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!
