The following things happened in 1986:
- Spain and Portugal entered the European Community, forerunner of the EU.
- Great Britain and France announced plans to build the Channel Tunnel.
- The space shuttle Challenger disintegrated seconds after launch.
- Pixar Animation Studios was founded.
- The Soviet Union launched the Mir space station.
- Out of Africa won Best Picture at the Oscars.
- The Chernobyl Disaster occurred.
- Top Gun arrived in theaters.
- The Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) was founded in Taiwan.
Linked entries can be viewed in their entirety on YouTube.
Excellent
1. The Name of the Rose
Sean Connery hasn't always been the best when it comes to picking roles. For every Dr. No there's a First Great Train Robbery, for every Finding Forrester there's a League of Extraordinary Gentlemen. Fortunately 1986 was a good year for Connery, finding him in both this movie and Highlander.
The Name of the Rose is a murder mystery set in a medieval monastery, adapted from one of Umberto Eco's novels. In the novel the author definitely veers toward the pretentious, but it's probably the most accessible of Eco's many books. The movie does a great job of making this story even more accessible, and I'm tempted to say it's even better than the book that inspired it. Critics were not loving The Name of the Rose, but I enjoyed it immensely.
2. The Hitcher
A young man traveling cross-country encounters a psychopath. Rutger Hauer is great in this movie, and C. Thomas Howell more than holds his own. Critics at the time were put off by the violence in the film, but I think you'll find that it's aged nicely.
Klaus Maria Brandauer stars as a Russian immigrant training two American boxers. If you're wondering how Brandauer got such a big role in an American movie, it's because Mephisto was in American theaters around that time. You can see it on a marquee behind Meryl Streep in Heartburn (below).
Fun Fact: This was Wesley Snipes' second movie. His first screen appearance was in Wildcats the year before.
Some Good Ones
1. Labyrinth
Eh, it's alright. I always thought The Dark Crystal was better. Labyrinth is a mix of puppetry and actors, more along the lines of the muppets that made Jim Henson famous. Labyrinth was on cable all the time when I was growing up, but I've never felt that I liked it as much as I'm supposed to. I'm a huge Bowie fan, but something about Labyrinth always annoyed me.
Fun Fact: A sequel to this movie is in development, with Doctor Strange's Scott Derrickson already announced as director.
2. Down by Law
Jim Jarmusch again. In this one three men bond while in prison. I liked it a lot more than Stranger Than Paradise, which I also saw for the first time recently. Roberto Benigni, who plays the Italian convict, won the Academy Award for Best Actor in 1997.
3. Poltergeist II: The Other Side
I was never a big fan of the original, not even as a kid when I first saw it. Something about JoBeth William's histrionics always got under my skin. I'd suggest that those enshrining that movie in their memory go back and revisit it. It really is a little hammy.
The sequel? It's not bad, but of course you start to wonder how a family like this could return to any kind of normalcy after the things they've experienced. And since returning to normalcy is their primary goal, you start to wonder what the hell they're thinking half the time. This said, Poltergeist II is a solid movie, even though it takes a while to get going.
Not-So-Fun Fact: The actress that played the older sister in the first movie did not reappear in the sequel because she was murdered.
80s Like a Motherf**ker
1. Short Circuit
Like The Goonies, and like Kindergarten Cop, also filmed in Astoria, Oregon. I spent a lot of my early years in that town. Not sure why it pops up in several 80s movies, but seeing that bridge over the Columbia always brings a smile to my face.
Steve "Police Academy" Guttenberg and Ally "Breakfast Club" Sheedy star in this ultra-cheesy comedy about a robot that comes to life. It's a thoroughly, unrepentantly dumb movie, so much so that you end up liking it after a certain point. Oh, and the fascist guy from Police Academy is also in this as the Nova Laboratory's head of security.
Fun Fact: Director John Badham also directed Saturday Night Fever, Blue Thunder, WarGames and Stakeout.
2. The Wraith
Hard rock, drag racing and a supernatural car. Add to this mixture Charlie Sheen, ultrasexy Sherilyn Fenn and Randy Quaid as the town sheriff. The studio involved was marketing hard toward the MTV generation, even though The Wraith (and its soundtrack) never achieved the level of popularity they were hoping for.
3. Transformers: The Movie
This movie is as hyperactive as the 7-12 year olds it was aimed at. The plot:
See, there's this sentient planet, and in the Transformers universe a sentient planet isn't enough of a threat so this sentient planet CAN TRANSFORM INTO A FUCKING ROBOT and then Optimus Prime and Megatron fight and Optimus Prime gets killed and Megatron almost gets killed but is instead deposed by the other Decepticons and then he comes across this sentient, transforming planet and this sentient, transforming planet transforms him into Galvatron and then he pursues the Autobots around the universe or galaxy or solar system or whatever it is because the sentient, transforming planet (Unicron) is threatened by this Matrix thing that Optimus Prime had in his chest but which he gave to the other Autobot whose name I'm forgetting and eventually he gets the Matrix thing but just after Galvatron's swallowed by Unicron for his failure he fights Hot Rod and Hot Rod unleashes the Matrix and everyone is saved.
Watching this in 2020 brought back a lot of memories. Once upon a time I had most of those toys. Megatron, Soundwave, Starscream, Jazz, Optimus Prime, the Constructibots, the Dinobots... ad nauseum. By the time the movie came out I was getting a bit long in the tooth for Transformers, but yeah, there are a lot of memories there.
Mortal Fact: This movie is the last film credit for both Orson Welles (Unicron) and Scatman Crothers (Jazz). Both actors died around the same time.
Fun Fact 1: Believe it or not, this movie is set in 2005.
Fun Fact 2: "The Touch," the theme song for this movie, was originally intended for the Stallone movie Cobra.
Good or Bad? You be the Judge!
1. The Delta Force
Chuck Norris and the black guy from American Ninja! Chuck Norris and Lee Marvin! Chuck Norris and... Shelley Winters? Yeah, this movie goes sideways like that.
The second half is a solid 80s action movie - pretty much what you'd expect from the star of Missing in Action - but the first half? It's like being transported back a decade, back to the era of Airport-style disaster movies, wherein actors like George Kennedy, Robert Vaughn, and yes, Shelley Winters dealt with tense hostage/disaster situations.
The most fascinating thing about this movie might be Robert Forster's Arab terrorist impersonation. You can tell he was putting it all on the line with that role, and even though it doesn't always work you have to admire the guy for trying.
Mortal Fact 2: This was Lee Marvin's last movie.
Fun Fact: Liam Neeson is in this... somewhere.
Some Bad Ones
1. Psycho III
Kinda boring, but then again none of the sequels (or remakes) have been especially good. They all fail to think through the psychology of the first movie, which aside from some great camerawork was what made the original so good.
Anthony Perkins directed Psycho III, and aside from a good scene with Jeff Fahey there's not much to say about it other than the fact that it focuses on the wrong character. A failed nun? There were a lot of other, better directions they could have gone with that, but instead of doing so this movie focuses on the less-than-interesting Norman Bates.
Fun Fact: That failed nun is played by actress Diana Scarwid, who played Joan Crawford's stepdaughter in Mommie Dearest.
2. Heartburn
Easily Jack Nicholson's most annoying performance. He spends the early parts of this drama singing, and aspects of his character are so over the top that it's hard to sympathize with Meryl Streep, his abnormally understanding wife. The parts of this movie without Nicholson are good in the sad/funny way that all Nora Ephron-derived movies are good. I just wish they'd thought out Nicholson's character a bit better.
Fun (?) Fact: Kevin Spacey is in this for a bit. It was his first movie.
3. Witchboard
Tawny Kitaen and Co. use a Ouija board to summon a demon, with predictable results. It's amazing how little actually happens in this film. They have a party, Kitaen messes around with the Ouija board, a few people die, and that's it. Back in the day my friends and I would have derided this movie for lacking gore, yet in 2020 I can only throw up my hands at its lack of plot.
So Bad It's Good
1. War Bus
"...and the Academy Award for Best Picture does NOT go to War Bus. Go directly to jail. Do not pass go. You have the right to remain silent..."
All I can say is wow. They had a bus, some guns and several pounds of explosives, and they were going to make a movie goddamnit, budget be damned! I have no idea why a group of U.S. Marines would want to drive a big, bright, yellow school bus through the jungles of South Vietnam, but hey, it was WAR and those kinds of decisions had to be made!
2. Star Crystal
Pretty much Alien, yet produced in the absence of Ridley Scott, Sigourney Weaver, a budget, people who can act, and any understanding of how space travel actually works. Several scenes throughout the movie seem like setups for porn, but to my great surprise no one ever gets naked in Star Crystal.
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