1995 MTV Movie Awards | Past Movie Awards | Awards Show Highlights and Winners | MTV.com

1995 MTV Movie Awards

In case you ever doubted the ferocity of MTV’s kung-fu grip on the pulse of America, consider this: In 1995, a string of immortal blockbusters were introduced to the world. Pulp Fiction , Forrest Gump , The Shawshank Redemption , True Lies and Nell (you remember… Tayyyy in the wiiiiind?). And despite that glut of brilliance, true greatness still rose to the top and took a mind-blowing five prizes at the 1995 MTV Movie Awards. And doubters, that epic destroyer of a movie, nay, film, was Speed , the movie that did to driving slow on the highway what Jaws did to the water.

Yes, much to the dismay of MTV Movie Awards co-hosts Jon Lovitz and Courteney Cox, the king of 1995 was Keanu Reeves and Sandra (though we call her Sandy) was his queen. But our brave hosts pressed on and pulled off a hilarious skit about how Lovitz couldn’t land any leading roles in Hollywood movies because, like opera sensation Luciano Pavarotti, he’s fat! But who isn’t?

Speaking of fat musicians, before he had his stomach stapled, John Popper and Blues Traveler threw their weight around at the 1995 MTV Movie Awards, where they performed their hit single “Run Around.” Maybe you don’t remember it because back then there were no free mp3s. Backing them up were TLC who did “Waterfalls,” The Ramones who reunited to play an improvised medley of Best Song From A Movie nominees and Boyz II Men who accidentally melted 200 chicks in the audience with “Water Runs Dry.”

The survivors had the great fortune of watching Quentin Tarantino make the following amazingly timely and hilarious joke: “Pop quiz, hot shot! What do you do when you’ve been going to award show after award show all year long, and keep losing to Forrest Gump ?” Us: What, Mr. Tarantino? “You go to the MTV Movie Awards!” Kinda rude, huh?

But whatever. We’re not mad. We got to hang backstage with Best Male Performance winner, Brad Pitt ( Interview With The Vampire ), get tickled by Best Comedic Performance winner, Jim Carrey ( The Mask , though also nominated for Dumb And Dumber ) and trade psych ward stories with Dennis Hopper who was the year’s Best Villain (you guessed it, Speed). Not bad, huh? What did you do in 1995? Say your first word? Was it Keanu?