Welcome to an exciting year-long project here at The Nerdy. 1986 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.
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 1986 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 1986 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 April 11, 1986, and we’re off to see 8 Million Ways to Die, Crimewave, and Violets are Blue.
8 Million Ways to Die
The 1980s made several runs at trying to capture the essence of film noir, and this is one of the attempts that fails miserably.
Matt Scudder (Jeff Bridges) is an alcoholic Los Angeles Sheriff’s Deputy who gets thrown off the force after shooting a man attacking another cop with a bat (somehow Scudder was in the wrong for not letting the other deputy to be beat to death?). After getting himself into Alcoholics Anonymous, he is invited up to a party where he quickly gets entangled in a drug and prostitution ring that will see to the deaths of multiple people as Scudder tries to reclaim his life.
It’s not a good movie. It’s frankly a bit of a mess with some atrocious dialog thrown in as well. (There is one line that made my jaw drop that I sadly can’t run here, but it was just one of many bad lines.)
There is no doubt the film was trying to merge the feeling of a classic film noir with the rising Miami Vice style of the time, and it didn’t succeed at either of them.
A complete misfire that you can easily skip.
Crimewave
Sam Raimi directing from a script by the Coen Brothers should be amazing, but then the studio got involved.
Victor Ajax (Reed Birney) is on his way to be executed, but before that can happen he makes a last ditch effort to clear his name to the prison officials. It seems Victor was indeed framed for a murder he did not commit, and only a car full of nuns who took a vow of silence can clear his name.
Something felt horribly off in this movie, and I went and looked it up. Sure enough, the studio decided Raimi couldn’t edit the film and we ended up with a muddle mess of a story. That being said, there are some lovely shots in the film, and the Coen brother’s fingerprints are all over the story, albeit greatly mangled by the editing.
There are times you can feel a studio abusing its position, and this one felt it all the way through. Good for Raimi, Bruce Campbell, and Coen Brothers completists only, and absolutely no one else.
Violets are Blue
Oh good, another 1980s movie were we are supposed to be rooting for people who are cheating.
Gussie (Sissy Spacek) comes back to her hometown after becoming a famous photojournalist. She runs into her old flame, Henry (Kevin Kline) who is now married with a teenage son. It’s impossible for them to avoid their old feelings and almost immediately begin an affair.
I am quickly tiring of this trend in the 80s films, and this one in particular is pretty egregious. Henry tells Gussie the only reason he is married to Ruth (Bonnie Bedelia) is because her got her pregnant. Ruth clearly loves him more than he does her, and I think somehow that is supposed to excuse everyone’s behavior.
I love Kline and Spacek, but I hated every minute of this movie.
1986 Movie Reviews will continue on May 2, 2026, with Blue City, Jo Jo Dancer, Your Life Is Calling, No Retreat, No Surrender, and Saving Grace.
