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 Feb. 7, 1986, and we’re off to see F/X.
F/X
Oh no, I actually had fun watching one of these movies! Thank goodness, we’ve been on a bit of a bad run recently.
Roland “Rollie” Tyler (Bryan Brown) is a leading special effects artist working on the biggest films of the day. He’s approached about a new job, which turns out to be a government operation to help a mob boss enter the witness protection program. Sadly, things aren’t quite as straightforward as they seem, and Rollie must rely on his special effects tricks to save himself.
At its core, F/X relies heavily on the tropes of past noir films, but it adds a fun skin of Hollywood technology through its special effects angle. The effects are nothing amazing to be sure, but the concept alone is enough to add something that really hadn’t been seen before.
The story, while fairly predictable, is a fun romp with an engaging cast. And it has Brian Dennehy in it, which always makes for a good time.
There is nothing in this to make it an essential taste of the 80s, but it’s just a darn fun movie.
1986 Movie Reviews will continue on Feb. 14, 2026, with The Delta Force, Quicksilver, and Wildcats.
