The smell of popcorn and Coppertone

May 5, 2011 6:09 PM

The House Next Door has kicked off this year's installment of the "Summer of..." series, where they look back at the summer movies from 25 years ago. For the next few months they'll be revisiting the summer movies from 1986, and you can check out the previous installments to relive the glories of 1985 (Weird Science, Mad Max Beyond Thunderdome, St. Elmo's Fire), and 1984 (including the magical day Gremlins, Ghostbusters, and Top Secret! opened simultaneously).
posted by Horace Rumpole (10 comments total)

This made me ashamed all over again that I ever watched St. Elmo's Fire. Curse you Rumpole! I had forgotten so much!
posted by GenjiandProust at 6:49 PM on May 5, 2011

The thing to realize is, there were so many fucking excellent movies released in 1986. Here's a list.

It will make you weep when you look at what is coming out this year, by comparison. Really.
posted by hippybear at 7:38 PM on May 5, 2011

Boy, if you'd asked me which grossed higher, The Golden Child or Ferris Bueller, I would not have guessed correctly.
posted by Horace Rumpole at 7:47 PM on May 5, 2011

The fact that I am turning 43 in less than 2 hours wasn't quite real enough already, so you have helpfully given me this post with a retrospective of my Senior year of high school. Thanks. /hamburger
posted by thebrokedown at 8:24 PM on May 5, 2011

Hey, happy birthday, thebrokedown. I can tell you from personal experience that at least the first 5 months of being 43 seem to be okay.
posted by hippybear at 8:43 PM on May 5, 2011

Boy, if you'd asked me which grossed higher, The Golden Child or Ferris Bueller, I would not have guessed correctly.

I would have. I guess that makes me a cynic.
posted by ActingTheGoat at 10:09 PM on May 5, 2011

I would have. I guess that makes me a cynic.

No, that would make you more aware of exactly how huge Eddie Murphy was at that point in time, and also aware of how the legs for Ferris Bueller have been really long and worked to its advantage.

Box office is a strange thing, and isn't always congruent with how well-regarded a film is once it's had a bit of the test of time. See: Blade Runner and Brazil, amongst many others.
posted by hippybear at 10:15 PM on May 5, 2011 [1 favorite]

(including the magical day Gremlins, Ghostbusters, and Top Secret! opened simultaneously).

Considering how vigorously Hollywood has been strip-mining the past, we might see this exact situation happen again in a few years.
posted by codswallop at 12:32 AM on May 6, 2011

codswallop: "Considering how vigorously Hollywood has been strip-mining the past, we might see this exact situation happen again in a few years."

I don't know whether to laugh or cry at this.
posted by namewithoutwords at 5:16 AM on May 6, 2011

If you haven't, definitely take a stroll through the Attic section of the House Next Door, it's been a great, thoughtful blog for a long time.
posted by HumanComplex at 8:04 AM on May 6, 2011