The Goonies is a reminder of a time when little boys didn’t sit around at home playing video games or trying to spot Beyonce’s nipples on MTV but went out into the world and had adventures. This is one of the last of those adventures.
A group of friends who call themselves The Goonies are
threatened by the expansion of a Country Club. The club are threatening to tear
down their houses meaning the friends will all have to move away. One of the
boys, Mikey (Sean Austin) finds a map in amongst his father’s antiques which he
believes leads to hidden pirate treasure. Along with his older brother (Josh
Brolin) and friends (Corey Feldman, Jonathan Ke Quan and Jeff Cohen) Mikey sets
out on an adventure to find the hidden gold.
This is exactly the kind of fun 80s movie that Super 8 was trying to replicate and
having now seen The Goonies I realise
how successful that film was at taking the best of the genre and mixing it with
something more modern. The Goonies is
full of great adventure and made me wish I was one of them, in a tunnel under
the town trying to outwit baddies. It made me feel young again. The film felt
more adventurous and fun that the likes of Pirates
of the Caribbean and cost a fraction to produce. It is really good fun and
features some very funny characters speaking very funny lines. The main
characters are stereotypical 80s kids but the film gets away with feeling caricatured.
It is maybe that they seem stereotypical to me watching in 2012 but that they
are actually the characters upon witch my stereotypes were based.
The chase and constant attempts to outwit the bad guys was reminiscent
of another great family action adventure of the time, Home Alone which was directed by The Goonies writer, Chris Columbus. As with Home Alone I felt young while watching and as much a part of the
action as I do with any 3D film. And like any good family film, it isn’t afraid
to scare the younger viewers slightly.
The film is not without faults. The dialogue feels quite
cheesy and at times it did get a bit boring but to be fair, I am not a child or
teenager. The acting was also a bit mixed. John Brolin was fine, as were the
bad guys Anne Ramsey, Joe Pantoliano and Robert Davi. I thought that Goonies Sean
Austin and Jeff Cohen were also good but the rest weren’t. For me, this film
had plenty of nostalgia and made me think back to watching the likes of E.T and Indiana Jones with my family as a child. The clothes, bikes and dialogue
also reminded me of being a young child (the film is one year older than I am).
Overall, I really enjoyed the film and it is that rare film that the whole
family can watch and enjoy.
7/10
