The Goonies

The Goonies!

Anyone who grew up in the 80's will list the Goonies as one of their favourite films, or at least look back at it with a misty eye. The Goonies is a Steven Spielberg production, directed by Richard Donner. if there was a top 5 80's kids movie ranking The Goonies will share the list along with E.T., The Neverending Story, Ghostbusters & Stand by Me.
 
The Goonies was the kind of film that had everthing you could want, thrills, spills, pirates, booty, adventure, freaks and bad guys. I just wanted to be a Goonie or go on a Goonie style adventure. Even the place where they lived was cool. A big old house in a picturesque bay town.

Then there were the Goonies themselves who just seemed so cool. Data's gadgets and smart mouthed ..erm.. Mouth.

We are first introduced to them one by one in the fantastic introductory sequence. The bad guys of the piece, the Fratellis, organise a jailbreak in a huge 4x4. In the process of doing so they speed past every member of the Goonies, introducing their character traits. Then they all get together at the leader Mikies house and just doss around for a while feeling sorry for themselves, because a property magnate wants to but there little town and turn it into a country club (although the bay looks like it would make a poor golf course, but hey). So this is the Goonies last day together and they have to do something about it. And don't they just.

a Secret map that may save the day.

You better eat your vegetables sonny!

What follows is like a comedy Hardy Boys crossed with a game of Mousetrap. Some of the set pieces are genius (the pirate, One eyed Willie, had a penchant for elaborate traps to stop people pinching his booty) and the sets are equally inventive. The gang get themselves into various scrapes with the traps, or the Fratellis or both and somehow always come out on top.

Richard Donner's direction is always brisk, the young actors performances are superb (specially the fantastic 'Chunk'), the senior cast is very good and the dialogue is chock full of hilarious lines.

I must admit I look back at it through rose tinted glasses. I was in awe of it when I was a kid, and now when I watch it, it reminds me of my childhood and all the things that was great about it. I cant fault the Goonies, even now. I still believe it is the perfect kids film.

Andy loved flashing her panties!

I am probably preaching to the converted, but if you havent seen the Goonies, go and buy it now! And if you don't like it, what the hell is wrong with you!?!?!? 

Anyways, the film may have its flaws, or perhaps it may it be a bit corny compared to today's kids films but,  You got to believe me, this movie is totally iconic. In fact, I'd say this movie is the perfect depiction of what it was like to be a kid in the 1980's. If I was asked about items that would define the 80's I'd pick Pepsi, Michael Jackson, Star Wars, Transformers, Robotech & The Goonies. Some may say that this films may feel "too American" to be enjoyed by a wider audience but, that is just bullshit. 

So, what The Goonies is about?

Mikey Walsh and Brandon Walsh are brothers whose family is preparing to move because developers want to build a golf course in the place of their neighborhood -- unless enough money is raised to stop the construction of the golf course, and that's quite doubtful. But when Mikey stumbles upon a treasure map of the famed "One-Eyed" Willy's hidden fortune, Mikey, Brandon, and their friends Lawrence "Chunk" Cohen, Clark "Mouth" Devereaux, Andrea "Andy" Carmichael, Stefanie "Stef" Steinbrenner, and Richard "Data" Wang, calling themselves The Goonies, set out on a quest to find the treasure in hopes of saving their neighborhood. The treasure is in a cavern, but the entrance to the cavern is under the house of evil thief Mama Fratelli and her sons Jake Fratelli, Francis Fratelli, and the severely disfigured Lotney "Sloth" Fratelli. Sloth befriends the Goonies and decides to help them.

Still better than Superman Returns!

Richard Donner directed this movie and another famous director, Chris Columbus wrote the screenplay, based on a Steven Spielberg's story. Matt Sweeney was responsable for the special effects and the main theme ( They 'r good enough ) was written and performed by Cindy Lauper.

After the film, none of the kids became famous actors. Corey Feldman and Kerry Green took part in some teenage comedies, while Sean Astin showed up in "Memphis Belle" and Ke Huy Quan was the young Indiana Jone's chinese taxi driver in "The Temple of the Doom". The only one who joined some serious projects was Martha Plimpton.

I have an eye for business.

But these are just technical details. What really counts in "The Goonies" are the two hours of humanity, pleasure, inocence, friendship - and even the first love - that only children can show in their eyes. In fact, it's a small journey to our past, to a time when your deepest worries were about the girl (or the boy) on the next chair. 

 Here's the movie trailer:



And as a bonus, "The Goonies 'R' Good Enough" as performed by Cindy Lauper:

Superman II

Superman's back.

Superman II was already in the works when the original movie hit worldwide theaters. The idea was to build a saga behind the big S guy, but for some human reasons things didn't go as orginally expected and though changes weren't noticed by us (almost 30 years passed until we finaly saw the Richard Donner Superman II cut, release) The Sequel director, Mr. Richard Lester was not sympathetic to the epic look that original director Richard Donner had given the original Superman movie. Imposing his own control over the Superman saga, Lester took advantage of the death of Donner's cinematographer, Oscar-winner Geoffrey Unsworth, to stamp his own look on the sequel. 

I am the last son of krypton, do you hear me!

Lester decided to scrap most of Unsworth's footage, which created an epic stateliness through the use of a gliding camera and unique colors for different locations, and hired potboiler director Michael Winner's cinematographer, Robert Paynter, to create a comic book-style that would evoke Superman's roots in comic books. Lester deliberately wanted to break the stylistic "American epic" mold created by Donner and, with Paynter, set out to recreate the look and feel of a comic book. For this reason, Lester did not use his own long-time collaborator, lighting cameraman David Watkin, as Watkin's photographic style was too classical, and thus not adaptable to a comic book aesthetic. Working with his Lester, Paynter and his camera operator Freddie Cooper developed a different type of framing from the original, but one that was ideal for their concept of a comic book film: They replaced Unsworth's gliding camera with horizontal panning and static framing to evoke comic books and comic strips, with their static frames that are crammed with people and objects. Similarly, the composition of shots the trio developed for 'Superman II (1980'. had objects and people crammed into the frame. To further emphasize comic book composition, the action was photographed from one angle, to give the film a desired flatness.

General Zod wishes to rule planet earth.

While Superman wishes to bone Lois' twat with his Superdick.

This film can be summed up in two words. Superman Trouble. That is the case. There are two versions of the film "Superman II." One is the vision of acclaimed director Richard Donner, full of color flourishes, and camera work by the late Geoffrey Unsworth. The second, is the vision put on director Richard Lester, by choice of the film's producers, Alexander and Ilya Salkind. Both the films contain the same story and characters, but each was shot with a different tone, different dialogue and footage, which clash with intention. So in the end, footage from each are woven into one movie which film buffs all over the world will notice is somewhat difficult to grasp. Due to the different directing styles of each director, the final cut of Superman II ends up being a cliche work of special effects, mismatched character analysis, and central themes. 

Leave earth alone and lemme fuck Lois easily!

The film deals with Superman and Lois falling in love, and the three super villains from the prologue of the first film landing on earth and ultimately trying to take over. Very intense stuff. But this is where we as an audience need to know all the facts, and here they are: The first version of Superman II, known as "Superman II: The Adventure Continues" was directed by Richard Donner and supposed to be straight forward with serious tones and action packed sequences. This version was shot simultaneously with the original "Superman" in 1977-78. Originally to be released back to back with the original, "Superman II" was filmed with vigorous explosions, dangerous situations, and tense, irrefutable drama. In the opening, a female liberation symbol, Lois Lane, tries to prove that Clark Kent is Superman by throwing herself out a window, knowing that Clark(Superman) will fly out and save her.

Eat dirt you scumbag!

In another scene, Superman gives up his powers and nearly kills himself, only to get them back later on, nearly killing himself again. This nailbittingly tense script brought back old characters and was to bring the original "Superman" to a full closure. All actors are fully concentrated and the print is a paragon. 80& of this film was finished when the producers fired director Donner due to some arguments that are still unknown to this day, and replaced him with director Richard Lester, and thusly, "Superman II: The Adventure Continues" was culminated. This is where the Richard Lester vision of the film comes into place. Simply titles "Superman II", the Richard Lester version is full of clumsy comedy, amateur plotting, and is nowhere near as affective as the Donner version. Lester is a comic director, whom had worked on the previous Beatles films, "Help" and "Hard Days Night" and had no experience directing any international blockbusters.

Nice sweater Lois!

To give him more credit than Richard Donner, the producers rewrote most of the footage that Donner shot and went in with the actors for re-shoots...even though Donner had already taken care of this! The villains are portrayed here as careless and comic, whereas in Donner's version they were cold as steel, and not to be messed with. In one re-shot scene, we see three villains who are Superman's foes land on earth and take interest in a snake. The snake bites the female villain and instead of showing her wrath on nature, as was seen in Donner's moon scene which she kills an innocent astronaut in cold blood, she sets the reptile on fire and giggles about it! Central themes of love and home were lost because of this as well. Because of budget problems and deadline, the producers could not finish the re-shoot and "Superman II", and had to fill the gaps with Donner footage from the vault, making "Superman II" confusing and abstruce, and that is what made "Superman II" an atavistic failure. 

Superman needs some human love after all.

70% of the film is clumsy, contrived comedy and useless violence, while 30% of the film is straight forward, full of munificent morals and such. The final cut has one scene showing the villains breaking into the white house and consequently taking over the world, with sheer John Williams music, the next scene you see them bored and incoherently complaining about being on a world where "mankind doesn't even resist." The first film "Superman" had morals of justice, and the American way, while the second film was supposed to show morals of love and home, and earthly pleasures that remind people of the good in the world-in a sense, taking along with the "truth, justice, and the American way." This message was lost between the footage by raconteur Donner and comic Lester. Nonetheless, the film was a box office success, and many critics, praised the film for it's portrayal of good versus evil in the modern day society. Some of the footage shot by Donner that was not put into the final cut of the film has since been seen on network television showings and bootlegs, but not all of it. The original opening which gave the film a better sense of dangerous excitement, scenes involving Kal-El and his father were scrapped (Due to the Marlon Brando court case) and the full original ending have all been locked away in London vaults and never before seen by anyone. So on the all in all level, "Superman II" fails because it is nothing more than two films put together, one a comedy, one an action drama, and this keeps "Superman II' from being anything close to what the original has become. 

Superman used his X-Ray vision and found out this Lois Lane.

Superman, you're a kinky hero.

However, the original Richard Donner cut has been (fortunately) officially released on November 28, 2006 on DVD and has recently been re-released in shiny Blu Ray format for HD lovers. Anyways, the choice of wheter the offical Richard Lester Superman II take is better than Richard Donner's original take it is a matter that you can answere yourselves. I for one, loved growing up next to the Superman movies and I didn't really care about the "true to the comic book" issue many criticize widely. 

Here's the movie trailer (the Richard Lester take) I promise the next review will deal with the original Superman II cut made by Richard Donner:

Superman

You'll believe a man can fly.

There is only one Superman for those who were born & raised in the late 70's and early 80's decades. If you're a part of those decades then you're with me on the following statement: Christopher Reeve was born to be the big screen Superman. Period. Released in 1978, and directed by one of my most respected film makers Mr. Richard Donner, Superman, the Movie was a blockbuster in all the possible senses such word can convey. Donner casted legendary actors to portray a serious aproach in a movie based on children comic books. Marlon Brando played a memorable Jor-El, while Gene Hackman on the other hand, portrayed the most wonderful criminal mind of all times: Lex Luthor. The supporting cast was also memorable, how could you forget about Margot Kidder and her amazing Lois Lane impersonation? and tell me about Mark McClure as Jimmy Olsen.

Hi, I'm Superman, and you're not. Get over it!

Purists may think the film isn't true to original source, but certainly no other version of the legend has had such a lasting impact as this one. Nor has any other telling of the tale been as thorough and ambitious as that put forth by Director Richard Donner and Story writer Mario Puzo. Add to that the utterly inspired (and inspiring) score by John Williams, and you have a dose of that good old movie magic. Even the opening credits manage to raise your adrenaline levels, as the Superman symbol soars through space across the screen and Williams' opening theme perfectly builds to a masterful crescendo. It will make you want to stand up from your couch and soar out of the nearest window, though I don't recommend it if you live on anything above the first floor.

Up, Up and away!

The film begins on Superman's home world of Krypton, a dazzling planet dotted by crystalline cities which, combined again with William's incredible theme music, seem to present an image of heaven itself. A super-race of highly advanced beings, the Kryptonians' only weakness is their pride, as the infant Superman's father, Jor-el points out. It is that pride that leads them to ignore Jor-el's warnings that the planet is doomed by an impending supernova. In a last ditch effort to save his son, as well as some remnant of his race, he sends his infant son Kal-el to the planet Earth in a deep space probe. Marlon Brando, in the role of Jor-el, gives one of his best performances. His role is the stuff of Hollywood legend, since he was paid 4 million dollars for his role of about 10 minutes, but despite his exorbitant fee and minimal screen time, his performance is no less worthy.

Lex Luthor and his idiot servant.

The probe crashes in a farmer's field in the early 1950's, to be discovered by the Kents, with Glen Ford in the role of Pa Kent. Though he seems to have even less screen time than Brando, his role as the young Superman's moral example is no less pivotal to the story. Superman's childhood and most of his teen years are completely skipped over, however, Jeff East gives an excellent portrayal of the teen Clark Kent, who is only beginning to discover the real extent of his powers. 

Once Superman rescues Lois Lane, he becomes known to the world.

Most of the supporting cast equally distinguish themselves. Gene Hackman creates a charming and amusing villain in Lex Luthor, and while Margot Kidder's portrayal of Lois Lane is a bit forced and grating at times, she still shines with a kind of charm, and it is always fun to watch her slip from the tough-as-nails reporter to the flustered schoolgirl every time the Man of Steel hits the scene. If you still don't like her performance, watch the "Lois Lane screen tests" in the special features section of the DVD, which includes tryouts by various prominent actresses of the day. After watching them, I think you'll agree that the filmmakers made the right casting choice.

Eventually, Lois Lane gets to interview the mysterious caped wonder.

But of course, the person we will remember the most is Christopher Reeve as Superman, and this is the way he should be remembered. It was certainly his greatest role, and although he overplayed the nerdy and fumbling Clark Kent, and his Superman sometimes pauses to deliver silly platitudes, he does so with an air of wry amusement. He may act like a goody two-shoes, but mostly he just seems to be having a good time showing off, and damn it, why shouldn't he? He's Superman, after all. If I could fly, you could damn well bet I'd be showing off too. This is confirmed in a brief but enjoyable restored scene in which, after saving Lois Lane and the President, as well as foiling several crimes, Superman flies back to his Fortress of Solitude to discuss it with his "Father", or rather, the persona of Jor-el which has been preserved in memory crystals and sent to earth with the infant Kal-el, so that he could benefit from Jor-el's knowledge and wisdom. He admonishes his son that, while it is natural to enjoy being able to show off his powers, he must learn to be humble and keep his vanity in check.

Margot Kidder, the first big screen gal to which I fell in love with.

It is surprising how little moments of restored footage such as this one seem to breathe much more life into the characters, giving them a depth not seen in their previous cinematic incarnation. And while the film is a tale of the power of good, it is ultimately a tribute to the power of love. It is love that makes Superman more vulnerable than even kryptonite, love that makes him betray his Kryptonian father's admonition to "never interfere with human history", and love that makes him truly human. 

Eve Teschmacher, Luthor's right boob, I mean hand!

Though it is nearly an hour into the film before Superman finally makes his first heroic and world-stunning appearance, it is well worth the wait. The action gets more and more exciting, rivaling anything that today's action counterparts, like "The Mummy Returns" can dish out. The effects, though antiquated by today's overblown CGI standards, are still impressive and manage to maintain their looks and grace in their old age. As Lex Luthor launches a diabolical plan involving hijacked twin nuclear missiles, the subsequent chase, followed by Superman's efforts to save an Earthquake-ravaged California, are breathtaking even by today's standards.

Valerie Perrine, a bombshell.

Like the superhero of title, the film itself is not without its weaknesses. In trying to keep in touch with its vintage comic book roots, it can be a tad cornball at times, and occasionally gets bogged down by what I call the "golly gee-whiz" factor. Yet it does so in a very tongue-in-cheek manner, retaining enough adult sophistication and genuine drama to keep it from lapsing into a mere kiddy show or a parody of the source material. In fact, the film has several surprisingly mature nuances. If, like me, you hadn't seen this film since you were a kid, then you will be in a much better position to fully enjoy the subtleties of the film now. (i.e, Lois Lane, in her rooftop interview of Superman asks "How big are you . . . er, I mean . .. how TALL are you". I obviously missed that as a kid, because it had me rolling with laughter this time around. 

Margot Kidder was also a bombshell.

But despite a few loose threads in the cape and tights, The Man of Steel remains quite intact and appropriately larger than life. It is therefore fitting that this film has been re-mastered and re-released in collector's two-sided DVD format. The sound and picture quality are excellent, wiping away the tarnish of age and making the film shine again. Some of the many features include the aforementioned restored footage (about 10-15 minutes worth), a few additional deleted scenes (which, I thought, should have been restored into the film as well), commentary by director Richard Donner, the Lois Lane screen tests, specials on the making and origins of the film, and a music-only track (well worth the price of the DVD alone).

Margot Kidder nude, a 70's beauty.

If you haven't seen this movie since you were a kid, and you want to feel like a kid again, rent it now. If you've never seen it at all, then the release of this DVD has taken away your last excuse. You will believe a man can fly.

Here's the movie trailer: