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 Jan. 31, 1986, and we’re off to see The Best of Times, Down and Out in Beverly Hills, Power, and Youngblood.
The Best of Times
There was so much potential here, and so much of it was squandered by a wildly uneven script.
Jack Dundee (Robin Williams) is haunted by a pass he dropped in a high school football game, thrown to him by Reno Hightower (Kurt Russell). Now he has an idea that they can restage the game and try to gain back not only his dignity, but that of the town as well.
Williams and Russell make an engaging duo and I would have gladly watched more of them… just not in this film. The basic premise of the film was fine, but it just felt as though it wasn’t entirely sure where it wanted to go or what it should focus on. The filmn is carried solely on the strength of the costars, and makes for a fine time waster, but don’t expect it to leave a lasting impression on you.
Down and Out in Beverly Hills
I don’t think anyone understood the excess of the 1980s quite like those who were living in it.
Dave (Richard Dreyfuss) and Barbara Whiteman (Bette Midler) find a homeless man, Jerry Baskin (Nick Nolte), trying to drown himself in their pool after losing his dog. They take him while he recovers, and he ends up changing not only their lives, but also those of their children and the maid. He shows them that what they hold dear are the silliest things they could be concerning themselves with.
Oh, yes, and Jerry also sleeps with every woman in the house.
The film is equal parts farce, societal commentary, and straight comedy. All of the cast shines, and while you don’t particularly care for any of them as people, you still find yourself engaged by all of them.
It is interesting how quickly Hollywood was becoming self-aware of how silly the decade was. This isn’t the first time we’ve seen them hit the nail on the head, but they really went all out for this one.
Power
This is another film that had multiple good ideas, but didn’t understand that they didn’t all belong in the same film.
Pete St. John (Richard Gere) is a high-powered media consultant for politicians, and with election season coming up he is in demand by multiple candidates. Meanwhile, one of his oldest clients, Sam Hastings (E.G. Marshall), is not running for re-election, and St. John suspects there is more at play than just a man wanting to retire.
The film does a good job of showing how the manipulation of the public is shockingly simple, but it doesn’t trust that to be enough to engage the audience and muddies the waters with political intrigue that is just completely unnecessary. There was plenty of story just following St. John’s career and the headaches of a political campaign, and there was simply no reason to bring in all of the nonsense about the blackmail of the senator’s wife.
And don’t even get me started on the over-the-top aspects of St. John’s office.
Youngblood
Sometimes farm kids just want to run off to Canada and play hockey and get sexually assaulted by their landlady.
Dean Youngblood (Rob Lowe) is an aspiring hockey player that goes to tryout for a minor league team in Canada. He gets signed and immediately gets hazed by the team, including star player Derek Sutton (Patrick Swayze), and, of course immediately falls for the coach’s daughter, Jessie (Cynthia Gibb). But will the team win the all-important championship?
Of course they do.
But let’s talk about what is one of the truly oddest scenes I’ve experienced in some time. Once Youngblood is signed, he goes to a boarding house used by a lot of the team members run by Miss McGill (Fionnula Flanagan). On his first day there she brings him tea and shows him her collection of hockey player cards… and then lets it be known she has slept with all of them and essentially tackles Youngblood and then we get all the usual indications of sex happening without actually seeing it.
Oh yes, by the way, the character is supposed to be 17.
The 80s sure were a decade, weren’t they?
1986 Movie Reviews will continue on Feb. 7, 2026, with F/X, The Delta Force, Knights of the City, and Quicksilver.
