Let’s Go On A Goonie Adventure!

THE GOONIES (Blu-ray)

Release date: October 6th 2008
Certificate (UK): 12
Running time: 114 minutes

Director: Richard Donner

Cast: Sean Astin, Josh Brolin, Corey Feldman, Jeff Cohen, Kerri Green, Ke Huy Kwan, Martha Plimpton

As an avid treasure map-maker when I was little, sailing over the seas with my imaginary pirate ship, The Goonies fuelled the idea that one day I was going to find a real treasure!

On one of their last days in their family home before it gets torn down, Mikey (Sean Astin, before he went off on another adventure with Frodo) and his friends find an old newspaper clipping and a map in their attic which tells about One-Eyed Willie’s long forgotten treasure which lies buried somewhere in their area. Realising that if he were to find the treasure, he could save his home and everyone elses, Mikey manages to convince Mouth, Chunk and Andy to join him on the treasure hunt.

They follow the map with Mikey’s big brother Brand (Josh Brolin in his screen debut), and head to the coast where they find an abandoned restaurant which unfortunately for them is also being used a family of criminals, the Fratellis.

This leads to Chunk getting captured and interrogated in one of the film’s most memorable scenes where they demand he spills his guts and tells them everything, so he does! He tells them everything from cheating on his history exam in the 3rd grade to starting a mass puking session at the cinema. His information is no good though and they lock him up with Sloth, the deformed Fratelli brother, while they go in search of the little treasure hunters who might or might not be on the trail of a real pirate’s treasure!

The Goonies, written by Chris Columbus, produced by Stephen Spielberg and directed by Richard Donner, is also one of those films from the 80’s that are always there to remind you of that time when all you worried about were trading cards, Transformers and cracking the Rubix cube.

The Making of The Goonies, a 6.49 minute featurette from 1985 on the blu-ray is an excellent piece of vintage nostalgia. Spielberg and Donner both talk about what it’s like working with kids and there’s behind-the-scenes footage throughout with Donner giving directions to the young cast. Along with deleted scenes, there’s also Cyndi Lauper’s epic music video Goonies R Good Enough with appearances by the Goonies and Steven Spielberg!