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 June 13, 1986, and we’re off to see Back to School, Ferris Bueller’s Day Off, The Manhattan Project, Mona Lisa, and Never Too Young to Die.
Back to School
The number of times I’ve thought about Dangerfield in the business class over the years should be studied.
Thornton Meloni (Rodney Dangerfield) is a successful businessman, but he never went to college. After deciding to divorce his wife, he goes to visit his son (Keith Gordon) at school and discovers life isn’t going as well as he said. He decides to enroll school with him and they can get through it together.
The film is pretty straightforward, and doesn’t break any new ground. But what it does do is showcase Dangerfield in what I feel is one of his strongest performances. He doesn’t stray too far from his character in Caddyshack, but somehow it’s more believable this time around.
It’s a fun movie, and worth giving a watch.
Where to watch: Available to stream.
Ferris Beuller’s Day Off
Do I even really need to write about this one?
Ferris Bueller (Matthew Broderick) really wants a day off from school, and he will do whatever it takes to make it happen. He fakes sickness, forces his best friend, Cameron (Alan Ruck), to come and get him, and sets up an elaborate plan to get his girlfriend, Sloane (Mia Sara), to join them. They then spend what could be Ferris’ last skip day ever, living life to the fullest around Chicago.
It’s difficult to explain what an impact this film had on kids in school at that time. Even in my small town, there were people wearing homemade “Save Ferris” shirts. No matter what someone says about this film, it is essential viewing on any 1980s film journey.
That being said, as an adult, the logistics of this day make zero sense. How they fit everything in makes no sense, but at the same time, you still root for them to do even more.
The film was written and directed by John Hughes who was coming off a tremendous run with Sixteen Candles, Breakfast Club, and Pretty in Pink. And while this film is still a comedy, there is something quite a bit deeper here than in his other films. There is a sadness, a melancholy, that adulthood is waiting, and everyone needs one last day off.Yea
Where to watch: Available to stream.
The Manhattan Project
Don’t you hate it when you build a nuclear bomb in your spare time?
Dr. John Mathewson (John Lithgow) has developed a new way to obtain weapons grade plutonium. When he starts making it at scale, he also starts dating Elizabeth Stephens (Jill Elkenberry). Her super intelligent son, Paul (Christopher Collet), is less than thrilled. When he figures out what he’s up to, he and his girlfriend Jenny (Cynthia Nixon) plot to steal some and use it in his science fair project. Things go south from there.
It’s fine. It’s not exactly breaking any new ground and it just feels very much like a movie that exists to fill a screen for a week or two. You’re not missing anything if you miss it.
Where to watch: Available to stream.
Mona Lisa
Sometimes there are great performances in search of a great script, and this is one of those times.
George (Bob Hoskins) is just out of prison, and he’s looking for work with his old criminal partners. They don’t seem to excited to give him work, but make him a driver for one of their upper class escorts, Simone (Cathy Tyson). As the two continue to work together, they grow closer, and George comes to question his entire life up to this moment.
Hoskins and Tyson are fantastic in this film. It led to Hoskins only Academy Award nomination, and it’s clear why he received it. This is a layered performance, but, sadly, the plot never lives up to what he and Tyson brought to it.
Where to watch: Available to stream.
Never Too Young to Die
I had never heard of this movie before I watched it for this project, and… wow.
Velvet Von Ragnar (Gene Simmons) is a gang leader set on poisoning the city water supply, only one thing stands in his way: Drew Stargrove (George Lazenby). An undercover operative estranged from his son, Lance (John Stamos), he has spent years taking down bad guys across the world. Now Ragnar wants the computer disc he stole so he can carry out his plan, and ends up killing Drew to get it. Enter Lance who quickly learns what his dad, and has to quickly step into his shoes. Now teamed up with Danja Deering (Vanity), the two will try to stop Ragnar’s plan.
This movie is a mess. A complete mess.
And somehow it crosses over into amazing. Who knew you needed to see Gene Simmons in drag? I sure didn’t know.
Where to watch: Available to stream.
1986 Movie Reviews will continue on June 20, 2026, with Legal Eagles and The Karate Kid Part II.
