A few weeks ago, I conducted a poll asking readers to select an 80s movie for me to watch that I hadn't yet seen. The 1985 film The Goonies won and as a result, I watched it yesterday afternoon. Here is my review:It can sometimes be problematic when watching kid-oriented movies as an adult, especially if you are seeing it for the first time. Thankfully, I didn't have that problem with watching The Goonies. True, the movie is geared towards kids... but kids at heart such as me can also get swept up in the adventure of this band of kids who go treasure hunting in an effort to save their neighborhood from being torn down. Here are some other observations I made about The Goonies:
* Near the beginning of the movie when Chunk came to tell Mikey, Brand, and Mouth about the most amazing car chase he's ever seen, it reminded me of another chubby movie kid (Vern) who had trouble convincing his friends about the dead body in the 1986 film Stand By Me. Although Stand By Me was based on a 1982 Stephen King novella The Body, I don't think the writer for The Goonies is guilty of thievery. I think the similarity was just a coincidence, but something that jumped out at me.
* I liked how the main characters all had traits which made them unique (Mikey's malapropisms, Data and his wacky inventions, Mouth's ability to speak Spanish fluently, etc.). Mikey's relationship with his older brother Brand was also believable. One of my favorite scenes is when Brand comforts Mikey on their porch after the evil Mr. Perkins delivers the demolition papers for their father to sign.
* Steve Antin (below) deserves to be in the 80s Movie Hall of Fame right up there with William Zabka because he was also really good at portraying assholes. In addition to his role as preppy jock Troy Perkins in The Goonies, Steve also played detestable characters in The Last American Virgin and The Accused.
To answer to the question I posed in the title of this post... yes, The Goonies 'R' good enough for me!
9 comments:
I still find it hard to believe that you hadn't seen this movie! its a major cornerstone of my very pop culture obsession (I first realized what cross marketing of phenomena was when the Goonies Nintendo game came out). By the way, did you know the Cyndi Lauper song from the movie already? Its a great one.
YAY!!! It is about time you saw this movie! I knew you would enjoy it. It is one of my favorite movies ever! This is one of those movies that I can watch over and over and over again and never get tired of watching. By far, my favorite part of the movie is when they are trying to get Chunk to crack and he starts telling them every bad thing he has done since Kindergarten!!
Bite your tongue. There will never be another ZABKA.
Everyone loves The Goonies, but I just could never get into it.
What's wrong with BeckEye?!?!
Goonies is one of the all time greats. I had such a crush on Sean Astin. Mmmmmm. Glad you finally watched it.
So excited you liked it!
My first celeb crush was on Mouth from The Goonies :)
whatta guy :)
I have fond memories of this movies as a kid. Classic kids adventure.
It's interesting to know that you liked it even if you didn't watch it as a kid. I watch it now and it's not the same. Kind of like E.T. for me.
How is this possible??? You had never seen this???? This is one of those magical movies that brings me right back to my childhood.
Thembi: When "The Goonies" came out, I was off into other things. Until I caught bits and pieces of it several months ago, it wasn't a movie that was on my radar of "need to sees".
I've been a fan of "The Goonies R Good Enough" by Cyndi Lauper since it came out. One of her more underrated songs in my opinion.
Ann: The part you mentioned where Chunk was confessing all his sins was a funny one.
Beckeye: One thing about Zabka is that he went soft at the end of "The Karate Kid", something that Steve Antin would never do. Martin Kove (Kreese) wouldn't have had to order Steve Antin to perform the "sweep the leg" move on Daniel-san. As a matter of fact, Steve would have come up with the dirty lowdown idea all by himself.
Red: Maybe if Zabka played "Troy" instead of Steve Antin, BeckEye would have gone for "The Goonies".
By the way, you "Goonies" lovers may have created a monster in me. :-)
Penny: What girl wouldn't love a boy who sometimes used his knowledge of the Spanish language for evil deeds.
Clnmike: Part of me wished I could have seen this as a kid. I put in a call to Doc Brown, but he wouldn't loan me his DeLorean.
Blueyedangela: That's the way some things are for me that I watched as a kid... the magic is gone when I watched it as an adult. Maybe it helped that I hadn't seen "The Goonies" when I was younger because my adult opinion didn't have to compete with my childhood memories of watching it.
Mama PJ: If you are amazed that I hadn't seen "The Goonies", wait until you see some of the future polls where I ask people to again pick movies I haven't seen. :-)
By the way, welcome back. It's good seeing you, it's been awhile. I hope all is well.
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