Possibly the most 80’s movie ever made, it sums up so many movies and rolls everything into nearly two hours of entertainment. Released smack bang in the middle of the decade ‘The Goonies’ was released in 1985 it’s a very American movie and was written by Steven Spielberg which was subsequently had the screenplay written by Chris Columbus who had taken some time off from discovering America to write it. Produced by Harvey Bernhard and Richard Donner, with Richard Donner also directed this classic. With the Spielberg vibe all over this it’s a bit of a surprise that he didn’t have that much input to the actual creation of this movie. Just like Burton and the Nightmare Before Christmas. It took around five months of production filming and six additional weeks of dubbing and editing before they reached the final film which had many cuts to reduce the time including the octopus scene being cut out completely which is still referenced in the final movie itself. It was liked by the critics (I won’t go as far as loved) with scores of 7.8 out of 10 from IMDb and similarly a score of 75% from Rotten Tomatoes. The box office success was there with a production budget of $19m it returned $124m which is fantastic for ‘a kids movie’. Is that enough background we will move to the plot, which I think for a change could be just a summary.
In their Goon Docks home in Astoria, Oregon a family is facing foreclosure of their homes. A group of children calling themselves ‘The Goonies’ lead by Mikey Walsh and his older brother Brandon, along with Data the inventor, Mouth the chatty one, and last by not least the overweight and clumsy Chunk. The group rummaging around the attic of the Walsh’s house discover an old treasure map purporting to lead them to the treasure of the legendary pirate ‘One-Eyed Willy’ the original Goonie. Escaping the older brother, the boys escape in search of the treasure which will save their home. Elsewhere a family of hard criminals have just broken one of the brothers out of prison and gone into hidden exactly where the map is leading the boys. Entering a café, the boys unwittingly walk into the hideout of the gang and into a whole heap of trouble. Still, they continue their search for treasure in the caves beneath the café whilst being pursued by the family of killers.
I think this sets out the plot for you quite nicely without mentioning Sloth so if you haven’t seen this one you can discover Sloth all by yourself. This movie had a raft of young child actors including - Sean Astin, Josh Brolin, Jeff Cohen, Corey Feldman, Kerri Green, Martha Plimpton, and Ke Huy Quan with the adults mainly being the nasty characters who include Anne Ramsey, Robert Davi, Joe Pantoliano and John Matuszak who make up the evil Fratelli family. I was trying to think of ways of describing this and saying the most 80’s movie ever sums this up to a tee, it is a group of kids in a battle against harden criminals with a treasure map following it to find treasure that could save their family home. What sums up eighties’ movies better. The action and adventure start’s soon after introducing the characters to get you straight in and soon after they pick up some additional characters to join the adventure it all ties together perfectively. It is just a fun action-packed adventure for kids and adults alike you can just sit back and enjoy it. It is just fantastic story; I would say for boys, but I know so many girls that love this just as much if not more. This whole family loves it and for this household this is nothing short of amazing. We can (on rare occasions outside of Christmas) sit together and watch something and this movie ticks that box. Trust me that should be on the billboards to promote this movie. It would sell millions. Wrapping this on up I will let you know that next on the list is a Sci-Fi movie that you may have heard of.
Comments