The Goonies Movie Critique

The Goonies is an adventure story about a group of kids who call themselves "The Goonies".  They call themselves this because they all live in the same neighborhood.  The beginning of the movie starts out with the antagonists, the Fratellis, escaping from jail and fleeing from the police.  They pass by every main character on the police chase and this introduces the characters.  Each of the Goonies has a nickname that is only one word long.  I think this shows how they are all friends and it makes it easier to identify the characters than if they had normal full names.

The first problem for the Goonies is that the houses they live in are being bought by a rich kids dad who wants to make them into a country club.  They would all have to move somewhere else if this happened and they wouldn't be the Goonies.  Their parents don't have the money to pay to not have the country club built so they are trying to think of ways to save their neighborhood.  The kids are exploring in the attic when they find a map that leads to a pirates treasure.  They think that if they can find this they will have enough money to save their home and now have to move so they decide to look for it, this leads them to the Fratellis, who hide out in a restaurant above the treasure.  The Goonies go down under the restaurant and start to follow the path to the treasure. The Fratellis follow them down leaving one of the Goonies, "Chunk" alone with a disfigured man they keep chained up name "Sloth".

One of the most important scenes was when they find the wishing well underground and have the option to go back up with Troy.  They are about to go up when Mikey gives a speech about how if they go back up they'll have to move away and this is basically their last chance to do something together and possibly save their home.  They all decide to stay with Mikey and keep searching for the treasure.  Later on, the Fratellis catch up to the Goonies and chase them onto the pirate ship.  The Goonies have the gold and can use it to save their home but the Fratellis make them put it back.  They are about to have to walk the plank when Sloth and Chunk show up and save them.  The Goonies escape the ship but the cave starts to collapse because the Fratellis take some of "One Eyed Willie's" gold that Mikey suggested they leave for him.  This causes the cave to fall down and they have to abandon the treasure.  Once outside the Fratellis are arrested and The Goonies are almost forced to sign over their home when Mikey's marble bag, shown at the beginning of the film, is opened and it still has some valuable gems inside.  This saves them and they are able to keep their home.

I believe that having the characters in this story be mostly kids made for a better story because adults would have been more experienced and serious.  The kids were funny and made for a lot of entertaining situations.