Every Arnold Schwarzenegger ’90s Movie, Ranked

After a notoriously terrible leading man debut in Hercules in New York in 1970, Arnold Schwarzenegger later debuted in the movie industry in full via his supporting role in Stay Hungry in 1976. Then, with the massive success of the documentary Pumping Iron, Hollywood started to get the gist that he could be a true movie star. And, as the ’80s proved, that’s exactly what he is. Conan the Barbarian, The Terminator, Commando, Predator, The Running Man, Red Heat, Twins, these movies all did well with critics, with audiences, or both. The 1990s did nothing to dissuade the industry of this notion, as he continued to be a hugely bankable movie star, even if his output wasn’t quite as solid in terms of consistency.

The ’90s saw him return to comedy after Twins. Sometimes it worked, sometimes it didn’t. It also saw him continue to embrace leading man action material, as well as a sci-fi classic and one of the very best sequels ever made. It was a good decade for him. The question is, which examples of his ’90s output rose above the remainder?

10) Junior

As was seen before Junior, Schwarzenegger is no slouch in the comedic timing department. He directed an episode of Tales from the Crypt, for goodness’ sake. He does, in fact, understand comedy.

But man is Junior unbearable. Whenever it tries to make a point about how men should understand what women are going for during pregnancy it undoes the poignancy with dumb jokes. It also made the cardinal error of being a reteaming of DeVito and Schwarzenegger (and Ivan Reitman) and wasting their chemistry. At the end of the day, a movie about Arnold Schwarzenegger getting pregnant was never going to work. That idea should never have moved beyond the few polite chuckles it got at the group pitch session.

9) End of Days

At least End of Days tried to be different. Even more than Predator, this is Schwarzenegger’s stab at a horror film.

Unfortunately, it’s an avert the apocalypse movie that never firmly grips its own ambition. Gabriel Byrne’s casting as the Devil was inspired, but having an Omen-esque cult narrative and a typical Schwarzenegger rogue cop actioner direction in the same movie just don’t gel.

Stream End of Days on Prime Video.

8) Jingle All the Way

Schwarzenegger made two very different movies in 1996. Jingle All the Way is the more popular of the two thirty years later, but it’s not the better of the two.

Schwarzenegger again shows himself capable of working well with comedic material, but it doesn’t hold a candle to his two good collaborations with Ivan Reitman. None of the characters are likable, even Schwarzenegger and Phil Hartman’s, the tone is very much kid-focused (plenty of kids movies also work for adults, this isn’t one of them), and its look at Tickle Me Elmo-esque mad-dash capitalism isn’t as incisive as it thinks.

Stream Jingle All the Way on Disney+.

7) Last Action Hero

Some people really like Last Action Hero. More power to them, but it really is just too much. It’s hard to find oneself getting pulled into its world because the tone is perpetually leaping from one corner of the room to another.

It all comes across as a passion project of Shane Black’s that had yet to fully gel into one coherent vision. It’s more like he had a bunch of different mini points to make and a few set pieces in his mind and said, “Good enough, toss ’em together.” Every movie needs to have its own set of laws if it exists outside our reality. Last Action Hero exists outside our own reality, yet it never establishes its rules. If we can’t even get on its page on that level, there’s no way we’re going to appreciate its attempts at industry commentary.

6) Batman & Robin

Last Action Hero was basically trying to be a so-bad-it’s-good movie. Some like it, but it really is just flat-out bad. Batman & Robin wasn’t necessarily trying to be so-bad-it’s-good (it was more or less just trying to sell toys) but it’s the one that pulled that off with flying colors. So many colors.

Batman & Robin really is one of the definitive so-bad-it’s-good movies, at least now that some time has passed since its 1997 release. Since then, we’ve gotten three Christopher Nolan movies and one similarly serious Matt Reeves movie that have helped lift the stink off its silliness. At this point it just stands out in the pack, as opposed to being the hugely disappointing conclusion to the initial Batman movie saga that started out so well under the guidance of Tim Burton.

Stream Batman & Robin on HBO Max.

5) Eraser

Eraser was basically the last really good Arnold Schwarzenegger solo action leading man vehicle, hovering between the classic era and the post-politics 2010s era. His attempts at this prior to winning the election in 2003, The 6th Day and Collateral Damage, fell far short of Eraser.

Even still, that’s not to call this one high art. It’s just a lot of fun. You have gators chomping on bad guys at the New York City Zoo, you have James Caan chewing scenery as the villain, and you have rail guns that make vehicles fly through the air. It’s good stuff. Good, silly stuff.

4) True Lies

Yes, True Lies was a lot better back in the ’90s and 2000s than it is now. These days it doesn’t look so great, from its treatment of Jamie Lee Curtis’ character to its xenophobic depiction of Arab cultures and twelve-year-old Eliza Dushku’s alleged assault by the film’s stunt coordinator (who never again worked on a James Cameron film but did work on later Schwarzenegger and Curtis movies).

Even still, in spite of its problematic elements and its status as low tier Cameron, it’s still a bombastic and energetic movie. It also has a few key set pieces, including but not limited to Schwarzenegger riding a horse through a crowded mall. Not to mention, Bill Paxton knocked his slimy role out of the park.

Stream True Lies on AMC+.

3) Kindergarten Cop

Kindergarten Cop is one of Schwarzenegger’s favorite movies he ever starred in, and it’s not hard to see why. Up until this point, he had mostly starred in darker, more violent fare. Conan the Barbarian, The Terminator, Predator, Commando, they all apply. The big exception was Twins, which saw him partner with Danny DeVito and comedic director Ivan Reitman to great effect.

Two years after that came Kindergarten Cop, and like Twins it was a bit of a risk. And, also like Twins, it gets away with it (unlike Junior). When it came to Twins, the chemistry between the two leads superseded its ludicrous premise while, here, Schwarzenegger’s surprising adeptness at working with children helps the film coast even when it’s facing the tricky task of walking between its sillier jokes and the very serious topic of a dangerous father trying to kidnap his own son.

Stream Kindergarten Cop on Netflix.

2) Total Recall

Paul Verhoeven’s Total Recall is a product of both its time and a unique vision. Hollywood needs to stop trying to remake Verhoeven films, because not one auteur out there can merge sci-fi, action, and cultural commentary better than him.

It’s also a great display of Schwarzenegger’s range. We see him inhabit the roll of a man who is unsatisfied with his life. We see him become his typical action hero self. We see him play a villain. He covers a wide range here, and his performance is never anything but perfectly modulated in an excessive Verhoeven world.

Stream Total Recall on fuboTV.

1) Terminator 2: Judgment Day

Terminator 2: Judgment Day, like Aliens, is the gold standard of sci-fi actioners. It’s also the gold standard of movie sequels, regardless of genre.

Usually when a movie is cited for being a major step forward in special effects, that means that the special effects are the best aspect of the project as a whole. That doesn’t bode well for the more important elements of narrative construction. Not so with Judgment Day. We get higher stakes, a larger scope, an endearing dynamic between the rewired (as it were) T-800 and John Connor, organic development of Sarah Connor, and a dynamite villain. This is how you expand a movie that already worked exceedingly well.

Stream Terminator 2: Judgment Day on MGM+.

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