‘The Goonies’ designed for children of today

Press, 9 December 1985, Page 4

‘The Goonies’ designed for children of today

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THE GOONIES Directed by Richard Donner Screenplay by Chris Columbus Executive producer Steven Spielberg Childhood fantasies of crooks, pirates and secret adventures never die; they live on from generation to generation — and in films

like “The Goonies” (Regent), which should prove to be the box-office hit of these holidays. Thus, while the potency of the Walt Disney masthead has faded away, that spirit lives on today in: Steven Spielberg presents “E.T.,” “Raiders of the Lost Ark,” “Poltergeist,” “Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom,” “Gremlins,” “Back to the Future,” and now, “The Goonies.” Just as the parents of generations past felt safe in sending their children to a Disney movie, it is the Spielberg name which gives that mark of approval today. If the younger generation needs any escapism, it will certainly find it in “The Goonies,” which is a nonstop, roller-coaster ride especially designed to appeal to teen-agers. The story cohcerns the

adventures of a group of seven children, aged 10 to 18, in a coastal Oregon town, and if this film had been made in Britain, it would probably have been called “The Secret Seven.” At the beginning, one of the boys, Mikey (Sean Astin), bemoans the fact that “Nothing exciting ever happens here,” but matters are set straight as the group gathers, and then finds a treasure map in the attic. Soon, they are off exploring a deserted house and underground passageways, intricately booby-trapped with the left-overs from “Indiana Jones.”

The plot is further complicatea by the intrusion of a family of Italian gangsters, and a cretinous but gentle giant (John Matuszak).

Little more need be said except that — as in some

other recent Spielberg-asso-ciated films — once the helter-skelter pace has been set in motion, it never lets U PThe momentum is kept going by the energetic performances of the children, particularly the fat boy, Chunck (Jeff Cohen); the smart guy, Mouth (Corey Feldman); and the Vietnamese lad with the James Bond-type inventions, Data (Ke Huy-Quan), who was last seen as Harrison Ford’s off-sider in “Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom.”

Juvenile charm is something these children of the 1980 s definitely have, but they seem to lack a certain joy-of-life innocence which was associated with Disney, “Oz,” and Hollywood’s “Our Gang” series, on which some of the characters are based.

They are so uncomfortably worldly-wise that some of the jokes are associated with hard drugs, looking up a girl’s dress, replacing the private parts on a statue of David, or smashing things in general. Judging by the young audience’s reaction, however, these are the scenes best received, and there is no doubt that the filmmakers had this fully in

mind when putting “The Goonies” together. Who are we adults to judge, when our children have a more sophisticated sense of fun than our own at their age? “The Goonies” is designed for the children of today, so: Adults beware. Spielberg has put his name to much more cleancut children’s entertainment (“E.T.,” “Back to the Future”), and if “The Goonies” has a more rough-and-ready, slap-stick feeling about it, this can probably be blamed oh the director, Richard Donner (“The Omen,” “Superman — The Movie”), and the writer, Chris Columbus, whose “Gremlins” was also judged by some as being a little too horrific for children.

Columbus joins forces again with Spielberg, as executive producer, in “The Young Sherlock,” which will probably be screened here during the May holidays, so it will be interesting to see how they fare together then.