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 March 21, 1986, and we’re off to see Just Between Friends, Police Academy 3: Back in Training, and RAD.
Just Between Friends
Apparently, everyone loves Ted Danson.
Holly Davis (Mary Tyler Moore) is happily married to seismologist Chip Davis (Ted Danson). One night after aerobics class she meets Sandy Dunlap (Christine Lahti) and they become fast friends. What Holly doesn’t realize is, that Chip is having an affair with Sandy. When Chip dies in a car accident, the two women lean on one another for support, although Holly doesn’t know for some time about the affair. Once she learns, things become even more complicated when it turns out Sally is pregnant with Chip’s baby. How will the two women move forward?
You will never convince me that there isn’t a version of this script somewhere that ends with Holly and Sandy in a relationship. There are multiple times in this film, before the revelation of the affair, that I was positive the affair was going to be between the two women.
The film starts off with a lot of promise, only to squander it with some horrible pacing. It lingers far too long at certain parts, and then fails to expand other issues that feel far more important. Additionally, the film’s timeline makes no sense. At some points, you feel a significant amount of time has passed, and then you realize it was about a week.
There was a lot of potential here, and all of it was wasted.
Police Academy 3: Back in Training
I have no clue how these movies kept making money, but somehow they did.
The governor has announced that due to budget constraints, one of the two police academies in the state will need to shut down. In an effort to help out Commandant Eric Lassard, the familiar band of misfits returns to the academy to help train the next crop of recruits and prove which academy should stay open.
Off a budget of $12M, this film grossed $107M globally, and for the life of me, I can not figure out how that many people saw this film. I didn’t laugh once during this ‘comedy.’ Absolutely nothing is close to funny. It’s all played over the top and feels like something from a time long before even the 1980s.
The fact that I have to watch another one of these next year is already filling me with dread.
RAD
It’s time to enter the thrilling world of BMX racing.
Cru Jones (Bill Allen) has a dream of being a top BMX racer and his dream gets a little closer when “Hell Track” is announced to be coming to his town for a major competition. What Cru doesn’t realize is the world of BMX has gone very corporate, and there is little room for an unknown to make his way in and upset the financial ecosystem of the top riders. Cru ends up having to navigate a Hell Track of another type as he tries to earn his way into the competition.
This movie flopped at the box office, but it found a massive life in video rentals and cable showings for years to come. It ended up being a top rental for two years, making it a cult classic by any standard of measure.
There is not one original moment in this film, but it’s not necessarily ‘bad.’ (It’s also not ‘rad.’) It’s just your basic kid-takes-on-the-system story, but this time it seems to be a mostly made-up system.
1986 Movie Reviews will continue on March 21, 2026, with Just Between Friends, Police Academy 3: Back in Training, and Rad.
