The Goonies (1985)

 ☆ ☆ ☆ ½

The Goonies (1985) – R. Donner 

I turned 18 in 1985 which is probably why I had never watched The Goonies until now (too old for a movie for kids, I guess). As a film-loving dad to two, I have scoured those various “best family films” lists but we’ve either seen ‘em or the boys turn their noses up. I can’t keep up with (or find) the new releases which are all animation, it seems. So, The Goonies seemed a possibility – until we looked at Common Sense Media to discover a lot of horrified parents worried about the S word and drug references and other off-colour bits.  Well, this is Australia, so there’s no way to avoid a bit of cussing (did you see the Olympics?) and we ploughed ahead anyway.  And that was a good decision because the movie is rollicking fun (and some of the inappropriate bits got the bigger laughs, at least from age 11).  A gang of misfit boys, including Sean Astin and Josh Brolin who are about to lose their house to foreclosure, stumble upon a treasure map which leads them (and their friends including Corey Feldman, Jeff Cohen, and Ke Huy Quan) to an old restaurant which is now the hideout for a gang of crooks (including Joe Pantoliano, Robert Davey, and the excellent Anne Ramsey). There’s a lot of slapstick fun as The Goonies find a tunnel in the basement and avoid some booby traps on their way to finding One-Eyed Willie’s pirate ship. There’s some serious weirdness too when The Goonies encounter the chained-up not-quite-right son (gridiron player John Matuszak) of the villainous matriarch (which eventually leads to a nod to director Richard Donner’s other big hit).  Chris Columbus and Steven Spielberg wrote the script and produced but this never becomes cloying (even if age 9 had to close his eyes during the occasional kissing scenes). Indeed, the surprising lack of slickness is a big plus. I guess, that’s 1985 for you.