100 Movie Challenge 2014 - # 68: The Goonies

Director: Richard Donner

Genre: Adventure/ Family/ Comedy

Runtime: 114 minutes

Year: 1985

Starring: Sean Astin, Josh Brolin, Corey Feldman, Jeff Cohen, Ke Huy Quan, Kerri Green, Martha Plimpton

Description: A group of kids set out on an adventure in search of a pirate treasure that could save their homes from foreclosure.

Review: A year before Steven Spielberg, who wrote “The Goonies”, delivered us this movie, he worked on “Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom”. That is clearly visible. The excitement, the effects and the décor could all be in an Indy film. But this all doesn’t mean that “The Goonies” is pretty much the same. The biggest difference is the audience. Much younger viewers are targeted. Indiana Jones would never go looking for a captain named One-Eyed Willy or is chased by an over-the-top group of bad guys called the Fratelli’s. All ingredients for a movie with a youthful mentality.

When “The Goonies” was released, it wasn’t a huge success. It wasn’t until it was brought to VHS that kids started watching it. Nowadays “The Goonies” has a true cult status and it’s loved by young and old, the kids from the 80’s included. And it deserves that status. The adventure that the kids are on brings a good old eighties feeling to you. It’s easy to identify with the cowardly Chunk, the cool and know-it-all Mikey, inventive Data and even the cheeky Mouth.

Don’t expect a deeper story, but a family film like this doesn’t need that. “The Goonies” gives you that youthful feeling again, a great film to watch.

Rating: 4 / 5