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 July 25, 1986, and we’re off to see Haunted Honeymoon, Heartburn, Maximum Overdrive, and Out of Bounds.
Haunted Honeymoon
With a cast this stacked, the final result is a bit unforgivable.
Larry Abbot (Gene Wilder) and Vickie Pearle (Gilda Radner) are the leads of a hit radio show in the 1930s, and they’re about to be married. For their wedding they travel to the Larry’s great-aunt Kate’s (Dom DeLuise) house where the family is gathering. Not only are they there for the wedding,b ut to confront the curse that has followed the family for years.
The film was directed by Wilder, and while it had a guffaw here or there, I never found it to be as funny as one would expect with this type of cast.
It’s harmless, if somewhat disappointing in its tepidness.
Where to watch: Available to stream.
Heartburn
For a film billed as a romantic comedy, it’s a bit short of both ingredients.
Rachel Samstat (Meryl Streep) is a writer based in New York who meets Washing D.C. political columnist Mark Forman (Jack Nicholson) and immediately falls for him. Forman has a reputation for being single, but he is taken with Samstat as well and the two marry and buy a home in D.C. in need of a lot of work. As the story goes on, though, it seems that Forman can’t quite seem to give up his old ways.
The film was based on Nora Ephron’s semi-autobiographical novel about her marriage to Carl Bernstein. Once you know that, the pace of the story makes quite a bit more sense.
Considering how personal this story was to Ephron it feels a bit low to criticize it too harsly, but it’s clear even she wasn’t quite sure which direction to take the story.
Where to watch: Available to stream.
Maximum Overdrive
AC/DC really did a lot of lifting here.
The Earth passes through the tail of a rogue comet and will remain there for a week. Suddenly, machines of all kinds come to life and begin to kill off humans. From simple remote controlled cars to semi trucks, all of them come to life and begin a reign of terror on the human race.
In the 80s, this film was a huge hit on home video, but not so much in the theater. Everyone and their brother rented the film and watched it multiple times. If only we had realized it was the AC/DC soundtrack selling us on it.
Watching it now, this movie is just a load of nonsense. It’s mildly entertaining, but you have to completely turn your brain off as to why certain machines act the way they do, or how things that have no mechanical parts find a way to move. Yes, I specifically mean the M-60 machine gun on the turret. There is no reason that should be able to turn.
It’s worth a watch for how huge it was in the 80s on home video, but don’t expect it to make a ton of sense.
Where to watch: Available to stream.
Out of Bounds
Make sure to take note of everything that happens in the first 15 minutes, because all of it is setup.
Daryl (Anthony Michael Hall) leaves Iowa to visit his brother in Los Angeles. But when they pick up the wrong bag at the airport, Daryl suddenly finds himself wanted by the law and drug dealers. He turns to Dizz (Jenny Wright), a woman he met on the plane, and the two of them try to clear his name and get him out of this situation.
This is a tool in writing called “Chekhov’s gun.” The idea is that if the audience is shown something early in the story, then it has to play a role later in the story. The first 15 minutes of this film is nothing but “Chekhov’s gun” moments. It borders on insane how many things you see that you just know are going to come back to play a role in some way.
The film is silly and contrived. I can’t possibly recommend it to anyone.
Where to watch: Available to stream.
1986 Movie Reviews will continue on Aug. 1, 2026, with Friday the 13th Part VI and Howard the Duck.
