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 28, 1986, and we’re off to see Lucas and The Money Pit.
Lucas
Raise your hand if you love extremely heavy-handed symbolism.
Lucas Blye (Corey Haim) is an outcast at school who is seemingly content following his own pursuits. One day, while out looking for bugs, he comes across newly transplanted student Maggie (Kerri Green), who is slightly older, but he is immediately smitten with her. Over the following weeks before the school year begins, the two become close friends, which clearly means more to Lucas. Once school begins, Maggie catches the eye of Cappie Roew (Charlie Sheen), who happens to have a soft spot for Lucas, and the three of them try to learn how to co-exist.
This movie takes every chance known to man to beat you over the head with the symbolism of transformation. The majority of this is done through Lucas’s obsession with the 17-year lifecycle of the locusts currently in his area.
I would love to know who cast cicadas as the “locusts,” and it’s cicadas that have a 17-year cycle, not locusts. Every time this film referred to them as ‘locusts’ while clearly showing a cicada, a part of me died.
From the heavy-handed metamorphosis/transformation symbolism, to not even being able to get facts about your main symbol of the film’s story correct, this film really did nothing but annoy me.
The Money Pit
What happens when you purchase a house, and nothing goes right? You get The Money Pit.
Walter Fielding, Jr. (Tom Hanks) and his girlfriend, Anna Crowley (Shelley Long) buy their dream house when they are kicked out of Anna’s ex-husband’s apartment. The house seems to be too good to be true, and it is. What follows is every slapstick scenario you can think of as the two try to save the house and their relationship.
The only time I think I laughed during the whole run time is when Walter falls in the hole and can’t yell due to his constricted chest. Otherwise, I found the film was just trying far too hard for the return I was getting from it.
It’s always interesting to see Hanks in these parts before he became the huge star the world knows, but it’s certainly not worth watching beyond that.
1986 Movie Reviews will continue on April 4, 2026, with April Fool’s Day.
