1985

[6] Stephen King wrote this three-tale horror anthology centered around a cat who wanders in and out of high-stakes situations. In the first, James Woods stars as a man who joins a mysterious program called Quitters Inc that has an excellent reputation for helping people quit smoking. The secret to their success becomes ominously clear when Woods learns each and every one of his infractions …

[8] Future Oscar-winner Laura Dern (Marriage Story) gives her first leading performance in this adaptation of Joyce Carol Oates’ “Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been,” the story of a fifteen-year-old girl who pursues male attention without considering the potential consequences. Dern’s character, Connie, lies to her family about her whereabouts, ditching the mall for the beach, or the movies for a bar across …

[5] Rosanna Arquette stars as a bored New Jersey housewife who becomes infatuated with Susan (Madonna), a nomadic woman she’s never met who uses the newspaper personal ads to keep up with her boyfriend. When one of the ads mentions a time and place to meet up, Arquette spies on them and ends up being mistaken for Susan after hitting her head and getting amnesia. …

[7] William Petersen (C.S.I., Manhunter) made his film debut in this William Friedkin crime flick about a secret service agent who obsessively pursues the counterfeiter (Willem Dafoe) who killed his partner. Paired with a conscientious new partner (John Pankow), Petersen bends the rules and crosses the line of the law in an attempt to bring Dafoe to justice. But as the case wears on, Petersen …

[3] Michael Douglas, Kathleen Turner, and Danny DeVito return for this lackluster sequel to 1984’s terrific Romancing the Stone. The Jewel of the Nile picks up six months after the end of the first movie, with adventurous Jack (Douglas) and romance novelist Joan (Kathleen Turner) getting on each other’s nerves while sailing around the world. The two get embroiled in a tug-of-war between Arab factions …

[4] Chevy Chase and Bevery D’Angelo return as the Griswolds from the first Vacation movie, this time dragging the kids (recast Jason Lively and Dana Hill) on a whirlwind European tour. Perhaps due to intense acrimony between Chase and director Amy Heckerling (Fast Times and Ridgemont High), or perhaps due to a simply less funny script co-written by Robert Klane (Weekend at Bernie’s), European Vacation …

[4] C. Thomas Howell (The Hitcher) stars as a high schooler who finds an anonymous love letter in his locker. Through serendipity, the letter and its replies fall into the hands of his parents and the parents of the girl of his dreams (Kelly Preston), wreaking havoc in everyone’s relationships. Meanwhile, it’s painfully obvious from the start that the love letter was written by Howell’s …

[3] Rival breakdancing teams the Delivery Boys and the Devil Dogs plan to compete under the Brooklyn Bridge, but on the day of the show, three of the Boys are missing in action. Turns out the leader of the Dogs has tricked their pizza parlor boss into sending them on sticky assignments. One boy is held captive by a lusty rich girl, another becomes a …

[7] After a confrontation with bullies leads to attempted rape and gunfire, Helen Slater (Supergirl) hits the road with her brother (Christian Slater) and a pair of friends (Yeardley Smith and Martha Gehman). They dodge the police and profess their innocence to the press while Slater tries to find a way to resolve the escalating conflict before someone gets hurt. In the meantime, word-of-mouth and …

[8] Gordon Warnecke and Daniel Day-Lewis star as young lovers trying to forge their own way in life by opening a successful laundromat in London. Warnecke’s character rails against the old-world expectations of his Pakistani father and uncle (Roshan Seth and Saeed Jaffrey), while Day-Lewis tries to break free from the influence of his skinhead friends. Somehow, the two make it work, and begin to …

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