THE GOONIES: 25th ANNIVERSARY COLLECTOR’S EDITION
(PG)
MOVIE: *** (out of 5)
BLU-RAY EXPERIENCE: **** (out of 5)
BY KEVIN CARR
WHAT IT’S ABOUT
On the wrong side of the tracks in a seaside town, a land developer is ready to tear down a series of houses and the famous docks in order to build a golf course. The kids who live in the neighborhood, who call themselves the Goonies, are sad to see their childhood homes go and an end to their adventures. However, when they find a treasure map leading to the lost treasure of One-Eyed Willy, they embark on a final adventure to find riches.
WHAT I LIKED
I was just a year or two too old to love “The Goonies” as a kid. I was graduating to bigger action films at the time, but like classics like “The Monster Squad,” I can watch these films now and enjoy them with my kids.
“The Goonies” is classic mid-1980s Spielberg. It has PG-level adventure with just enough peril to make the younger viewers nervous. The cast of characters is pretty solid in this movie, helped along by a cast of fantastic child actors. As a grown-up, I can appreciate this movie for what it is to my kids and what it was to the generation just a hair behind me.
In the end, “The Goonies” is fun and perfect for the tween boy in all of us.
WHAT I DIDN’T LIKE
“The Goonies” is a neat little film, but it does fall on the waning end of Spielberg’s quality work of the 80s. Gone were the days of “E.T.” and the first “Indiana Jones” films. He was ushering in the times of him slapping a producing credit on a movie to call it his own. In the following years, we got sub-standard movies like “*batteries not included.”
So the biggest problems I have with “The Goonies” include feeling like we were dropped into the end of a series (I’m can’t be the first one who would have loved to see a prequel to this film) as well as the “Scooby Doo” quality of the story.
BLU-RAY FEATURES
The Blu-ray includes all the bonus material from the previous DVD and Blu-ray releases. This includes “The Making of the Goonies” featurette, outtakes, Cyndi Lauper’s extended music video of “The Goonies ‘R’ Good Enough” and the theatrical trailer. Exclusive to the Blu-ray releases is an embedded video commentary with director Richard Donner and selected original cast members.
The 25th Anniversary Collectors Edition box set includes some pretty impressive physical items. There’s an envelope filled with movie stills and storyboards. Also included is a mini reprint of “The Goonies” souvenir magazine with 150 photos as well as a reprint of Empire Magazine’s 20th Anniversary article on the film.
But the coolest part of this box set is “The Goonies” board game, which works as a race for 2 to 4 players to get to the end of the treasure map with One-Eyed Willy’s gold. I played this with my kids, and it was surprisingly fun and easy to do (with a minor adjustment in the rules by us).
WHO’S GOING TO LIKE THIS MOVIE
Anyone who was a tween in the mid-80s and wants to share this with their kids.