When Mikey and his friends (referred to as the Goonies) face certain eviction from their homes thanks to a rich family buying land to build a golf course, the group goes into action to stop the destruction and save their homes. Stumbling upon a treasure map, Mikey and crew do their best to find an old pirate named ‘One Eyed Willy’ and his ship full of rich stuff. To get to their destination they have to face booby-traps, bats, a skeleton organ (the instrument) and a trio of convicts named the Fratellis.
When I think of movies I can watch on a Saturday (any Saturday) this is the first one that comes to mind. In a way this is the last great adventure movie for kids in recent memory. It’s packed with adventure that kids will immediately attach to, regardless of age. Heck, my kids sat and watched it for the first time without any sort of complaint about the clothes the kids wore, or the music that was playing, or even the bluescreen effects where you could completely see the digital lines on the characters. My kids were solely and completely enthralled with the adventure this small group of kids was partaking in. This is exactly the same feeling I had when I was a kid watching this in the theater, which means this movie is pretty much timeless.
The perfect story that Richard Donner and Steven Spielberg put together really drove the film more than the memorable characters. The plot points in the film hit when they needed to hit. The adventurous atmosphere led by Rube Goldberg inspired traps kept the pace going once the kids started their adventure towards their pirate destination. All of this was perfectly orchestrated by Donner and Spielberg, but none of it could have worked so well without the orchestra members playing the music.
Who knew that hobbits lived in Oregon and led people into a thrilling adventure in 1985? Led by Sean Astin (Mikey) and followed by a budding set of players (Josh Brolin, Corey Feldman, and many others), the choices for the Goonies couldn’t have been better. What’s remarkable about the actors is that each one fits their character perfectly. For example, if you’ve ever seen Corey Feldman in other films, or on reality television for that matter, you can understand his habit of talking quite a bit; which is perfect for ‘Mouth’. Each actor did a great job and understood their roles perfectly in the story and it shines through in their performances. Donner’s ability to keep them on track with the movie was a contributing factor, but each actor buying into who their character was is the biggest factor. You’ll believe that Josh Brolin is Sean Astin’s older brother in the film. Their chemistry is rock solid and mimics how an older brother treats their little brother. Even the Fratellis, consisting of Robert Davis, Joe Pantoliano and the late Anne Ramsey, were a perfect choice of uncaring criminals. The players played off the fine story in front of them and the story worked because of this.
Are there flaws in the film? Sure there are flaws. You can’t really expect a group of kids to realistically save a hopeless situation. Sure you can say that finding rubies/diamonds wouldn’t be enough for a deal to be broken like this one. Regardless of ‘realism’, this movie is pure adventure and nothing more. It puts you in the mood for the good guys to overcome the bad and it doesn’t apologize for its over the top moments (thank GOD they didn’t include the octopus — that so far over the top you can’t even imagine the distance).
The Goonies is a certified classic that is good any time of the day or year. As Cyndi Lauper would say, “What’s good enough for you, is good enough for me!” (though you should probably strike that and reverse it to truly make sense here)
You know why this movie is good, so you needn’t read that explanation from me, but you should know about the anniversary edition that Warner Home Video has put together for you.
Much like what Warner Home Video has done in the past to its valued properties, The Goonies is treated no differently. Visually the cleanup job was most great for this re-release on Blu-ray. There were occasions, mainly in the opening credits, where you could see some grain during some of the foggier scenes. Once the film gets going though you never really run into that problem again. The film consists of darks and yellows in the color scheme and they shine pretty vividly on this Blu-ray. The richness of the colors and the details that come with that are truly amazing for a 25-year old film. For example, when the group reaches the bottom of the wishing well the sparkling water is simply gorgeous. You can see the shiny details of the coins and the beautiful flow of the streams of water. Another example of detail in the HD picture is when the group ends their water slide escapade and is launched into the green/blue water surrounding the infamous pirate ship. The water is so crisp and clear that you can tell it’s been artificially injected with coloring. There is so much detail in the HD picture during most of the movie that you can’t help but appreciate the effort that went into the cleanup job. The audio is the exact same way and it works just as cleanly as the video.
As for the goodies you get inside The Goonies 25th Anniversary Edition, here’s what you’re looking at:
– Cast commentary with director Richard Donner and all seven actors
– The Making of The Goonies documentary
– Cyndi Lauper music video “The Goonies ‘R Good Enough”
– Theatrical trailer
– Deleted scenes
– Outtakes
After watching the Blu-ray without commentary I actually watched this film again with the commentary. The commentary on The Goonies Blu-ray is outstanding. While it is the DVD commentary from a few years back, it still is great to hear some moments and facts about the film that the ‘making of’ featurette didn’t really cover. As for the ‘making of’ documentary on this Blu-ray I was sort of disappointed. It was an older vintage documentary that was about 10 minutes in length. It didn’t really give any insightful information about the film, but it did entertain when it came to Donner talking about working with the kids.
As for the other features, you get some good outtakes and some great deleted scenes. When you see the infamous octopus scene you will be happy you finally get to see it and you’ll also be happy that they cut it out of the film (cool stuff, but goofy).
In addition to the actual special features on the Blu-ray, you get a bit more in the anniversary edition. For family purpose you get a cute Goonies board game. It’s neat to see something like this included in a release, but it isn’t something I will pull out every chance I get with this collection. Something that might not get much press from reviewers is the storyboard cards included with the set. You get some neat details about how some scenes were planned. You get one card that completely outlines the water slide paths. You also get a couple of deleted or never made scenes, such as a scene with a Grim Reaper/Death. Finally, you get a couple of magazine remakes (and shrunk). One of them is a the actual movie guide that came out when the film originally came out. Back in the 80s they use to make these things that detailed the stories, characters and people behind the camera. I can’t honestly remember the last time they did something like this, but I really liked they included this thing (even though it’s about 1/4th the size of the original). The other thing is a small four-page layout of ‘where are they now’, which includes comparison pictures of young/old actors and some good dialogue between the core group.
All in all this stuff is impressive in this anniversary edition. The box included in this set is also worth mentioning as it’s a nice fold out box with a great cover depicting the group silhouetted pointing at the pirate ship. When you fold out the box you get a replica pirate map they use in the film. It’s a nice hardback box.