Movie Review: The Goonies (1985)

The Goonies (1985) directed by Richard Donner

A group of boys want to have one last day of adventure before local developers foreclose on all their homes and turn the area into a golf course. They explore Mikey's (Sean Astin) attic and discover an old map from One-Eyed Willie, a pirate from the 1600s who left a treasure (and his whole ship) buried in a cave nearby. Most people don't believe the legends, mostly because no one ever found the cave. Mikey and his friends race off to find the pirate treasure. The map leads them to an abandoned restaurant where they run into the Fratellis, a mother (Anne Ramsey) and her two bumbling sons who break out of the local jail and are conducting their "business," including disposing of some dead bodies. The boys discover a passageway underneath the basement fireplace. The tunnels are full of booby traps left by One-Eyed Willie to protect his treasure. The kids go first, but the Fratellis are not far behind.

The movie is a kid's adventure flick with a lot of the typical stuff from the 1980s. The story was from Steven Spielberg so there's plenty of adventure and Indiana Jones-style action toned down for the almost teenaged characters. The script was written by Chris Columbus and has a lot of slapstick violence and rude behavior that he would perfect in Home Alone years later. The score has a John Williams feel to it. The film has a pop video tie-in with Cyndi Lauper's The Goonies Are Good Enough. The evil country-club developers have no real character and just provide motivation for the financially-poor heroes to go on an adventure, starting with riding their bikes to the restaurant. The movie checks all the boxes for 1980s crowd-pleasing cinema.

Watching the film almost forty years after its release, I find it hasn't aged well. It definitely looks and sounds like a 1980s film. It doesn't have that timeless quality that the darker Gremlins or the lighter Home Alone has. The cast does a good job but there's nothing really outstanding here and it is definitely aimed at kids (though my children were completely uninterested after watching the trailer).

Mildly recommended.