Angelina Jolie remains one of the biggest movie stars of her era, despite appearing less and less frequently on screen over the years, and it was in the '90s that she made it known not just how big of an icon she was, but how talented an actress as well. The daughter of Academy Award winner Jon Voight and the late actress, Marcheline Bertrand, Angelina Jolie was always destined for something big in Hollywood. After an early role in Lookin' to Get Out alongside her father, Jolie began her career in earnest in the early '90s.

Her first major role came in the 1993 low-budget sci-fi film Cyborg 2, but she continued gaining roles even after that flop. Every year, Jolie seemed to get a touch more skillful and competent until she was nominated at some of the biggest awards ceremonies toward the end of the decade. The '90s were filled with tabloid news about Jolie and her famous relationships, but what often gets forgotten in her celebrity is the wide range of underrated Angelina Jolie performances, many of which came in the 1990s.

10 Cyborg 2 (1993)

Angelina Jolie Plays Casella "Cash" Reese

Cyborg 2, Angelina Jolie's first foray into acting after a decade away from the business, is the second film in the low-budget science fiction franchise and has all the over-the-top violence, poor visuals, and ridiculous plotting that the low-budget science fiction world is generally known for. In Cyborg 2, Jolie stars as Casella "Cash" Reese, a cyborg built to perform assassinations and other forms of espionage.

However, after learning her creators intend to blow her up inside a rival company's headquarters, she turns on her inventors and fights to survive. As she tries to find out the origins of her creation and live long enough to destroy her enemies, she begins to fall in love with another cyborg, Colt-45 (Elias Koteas). While there's not much to redeem the film, and it was enough of an embarrassment to keep Jolie from auditioning for a year, her willingness to continue after, signaled Jolie's determination in the face of setbacks (via MadeInAtlantis).

9 Playing God (1997)

Angelina Jolie Plays Claire

In Playing God, David Duchovny stars as Dr. Eugene Sands, a talented surgeon who has his license revoked after operating while under the influence of stimulants. Drowning his sorrows in a bar, mob boss Raymond Blossom (Timothy Hutton) decides to hire him as a mob doctor after seeing him perform a life-saving operation at the bar. While working for the mafia, Eugene begins a secret romance with Raymond's wife, Claire (Angelina Jolie).

However, the three main actors do an excellent job in their respective roles and Jolie and Duchovny have good chemistry.

It's a fairly paint-by-numbers crime thriller with one or two twists and, for the most part, doesn't provide anything new. However, the three main actors do an excellent job in their respective roles and Jolie and Duchovny have good chemistry. Surprisingly, the usually icy Jolie plays the role of a mob wife a bit too warmly, and it's clear she was still trying to find the right tone in her acting.

8 Pushing Tin (1999)

Angelina Jolie Plays Mary Bell

Pushing Tin is a Mike Newell-directed comedy-drama starring John Cusack as Nick Falcone, an air traffic controller who has a rivalry with a fellow employee, Russell Bell (Billy Bob Thornton). The pair's rivalry is inflamed when Nick sleeps with Russell's wife, Mary (Angelina Jolie) after the two spend a night together. Nick, unsure of how Russell will retaliate, begins to suspect his coworker is sabotaging him, and it's only a crisis that finally brings everyone together.

Jolie's role is a fairly thankless one and is loosely written and somewhat shallow. Even so, she manages to bring some pathos and emotion to the character, even when she's weeping over plants for seemingly no reason. Jolie rarely phones in a performance, and it would have been easy to do so here. Instead, she turns a nothing character into an interesting performance.

7 Foxfire (1996)

Angelina Jolie Plays Margaret "Legs" Sadovsky

Foxfire sees Angelina Jolie costarring as Margaret "Legs" Sadovsky, a teenage drifter who takes shelter inside a high school one night. There she meets Madeline "Maddie" Wirtz (Hedy Burress), a senior hoping to take it easy her last year of highschool. Intrigued by Legs, Maddie and her friends, Rita (Jenny Lewis), Goldie (Jenny Shimizu), and Violet (Sarah Rosenberg) take her advice and stand up to a teacher who has been sexually harassing them.

Their confrontation goes awry, and they are all forced to run away. Hiding out together, the girls form a close friendship and engage in acts of rebellion as responses to their buttoned-up and unfair lives. Legs is not an exceptionally novel character, but Jolie imbues her with life and strength, which makes it clear why the other girls trust her. Burress may be the narrator of the film, but Jolie makes the movie hers.

6 The Bone Collector (1999)

Angelina Jolie Plays Amelia Donaghy

Based on the 1997 novel of the same name by Jeffrey Cleaver, The Bone Collector follows the quadriplegic homicide detective Lincoln Rhyme (Denzel Washington) who has just been paired with a rookie patrol woman, Amelia Donaghy (Angelina Jolie). When Amelia stumbles upon a serial killer's crime scene, she and Lincoln team up to catch the murderer before more bodies pile up.

Amelia Donaghy is named Amelia Sachs in The Bone Collector series of novels.

The Bone Collector is sometimes closer to a slasher film than a hardboiled detective movie and many of the plot twists and circumstances are just a bit too absurd to take it entirely seriously. Fortunately, the acting is not the problem at all in The Bone Collector, and Jolie's work as the fresh-faced but talented officer works perfectly alongside Washington's defeated veteran detective. Jolie does a lot of work to make sure the film's goofiness stays fun and not boring.

5 Hackers (1995)

Angelina Jolie Plays Kate Libby/"Acid Burn"

While Hackers may not be the finest movie Angelina Jolie has ever been a part of, there's little doubt that her main role as Kate "Acid Burn" Libby in the cult hit is what elevated Jolie to a new plateau in Hollywood. Hackers follows a group of high school amateur hackers who compete against one another to upend the parts of the government and financial systems that they see as oppressive. When they discover a criminal conspiracy, they put their hacking abilities to use for the greater good.

Produced during the onset of the internet and increasing interest in hacking and the cyberpunk subculture, Hackers is an extremely dated movie that could really use a reboot. However, the cheesiness of the hacking and misunderstanding of what the internet would be is a part of the movie's charm. Furthermore, Jolie's performance as Kate is winning both as a sort of action star and a romantic lead, an early example of a dual role she would excel at often in the future.

4 Playing By Heart (1998)

Angelina Jolie Plays Joan

In Playing by Heart, Angelina Jolie co-stars as Joan in this comedy-drama about an ensemble of seemingly unrelated characters whose stories wind up having some interesting connective tissue. The film follows the burgeoning or failing romances of several characters played by an all-star cast, including Ellen Burstyn, Dennis Quaid, Sean Connery, and Gillian Anderson. Joan has just gone through a breakup and is interested in starting something new with a man she meets at a club.

Jolie is a particular stand-out in the cast, showing some real and powerful growth despite limited screen time.

It's a delightful, and criminally underseen, film, and watching each storyline unfold on each other until the finale, has a satisfying puzzle-box feel to it. Jolie is a particular stand-out in the cast, showing some real and powerful growth despite limited screen time. It's a warm and fulfilling movie and Jolie is a key part of making sure the story holds up.

3 George Wallace (1997)

Angelina Jolie Plays Cornelia Wallace

The first of two TV movies Angelina Jolie appeared in, in the 1990s, George Wallace is a biopic about the complicated American political figure, George Wallace (Gary Sinise), the 45th governor of Alabama. Angelina Jolie co-stars as Wallace's second wife, Cornelia Wallace. The film follows Wallace's rise in politics and his staunch opposition to integration, a platform exemplified by his notorious quote uttered during his inauguration, "...I say segregation now, segregation tomorrow, segregation forever."

George Wallace also examines his later life, surviving an assassination attempt, and his seeming regret regarding the racism that marked much of his past. Jolie won a Best ing Actress Golden Globe for her performance and was nominated for an Emmy in the same category. It was the first major recognition of Jolie, who plays the hot-tempered Cornelia with energy and humanity.

2 Girl, Interrupted (1999)

Angelina Jolie Plays Lisa Rowe

Winona Ryder stars in the beloved drama Girl, Interrupted as Susanna Kaysen, a high school student who experiences a nervous breakdown after overdosing on aspirin and Adderall. She's sent to Claymoore, a local psychiatric hospital, where she meets other girls her age, each trying to learn to cope with a mental or behavioral disorder. One of these girls is Lisa Rowe (Angelina Jolie), a diagnosed sociopath who has been at the hospital the longest and frequently tries to escape.

Lisa becomes close friends with Susanna and a few other girls and invites them on her attempts to escape. Despite her constant lies and manipulative behavior, Susanna does care for her friends, and Jolie's performance is heartbreaking in how close she brings Susanna to making some sort of real connection for once in her life. It's one of Jolie's most intense and beautiful performances, and it earned her a SAG, Golden Globe, and Academy Award in the Best ing Actress categories.

1 Gia (1998)

Angelina Jolie Plays Gia Carangi

A TV movie for HBO, Gia is a biopic about Gia Carangi, played by Angelina Jolie, widely considered to be the first supermodel. Gia follows the model's rise from unknown to superstar, but the loneliness of celebrity life begins to take its toll and Gia begins experimenting with cocaine and heroin. She also falls in love with a make-up artist, Linda (Elizabeth Mitchell), but their ionate affair is broken off after Linda makes Gia choose between her and her drugs.

It's an entirely uninhibited performance by Jolie, who gives the character everything she has in one of her most complete roles.

Jolie was nominated for an Emmy in the Best Lead Actress category and won a Golden Globe and a SAG in the same category for her performance. It's an entirely uninhibited performance by Jolie, who gives the character everything she has in one of her most complete roles. She completely disappears in the role and even in Gia's most thrilling moments, Angelina Jolie gives her character weight and sadness that's as moving as it is heartbreaking.