Red Dawn (2012)

The Red Scare thrived back in 1985 and we knew any day the Russians would attack. Reagan told us. So “Red Dawn” with high school kids (Charlie Sheen!) against Russian soldiers on U.S. soil seemed real. Cold War’s done, remakes thrive, and so we have a new “Red Dawn,” with North Korea as the invaders. It was China -– making sense of the “red” in “Red” -– but Hollywood blinked. A four-year delay and a lot of CGI and edits, and we have American high school kids vs. North Koreans. Even if the villainous actors are still Chinese. And the NK flags/emblems are wrong. No matter, the target audience is NRA sleep-with-your-guns Republicans, the kind who know any foreigner is bad. Fuck the details. Pre-“Thor” Chris Hemswoth is the Marine on home leave who leads his little brother (Josh Peck) and pals into gun battles, moving them from whiners to hard-core SEALs in … days. None of it makes sense. The editing and voice dubs are ugly bad. Peck’s age jumps back and forth. But the action is serviceable, and the stunts strong enough to almost make one forget … really, North Korea? I’d rather believe Martians. C-

Back to the Future (1985)

I was 11 when “Back to the Future” hit theaters. Not yet in high school. (I got called “McFly!” A lot.) But I loved the story and acting, and knew this movie was whip smart. Watching it again with high school long past and looking at 1985 as movie hero Marty McFly looks at 1955, I’m blown away. “Future” is epic. You know the plot: Michael J. Fox -– then a TV star -– is Marty, a skate-boarding 1980s teen who gets zapped back 30 years in a time machine sports car (how genius!) built by an eccentric nut-job scientist (Christopher Lloyd). In 1955, McFly meets the teenagers (Lea Thompson as a hottie and Crispin Glover as an incredible nerd) who will be his parents, and puts his own existence in jeopardy when he crashes their meet-cute. Never mind sci-fi, Robert Zemekis’ film is one of the great comedies, with marvelous turns from the whole cast, especially Tom Wilson as an idiot bully. The script toys with time-travel like a kid in a Lego store and serves up Ronald Reagan jokes so great Ronal Reagan loved them. Fox –so young – defines movie stardom. A childhood favorite improved with age, I love it. A+

Santa Claus: The Movie (1985)

Talk about a lump of coal: For a film titled “Santa Claus” ol’ Saint Nick is MIA for most of his own notorious movie, no less from the producers behind the “Superman” films. Dang. Fetch Rudolph, and sorry, Virginia, this cinema origin tale focuses on the jolly toy-giver for only 30 minutes –- covering the North Pole, reindeer, and toys. Then it switches sleighs for a runaway elf (Dudley Moore) who takes up with a corrupt toy company CEO (John Lithgow). Santa? Ho-ho-hum, dude is relegated to a sad-sack grump sitting by the fireplace wondering if he’s still relevant. That right, Santa has an existential crisis. Talk about meta. Frances Church, help us! Add in a dull and cheap-looking production, even recycling flying footage from 1978’s “Superman,” and watching this is almost as disappointing as finding out you-know-what about you-know-who. That said, we get David Huddleston –- “The Big Lebowoski” himself -– as Santa, and you can tell he cherished this role. Just don’t steal his carpet. Lithgow’s OTT Grinch is a parody of the famous “SNL” Dan Aykroyd villain Irwin Mainway, so … why not just hire Aykroyd? A missed perfect gift. C+

Explorers (1985)

Not sure how I missed “Explorers” upon its release at the height of adventure films starring children, with “Goonies” reigning as king. Joe Dante (“Gremlins”) directs this fantasy about three boys (Ethan Hawke, River Phoenix, and Jason Presson) who create a fantastical bubble that allows them to fly across town and out into space where an alien race awaits. How? Don’t ask. Just dig on the old Atari-level VFX by Industrial Light and Magic. Dante hones in on all things junior high in the “Star Wars”-and NASA-fueled 1985, and it’s a grand memory. Strangely, “Explorers” drags once the trio make first contact, pop culture jokes and finger-wagging lessons repeated ad nauseam. The film could have lost 30 minutes or been made into an episode of “Amazing Stories.” Two hours? No. Presson – who!?! – impresses far beyond Hawke (“Training Day”) and Phoenix (RIP). Watch J.J. Abrams’ “Super 8.” The boy there echoes Presson’s look and character, with an attitude that jumps off the screen. Loved the Charles M. Jones Junior High School joke. “What’s up, Doc?” B-

Witness (1985)

I was raised in Philadelphia and spent a portion of every summer in or near Lancaster County, so watching Peter Weir’s “Witness” as a child was quite natural. I well knew the oddness of traveling from Philly’s concrete to Lancaster’s farms. That change is the heart of this thriller. Harrison Ford is John Book, a gruff Philly homicide detective suddenly in charge of an Amish boy (Lukas Haas) who witnesses a murder. The killers: Higher-ups in Book’s own department. Ambushed and wounded, Book books it for Amish Country, boy and his mom (Kelly McGillis) in tow. There, Book heals and immerses himself into the culture of a religious sect determined to ignore modern culture. Ford is great here, no sly winks as in “Indiana Jones.” Haas steals the film, all saucer–eyes full of curiosity and innocence that Book and the killers (led by Danny Glover) can’t even fathom. The climax has Philly’s violence coming hard to the country, and it is tense with one of the nastiest film deaths: Death by corn grain. Weir presents the Amish with awe and reverence, but still capable of prejudices and sin. The sexual content -- still controversial in Lancaster -- still pulsates. A

Rocky IV (1985)

I’m biased on any “Rocky” film. Back in Philly during the 1980s, when a “Rocky” movie was released, work, school, transportation, and pretzel-eating stopped. It was our civic duty in the City of Brotherly Love to watch the latest pounding and last-minute triumph of Rocky Balboa, patron saint of boxing, American flag boxers and Sylvester Stallone’s enduring career. Here, Rocky fights Russian behemoth Ivan Drago (Dolph Lundgren) who towers over our hero like a father to his toddler son. There is death (so long Apollo), there is Survivor (“Eye of the Tiger” never gets old) and training montages galore, before the grand finale. Stallone, also writing and directing, serves up the best storyline since the First Chapter, I mean the 1976 and Genesis, and a kick-ass rock-hard Cold War flick that seems genius now. Lundgren by sheer force takes the film, starting when he throws Carl Weathers across the ring as if he were a grocery sack. A true jaw-dropper scene even now. The fight scenes are bloody fantastic. Stallone was a god of my youth, I cannot criticize him. Everyone together: “Aaaddrriaaan!” A-

Fletch (1985)

Chevy Chase is in nearly every scene of “Fletch,” a guy-and-a-dame gumshoe spoof done far better and deeper in “The Long Goodbye” a near-decade earlier. But this has a slice of Woodward/Bernstein-tweaking journalism. Chase is “L.A.Times” reporter Irwin Fletcher, a master-of-disguise undercover star reporter with a Jane Doe byline. His recent gig has him on the path of drug-dealing beach bums until he’s sucked into a murder-for-hire scam that will take him all the way to exotic Idaho. The whole plot is a screwball joke. There’s a good deal of laughs as Chase dons disguises or just balls-out improvises his way through interviews, mostly with dumb people, snatching and stealing info for his story. I wish the film had more spark or life, but it happily glides from start to finish, just as Fletch glides through deadlines. Chase’s seemingly effortless deadpan work is riotous. B+