Welcome to an exciting year-long project here at The Nerdy. 1985 was an exciting year for films giving us a lot of films that would go on to be beloved favorites and cult classics. It was also the start to a major shift in cultural and societal norms, and some of those still reverberate to this day.
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We’re going to pick and choose which movies we hit, but right now the list stands at nearly four dozen.
Yes, we’re insane, but 1985 was that great of a year for film.
The articles will come out – in most cases – on the same day the films hit theaters in 1984 so that it is their true 40th anniversary. All films are also watched again for the purposes of these reviews and are not being done from memory. In some cases, it truly will be the first time we’ve seen them.
This time around, it’s February 1, 1985, and we’re off to see Heavenly Bodies.
Heavenly Bodies
Who’s ready to dance? Or Exercise? Or… dancexercise?
Samantha (Cynthia Dale) has had it with her day job, and she strikes out with two friends to set up their exercise studio called Heavenly Bodies. Almost instantly, Samantha is a hit for her teaching style, and quickly, she’s seeing massive success and even lands a daily exercise TV show and a gig training a football team as well. As one would suspect, everyone falls for her, and an evil gym chain tries to put her out of business, so the movie climaxes with an exercise marathon to see what club has the better clients.
No, I didn’t have a fever dream while I wrote that up. Why do you ask?
It feels like this film was trying to cash in on a bit of Flashdance – as pointed out by Samantha admiring a poster of the film – as well as the exploding aerobics and exercise crazes of the 80s. But the issue is there just wasn’t enough story here. Every time it could it would break into a dance sequence or more exercise. It just eats up more and more time with scenes like this.
I’ve seen worse movies, but not by much. It’s just mind-numbing and pointless and makes you question if you’re hallucinating what is happening on screen.
1985 Movie Reviews will launch on February 8, 2025, with Heaven Help Us, Lust in the Dust, Mischief, and Witness!
