Looking back at the 1990s, it’s easy to remember the big commercial hits (“Jurassic Park,” “The Matrix”) and the critical darlings (“Pulp Fiction“) that helped shape the movies made — and the way we’ve looked at them — since then. It’s also fun to think about the films that grew and evolved in intervening decades, from “Shawshank Redemption” to “Friday,” to become not just favorites, but cornerstones of our collective movie-watching diets.

And then, of course, there are the movies that we just sadly do not think about enough, if we think about them at all. Not just obscurities or lesser works that somehow got overshadowed, but those star-studded studio movies that sometimes seem forgotten — and certainly go under-appreciated — as time moves on and more movies arrive on screen. Prompted by a visit to Dad’s chest of dusty videotapes, we thought we’d showcase a list of just a few of the movies that we think deserve to be discussed a lot more often.[/nextpage][nextpage]

‘Carlito’s Way’ 1993

Brian De Palma’s reunion with Al Pacino bettered their “Scarface” collaboration with this story of a Puerto Rican gangster whose lawyer (a seldom-better Sean Penn) asks to be repaid for getting him out of prison by participating in a scheme that could land him in the morgue. Incredible performances and David Koepp’s vibrant script are brought together by De Palma for what is probably his most emotionally engaging film.[/nextpage][nextpage]

‘Dave’ 1993

Future “Hunger Games” and “Ocean’s 8” helmer Gary Ross wrote this delightful nugget of realism for director Ivan Reitman about a Presidential impersonator forced to take over when the real Commander-in-Chief falls ill. Kevin Kline is effortlessly folksy as the common sense-wielding stand-in, while Sigourney Weaver once again commands the screen as the First Lady he helps rediscovering her passions — both political and personal.[/nextpage][nextpage]

‘Deep Cover’ 1992

Predator” star Bill Duke directed this gritty, stylized thrilled about an undercover cop (Laurence Fishburne) and the drug dealer (a deliciously unhinged Jeff Goldblum) whose organization he’s trying to infiltrate. Featuring a soundtrack assembled in part by Dr. Dre (including Snoop Doggy Dogg’s first recorded verse), the film remains a sadly hidden jewel among those made during the “New Jack” renaissance of the early ‘90s.[/nextpage][nextpage]

‘Defending Your Life’ 1991

Few films have ever captured the inescapable and hilarious struggle with our own neuroses better than Albert Brooks’ story of a man who dies and is forced to revisit a lifetime of questionable choices (and inevitable humiliations) in a cosmic “weight station” between Earth and the next spiritual plane. An irresistibly effervescent performance by Meryl Streep provides a perfect counterpoint to Brooks’ neuroses, while Rip Torn plays his “attorney” and sometime guide to a world I really hope exists where you can eat and sleep all you want and never feel bad or gain a single ounce

(Excerpt) Read More at: Moviefone.com[/nextpage]