The Goonies
Warner Home Entertainment   -   1985   -   90 minutes

Reviewed by Thor van Lingen

Review Date: December 15, 2002

FOR STARTERS

PHOTO GALLERY The Goonies find a map in the attic.

Long before spending three years of his adult life filming the epic Lord of the Rings trilogy as Samwise Gamgee, a very young Sean Astin was cast by Richard Donner and Steven Spielberg to play Mikey Walsh, the adventurous younger brother of iron-pumping, head-band-toting, sleeveless-shirt-wearing Brandon Walsh (no, not the one from Beverly Hills: 90210) played by Josh Brolin. The two are the only brothers in a tight-knit group of local Astoria, Oregon kids that call themselves The Goonies. It seems that a wealthy local man is looking to snatch up all the houses in their area and turn the land into a snooty country club, thus breaking up the ring of friends, unless their families can come up with an enormous amount of money overnight. After doing what kids do best, snoop, the boys find an old map that may lead to the mysterious never-found treasure of the pirate known as one-eyed Willie. Thus begins the adventure.

Before long, the bunch pulls off another stunt that kids excel at: getting into trouble. Their fledgling cartography skills lead them to an old restaurant on a bluff overlooking the ocean, where they are certain their adventure to find the �X� that marks the spot will begin. The only problem is that the ruthless Fratelli family (Joe Pantoliano, Robert Davi, and Anne Ramsey) has made this place their hideout. The majority of the group, with only the ice cream hound Lawrence 'Chunk' Cohen left behind, escape into the tunnels below the restaurant to search for the long-lost loot, accompanied now by two female companions Andy Carmichael (Kerri Green) and Stef Steinbrenner (Martha Plimpton). In short order, the curious and greedy Fratelli�s give pursuit, and the race to the bounty is on.

Encumbered along the way by many Indiana-Jones-like booby traps (which is funny in part because Jonathan Ke Quan (Data Wang) was in the second of those films), The Goonies are soon further along in the quest than experienced treasure hunter Chester Copperpot ever got. Falling boulders, breakaway floors, deadly spike pits, bewitched organs, perilous water slides, and an 8-foot octopus that didn�t make the final cut of the film all can�t keep this cunning group of youngsters down. Eventually rewarded by finding the ship, fortunes will change hands a couple of times before the good guys eventually win (big surprise).

A really fun swashbuckling adventure for the whole family, The Goonies was a great change of pace from the mainstream release flow I�ve been caught in recently. This was a film that I thoroughly enjoyed as a kid, and my roommate and I found ourselves liking it all over again, rooting for the little treasure-hunters the whole time. With enough character actors and recognizable faces to keep you busy, The Goonies will have you wondering �what else was that guy in?� Don�t let the fact that the acting, pacing, story, and suspense of this film are all carried by a hoard of youngsters dissuade you from a wholly enjoyable treasure hunt.

VIDEO

Another slightly older movie gets the DVD treatment. The Goonies benefits from a pretty nice 2.35:1 widescreen anamorphic transfer. Though the colors show their age in a few muted shots, overall they are pretty reliable. Outside of a few sequences with some fairly pronounced haloing and another brutal layer switch, I didn�t have too many complaints with the video display. Many of the scenes are in low light and shadow (a condition prevalent in many caves), and they hold up pretty well in total. Black levels and contrast are both more than adequate, with the overall softer look of the film lending a little bit to support any obvious video shortcomings. In looking at the trailer and the music video on this disc, you will actually appreciate the pretty solid job they did preserving this one.

AUDIO

Brought to your speakers with a revamped 5.1 Dolby digital audio track, The Goonies hasn�t sounded better. Though not as impressive as I may have hoped, the audio transfer is respectable if not quite remarkable. I would categorize the overall audio experience as adequate. There are no real dominant audio sequences that have you thanking your lucky stars for the invention of surround sound. Though the music is good and some of the effects and echoes are noteworthy, the center is fairly dominant, and some of the vocals come up a bit flat. The rears are dead early, and chip in with some redeeming bursts later to make up for their early absence. Certainly a movie that could have benefited from the last 17 years of audio advancements, this DVD won�t dazzle you, but it does the job.

SUPPLEMENTS

As with many 80s movies, this one only rated a single disc release. Filmmakers back then obviously couldn�t have had the foresight to anticipate the hunger for and popularity of supplemental materials. As such, this DVD has about all the stuff it could have, without going back and spending too much money creating new material. All of the �standard� things are here, with a few niceties. The menu is appropriately themed, and has a very Goonies feel to it. The Cyndi Lauper video is simply hysterical. It was really funny to me what MTV settled for back then. The who�s who of the WWF at the time was probably the most amusing thing to me. When was the last time anyone saw �The Iron Sheik� or �Nikolai Volkov�? (If you know who I�m talking about without seeing the video, you may have watched a little too much USA Network back in the day.) The outtakes were pretty good, as was the brief making of segment. The biggest bang for the buck comes with the engaging and funny commentary laid down by Donner and the whole young cast. You must see how these people look now. It is comedy. Enjoy.

THE BOTTOM LINE

For anyone who as a child thought they might find gold in their back yard, went on a scavenger hunt, or just played pirate ship, this movie is the embodiment of that free spirit. A fun and well-written movie, this one is definitely worth picking up if you�re a fan of the film. If not, it should be a must rent.