The Goonies

This screams Spielberg’s popcorn 80s all the way, in the best possible way: it’s witty, charming, exciting, adventurous. It has kids on bikes, the suburban locations, the slightly cheesy all American innocence. It’s just a perfect entertainment machine.

Beyond the (intentionally) ludicrous and slightly clunky plot director Richard Donner directs the group of talented young actors with such care, dynamism and love, making them feel like they’ve all been knowing each other forever. The interaction between them is what makes this such an enduring classic: they all embody their parts to perfection. Each of them has always something to do, even when they’re in the background. Yes sometime they all talk over each other and often it can be hard to understand what they’re talking about as their screams and loud music cover some of the lines, but that’s what makes it so much enjoyable to watch too!

The film rattles along from set piece to set piece, beautifully photographed with its moody dark shadows. There’s no “kids don’t do this at home” warning here. There’s swearing, penis jokes, tongue kissing references, some bullying even but it’s all done with such fun and innocence that it’s hard to fault it.
And that’s without mentioning the Fratelli brothers (and their mom!), Sloth, the pirate ship, the water slide, the “Good Enough” song, Sean Astin, and so on and so on….
My son watching it for the first time was breathless, shouting at the screen, covering his eyes and ears, mesmerised and terrified at the same time. What a joy watching it with him.
In a time defined by superheroes, blockbusters, Disney franchises and reboots, the Goonies is what “kids’ movies” used to be and Hollywood should look at it again once in a while and learn something from it.