steven@ism70.UUCP (06/05/85)
THE GOONIES Starring Sean Astin, Josh Brolin, Jeff Cohen, Corey Feldman, Ke Huy Quan, Kerri Green and Martha Plimpton. Also starring Robert Davi, Joe Pantoliano, Anne Ramsey and John Matuszak. Directed by Richard Donner. Written by Chris Columbus. Story by Steven Spielberg. Produced by Richard Donner and Harvey Bernhard. Photographed by Nick McLean. Production Designed by J. Michael Riva. Edited by Michael Kahn. Music by Dave Grusin. Visual Effects Supervision by Michael McAlister for Industrial Light and Magic. From Warner Bros. Pictures (1985) This isn't a very good film for anybody over 14 years of age, and that's a shame. Walked out of the theater and turned to my friend and said, "A new low." I guess that's being a bit harsh on _T_h_e _G_o_o_n_i_e_s, but it is a major disappointment from Richard Donner and Steven Spielberg. Brothers Mikey (Sean Astin, kid of John and Patty Duke Astin) and Brand (scion of James Brolin) are being forced to leave their friends and home because land developers are foreclosing on their house to build a new country club. Together with Chunk (Jeff Cohen), Mouth (Corey Feldman) and Dayta (Ke Huy Quan), the band of intrepid Goonies go on one last adventure together. Seems that Dad is a museum curator for this small coastal Oregon community and up in the attic amongst all the neat stuff is a mysterious map daring all comers to locate the final resting place of notorious pirate One-Eyed Willie and his lost treasure. It's not a very original picture; it's more like a Steven Spielberg apologia to those parents who were gulled into thinking _I_n_d_i_a_n_a_ _J_o_n_e_s_ _a_n_d_ _t_h_e_ _T_e_m_p_l_e_ _o_f_ _D_o_o_m was suitable pre-teen fare. The villains of this piece, a family of criminals named the Fratellis, are all played for laughs rather than menace. The Goonies, as the kids call themselves, thread their way through a series of One-Eyed Willie's booby traps -- all more or less variations of the opening scene in _R_a_i_d_e_r_s_ _o_f_ _t_h_e_ _L_o_s_t_ _A_r_k, where one false step can send poisoned arrows or whatever shooting out at you -- on the way to their discovery. Again, threatening situations to the Goonies are played for a high-enegy comic-book feel. The big things that went wrong with this flick stem from pacing and from Donner's direction of the performers. Somebody must have told screenwriter Chris Columbus to work on his dialogue this time at bat, because it comes out spiky and florid; much improved from the flat exposition of _G_r_e_m_l_i_n_s. But Richard Donner has the kids talk very fast, very loudly and all at once. Donner probably strove to give the exposition a little heightened flair, but it makes the dialogue very difficult to understand. Ke Huy Quan, with his Vietnamese accent, is barely comprehensible. Under the circumstances, the kids give reasonable performances. I've heard rumors that Richard Donner didn't have a lot of patience with his child actors and as a result, Spielberg was having to come down to the set a lot to work with them. The action sequences of the film have the same problem that the action sequences in _I_n_d_i_a_n_a_ _J_o_n_e_s do; they don't progress any. You never really get a sense in the picture that the Goonies are getting any closer to their goal. The picture has momentum but no movement. The story has way too many characters for an action flick (seven Goonies and four villains) that are all conceived with "hooks" (strong character traits) that are overplayed and as a result never add up to real, believable people. All Chunk talks about is food, food, food. There aren't any straight characters to speak of; everyone onscreen is an eccentric and it gets repetitious. The story panders to its pre-teen audience to such an extent as to turn off any potential older viewers. There are some really idiotic comic scenes that look like Hal Needham outtakes; they don't have a place in the film, yet they're here. Mikey has three or four too many sappy monologues talking about how kids are different from adults and it really bogs down the film's already out-of-whack pacing. The ending goes on forever as all the characters have their little resolutions. _T_h_e_ _G_o_o_n_i_e_s could have had a really big visual action ending which I'm sure you'll second guess when you see it. But it doesn't occur, really, because of a decision to go for a more heartwarming, mystic tone. I think it was a mistake. Don't get me wrong; it'll make plenty of money. Not as much as it could have, but _T_h_e_ _G_o_o_n_i_e_s certainly has enough richness of detail in its production (some really nice shots, great photography by Nick McLean and production design by J. Michael Riva (_B_u_c_k_a_r_o_o _B_a_n_z_a_i)) to satisfy on some level. The thing that worries me is that Spielberg apparently tried to learn from the mistakes he made in _I_n_d_i_a_n_a_ _J_o_n_e_s, but went too far in the other direction. He made this film too nice for its audience and they won't respond. Even the edge of sick humor that _G_r_e_m_l_i_n_s had has been washed out in favor of overblown Saturday matinee antics. Too bad. Subtlety and originality would have really helped this flick. Two stars out of four.