One year after Gremlins, Joe Dante delivered a loving homage to the spirit of invention and imagination with the decidedly kid-friendly Explorers. Starring the up-and-coming Ethan Hawke and River Phoenix, does its loving homage to 1950s sci-fi still resonate?

Joe Dante’s Gremlins became a phenomenon and merchandising gold mine, but generated enough controversy that it helped give birth to PG-13 as a rating in the US. Does it hold up as a movie nearly 40 years later, or does it find itself trapped in a cocoon of 80s sensibilities?

One of John Candy’s signature roles, Uncle Buck was the penultimate work of John Hughes’ directing career. While a broad comedy like his earliest works, does it reflect a more mature outlook on life and responsibility?

One of John Hughes’ lesser-known works, She’s Having a Baby remains a useful choice in any game of Six Degrees of Kevin Bacon. Looking at how pregnancy changes the dynamic of a couple, is there a reason this one is the forgotten work of a highly-regarded director?

​Looking to break away from high school adventure stories, John Hughes wrote and directed a story fictionalizing something he knew from his ad agency life: the commute home from New York to Chicago. Steve Martin and John Candy journey together in a story many regard as one of the best comedies ever made.

Matthew Broderick became a household name thanks to John Hughes’ fantasy tale of a high school boy who can’t lose no matter what brash choices he makes. Acting as a love letter to the city of Chicago, does the film still resonate?

John Hughes returns to raunchy adult comedy with teenage boys as the focus, their libidos powering a strange experiment that brings a sexual fantasy to life. Is it a step forward, or a cynical step back?

​Perhaps John Hughes’ signature work, the story of several high school malcontents in detention struggling to understand each other and themselves has remained a cultural touchstone for decades. Does it hold up for modern audiences, or is its reputation a mirage of nostalgia?

​With his first film, John Hughes exploded onto the scene, not just capturing but shaping the zeitgeist of 1980s teen cinema. Houselights looks back on a film awash in nostalgia but regarded as problematic in execution, and debates what value there is within.

​Released 21 days after The Thomas Crown Affair, this adaptation of Michael Crichton’s Eaters of the Dead starred Antonio Banderas and caused Omar Sharif to temporarily retire in disappointment. A big-budget bomb, Houselights closes out the House of McTiernan to ask, “Is this an overlooked gem?”