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.
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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 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 Jan. 3, 1986, and we’re off to see Head Office.
Head Office
Imagine a comedy without much comedy.
Jack Issel Jr. (Judge Reinhold) has just graduated from school and is immediately thrust into a cut-throat corporate culture. He quickly finds himself climbing the corporate ladder as everyone he is supposed to work for keeps dying. And the higher he climbs, the more soulless he realizes the whole structure is.
The movie starts out strong with Danny DeVito and Rick Moranis appearing, but it turns out those both amount to cameos. If either of them was on set for more than a day I would be amazed.
Reinhold is not a leading man. While he was enjoyable in films such as Fast Times at Ridgemont High and Beverly Hills Cop, asking him to try to carry a lackluster commentary on the growing corporate culture of the 1980s just wasn’t in his wheelhouse.
There’s a reason this one was dropped in January when no one cared if it existed.
1986 Movie Reviews will continue on Jan. 10, 2026, with Black Moon Rising.
