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PLEASE NOTE: Michael D's is currently in READ ONLY MODE. Anything submitted will simply not be written to the database.
Lots of stuff is still broken, but at least reviews can now be looked up and read.
The Goonies (NTSC) (1985)

The Goonies (NTSC) (1985) (NTSC)

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Released 20-Nov-2001

Cover Art

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Details At A Glance

General Extras
Category Adventure Main Menu Introduction
Menu Animation & Audio
Music Video-The Goonies 'R' Good Enough-Cyndi Lauper
Theatrical Trailer
Audio Commentary-Cast & Crew
Listing-Cast & Crew
Deleted Scenes
Featurette-Making Of
Rating Rated PG
Year Of Production 1985
Running Time 113:50 (Case: 110)
RSDL / Flipper RSDL (56:09) Cast & Crew
Start Up Menu
Region Coding 1,4 Directed By Richard Donner
Studio
Distributor

Warner Home Video
Starring Sean Astin
Josh Brolin
Corey Feldman
Jeff Cohen
Kerri Green
Martha Plimpton
Johnathon Ke Quan
Case Amaray-Transparent
RPI $34.95 Music Dave Grusin


Video (NTSC) Audio
Pan & Scan/Full Frame None English Dolby Digital 5.1 (384Kb/s)
English Dolby Digital 2.0 (192Kb/s)
French Dolby Digital 2.0 (192Kb/s)
Spanish Dolby Digital 1.0 (192Kb/s)
English Audio Commentary Dolby Digital 2.0 (192Kb/s)
Widescreen Aspect Ratio 2.35:1
16x9 Enhancement
16x9 Enhanced
Video Format 480i (NTSC)
Original Aspect Ratio 2.35:1 Miscellaneous
Jacket Pictures No
Subtitles English
French
Spanish
Portuguese
Smoking Yes
Annoying Product Placement Yes, anyone for a Pepsi?
Action In or After Credits Yes, Credits roll over final scene

NOTE: The Profanity Filter is ON. Turn it off here.

Plot Synopsis

    The Goonies.. What can I say? The Goonies was one of my all time favourite movies as a kid. It had everything - adventure, danger, treasure, cool gizmos, and bumbling bad guys. This, in my books, is the best kids adventure movie ever made. What's more, it is still great to watch as an adult - there are numerous gags that would just go straight over the heads of kids that now make so much more sense.

    The Goondocks, in Astoria, are being demolished to make way for a golf course and resort. A local bunch of kids, who have affectionately named themselves The Goonies, are not taking the news too kindly as this is their favourite place in the whole wide world. On a rainy day before the Goondocks were due to be demolished Mikey Walsh (Sean Astin), Brandon Walsh (Josh Brolin), Mouth (Corey Feldman), Chunk (Jeff Cohen), and Data (Johnathon Ke Quan) are bumming around the Walsh house feeling very depressed. On a whim they decide to go rummaging through the attic, out-of-bounds to all mind you, and 'stumble' across an ancient treasure map and doubloon depicting the whereabouts of One-Eyed Willie and his treasure.

    Needless to say The Goonies see this as a great adventure, not to mention a chance to pay off foreclosing banks! Along the way they get mixed up with the Fratellis, some of the most bumbling 'evil' criminals ever to grace the silver screen. Ma Fratelli (Anne Ramsey) is the matriach with a firm controlling hand on Jake (Robert Davi), and Francis (Joe Pantoliano). Boy, is Ma one scary lady! The Goonies also come across Andy (Kerri Green) and Stef (Martha Plimpton). These two join the swelling ranks of The Goonies and help wend their way through the caves and booby traps laid by One-Eyed Willie centuries ago.

    Throw into this movie mix the enigmatic, and gigantically huge, Sloth (John Matuszak), booby traps, high adventure, a blender, a few bats, an octopus (almost!), incredible treasure, a one-eyed pirate, falling boulders, the most amazing waterslide, a few skeletons, and a buccaneer fight aboard an ancient pirate sloop - what more do you want? This is a great movie that I am very pleased to have in my collection.

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Transfer Quality

Video

    The problems with this transfer can mostly be summed up in one word: NTSC! This is very disappointing and causes some obvious artefacts throughout the main feature, not to mention catching out the unwary consumer who is a little less tech savvy.

    The Goonies is presented in the original cinematic aspect of 2.35:1, with 16x9 enhancement. It is great to see the 2.35:1 ratio being used as the cinematography is superb; the scenes captured by Nick McClean are very sumptuous and really show off the widescreen format.

    Shadow detail is reasonable throughout. This is very fortunate, because the great majority of this movie is shot indoors, often in poor lighting. Sharpness is quite variable, often affected by quite high levels of grain. The most obvious occurences of grain can be seen around 10:50-12:00 where Mouth is showing the housekeeper, Rosalita, through the house. Many of these scenes have very high levels of grain. This is mostly a source issue and less the fault of the transfer. The remainder of the film attains quite good levels of sharpness, occasionally interspersed with low levels of grain.

    Colour is very well saturated throughout. The clothes worn by The Goonies are mostly in bright colours and these shine through admirably. The only times when colours are a little drab occur when the grain sets in, most notably during the period outlined in the previous paragraph.

    The film is mostly free of MPEG artefacts; there is some mild pixelisation in the opening sequence around the yacht masts, but that is all. Film-to-video artefacts are rife, particularly aliasing. Aliasing can be seen at 5:20 (house), 12:22 (bookcases), 24:02 (roof), the list goes on... Film artefacts are mild, nothing upsetting.

    The English subtitles take a few shortcuts but are mostly accurate and well placed.

    This is a RSDL formatted disc with the layer change occuring at 56:09. The placement is quite good without any detrimental effects on my enjoyment.

Video Ratings Summary
Sharpness
Shadow Detail
Colour
Grain/Pixelization
Film-To-Video Artefacts
Film Artefacts
Overall

Audio

    Like the video, the audio has one major flaw - distortion. This unfortunately creeps in regularly, mostly affecting dialogue.

    There are five audio tracks presented on this DVD. The two main tracks are an English Dolby Digital 5.1 track at 384kbps and an English Dolby Digital 2.0 audio commentary track at 192kbps. I listened to both. The other tracks seemed fine but as I couldn't understand the languages I did not listen to much.

    As mentioned above the audio suffers from distortion. This is not terrible but is nonetheless disappointing. Some occasions where this is obvious can be found at 7:33, 14:00-15:00, and 26:15. The effects and music do not seem affected by this distortion and it is certainly not something to discourage the purchase of this disc.

    Audio sync is generally fine except for the odd looped scene. Of particular note is when Brand steals the little girl's bike; she jumps up and down and screams, without moving her lips!

    Music is a combination of compositions by Dave Grusin and 'contemporary' tracks from Cyndi Lauper. The score is excellent and timeless. I would like to say the same about Cyndi Lauper's music but I just can't. It does bring back fond childhood memories however!

    The remastered 5.1 track on this DVD is quite good but suffers from a primarily frontal soundscape. This is to be expected, really. The score and ambient effects are the only real sounds to make their presence felt in the surround channels. The subwoofer does not get a lot of use but when called upon it responds admirably.

Audio Ratings Summary
Dialogue
Audio Sync
Clicks/Pops/Dropouts
Surround Channel Use
Subwoofer
Overall

Extras

    There is a generous serving of extras to go along with the main course, thankfully.

Menu

    The menus are 16x9 enhanced with excellent theming and audio accompaniment. There is some nasty pixelisation accompanying the animation, but hey, it's a menu after all.

Cyndi Lauper - "The Goonies Are Good Enough" (12:05)

    1.33:1 aspect ratio with Dolby Digital 2.0 audio, decent quality. This is a music video in two parts, featuring The Goonies, Rowdy Roddy Piper, Andre The Giant, and Steven Spielberg. Definitely for the kids.

Theatrical Trailer (2:41)

    1.85:1 16x9 enhanced with Dolby Digital 2.0 audio. The quality is not quite as good as the main feature, still acceptable though.

Outtakes (6:55)

    Presented in the non-enhanced aspect ratio of 1.85:1 this is more a collection of deleted scenes than outtakes. Even contains the infamous octopus scene!

Making of the Goonies (6:50)

    This is a short feature containing interviews with Richard Donner and Steven Spielberg. Presented in 1.33:1, this extra is really quite poor in quality and quantity.

Audio Commentary

    This is an excellent audio commentary, bringing together all the original Goonies and Richard Donner to go over the film. Unlike most commentaries the people speaking are often shown instead of the actual feature. Do not despair though, in the periods where the speakers are being filmed you can watch the film in the lower right hand corner. What a great idea! This is very easy to listen to as the participants really work off each other. Recommended.

Cast & Crew

    A page of text.

R4 vs R1

NOTE: To view non-R4 releases, your equipment needs to be multi-zone compatible and usually also NTSC compatible.

    The R1 and R4 versions are identical. The R1 is even dual coded R4, the same as the local release.

Summary

    The Goonies is an excellent kids movie that grown-up kids will also enjoy.

    The video quality is good but marginally disappointing

    The audio quality is good but should have been better.

    The extras are good.

Ratings (out of 5)

Video
Audio
Extras
Plot
Overall

© Nick Jardine (My bio, it's short - read it anyway)
Friday, February 08, 2002
Review Equipment
DVDPioneer DV-535, using Component output
DisplayLoewe Xelos 5381ZW. Calibrated with Video Essentials. This display device is 16x9 capable.
Audio DecoderBuilt in to amplifier/receiver. Calibrated with Video Essentials.
AmplificationOnkyo TX-DS787, THX Select
SpeakersAll matching Vifa Drivers: centre 2x6.5" + 1" tweeter (d'appolito); fronts and rears 6.5" + 1" tweeter; centre rear 5" + 1" tweeter; sub 10" (150WRMS)

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