Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (1990)

For many years, the highest grossing independent film of all time at the North American box office was the big screen debut of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (1990). While the amphibian martial artists had been rocking the worlds of comic books, cartoons, and action figures for several years prior, the original live action flick was the signal that the Turtles had finally become pop culture icons. Rather than going through the motions of your typical comic book origin story, the film picks up with Leonardo, Donatello, Raphael, and Michelangelo already fully trained and battling with the evil Foot Clan and their wicked leader Shredder. When intrepid reporter April O'Neil (Judith Hoag) runs afoul of the Foot Clan, Raphael brings her back to their sewer lair where they live with their sensei, a giant rat named Splinter. The gang also meets up with hockey masked vigilante Casey Jones (Elias Koteas), who teams up with the Turtles several times throughout the film to take down their enemies. While it's not exactly the most groundbreaking genre flick ever made, the film's Jim Henson Workshop created puppet suits are a marvel for the time and the film is also infinitely better than the increasingly ridiculous—and more family friendly—sequels and Michael Bay produced reboots that followed. Though she was replaced as April in the sequels, Judith Hoag was definitely at the forefront of a lot of geeky kids' sexual awakenings thanks to bringing tons of sex appeal to the role... not to mention a smoking hot scene where she goes braless while only wearing a flimsy tank top! That'll have you screaming, "Cowabunga!"