | Stars: Arnold Schwarzenegger, Sinbad, Phil Hartman, Rita Wilson
Votes: 116,155 | Gross: $60.57M
31. Independence Day (1996)
PG-13 | 145 min | Action, Adventure, Sci-Fi
The aliens are coming and their goal is to invade and destroy Earth. Fighting superior technology, mankind's best weapon is the will to survive.
Director: Roland Emmerich | Stars: Will Smith, Bill Pullman, Jeff Goldblum, Mary McDonnell
Votes: 605,704 | Gross: $306.17M
32. The Phantom (1996)
PG | 100 min | Action, Adventure, Comedy
The Phantom, descendent of a line of African superheroes, travels to New York City to thwart a wealthy criminal genius from obtaining three magic skulls which would give him the secret to ultimate power.
Director: Simon Wincer | Stars: Billy Zane, Kristy Swanson, Treat Williams, Catherine Zeta-Jones
Votes: 35,818 | Gross: $17.30M
33. Flirting with Disaster (1996)
R | 92 min | Comedy
A young man, his wife, and his incompetent case worker travel across country to find his birth parents.
Director: David O. Russell | Stars: Ben Stiller, Patricia Arquette, Téa Leoni, Mary Tyler Moore
Votes: 19,996 | Gross: $14.89M
34. 101 Dalmatians (1996)
G | 103 min | Adventure, Comedy, Crime
An evil high-fashion designer plots to steal dalmatian puppies in order to make an extravagant fur coat but creates an extravagant mess instead.
Director: Stephen Herek | Stars: Glenn Close, Jeff Daniels, Joely Richardson, Joan Plowright
Votes: 117,568 | Gross: $136.19M
35. Phenomenon (1996)
PG | 123 min | Drama, Fantasy, Romance
An ordinary man sees a bright light descend from the sky, and discovers he now has super-intelligence and telekinesis.
Director: Jon Turteltaub | Stars: John Travolta, Kyra Sedgwick, Forest Whitaker, Robert Duvall
Votes: 83,815 | Gross: $104.64M
36. Michael (1996)
PG | 105 min | Comedy, Drama, Fantasy
Two tabloid reporters checking out a report of the Archangel Michael living with an old woman find that it's true. But that's not the only surprise.
Director: Nora Ephron | Stars: John Travolta, Andie MacDowell, William Hurt, Bob Hoskins
Votes: 45,083 | Gross: $95.32M
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