80s Movie Review - The Lost Boys

Director: Joel Schumacher
Genre: Horror/ Comedy
Runtime: 97 minutes
Year: 1987
Starring: Jason Patric, Corey Haim, Corey Feldman, Kiefer Sutherland, Diane Wiest, Barnard Hughes, Alex Winter, Jami Gertz, Jamison Newlander, Edward Herrmann

Description: When a recently divorced mother (Diane Wiest) and het two teenage sons (Jason Patric, Corey Haim) move to a coastal town to stay with her father, it doesn’t take long for the brothers to realize the area is a haven for something much more sinister than party-going surfers.

Review: In “The Lost Boys” the danger comes from vampires in a little town Santa Carla. There are some baleful omens, like posters with missing children, that show us that Santa Carla isn’t the safest place. But even with all those missing people, the vampires keep taking victims. The only ones trying to do something about it are the strange Frog brothers. 

A single mom and her two sons moves in with her dad in Santa Carla. While sons Michael and Sam are exploring town, Michael meets a girl named Star. With that he also meets a strange group of rebels. After their meeting, Michael starts hallucinating, can’t stand sunlight and hardly has a reflection in the mirror. He is turning into a vampire and little brother Sam asks the Frog brothers to help him. 

The movie is filled with horror moments, but it also has some comedy. This mostly comes from Sam and the Frog brothers. The way the vampires get their victims give us some scares, although it’s not very explicit. 

The vampires aren’t as prominent as you would hope in a vampire movie. The leader David, played by Kiefer Sutherland, gets a lot of attention, but the rest of his gang stays in the background. 

There is a good mix of tension, horror and humor, but the movie is never really scary. And “The Lost Boys” is also as ‘80s as it can be (that saxophone player in the beginning of the movie). An enjoyable vampire flick, one I rewatch a lot.

Rating: 3,5 / 5

80s Movie Review - Stand By Me

Director: Rob Reiner
Genre: Drama/ Adventure
Runtime: 89 minutes
Year: 1986
Starring: Will Wheaton, River Phoenix, Corey Feldman, Jerry O’Connell, Kiefer Sutherland, John Cusack, Richard Dreyfuss

Description: After the death of a friend, a writer recounts a boyhood journey to find the body of a missing boy.

Review: The name Stephen King is easily linked to horror stories like “The Shining”, “It” and “Carrie”, but he also wrote some stories that fall in a different genre than horror. The movie  “Stand By Me” is one of them, which is based on the short story “The Body”. In this realistic drama we follow four teenagers in a coming of age story.
Those four boys are Gordie, Chris, Teddy and Vern. They grow up in a little town in Oregon. In the summer of 1958 a boy from their town goes missing. One of the boys overhears a conversation about the whereabouts of the dead body of the boy. The four kids decided to start a journey to find him. Their journey is more than just that, it’s testing their friendship and it’s the next step to adulthood.
Director Rob Reiner creates the perfect atmosphere and shows us the life of small-town American kids in the 50s. This movie makes you long for your own childhood, where a journey outside your town sounded like an adventure already.
River Phoenix, who unfortunately died too young, is the most impressive actor in the film. He manages to convince us as the tormented problem child. But also Will Wheaton, Corey Feldman and Jerry O’Connell manage to impress. It’s touching to see how all these very different characters grow on you.
Simple dialogue, a beautiful story and good acting make “Stand By Me” a fantastic film. It’s on my favorites list.

Rating: 5/ 5

80s Movie Review - The 'Burbs

Director: Joe Dante
Genre: Comedy
Runtime: 102 minutes
Year: 1989
Starring: Tom Hanks, Carrie Fisher, Rick Ducommun, Corey Feldman, Bruce Dern, Wendy Schaal, Henry Gibson, Brother Theodore, Courtney Gains, Gale Gordon, Dick miller, Robert Picardo, Cory Danzinger, Franklyn Ajaye, Rance Howard

Description: An overstressed suburbanite (Tom Hanks) and his paramilitaric neighbor (Bruce Dern) struggle to prove their paranoid theory that the new family in town is a front for a cannibalistic cult.

Review: Before Tom Hanks got his fame and showed his acting talent in movies like “Saving Private Ryan”, “Forrest Gump” and “The Green Mile”, he was known for his comedies. “The ‘Burbs” is a typical example. It’s a light somewhat dark comedy, with themes like xenophobia, suburbia and neighborly fights. The movie is set in the American suburbs. It’s a quiet street, almost idyllic. But that peace is disturbed when the mysterious Klopek family moves in. Some of the neighbors don’t trust the Klopeks and decide to investigate it.
The story is simple and not spectacular. But the movie has more to offer than meets the eye. The power is in the lively characters. They all look like ordinary people, living their life in the suburbs. The arrival of the Klopeks, who have a different way of life, show us the true colors of the other neighbors. It all starts with the always hungry Art Weingartner and the eccentric and patriotic soldier Mark Rumsfeld. They drag Ray Peterson (Tom Hanks), the most sceptic of the three, into this too. Soon they don’t only see the Klopeks as strange and eccentric, but also as devil worshippers and killers who bury people in their yard. The fun thing is that as a viewer you’re constantly shifting between two thoughts: Are the Klopeks really murderers or are they just a little different from the rest and need their privacy.
The humor is hilarious and sometimes even in the category slapstick. But thanks to Tom Hanks it’s never absurd.
“The ‘Burbs” is a fun and very good comedy, that I can enjoy over and over again. It’s an underestimated movie and probably also overlooked. Definitely the funniest movie Tom Hanks has been in.

Rating: 5/ 5

80s Movie Review - The Goonies

Director: Richard Donner
Genre: Adventure/ Comedy/ Family
Runtime: 114 minutes
Year: 1985
Starring: Sean Astin, Josh Brolin, Corey Feldman, Jeff Cohen, Kerri Green, Jonathan Ke Quan, Martha Plimpton

Description: In order to save their home from foreclosure, a group of misfits set out to find a pirate's ancient valuable treasure.

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

In the Picture: The Characters from "The Goonies"

I hate the fact that I never saw this as a child, my childhood would be so different. Okay, maybe that’s a little exaggerating, but I would have loved it as a kid. Look on the bright side, I love it now too! And all the characters are great. I only choose the actual Goonies gang to share (+ the brother off course). Here they come.

Mikey

Played by: Sean Astin

When Mikey was younger, his dad told him about One-Eyed Willy, which inspired him to seek for his treasure. He is the leader of the Goonies and he leads them on the treasure hunt. Mike is a brave, young boy.

Brandon

Played by: Josh Brolin

Brandon is Mikey’s older brother. Although he’s always teasing him, they also have a strong bond together. Brandon is a jock, very popular with the girls, but he also wants to protect his little brother.

Mouth

Played by: Corey Feldman

He is nicknamed Mouth because he is a smart mouth. He is one of Mikey’s best friends and fluent in Spanish, which comes in handy sometimes. He has a secret crush on Stef.

Chunk

Played by: Jeff Cohen

Chunk is chronic liar, which is why most of the gang never believes him, even when he’s telling the truth. He likes to pull pranks, but has a conscience as well. He got his nickname Chunk because he always breaks stuff.

Data

Played by: Ke Huy Quan

Data got his nickname because of his inventions. He is a big James Bond fan and always carries gadgets in his trenchcoat. Although they sometimes malfunction, they have saved the Goonies many times and Data comes in handy every once in a while.

 

 

Favorite Character: Data

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

Quotables: "Stand By Me"

One of my favorites. A good coming of age story, that I can actually watch over and over again. It’s just a great story, filled with quotable lines.







Chris: How do you know if a Frenchman has been in your backyard?
Teddy: Hey, I'm French, okay?
Chris: Your garbage cans are empty and your dog's pregnant.
[Chris and Gordie laugh]
Teddy: Didn't I just say I was French?

Gordie: Suck my fat one, you cheap dime store hood.

Vern: [after dropping his hamburger in the campfire by accident] This isn't funny! What am I supposed to eat?
Teddy: You could cook your dick.
Chris: It'd be a small meal.

Chris: I'm never gonna get out of this town am I, Gordie?
Gordie: You can do anything you want, man.
Chris: Yeah, sure. Give me some skin.
Gordie: I'll see ya.
Chris: Not if I see you first.

The Writer: It happens sometimes. Friends come in and out of our lives, like busboys in a restaurant.

Vern: You think Mighty Mouse could beat up Superman?
Teddy: What are you cracked?
Vern: Why not? I saw the other day, he was carrying 5 elephants in one hand.
Teddy: Boy, you don't know nothin', Mighty Mouse is a cartoon, Superman is a real guy, no way a cartoon could beat up a real guy.
Vern: Yeah, maybe you're right... would be a good fight though!

The Writer: At the beginning of the school year, Vern had buried a quart jar of pennies underneath his house. He drew a treasure map so he could find them again. A week later, his mom cleaned out his room and threw away the map. Vern had been trying to find those pennies for nine months. Nine months, man. You didn't know whether to laugh or cry.

The Writer: The freight woke up the other guys and it was on the tip of my tongue to tell them about the deer. But I didn't. That was the one thing I kept to myself. I've never spoken or written about it until just now.

Movie Moments: "The 'Burbs"

This movie is so underrated, because it's hilarious even after watching it like a hundred times. It's definitely Tom Hanks' funniest movie ever made. here are the best scenes from "The 'Burbs".

Moment # 1: Opening scene
We enter Mayfield Place, a nice suburban street. Ray gets his paper thrown at him and he responds by emptying his coffee cup towards the paperboy. Ricky puts on some heavy metal before he starts to paint his house. Walters dog Queenie poops on Rumsfields lawn. Rumsfield and Bonnie raise the American flag. We meet the people in Mayfield Place.

Moment # 2: Bees
One of the mysterious Klopek men leaves the house and Ray and Art see him. When he gets back in the house, the guys decide to go over. When they step on their porch, Art’s legg falls through and makes a hole in the porch. When Ray knocks on the door, a hole in the wall releases a swarm of bees. Ray and Art start running and Rumsfield wants to save them with his hose. When he’s running towards them, the hose is to short and Rumsfield falls. He eventually saves Ray and Art from the bees by hosing them down with water.

Moment # 3: Walters house
Bonnie finds Queenie walking around on the street. When Walter isn’t opening the door Ray, Art, Rumsfield, Bonnie and Ricky break in to his house. Bonnie is looking for some food for Queenie, when she starts screaming. She claims it’s a dead rat, when Rumsfield tells her it’s Walters hair piece. Art, off course, goes through Walters food supplies and finds cookies. He holds up the plate, but than Ricky enters the kitchen and breaks the plate.

Moment # 4: Satan is our pal
Ray and Art are in the basement reading a book about demonology. Art thinks the Klopeks are Satanists and Ray doesn’t want to hear about it. He covers his ears and starts humming a song. Art tells him he’s chanting ‘I want to kill everyone, Satan is good, Satan is our pal’.

Moment # 5: Ray’s dream
Ray goes to bed and wakes up. He’s looking for Carol and all of a sudden a chainsaw comes through the wall. He sees Carol and she tells Ray how nice it was to invite the neighbors for a barbecue. Ray is on that barbecue and about to be sacrificed by the Klopeks. Right before one of them is about to run a knife through his heart, he wakes up.

Moment # 6: The bone
Ray wants some peace and is trying to get rest when Art is trying to talk to him about the Klopeks again. When Ray’s dog Vince finds a bone, they see that he got it near the fence that connects Ray’s yard with the Klopeks. Art realizes that the bone belongs to Walter and both men start screaming. When Ray wants to run inside, Carol opens the door and accidentaly smashes it in to Ray’s face. Out of frustration he crushes a soda can.

Moment # 7: Visiting the Klopeks
Carol is sick of the guys spying on the Klopeks. She and Bonnie decide it’s a better idea to visit the Klopeks and have a chat. Ray, Rumsfield, Carol and Bonnie go over to the Klopeks. They meet Hans, Rueben and Werner Klopek and everything goes wrong: Rumsfield falls through the porch just like Art did before, he rips wallpaper of the wall, Ray almost chokes on sardines and later spills coffee into his lap, the giant dog is released and attacks Art who’s investigating the perimeter.

Moment # 8: Rumsfield falls of the roof
When Art and Ray are investigating the Klopek house when they’re gone, Rumsfield is on the look out on his roof. When Ricky is trying to warn him, Rumsfield falls of the roof.

Moment # 9: The house explodes
Art is running back into the Klopek house to tell Ray Walter is back. Ray hit a gasline and they have to get out as fast as possible. Art gets out in time, but the house explodes with Ray still in it. when all the neighbour are watching the house burn, Ray gets out in shock.

Moment # 10: Ray attacks Art
After everything that happened and not finding any evidence of murder in the Klopek house, Art still tells Ray that they will find something Ray gets mad and attacks Art. (Sorry, no picture)

Moment: 11: Hey Pinocchio!
It turns out that the Klopeks are killers and Hans wants to escape. Rumsfield sees it and yells: “Hey Pinocchio, where do you think you’re going?” He runs after him and Hans falls down. So does Rumsfield, but he does get him.

Favorite Moment: Moment # 8: Visiting the Klopeks

Movie Moments: "Stand By Me"

"Stand By Me" is one of my favorite movies of all-time. People who follow my blog know this. Although the movie is only around 90 minutes long, it has plenty of great scenes. Here they are.

Moment # 1: Verne tells his friends about Ray
Chris, Gordie and Teddy are talking and playing cards in their treehouse. Verne wants to enter, but doesn’t remember the secret knock anymore. They let him in anyway. While still teasing Verne, he tells his friends about the dead body of Ray Brower. They decide to go on a fieldtrip and find the body.

Moment # 2: Danny gives Gordie the hat
When Gordie is at home, getting all his stuff together for the trip, he has to find his cantine. He goes into his brother Danny’s room, who recently past away. He starts to think about the moment when Danny gave him the New York Yankees cap.

Moment # 3: It’s loaded
When Gordie and Chris meet up for their trip, Chris shows him what he brought: a gun. Gordie starts playing with it and Chris tells him it isn’t loaded. When he points at a mark and wants to fire, they find out it is loaded and they run away.

Moment # 4: Dodging the train
When the boys are walking, they hear a train coming. Verne, Chris and Gordie get off the train rails, but Teddy doesn’t. He decides to dodge the train. He wants to wait untill the last moment to get off the rails.

Moment # 5: Gordie and Chris race each other
The boys climb over a fence and they want to take a break. Gordie and Chris decide to race each other. When they stop and Chris wins, they look at each other and smile, the look of true friendship.

Moment # 6: “Shut Up!”
The boys are hungry and one of them needs to gets something to eat. They flip coins and Gordie is the lucky one. Verne, Teddy and Chris start making fun of him and Gordie tells them to shut up. The other three respond: I don't shut up. I grow up. And when I look at you, I throw up. Aghhh!

Moment # 7: Chopper
When Gordie returns with the food and drinks, he sees his friends climbing over the fence. Than he sees the owner of the property and he releases his dog Chopper. All he hears is “Chopper, sic balls”. When he’s on the other side of the fence, the boys see Chopper’s true identity and he doesn’t look like an evil dog at all.

Moment # 8: “TRAIN!”
In order to get to the other side, the boys decide to take the bridge which has a railroad. While walking, Gordie looks behind and sees smoke. A train is coming and they have to start running to make it to the other side. Chris and Teddy are already there, but Verne and Gordie still have a long way to go. Verne is affraid that he is going to fall, but Gordie makes sure he starts running too.

Moment # 9: Campfire talk
The four friends make a campfire and start all sorts of discussions. Like what animal Goofy is, which food they could eat for the rest of their lives and Wagon Train. Especially the Goofy discussion is a hot topic.

Moment # 10: Gordie’s story
Still around the campfire, Gordie tells his friends a story he wrote. It’s about a fat boy, nicknamed Lard Ass, who enters a pie eating competition and takes revenge on all the people who always make fun of him.

Moment # 11: Gordie and Chris share a moment
While Verne and Teddy are sleeping, Chris and Gordie sit down and talk. Chris talks about his father and gets really emotional. Gordie comforts him. Than Chris tell Gordie that he will be a great writer someday and he might wright about them.

Moment # 12: Leeches
The boys have to cross a swamp to get on the other side. They start fooling around, but when they get out teddy sees something in Verne’s neck. They’re all covered in leeches. When they think they got rid of them all, Gordie checks his undies and than faints.

Moment # 13: They find the body
After a long trip, the guys finally find what they where looking for: the body of Ray Brower. They look at it and decide what to do next. Ace and his friends join them, because they knew about Gordie, Verne, Teddy and Chris trying to find Ray. He starts threatening the boys, but than Gordie pulls out the gun. Ace and his buddies leave.

Moment # 14: Goodbye
The boys return from their trip and say goodbye. They leave and they all go to their own lives again. The voice-over, who’s a grown up Gordie, tells us what happened to his friends. Like Chris, who became a lawyer and was stabbed and died instantly. His closing lines are: “I never had any friends later on like the ones I had when I was twelve. Jesus, does anyone? “

Favorite Moment: Moment # 11: Gordie and Chris share a moment

In the Picture: The Characters from "Stand By Me"

A new item! I wanted to do some sort of an analysis of characters in a movie. Going deeper, trying to find out who they are and what they are like. I'll pick one movie and I sort of put a magnifier over the leading characters. I will start with one of my favorite movies of all-time: "Stand By Me".

Gordie Lachance
Played by: Will Wheaton
Gordie is the sensitive boy in the group, but also the one with the best looking future due to his writing talent. His parents, especially Gordie's father, doesn't really care much for him or his storytelling. Gordie is a loyal friend, he's best friends with Chris. He's is the most mature one of the foursome.

Chris Chambers
Played by: River Phoenix
He takes over the leader role. He is a tough kid, mainly because of his background and family history. He comes from a family of criminals and drunks. He wants to do better for himself and actually has ambitions. He doesn't trust adults, because of his father and older brother who beat him up. Chris is, despite of his tough act, a good kid with the best intentions.

Teddy Duchamp
Played by: Corey Feldman
Teddy is a troubled boy. He is a bit eccentric and likes thrills, like dodging a train. Although his father never treated him well, he still idolizes him and sees him as his hero, because he stormed the beach at Normandy. His dad caused him bad vision and hearing. Teddy is a bit crazy but also has a good heart.

Vern Tessio
Played by: Jerry O'Connell
Vern is often picked on. His friends even mess with him, because he is so easy to get to, and he's used to it. He's overweight, scared easily and timid, thus an easy target for his buddies. He's also the youngest in the group. Vern is not a very brave boy, but he's a kind, big hearted and loveable friend.

Ace Merril
Played by: Kiefer Sutherland
Ace is the leader of a local gang called 'The Cobras', someone you don't want to mess with. Everyone is affraid of him and he isn't affraid to use violence.

Denny Lachance
Played by: John Cusack
Not one of the leading characters, but worth putting up here. Denny is Gordie's older brother who died in a car accident. He was the favorite of the family and the only one who actually cared for Gordie and he saw what talent his little brother had. Their father thought Gordie should've died and not Denny.

My favorite character: Vern Tessio

Movie Tip #12 - Stand By Me

Director: Rob Reiner

Starring: Wil Wheaton, River Phoenix, Corey Feldman, Jerry O'Connell, Kiefer Sutherland, John Cusack, Richard Dreyfuss

Description: 4 young friends set out on an adventure. Gordie, Chris, Teddy and Vern go looking for the missing body of a local teenager - found by a gang of older boys. A story of boys hangin' out and growin' up.

Review: This movie shows us about real friendship. It's based on a short story by Stephen King. Young as they are, they explore life and they test their friendship. Four different kids, an odd group, but you come to like every single one of them. It's heartwarming, sad, touching and funny. One thing made me think. At the end of the movie, the grown up Gordie tells us: "I never had any friends later on like the ones I had when I was twelve. Jesus, does anyone?" And really... I think he's right.