Saturday with the Kids - The Goonies (1985) / The Monster Squad (1987)
I am having one of those big 80s “monster Saturdays”. Well,
I started with “The Goonies” (1985), so it wasn’t technically a monster movie,
but it had those interchangeable stars you see in all the teenager flicks of
the time. It was nice to share this experience with my son, who decided to hang
around for “The Monster Squad” (1987) after it. A great Spielbergian / Donner
Pirate Treasure Hunt adventure with enthusiastic kids moving about nonstop,
mouths always going, and just picturing how the filmmakers had to corral and
keep the young cast somewhat managed has me giving them a ton of respect. That
couldn’t have been easy. This viewing, I saw Indiana Jones imprint all over it,
except with kids and a trio of hoods led by Ramsey from “Throw Mama from the
Train” (1987) under the city and eventually locating a big pirate ship, all the
time narrowly avoiding booby traps often using boulders, pullies, and rope.
One-Eyed Willy’s treasure, the old Copperpot skeletal corpse under a boulder, a
key (and even a wall) in the shape of a skull, pipes and a wishing well, an old
restaurant that is the starting place, the coastal setting with beach, and the
kids with their museum map (found in the attic of Sean Astin, sucking on his
asthma bottle when stressed, while his older brother, Josh Brolin can’t help
but accommodate a smoochy Kerrie Green (of Lucas (1987) and Summer Rental
(1986)) pursuing what they hope is the golden ticket out of losing their homes
to a land developer (whose son loves to torment Brolin and loses Green to
Brolin). Feldman, as Mouth, Plimpton as Green’s pal often in verbal combat with
Feldman, Cohen as the plumpy Chunk (more on the use of the “fat boy comic relief”
stereotype that was just permeating Hollywood teen flicks at the time later)
who just wants ice cream but the villains (the Fratellis) take the good stuff
away from him, Quan as the little inventor whose devices often misfire (his “shoe
flap slip-fall oil” definitely helps as does his use of toy teeth with a spring
that extends, latching on to a rock wall before falling on spikes), Matuszak’s
misunderstood (and oft-mistreated by his brothers and mother) Sloth who
befriends Cohen and helps the Goonies in times of need, with Davi (harmonizing
in operatic voice for kicks), Pantoliano (typically arguing constantly with
Davi), and Ramsey (the Mah of the group) making up the Fratellis.
Much like later when I was watching “The Monster Squad”
(1987), with Brent Chalem’s Horace, who is often the object of comedy, Chunk’s
constant hunger and desire to feed his face is a common trope in these teen/kid
cult favorites and in comedies of that time. I think Horace has a candy bar
that he can’t eat because Jason Hervey (the jerk kid in the 80s always bullying
some unfortunate school victim) bothers him, as leather jacket, leather
black-gloved Ryan Lambert’s Rudy, on bike, matching a cigarette from his shoe
heel, tells the jerk to pick up said bar off the ground and eat it. Cohen, in “The
Goonies”, similarly, is played as a goof who is constantly dropping and
breaking things (like a Greek statuette with its dick broke off, a water tube,
and a picture frame glass) and hoping to eat whatever food is in front of him.
In both films, Horace and Chunk have their hero moments, as the former actually
shotguns the Gillman while Chunk, along with Sloth, arrives in the nick of time
to stop the Fratellis from harming the Goonies on One-Eyed Willy’s pirate ship.
Much like some dialogue in “The Monster Squad” that perhaps could be deemed
homophobic and the male gang telling the little girl (who befriends Tom Noonan’s
Frankenstein Monster) she isn’t allowed to join their gang (despite seriously
helping them with the German reading of an important limbo vortex that opens so
that Dracula can possibly be sent away for good), there are scenes and moments
reflective of the time they appear, maybe forgiven as “ignorance of the time”…that’s
up to the viewer to determine. The “fat kid butt of jokes” stereotype was also
of its time. You see it in slashers some, too.
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