The Goonies (1985)

[A Boy Named Seo]

Saw this on the big screen the other night for the first time, since, I guess 1985. Spielberg had just come off Poltergeist, ET and Gremlins, and would follow up Goonies with Back to the Future and The Color Purple amongst others.

It's got young Sean Astin, Josh Brolin, Corey Feldman, Martha Plimpton, Ke Huy Quan and Jeff B. Cohen as "Chunk" (Cohen is now the Academy Award-winning Quan's entertainment lawyer!)

Loved it in '85 and still laughed my arse off in '23.

Hey you guys! Do you like the Goonies?

Also, dig this wild interview with Jeff Cohen.

[Edgy MD]

I just didn't get this film.

My wife read to me an article that was titled "Hocus Pocus is a garbage movie that doesn’t deserve your nostalgia." It was delightful and it made me try to think of other films that fit that description — films that were objectively excremental but it didn't matter to a generation who saw it at exactly the right age, and have kept it ever-green and ever-profitable by continuing to return to it.

I wanted to put The Goonies and The Sandlot in this category, but couldn't bring myself to do it. The folks who defend those films are folks I have too much respect for, and I'll just assume that I missed something special and important.

I'm not sure I can ever be as charitable to other well loved youth-oriented garbage of the past like Dirty Dancing or St. Elmo's Fire or Mannequin — and certainly not to Hocus Pocus — but fans of The Goonies and The Sandlot? You and me are good for now.

For now!

Anyhow, impressive interview. The kid seems to be on a root beer rush.

[A Boy Named Seo]

I went to see Goonies with a friend who's a little younger than me but had never seen it, and it meant slightly more than nothing to him. I didn't try to convince him it was great and he didn't try to convince me it wasn't, so I guess we'd both be terrible at twitter.

I had no idea Hocus Pocus was a huge as it is. I checked out that article you mentioned and it didn't make me want to fork over $3 to see it for the first time. I absolutely hold Goonies and Sandlot in higher regard than the other films you mentioned. Dirty Dancing has a heavy nostalgic chokehold on Gen X'ers, though. Gonna go let lost in Letterboxd reviews of DD for the next half hour and take the temp of that movie in 2023.

Edit: LOTS of 4 and 5 star reviews for DD. The people love it.

[Frayed Knot]

Never saw GOONIES or SANDLOT* and never heard of HOCUS POCUS



* Or DIRTY DANCING for that matter.

[Edgy MD]

Clearly you're a huge Mannequin fan, I see.

[A Boy Named Seo]

Some people think of Sex and the City when they think of Kim Cattrall. The real ones think of Mannequin.

[A Boy Named Seo]

This was released today.

A note from Josh:
"Hey everyone! Just a note to introduce our cover of Cyndi Lauper’s “Good Enough!” Like many, I grew up to The Goonies. As a Northwest misfit myself, desperately hoping to find buried treasure and fight pirate ghosts, it was right up my alley. Every time I watched, the song, “The Goonies ‘R’ Good Enough” stole my heart away every time that it came on. I just wanted to play that song so bad. Thanks to Sam Kassirer and the whole band, my dream has come true! Hope you enjoy it as much as we did making it!"

Those are exactly the vibes I got listening. Not a great cover or anything, he just really, really wanted to play it.

[Marshmallowmilkshake]

I only saw Sandlot recently, and thought it was fun. I actually kinda liked Mannequin back in the day. But Goonies, can't say I ever liked it.

I put Breakfast Club in that category, too. It came out when I was in college, and our girlfriends loved it and my roomie and I thought it was too touchy feely.

[MFS62]

For a while I thought Goonies(1985) was a sequel to Gremlins(1984), and didn't want to see it.
Then I saw the trailer for Goonies and definitely didn't want to see it.
I somehow got coaxed into seeing it.
Y'know what?
I was right.

There are some movies with child actors (Stand By Me) in which the child actors are likeable.
This wasn't one of them.

I loved Mannequin.

Later

[Fman99]

Some people think of Sex and the City when they think of Kim Cattrall. The real ones think of Mannequin.

OK so I'm the only one who thinks of her from the scene in Porky's where she bangs some guy in the gym and howls like a dog the entire time. Riiiiiiight