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 1985 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 Nov. 29, 1985, and we’re off to see Rocky IV and Santa Claus: The Movie.
Rocky IV
The Cold War brought out some odd bits of entertainment, and this film definitely ranks up here on the weird meter.
Rocky (Sylvester Stallone) is still on top of the boxing world, but a new challenger from Russia, Ivan Drago (Dolph Lundgren) is going to turn the boxing world on its ear. Before he can get to Rocky, however, Apollo Creed (Carl Weathers) comes out of retirement to make the biggest mistake of his life.
Stallone wrote, directed, and starred in this entry in the series, and it just did not work. In its relatively short run time of 91 minutes – there is a director’s cut of 93 minutes – you are treated to three montage sequences. I know the 1980s loved a montage, but this was most definitely over-the-top.
I don’t know what Stallone was going for here, but it misses on nearly every possible benchmark.
Santa Claus: The Movie
Not only does this movie give Santa an origin story, but it gives him a rival as well.
Santa (David Huddleston) is a woodcutter in the Middle Ages when he and his wife Anya (Judy Cornwell) seemingly die in a blizzard while trying to take gifts to needy children. Suddenly, the universe picks him to become the Santa Claus we know today when they are rescued by elves. Patch (Dudley Moore) wants to modernize toy production, but when things go wrong he heads into the human world and gets roped into working for an evil toy company run by B.Z. (John Lithgow), and it almost ends in tragedy for everyone.
This movie wasn’t well-received in the U.S, but has become a beloved tradition in the U.K. I’m not going to say it’s a ‘good’ movie, but it’s entertaining. The sets in the North Pole are truly amazing and make you wonder how much of the budget went to them alone. Huddleston makes a good Claus, and Moore seems perfect for the role of a driven elf.
It’s not great, but it’s fun and mildly entertaining. Oddly enough, it’s directed by the same person who directed Supergirl. At least this film is watchable.
1985 Movie Reviews will return on Dec. 6, 2025, with Fool for Love, Runaway Train, Spies Like Us, and Young Sherlock Holmes.
