Thursday, July 22, 2010

See The Goonies

By Bobby Colon

If you remember the eighties, then you certainly remember The Goonies. This movie was a classic. On the other hand, if you still haven't seen it for some crazy reason... Think Pirates of the Caribbean meets Stand By Me meets Indiana Jones meets The Sopranos meets... Well, it's a whole lot of different movies all wrapped into one, really. It's primarily an adventure flick, but it makes a lot of stops along the way, and stands as one of the all time classic kids movie downloads.

The movie focuses on Mikey Walsh and his band of "Goonies", kids from the docks area of Astoria, Oregon. The kids are sort of the outcasts, the rejects, the ne'er do wells of the town, who have a long on-going rivalry with the rich kids. This rivalry comes to a head when the local rich guys plan to foreclose on the neighborhood and turn it into a golf course.

The Goonies take it upon themselves to save the Boon Docks. They start by getting into the attic, where Mike's dad, a museum curator, has a bunch of old pirate stuff stashed. They find a treasure map leading them to an old restaurant on the coast. The restaurant is run by the Fratellis, a low rent crime family led by Ma Fratelli, a serious ball buster who takes a sort of Bates Motel approach to mothering her children, played by Robert Davi and Joe Pantoliano. They have to figure out how to get under the restaurant to get the treasure without alerting the Fratellis and...

It sounds like a lot of information to take in all at once: Pirates, the mafia, buried treasure, foreclosures... But if you just stay along for the ride, you don't have to worry about keeping track of all that. Just enjoy it for what it is, a fast paced, action filled adventure romp through caves and crypts, culminating in a showdown on an underground pirate ship.

Really, the movie's all about fun. It's a really silly, fun, exciting movie, partly because it doesn't go all the way into fantasy territory. Unlike Monster Squad, everything that happens in The Goonies technically COULD happen in real life... It's not very likely, but within the context of the film, it feels about as real as anything in Stand by Me. This really helps it inspire you with a sense of adventure in your every day life.

When the film came out, it was considered to be a little TOO fast paced, with booby traps and swordfights breaking out at the drop of a hat. However, when compared to the manic pace of most modern children's films, The Goonies is downright laid back.

Regardless, the film is a classic of the eighties era of adventure movies. Back when Indiana Jones was big, you had a bunch of people who wanted to join in and put their own spin on it. The Goonies was actually devised by Spielberg himself, so it was sort of his own take on his own ideas: Put kids in place of Indiana Jones.

But it really is a classic in its own right. If you haven't seen it in awhile, watch it again. Any child of the eighties should have a copy on their hard drive ready to watch at the drop of a hat. You'll need it for when you have kids of your own and you want them to know how good movies used to be back when you were a kid!

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