Movie Night: The Goonies

Time to upset the fanboy contingent again.

I watched The Goonies again, for the first time in what must be more than a decade. It’s one of those movies that holds a special place for genre fans — Spielberg-produced, Richard Donner-directed, the debut of then-child actor Sean Astin (not to mention appearances by Josh Brolin, Robert Davi, Joe Pantoliano, and a still-appealing Corey Feldman). I watched it with the girls, who seemed to enjoy it enough. But for me, it just confirmed what I’d suspected back when I saw it originally: It doesn’t really deserve its cult status. It’s too implausibly cheesy for an adult (one looking at it objectively, anyway) to enjoy, but really too violent (or disturbing, anyway) for kids (just explaining John Matuszak’s deformed appearance as “Sloth” was tough enough). In retrospect, I probably would have passed on showing it to the girls; though, to be fair, neither of them really appears to be particularly damaged by it.

There was talk a couple of years back of doing a Goonies 2. And while I can understand the appeal of reuniting the cast (well, without the late Anne Ramsey, naturally), I think they were wise to decide against it. Sometimes these things are better remembered through the hazy mists of childhood.