1986

Films from 1986

Ferris Bueller’s Day Off

By / / 1980s, 1986, Re-Released Review / Leave a Comment

Originally published: June 14, 1986

Ferris Bueller’s Day Off may turn out to be the hit of the summer.

From when the alarm clock wakes Ferris up on his “day off” until after the last closing credit, Ferris Bueller’s Day Off proves to be the funniest movie since 1984’s Ghostbusters.

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Ferris Bueller’s Day Off

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Matthew Broderick (who you may remember from WarGames and Ladyhawke) plays Ferris Bueller, a high-school senior who appears to be majoring in cunning, persuasion, and charm rather than the usual college-prep courses. With only weeks left before graduation, Bueller decides to play sick and enjoy a holiday.

After successfully faking off his parents (explaining how to do just that in an aside to the audience), Bueller wrangles away two friends (played by Mia Sara and Alan Ruck) from their suburban Chicago school and sets off for a day in the big city. They visit the Chicago stock exchange, a Cubs baseball game, a posh restaurant, a German heritage parade, and the Chicago Museum of Art.

Lots of fun and no problems, right? Fun, yes. No problems, no.

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Cobra

By / / 1980s, 1986 / Leave a Comment

Originally published: June 14, 1986

In Cobra, Sylvester Stallone stoops to a new, silly low.

It was bad enough having a semi-coherent Rambo roaming the screens, but now we’ve got Marlon Cobretti, a.k.a. “Cobra,” who speaks even less and when he does it’s just stupid

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Cobra

Where to watch: Just Watch

Example: In the first sequence of the film, Cobra confronts a crazed gunman who threatens to blow up a supermarket, along with its shoppers. Cobra responds, “Go ahead. I don’t shop here,” in his best deadpan, growling voice. Then rumbles, “You’re a disease, and I’m the cure.”

Fine.

If that’s not enough. Cobra’s out to wipe off the map a legion of axe-clanking slashers who want to create their own society. Conveniently, Cobra’s police bosses won’t believe the legion exists, and Cobra doesn’t have the smarts to prove it exists without slaughtering the whole gang and destroying a large part of a small town in doing so.

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Blue Velvet

By / / 1980s, 1986 / Leave a Comment

In David Lynch‘s eye, normalcy is a thin veneer on reality. A smiling firefighter waving from the side of a red firetruck. The green yard between the white picket fence and the middle-America house in a quiet neighborhood.

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Blue Velvet

Where to watch: Just Watch

Move the camera in closer to that little crack in the veneer — closer and closer still — and you see the dark rot of reality, such as early in Blue Velvet when Mr. Beaumont (Jack Harvey) has a seizure and falls to the ground as he’s watering the lawn. While the dog snaps at the stream of water shooting from the hose in Mr. Beaumont’s hand, Lynch’s camera looks to the right and moves toward the lawn, then closer to the blades of grass, then between them to the earth that teems with loudly munching beetles.

I saw Blue Velvet — this week’s club pick — when it first came out 35 years ago, and haven’t rewatched it in its entirety until now. I remembered the premise and a few key scenes, so it was almost like watching it for the first time.

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