Filmmaking icon Rob Reiner and his wife, Michel Singer Reiner, died so tragically that it will be hard to ever forget it. However, a lot of fans are trying to do just that in this dark time, and perspective is everything. Instead of focusing on the tragic end to Rob Reiner’s story, it may help to focus on the greatest time in his creative career. Because if you haven’t been keeping track, Rob Reiner arguably had the greatest run of movies in cinematic history. Rob Reiner didn’t miss for seven straight films that he put out between the years of 1984 and 1992.
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As you will see in the list below, these seven films didn’t just go on to become beloved and iconic pieces of cinema; they also helped pioneer entire forms of filmmaking and genre, while also helping to launch an entire generation of talent onto the big screen. It was also a run that gave us some of cinema’s most indelible moments, which will live on long after Rob Reiner.
This Is Spinal Tap (1984)
Do you like The Office, Parks and Rec, or the newer generation of mockumentary workplace comedies (The Paper, Saint Dennis Medical)? Well, thank Rob Reiner and a cast and crew of unbelievable comedic talent for pioneering the genre with This Is Spinal Tap. Reiner wrote, directed, and starred as a documentary filmmaker named Marty Di Bergi, who followed the UK band Spinal Tap during their American tour. Like The Office, the film mixes irony, satire, dry-wit dialogue, and clever sight gags to poke fun at the music industry as it transitioned from the heyday of counter-culture ’70s rock into the ’80s era of hair bands and Glam Rock. Along the way, the entire music industry and concept of celebrity get skewered pretty well.
Spinal Tap features a long list of talent that are well known if not iconic now, inlcuding filmmaker Michael McKean (Better Call Saul), Christopher Guest (Best in Show), Fran Drescher (The Nanny), Dana Carvey (Wanye’s World), Billy Crystal (City Slickers), Paul Shaffer (David Letterman), Fred Willard (A Mighty Wind), and Anjelica Houston (The Addams Family, John Wick). You can stream it (and its long-awaited sequel) on HBO Max.
The Sure Thing (1985)
The Sure Thing was another trend setter: a romantic comedy where the male and female leads start as “friends” or “rivals,” only to discover through comedic hijinks and heartbreaks that the “perfect” person has been in front of them, all along.
College student Walter “Gib” Gibson (John Cusack) has been trying to impress a girl, Alison Bradbury (Spaceballs’ Daphne Zuniga), and failing. When his buddy in California tells Gib that a girl out there is eager to meet him, the young man decides to make the cross-country trek. Through a series of coincidences, Gib ends up sharing a ride with Alison, who is going to Cali to visit her boyfriend. The tension between the two gets them stranded, and together they have to hitchhike to the West Coast, gradually falling for one another along the way.
Stand by Me (1986)
The film tells the story of writer Gordon Lachance (Richard Dreyfuss), who learns one of his childhood friends has died from a newspaper obituary. That sparks a vivid memory of a summer at the end of the 1950s, where Gordon (Wil Wheaton) and three of his friends (played by River Phoenix, Corey Feldman, and Jerry O’Connell) set out on an adventure. The boys get wind of where to find the body of a missing boy and set out to make themselves local heroes. Instead, they find their own personal issues coming to the surface, as well as running afoul of a local gang, led by the crazy Ace Merrill (Kiefer Sutherland).
For boys of the 1980s and 1990s, Stand by Me was the coming-of-age movie that left an indelible mark. From seeing some of Gen X’s biggest stars get their break, to scenes and quotes that still live on (the pie-eating contest, “Do you want to see a dead body?”), Stand by Me is a true classic.
The Princess Bride (1987)
A sick grandson (Fred Savage) is read a fairy tale book by his grandfather (Peter Falk). The book plays out onscreen, chronicling the epic love of a stable boy named Westley (Cary Elwes), who falls for a princess named Buttercup (Robin Wright). Wesley leaves to be a sailor and earn a fortune that will make him worthy of Buttercup; instead, he vanishes, and five years later, the princess is forcibly engaged to a prince of her stature. Wesley returns for his bride, but he’s very much changed, having grown into the most infamous pirate on the seas. That man in black, “The Dread Pirate Roberts,” embarks on a quest to beat all of Prince Humperdinck’s (Chris Sarandon) challenges and get back Buttercup before her wedding day.
With The Princess Bride, Rob Reiner once again helped pioneer the kind of comedic subversion of fairy tales, legends, and myths that are now so common. The same goes for the ‘story-within-a-story’ framework, which allows for comedic interplay between the characters in the story, and the narrator telling the story (and/or listening audience). It’s also another Reiner film that helped establish a lot of stars, including Elwes, Wright, Mandy Patinkin, Wallace Shawn, Carol Kane, Billy Crystal, and an unforgettable appearance from WWE icon André the Giant.
When Harry Met Sally… (1989)
Chicago graduate Harry Burns (Billy Crystal) takes a ride share with his girlfriend’s best friend, Sally Albright (Meg Ryan), to New York City, where she is attending journalism school, and he is starting a job. After that trip gets awkward, the pair part ways. However, over the course of the next 12 years (and 3 months), Harry and Sally routinely come back together and break apart, as friends, lovers, and… something more.
Sure Thing was a cult-hit, but Rob Reiner really refined the blueprint of the “Will they, won’t they?” rom-com with When Harry Met Sally… Meg Ryan and Billy Crystal’s chemistry, along with conversations about gender, relationships, and love that would usher in the 1990s, make When Harry Met Sally… a classic rom-com for the ages.
Misery (1990)
Novelist Paul Sheldon (James Caan) has grown tired of the Victorian romance novels that made him famous, and kills off his character in hopes of relaunching his career as a “serious” writer. While traveling to NYC for an event, Paul is caught in a blizzard and ends up crashing his car. When he wakes up, he finds he is in the “care” of self-proclaimed nurse and superfan Annie Wilkes (Kathy Bates). However, it quickly becomes clear that Annie is unstable and intends to keep Paul hostage until he writes a new, happier ending to his Misery book series.
With Misery, Rob Reiner made one of the best examples of a “prestige horror movie” since The Exorcist, with the film earning Bates an Academy Award for Best Actress. He also broke the door wide open for adaptations of Stephen King’s horror stories to become a cinematic sub-genre all their own. Even now, 35 years later, Misery still is scary, foreshadowing fans’ obsession with creators and big franchises, and all the twisted entitlements that come with them.
A Few Good Men (1992)
A Marine stationed at Guantanamo Bay Naval Base is found beaten to death. Two low-level officers are accused of the crime, and their defense is handed to Navy JAG Corps Lieutenant (and lawyer) Daniel Kaffee (Tom Cruise), who has an impeccable record for plea bargaining his cases. Kaffee’s superior, Lt. Commander Joanne Galloway (Demi Moore), thinks something deeper is going on, and the legal team begins to investigate. Kaffee and Galloway bump heads until the hotshot lawyer realizes he’s being played; instead of settling, Kaffee fights the case, putting the entire military chain of command, its unspoken rituals, and general code of silence culture on trial.
A Few Good Men became the biggest courtroom drama film since the days of 12 Angry Men and To Kill A Mockingbird. Jack Nicholson’s “You can’t handle the truth!” is still a haunting bit of commentary on which parts we choose to see in our military-industrial culture; it’s also one of the smartest in terms of having twists and turns that keep you guessing. Finally, A Few Good Men firmly established Tom Cruise, Jack Nicholson, and Demi Moore as top-tier stars of the 1990s, and you’ll see why if you watch it.
R.I.P. Rob Reiner. You can watch this great run of film (and so many others he either made or appeared in) on various streaming platforms.
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Image courtesy of Virgin Films -
Image Courtesy of Netflix -
Image courtesy of Netflix.
