Goonies Forever! If you grew up in the eighties, then no doubt you have fond memories of watching this movie over and over until the VHS tape finally wore out and snapped. If you haven’t seen it yet for whatever reason, think of it like… Captain Blood meets Indiana Jones meets Stand By Me meets Goodfellas. It really does have a little something from everything in terms of movie genres, and it’s definitely a classic as far as movie downloads go.

The movie follows The Goonies, led by Mikey Walsh, son of a museum curator. This gang of misfits hails from the Boon Docks of Astoria, Oregon. The movie really kicks into the story when the rich folks in Astoria decide they’re going to buy the Goonies’ neighborhood, tear it down, and build a golf course in its place. Boooo! That’s what we in the industry call a real Jerk Move!

So of course, the Goonies take it upon themselves to save the neighborhood, right? Right. Mikey finds an old pirate treasure map in dad’s stuff in the attic, and he and the Goonies follow it to an old abandoned restaurant out on the coast at the edge of town. Turns out, some real sleazy gangsters are hiding out there, the Fratellis. These guys, led by Ma Fratelli, a real ball buster, are about as sleazy as it gets, as played by Joe Pantoliano and Robert Davi.

With the pirates, the foreclosure subplot, the gangsters, the treasure, the coming of age thread, it… Sounds kind of complicated, right? Well, it really isn’t. Remember, the only reason all these other factors are there is to keep the movie moving. It’s all about adventure, and the gangsters and rich kids and all that, that’s just something for the Goonies to always be running away from as they go from booby trap to booby trap and develop deeper bonds of friendship.

Really, the movie’s all about fun. It’s a really silly, fun, exciting movie, partly because it doesn’t go all the way into fantasy territory. Unlike Monster Squad, everything that happens in The Goonies technically COULD happen in real life… It’s not very likely, but within the context of the film, it feels about as real as anything in Stand by Me. This really helps it inspire you with a sense of adventure in your every day life.

When the film came out, it was considered to be a little TOO fast paced, with booby traps and swordfights breaking out at the drop of a hat. However, when compared to the manic pace of most modern children’s films, The Goonies is downright laid back.

Regardless, the film is a classic of the eighties era of adventure movies. Back when Indiana Jones was big, you had a bunch of people who wanted to join in and put their own spin on it. The Goonies was actually devised by Spielberg himself, so it was sort of his own take on his own ideas: Put kids in place of Indiana Jones.

It really is a classic in its own right, sort of the family film answer to Indiana Jones. If you remember it from your own childhood, now may be the time to turn your own children on to the adventures of Mikey Walsh and the rest of the Goon Squad.

Popularity: 1% [?]

Share This