Welcome to an exciting year-long project here at The Nerdy. 1985 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 1985 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 1984 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 Oct. 4, 1985, and we’re off to see Commando, Dreamchild, Jagged Edge, and Sweet Dreams.
Commando
This feels like the movie that really set the tone for the rest of a career.
Col. John Matrix (Arnold Schwarzenegger) is retired and lives with his daughter, Jenny (Alyssa Milano). As everyone in Matrix’s old team is killed off, Jenny is kidnapped and an attempt is made to force John to go and kill a small country’s leader to get her back. As one can imagine, things don’t go well for the bad guys.
This, more than any other movie, feels like where Schwarzenegger’s love affair with silly little quips began. And also for him not caring if a movie makes any sense. So many moments in this film make absolutely no logical sense.
Such as an military surplus store that has a fully loaded rocket launcher along with working claymores. A totally normal thing that happens.
It’s entertaining, but in the sense that you absolutely must turn your brain off while watching it.
Dreamchild
This movie is just so incredibly creepy, and it’s not just the puppet designs.
Alice Hargreaves (Coral Browne) has come to the U.S. to receive an honorary degree and honor her childhood friend, Reverend Charles L. Dodgson (Ian Holm), better-known as Lewis Carroll. Throughout the film, Alice remembers her interactions with him, as well as seeing some of the characters he created in his famous story based on her.
Creepy. Creepy. And creepy. The denizens of Wonderland are all depicted puppets created by Jim Henson, and while impeccable work, that are not always pleasant to look at.
And then there is the story itself. If you know anything about the real life story, you know why this film is just enough to make your skin crawl. Holm does an amazing job as Dodgson, and he masterfully walks a fine line between was the man a pedophile or a socially awkward man with boundary issues.
You walk away from the film needing a shower, however, because it is pretty clear where the filmmakers landed.
Jagged Edge
I’m just going to have to finally fact facts that I don’t enjoy ‘thrillers.’
Jack Forrester (Jeff Bridges) is accused of killing his wife, something he vehemently denies. Teddy Barnes (Glenn Close) is a lawyer that has moved away from criminal law, but everyone feels she is right for this case. After accepting it, she falls for her client, leading to all sots of future issues.
Here is one of the biggest issues with ‘thrillers’ such as this: When you can see the ending coming from about 5 minutes into it, why are you bothering to watch it? Nothing in this film was surprising. Not a single beat of it. At least try to do something surprising so I don’t keep shouting, “Will you just get this over with and reveal BLANK?!?”
I half-hearted attempt at thrilling anyone, with, sadly, a far too talented cast for such drivel.
Sweet Dreams
This feels like the most obligatory musical bio pic I’ve ever seen.
Sweet Dreams follows the story of Patsy Cline (Jessica Lange) after her career had already begun and she was meeting her second husband, Charlie Dick (Ed Harris). It ends, of course, with the plane crash that took her life and the immediate aftermath of her mother taking in her children as it was going to be hard for Charlie to manage them.
While I don’t mind a good musical bio pic, this is not one. Lange and Harris are as good as always, but the script feels like it skips over anything close to resembling motivations. There is no growth of the characters. The most interesting bit is at the beginning while Cline is still married to her first husband, and you never know anything about them other than she was miserable. It just paints broad strokes over it, and he never gives it more than a moment’s notice.
The film feels like someone was playing musical bio pic bingo and had no idea how to write a story that connected all of the usual highlights of such movies.
1985 Movie Reviews will return on Oct. 11, 2025, with Remo Williams: The Adventure Begins and Silver Bullet.