The Goonies (1985) - Sweet child performances drive Donner's beloved, uneven adventure

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Hanging from a crumbling dripstone, a beautifully drawn and painted poster for Richard Donner's The Goonies, which spells high adventure

A small town is getting demolished to make space for a golf court, but the town's mischievous, inventive children take the chance, when they happen upon an old pirate's map in an attic. Pursued by some bumbling criminals their adventure begins.

 

The Goonies is written by Chris Columbus (Heartbreak Hotel (1988)), based on a story by Steven Spielberg (Saving Private Ryan (1998)), and co-produced and directed by great New-Yorker filmmaker Richard Donner (Salt and Pepper (1968)).

Several good and very charming child performances save this film from being tedious: Sean Astin (Unleashed (2016)) is sweet as the leader; Ke Huy Quan (Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom (1984)) is sweet and funny as 'Data'; Corey Feldman (No Witness (2004)) has comedic talent, and Jeff Cohen (Webster (1983, TV-series)) as 'Chunk' acts terrifically, although it hurts some that his overweight character gets treated so poorly. The girl characters are hysterical, dopey and unfortunately simply not very good. SPOILER And the parents turn up out of the blue in the end as if called upon by an invisible 'movie-is-ending' whistle.

Columbus' somewhat obvious script often seems to be the hindrance for this film completely succeeding, and the sound mix is also leaving something to be wished for. Still, The Goonies is mostly an enjoyable film and a fine production.

 

Related posts:

 

Richard Donner: 16 Blocks (2006) or, Heavy Traffic!

 

Watch a trailer for the film here

 

Cost: 19 mil. $

Box office: 126.4 mil. $

= Huge hit (returned 6.52 times its cost)

[The Goonies opened 7 June (North America) and runs 114 minutes. Shooting took place in Oregon and California from October 1984 - March 1985. Astin has later claimed in his autobiography that Spielberg acted as a co-director during the shoot. The film opened #2, behind holdover hit Rambo: First Blood Part II to a 9.1 mil. $ first weekend in North America, where it spent another 3 weekends in the top 5 (#2-#3-#5) and grossed 61.3 mil. $ (49.4 % of the total gross). It was the 9th highest-grossing film of the year in North America. Roger Ebert gave it a 3/4 star review, translating to a notch higher than this one. It has been re-released in latter years, adding about 2.4 mil. $ to its original gross. Talks and plans for a sequel have been persistent over the years but seem dubious at best. Donner returned with Cyndi Lauper: The Goonies 'R' Good Enough (1985, music video) and theatrically with Lethal Weapon (1987). Astin returned in Cyndi Lauper: The Goonies 'R' Good Enough (1985, music video), The Magical World of Disney (1986, TV-series) and theatrically in White Water Summer (1987); Quan in Cyndi Lauper: The Goonies 'R' Good Enough (1985, music video) and theatrically in Passenger: Sugisarishi hibi (1987); and Feldman in Cyndi Lauper: The Goonies 'R' Good Enough (1985, music video), Family Ties (1986, TV-series) and theatrically in Stand By Me (1986). The Goonies is certified fresh at 76 % with a 6.50/10 critical average at Rotten Tomatoes.]

 

What do you think of The Goonies?

The Lost Boys (1987) - A crazy 80's teen vampire bonanza

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The hip, youthful poster for Joel Schumacher's The Lost Boys

The Lost Boys is a very 80's experience; a teenage vampire adventure comedy phenomenon based on the basic idea that Peter Pan could have been a vampire. In development and rewrites, this has been pushed very far out of the actual film though, so few people will ever think of Peter Pan watching the finished film.
It's about a small family of a mother, her two teenage sons and their husky dog Nanook, who moves to Santa Carla in California, where a youth gang of vampires have made the town 'the murder capital of the world'.
Very shortly into the film, it's clear that Lost Boys is a pretty crazy film and that it is squarely aimed at teen audiences, - in the 1980's!
Casting has obviously gone for the most psyched out punks as extras, and the film is accompanied by welcome pop and rock hits of its time (by INXS and Echo and the Bunnymen among others), fast cutting and extreme lighting. Many call this 'stylish', and it may be, but the overuse of colored lights in Lost Boys is not very elegant. The deep immersion in 80's fashion, (over)styling and music is fun and a treat for anyone with a penchant for it, but it's a galaxy away from 'hip' today.
Much of the action takes place in and around a theme-park, where Kiefer Sutherland's vampire gang hang around and cause trouble with no real explanation. Our hero is played by charming, frenetic Corey Haim (Lucas (1986)), who, - very symptomatically for the film and its audience, - receives his knowledge of vampires and how to slay them through comic books. They are actually passed on to him like the purest wisdom. One of the more experienced vampire hunters is Corey Feldman (Stand By Me (1986)), who is pretty bad in the film. The problem lies mostly in the script, which pushes so much for humor that almost all of the lines are silly, (and at least all of Feldman's.)
The plot in itself is silly, and some of the vampire rules seem to be taken rather lightly; (vampires entering the home without an invitation and the only girl vampire, who mysteriously never changes into one.) A few dramatic scenes might have helped elevate the film to the likes of Gremlins (1984), Back to the Future (1985) and The Karate Kid (1984), which are some of the similar, but better teen-favorites of the time. Dianne Wiest (Hannah and Her Sisters (1986)) is a great actress, and she's good as the mother, but the relationships and story there is very underdeveloped: The divorce, which is the underlying reason for the family's being without a father/husband, is only hinted at in one jokey line from her. - That's no good.

The details:

The Lost Boys is still an entertaining film, and older kids and teenagers may still love it. 
My favorite character in it, - and the funniest one in my opinion, - was the grandpa, played by Barnard Hughes (The Odd Couple II (1998)), who's got several funny lines and great delivery.
There's also some cool effects and vampire make-up:

You've never seen Kiefer Sutherland quite like this before, in Joel Schumacher's The Lost Boys

The effects do, however, seem to run amok at the end, and continue and grow inexplicably out of control. It nevertheless seems well in line with the entire film's silly, amusing nature.
It is directed by New Yorker-filmmaker Joel Schumacher (St. Elmo's Fire (1985)).
Sadly, the charming lead Haim was already developing drug habits at the time of shooting Lost Boys, and would later go bankrupt and struggle with addiction for years, leading to his sad, early death at age 38 in 2010. R.I.P.

Watch the original trailer here

Cost: 8.5 mil. $
Box office: 32.2 mil. $
= Big hit

What do you think of The Lost Boys?
Have you seen other films with Corey Haim, and if so, how was he?