While 1985 has no shortage of highfalutin cinematic endeavors, it is equally defined by its brash, epic, and often counter-cultural crowd-pleasers. This 100 Best Movies guide highlights the top films of 1985 based on Tomatometer score, with Certified Fresh films first, followed by Fresh and Rotten movies with at least 1,000 user ratings on the Popcornmeter.
And a well-rounded year it was! Academy Award-winning drama The Trip to Bountiful shares room on the list with the gruesome, campy cult horror flickRe-Animator. Pee-Wee’s Big Adventure and To Live and Die in L.A. stand shoulder-to-shoulder as outstanding pieces of enduring art! Even Big Bird, Freddy Krueger, and James Bond make an appearance! (On the list. They unfortunately do not share the screen together.)
Throw on your Live Aid T-shirt, crack open a can of New Coke, and enjoy the journey through this eclectic list of motion pictures from 1985. (Tyler Lorenz)
Critics Consensus: Thanks to director Juzo Itami's offbeat humor and sharp satirical edge, Tampopo is a funny, sexy, affectionate celebration of food and its broad influence on Japanese culture.
Synopsis: Two Japanese milk-truck drivers (Tsutomu Yamazaki, Ken Watanabe) help a restaurant owner (Nobuko Miyamoto) learn how to cook great noodles. [More]
Critics Consensus: Brazil, Terry Gilliam's visionary Orwellian fantasy, is an audacious dark comedy, filled with strange, imaginative visuals.
Synopsis: Low-level bureaucrat Sam Lowry (Jonathan Pryce) escapes the monotony of his day-to-day life through a recurring daydream of himself as [More]
Critics Consensus:My Beautiful Laundrette is fast and all over the place because it has so much to say, and show, including a highly watchable fresh-faced Daniel Day-Lewis.
Synopsis: In a seedy corner of London, Omar (Gordon Warnecke), a young Pakistani, is given a run-down laundromat by his uncle [More]
Critics Consensus: Akira Kurosawa's sprawling, epic take on King Lear should be required viewing for fans of westerns, war movies, or period films in general.
Synopsis: At the age of seventy, after years of consolidating his empire, the Great Lord Hidetora Ichimonji (Tatsuya Nakadai) decides to [More]
Critics Consensus: A satire of the American fantasy of leaving it all behind, Lost in America features some of Albert Brooks' best, most consistent writing and cultural jabs.
Synopsis: After being snubbed at his advertising job, Los Angeles yuppie David Howard (Albert Brooks) convinces his wife, Linda (Julie Hagerty), [More]
Critics Consensus: A wonderfully entertaining thriller within an unusual setting, with Harrison Ford delivering a surprisingly emotive and sympathetic performance.
Synopsis: An eight-year-old Amish boy witnesses a drug-related murder in a Philadelphia train station. The Philadelphia police captain discovers that the [More]
Critics Consensus: Bursting with frantic energy and tinged with black humor, After Hours is a masterful -- and often overlooked -- detour in Martin Scorsese's filmography.
Synopsis: In a Manhattan cafe, word processor Paul Hackett (Griffin Dunne) meets and talks literature with Marcy (Rosanna Arquette). Later that [More]
Critics Consensus: As effectively anti-war as movies can be, Come and See is a harrowing odyssey through the worst that humanity is capable of, directed with bravura intensity by Elem Klimov.
Synopsis: The invasion of a village in Byelorussia by German forces sends young Florya (Aleksey Kravchenko) into the forest to join [More]
Critics Consensus:Pee-Wee's Big Adventure brings Paul Reubens' famous character to the big screen intact, along with enough inspired silliness to dazzle children of all ages.
Synopsis: Pee-wee Herman (Paul Reubens), an eccentric child-like man, loves his red bicycle and will not sell it to his envious [More]
Critics Consensus: If The Breakfast Club's gestures towards authenticity are occasionally undercut by trendy flourishes, its blistering emotional honesty and talented troupe of young actors catapult it to the top of the teen comedy class.
Synopsis: Five high school students from different walks of life endure a Saturday detention under a power-hungry principal. The disparate group [More]
Critics Consensus:Day of the Dead may arguably be the least haunting entry in George A. Romero's undead trilogy, but it will give audiences' plenty to chew on with its shocking gore and scathing view of society.
Synopsis: The living dead regroup above while humans (Lori Cardille, Terry Alexander, Joseph Pilato) sweat it out below in a Florida [More]
Critics Consensus: Disturbing and sardonic, Prizzi's Honor excels at black comedy because director John Huston and his game ensemble take the farce deadly seriously.
Synopsis: For Charley Partanna (Jack Nicholson), life in the Prizzi family is good as long as he honors the wishes of [More]
Critics Consensus: Though it may be too sentimental for some, Ron Howard's supernatural tale of eternal youth is gentle and heartwarming, touching on poignant issues of age in the process.
Synopsis: Oscar-winning fantasy in which the residents of a Florida rest home get a new lease of life when they stumble [More]
Critics Consensus: Beyond Thunderdome deepens the Mad Max character without sacrificing the amazing vehicle choreography and stunts that made the originals memorable.
Synopsis: In the third of the "Mad Max" movies, Max (Mel Gibson) drifts into an evil town ruled by Turner. There [More]
Critics Consensus: If Paul Schrader's Yukio Mishima biopic omits too much to fully depict the author's life, its passion shines through in its avant-garde structure, Eiko Ishioka's production design, and Philip Glass' thunderous score.
Synopsis: Fact, fiction and dramatization illustrate events in the life of controversial author-militarist Yukio Mishima. [More]
Critics Consensus:The Goonies is an energetic, sometimes noisy mix of Spielbergian sentiment and funhouse tricks that will appeal to kids and nostalgic adults alike.
Synopsis: When two brothers find out they might lose their house they are desperate to find a way to keep their [More]
Back to the Futureis one of the most definitive blockbuster films in existence, and 1985 plays such a crucial role in the film’s plot, it could almost be a character. Teenager Marty McFly wants to get home to 1985 so bad, he’ll risk countless time paradoxes over three movies to do it! 1985 is the MacGuffin of the movie! Great Scott!
The Breakfast Club is a deeply important movie to the generation that came up the Brat Pack. It is one of the most parodied and quoted films in pop culture. The lyrics to “Don’t You (Forget About Me)” by Simple Minds are so intrinsically tied to the freeze-frame image of Judd Nelson at the end of the film, that they are ironically impossible to forget if you wanted to! But, its earnest depiction of high school tropes and its message about how our differences don’t make us enemies makes this John Hughes teen dramedy a lasting parable for all generations.
The only thing harder than being a teenager, is being a teenager with a bunch of bizarre, paranormal nonsense happening all around you! Teen Wolf, starring Michael J. Fox, explores the perils of puberty… if puberty also involves growing teeth and fur, and absolutely killing it on the basketball court. Once Bitten explores the value of virginity, and the peer pressure to lose it… that peer pressure coming from a 400 year old vampire countess threatening to drink your blood.
Critics Consensus: Elevated by Laura Dern's haunting performance, Smooth Talk is far more than your average coming-of-age drama.
Synopsis: Fifteen-year-old Connie (Laura Dern) spends the summer before her sophomore year fixating on getting male attention. While her mother, Katherine [More]
Critics Consensus: Lighthearted and sweet, The Purple Rose of Cairo stands as one of Woody Allen's more inventive -- and enchantingly whimsical -- pictures.
Synopsis: Unhappily married Depression-era waitress Cecilia (Mia Farrow) earns the money while her inattentive husband, Monk (Danny Aiello), blows their meager [More]
Critics Consensus: Nearly a decade after The Outlaw Josey Wales, Clint Eastwood returns as a director to the genre that made his name with this elegant, spiritual Western that riffs on the classic Shane.
Synopsis: When property owner Coy LaHood (Richard Dysart) starts using a band of hooligans to terrorize a group of small-town gold [More]
Critics Consensus: Blending brilliant physical comedy with thrillingly choreographed set pieces, Police Story makes a persuasive case for Jackie Chan as one of the all-time genre greats.
Synopsis: A kung-fu policeman (Jackie Chan) must protect a female witness (Brigitte Lin) from a Hong Kong drug lord for whom [More]
Synopsis: Rocky Dennis (Eric Stoltz) is an intelligent, outgoing and humorous teenager who suffers from a facial deformity called "lionitis" and [More]
Critics Consensus:Kiss of the Spider Woman weaves an alluring exploration of sexual and societal norms that's further elevated by strong work from William Hurt and Raul Julia.
Synopsis: In a prison cell somewhere in Latin America, two very different men warily confront each other. Molina (William Hurt) is [More]
Critics Consensus: Charging forward with the momentum of a locomotive, Runaway Train makes great use of its adrenaline-fueled premise and star presences of Jon Voight and Eric Roberts.
Synopsis: Escaped convicts (Jon Voight, Eric Roberts) and a stowaway girl (Rebecca De Mornay) ride an unmanned diesel speeding out of [More]
Critics Consensus: Stranger than fiction and improbably entertaining, The Falcon and the Snowman shows how easily idealism can be twisted into treason.
Synopsis: After his father (Pat Hingle) finds him a job at the CIA, Christopher Boyce (Timothy Hutton) discovers the less reputable [More]
Critics Consensus: Coolly performed and suspenseful, Jagged Edge is a satisfying enough potboiler that most audiences won't mind if the twists don't quite add up.
Synopsis: Lawyer Teddy Barnes reluctantly takes up the case of publisher Jack Forrester, who is accused of murdering his wife for [More]
Critics Consensus: Quotably funny -- and fast-paced enough to smooth over the jokes that don't land -- Fletch is one of the best big-screen vehicles for Chevy Chase's brand of smug silliness.
Synopsis: A veritable chameleon, investigative reporter Irwin "Fletch" Fletcher (Chevy Chase) might drive his editor (Richard Libertini) up the wall, but [More]
Critics Consensus: It might have been better served by a filmmaker with a deeper connection to the source material, but The Color Purple remains a worthy, well-acted adaptation of Alice Walker's classic novel.
Synopsis: An epic tale spanning forty years in the life of Celie (Whoopi Goldberg), an African-American woman living in the South [More]
You can’t speak of horror movie history without mentioning 1985’s gruesome cult hits: Stuart Gordon’s unapologetically gooey and gory B-movie classic Re-Animator, and Tom Holland’s vampiric special effects showcase Fright Night. Old fan-favorite icons are resurrected in A Nightmare on Elm Street 2: Freddy’s Revenge and Friday the 13th – A New Beginning. And, as if you could sleep after this selection of scary flicks, no movie fan should sleep on George A. Romero’s classic third zombie picture Day of the Dead!
Less spooky, but no less loaded with incredible special effects and stunts are the top action movies of 1985. Mad Max Beyond Thunderdome, Commando, and Rambo: First Blood Part II, like many action movies of the 80’s are a guaranteed adrenaline infusion. Jackie Chan delivers a kickass, acrobatic performance in the Hong Kong cop classic Police Story. Does a geriatric James Bond movie loaded with cheesy jokes sound like your idea of a good time? IfA View to a Kill is your favorite 007 vehicle, it might be! And if it’s not, well, this standout 007 dud is a must-see entry in the enduring spy franchise. Even if it’s just for a laugh.
Some movies aim to be funny intentionally! Such is the case for unmissable comedies like Clue and Pee-Wee’s Big Adventure. Two movies with styles that shook up the genre. If a blend of adventure and comedy are up your alley, you can’t skip Steven Spielberg and Chris Columbus’s kid-led treasure hunting caper The Goonies, or Michael Douglass and Kathleen Turner’s romantic treasure-hunting romp The Jewel of the Nile. Man, it was a good year for pirate themed adventures…
Critics Consensus: With a terrific young cast (including Ethan Hawke and River Phoenix) and some typically energetic work from director Joe Dante, Explorers soars past its '80s kiddie flick competitors with wit, good-looking effects, and tons of charm.
Synopsis: Young Ben Crandall (Ethan Hawke) spends his free time watching sci-fi films, playing video games and reading comic books. Surprisingly, [More]
Critics Consensus: A robust ensemble of game actors elevate Clue above its schematic source material, but this farce's reliance on novelty over organic wit makes its entertainment value a roll of the dice.
Synopsis: Based on the popular board game, this comedy begins at a dinner party hosted by Mr. Boddy, where he admits [More]
Critics Consensus:Young Sherlock Holmes is a charming, if unnecessarily flashy, take on the master sleuth.
Synopsis: A teenage Sherlock Holmes (Nicholas Rowe) meets and befriends his future sidekick, the bemused and bespectacled John Watson (Alan Cox). [More]
Synopsis: When everyone around him vanishes overnight, scientist Zac Hobson (Bruno Lawrence) finds himself seemingly the only person on the planet. [More]
Critics Consensus:American Flyers shifts between family drama and cycling action gears with enough strength to make this inspirational sports picture more than pedestrian.
Synopsis: When Dr. Marcus Sommers (Kevin Costner) realizes that he and his troubled, estranged brother David (David Grant) may be prone [More]
Critics Consensus: The ultimate '80s Schwarzenegger movie, replete with a threadbare plot, outsized action, and endless one-liners.
Synopsis: Retired Special Forces soldier John Matrix (Arnold Schwarzenegger) lives with daughter Jenny (Alyssa Milano) in isolation, but his privacy is [More]
Critics Consensus: A thriller that plays at social commentary, The Mean Season fumbles with its weightier themes, but does so in a generally watchable way.
Synopsis: After reporting on the murder of a teenage girl, journalist Malcolm Anderson (Kurt Russell) is contacted by the killer (Richard [More]
Critics Consensus: Though lensed with stunning cinematography and featuring a pair of winning performances from Meryl Streep and Robert Redford, Out of Africa suffers from excessive length and glacial pacing.
Synopsis: Initially set on being a dairy farmer, the aristocratic Karen Blixen (Meryl Streep) travels to Africa to join her husband, [More]
Critics Consensus: Hardly in the same league as John Hughes' other teen movies, the resolutely goofy Weird Science nonetheless gets some laughs via its ridiculous premise and enjoyable performances.
Synopsis: Teen misfits Gary and Wyatt design their ideal woman on a computer, and a freak electrical accident brings her to [More]
Critics Consensus:Enemy Mine extracts thrilling sci-fi pulp from Dennis Quaid and Louis Gossett Jr.'s chemistry and inventive production design, but an overextended story diminishes the power of its central duo's relationship.
Synopsis: During a war between humans and the reptilian Drac race, spaceship pilot Willis Davidge (Dennis Quaid) ends up stranded on [More]
Critics Consensus:Return to Oz taps into the darker side of L. Frank Baum's book series with an intermittently dazzling adventure that never quite recaptures the magic of its classic predecessor.
Synopsis: Dorothy discovers she is back in the land of Oz, and finds the yellow brick road is now a pile [More]
Critics Consensus:The Last Dragon is a flamboyant genre mashup brimming with style, romance, and an infectious fondness for kung fu, but audiences may find the tonal whiplash more goofy than endearing.
Synopsis: Leroy Green (Taimak), a young martial artist living in New York City, trains tirelessly to attain the same level of [More]
Critics Consensus: Ambitious but flawed, The Black Cauldron is technically brilliant as usual, but lacks the compelling characters of other Disney animated classics.
Synopsis: In the land of Prydain, lowly pig herder Taran (Grant Bardsley) dreams of becoming a gallant knight. Young Taran receives [More]
Critics Consensus: On stage, A Chorus Line pulled back the curtain to reveal the hopes and fears of showbiz strivers, but that energy and urgency is lost in the transition to the big screen.
Synopsis: Hundreds of hopefuls congregate at a cattle call for Broadway dancers. A sour director, Zach (Michael Douglas), and his brusque [More]
Critics Consensus: The sense of romantic spark has waned and the prevalence of stereotypes has grown in Jewel of the Nile, although there is still plenty of swooning action for fans of the first adventure.
Synopsis: Novelist Joan Wilder (Kathleen Turner) is living with adventurer boyfriend Jack Colton (Michael Douglas) on his yacht. But she leaves [More]
Sydney Pollack’s Out of Africa was 1985’s Oscar darling with seven trophies: Best Picture, Best Director, Best Adapted Screenplay, Best Art Direction, Best Cinematography, Best Original Score, and Best Sound.
William Hurt took home Best Actor gold for Kiss of the Spider Woman, edging out Harrison Ford for Witness (his sole Oscar nom ever) and Jack Nicholson in Prizzi’s Honor, while Geraldine Page took home the gold for Best Actress in The Trip to Bountiful over Whoopi Goldberg in The Color Purple and Jessica Lange in Sweet Dreams.
Special effects fans will note that Eric Stoltz’s cosmetic transformation in MASK won the Oscar for Best Makeup, while the eerie alien images in Cocoon won the Visual Effects Oscar.
Synopsis: When his plane makes an emergency landing in Siberia, ballet dancer Nikolai Rodchenko (Mikhail Baryshnikov) is recognized as a defector [More]
Critics Consensus:St. Elmo's Fire is almost peak Brat Pack: it's got the cast, the fashion, and the music, but the characters are too frequently unlikable.
Synopsis: A group of recent college graduates embark on a series of misadventures in the real world. There's Kirby (Emilio Estevez), [More]
Critics Consensus: An intriguing subtext of repressed sexuality gives Freddy's Revenge some texture, but the Nightmare loses its edge in a sequel that lacks convincing performances or memorable scares.
Synopsis: Jesse Walsh (Mark Patton) moves with his family into the home of the lone survivor from a series of attacks [More]
Critics Consensus: Not even Ridley Scott's gorgeously realized set pieces can save Legend from its own tawdry tale -- though it may be serviceable for those simply looking for fantasy eye candy.
Synopsis: Darkness (Tim Curry) seeks to create eternal night by destroying the last of the unicorns. Jack (Tom Cruise) and his [More]
Critics Consensus: Despite its two stellar leads, Into the Night finds director John Landis indulging in far too many gimmicks in lieu of a well-rounded story.
Synopsis: Ed Okin (Jeff Goldblum) leads a joyless existence. He hates his job as an aerospace engineer. To make matters worse, [More]
Critics Consensus: Rebellious in spirit and anarchic in style, this Helen Slater-starring vehicle holds a certain youthful cool but is otherwise a disjointed retelling of an oft-repeated legend.
Synopsis: Restless teenager Billie Jean Davy (Helen Slater) and her brother, Binx (Christian Slater), dream of leaving oppressive Corpus Christi, Texas, [More]
Critics Consensus:European Vacation charts a course through a succession of pretty destinations, but the journey itself lacks the laughs that made the original outing so memorable.
Synopsis: After winning a European vacation on a game show, Clark Griswold convinces his reluctant family to accompany him. His wife, [More]
Critics Consensus: Despite the comedic prowess of its director and two leads, Spies Like Us appears to disavow all knowledge of how to make the viewer laugh.
Synopsis: Looking for a way out of their mundane government jobs, Austin Millbarge (Dan Aykroyd) and Emmett Fitz-Hume (Chevy Chase) take [More]
Critics Consensus: Gleeful in its misogyny and celebratory of bad behavior, Porky's is an intermittently funny farce that will leave audiences feeling in need of a shower.
Synopsis: High school friends Pee Wee (Dan Monahan), Tommy (Wyatt Knight), Billy (Mark Herrier) and Mickey (Roger Wilson) want to lose [More]
Critics Consensus:First Blood Part II offers enough mayhem to satisfy genre fans, but remains a regressive sequel that turns its once-compelling protagonist into just another muscled action berserker.
Synopsis: John Rambo (Sylvester Stallone) is doing hard time in jail when his former boss, Col. Troutman (Richard Crenna), offers him [More]
Critics Consensus: Dull, poorly directed, and badly miscast, Red Sonja is an uninspired conclusion to Schwarzenegger's barbarian trilogy.
Synopsis: Power-hungry Queen Gedren (Sandahl Bergman) captures the priestesses guarding the Talisman, a mystical orb that created and can destroy the [More]
Synopsis: Years after Tommy Jarvis (John Shepherd) murdered hockey-masked serial killer Jason Voorhees, he resides in a mental hospital and struggles [More]
Japan delivered some of the year’s biggest artistic heavy hitters. Juzo Itami’s ramen comedy Tampopo endures as a beautiful and hilarious ode to Japanese food and culture. Film legend Akira Kurosawa served up a Japanese adaptation of Shakespeare’s King Lear with Ran, which won the Costume Design Oscar on top of four nominations. And, while not an award-winning film, the animated post-nuclear fallout dark fantasy romance movie Vampire Hunter Dearned its place in the annals of anime history.
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