My Review of "The Goonies"

The Goonies came out back in 1985. I remember loving this movie when I was a kid. One of the odd things was that there was an Asian kid around the same age as me in this movie. Obviously I totally identified with him even though he was nothing like me but he spoke the same native tongue that I did. Immediately I was drawn to this movie. It was as if I was part of the adventure.

This all starts out with a getaway scene. The Fratelli's spring one of their family members from jail and they're on the run. As they're escaping the police in this small town called Astoria, everyone is just living their everyday lives. Here we get introduced to our main characters who will eventually be known as the Goonies.

We have our main hero Mikey who is a romantic dreamer of lost treasure and pirates. Mikey's friends; Chunk, Data and Mouth come over to Mikey's house to hang out. They lament the fact that they're going to be moving soon as a developer is about to purchase all the houses in their neighborhood. This means that this is probably the last time they're all going to be together.

While fooling around in Mikey's house they discover Mikey's father's treasure trove full of lost pirate artifacts. Mikey's father has been obsessed with a pirate that they believe hid treasure nearby their neighborhood. Naturally, the gang think up of a plan to find this mysterious treasure to save their neighborhood.

Things of course will not be easy. The first step of the adventure starts out at the Fratelli's hidden hideout. From there on they continually get tested with more dangerous and wild situations. Soon as you know it the Fratelli's find out about their plan and start chasing them down to get the treasure as well.

It's a fairly simple story but this was also meant for kids. There is definitely a child-like tone to the whole movie. Adolescent jokes are sprinkled throughout the movie that will make some people roll their eyes or even groan. I thought they were charming but I lived through the era and I'm blinded by nostalgia.

I did notice that the kids would flip flop in their approach to certain scenes. There are moments where you feel as though the kids are much more mature than we expect them to be. Then they devolve quickly back to their childlike state. This play with their personalities works for me because if they were really annoying throughout the whole movie it wouldn't be entertaining. Then again if they were really mature throughout the movie it wouldn't be as believable either. There's a fine balance throughout the movie.

I'm surprised that the special effects and the props still looked quite decent for a movie this old. Yes there are moments where you can see the strings on the bats flying around or weird painting like backgrounds. For the most part it works and it's visually stunning. It really feels like they turned back the hands of time for you.

For a cast full of children they did a fantastic job in breathing life into their characters. Each one of these kids have so much charisma. You really root for each one of them. It's a different kind of acting back then because you can tell that they were told to overexaggerate. They do but it's very appropriate for this movie. Especially the Chunk character who often steals the show with his reactions.

Overall, I still had so much fun watching this movie. This is a movie that I'll probably watch whenever it's on. It's just that much fun to watch. I'm not sure if newer generations can identify with this movie but this movie was my childhood. I would rewatch it so many times and when I watch it today I still have those fist pumping moments. I have to give this movie an 8 out of 10 with my rose colored glasses.