Hey You Guys!

Just in time for Christmas comes the family classic that pits a bunch of down-on-their-luck kids against criminals, monsters, and the wicked traps of an evil pirate. That's right: The Goonies are back and looking awesome on Blu-ray, plus they're coming equipped with a number of great extras designed for parents to be able to share their love of this great film with their own children. The 1985 film is one the of the shining examples of the era when Steven Spielberg was not only focused upon directing, but also producing large family films under the Steven Spielberg Presents umbrella. While the Richard Donner film wouldn't go on to turn out sequels like others from this period (Poltergeist, Back to the Future) it no less has its adoring fans. And now, even 25 years later, Goonies can sell out theaters and drive events like one we had here in Austin several years back (in which hundreds of people watched the movie in a cave.)

The film tells the story of a group of kids whose parents are all being evicted off their land by wealthy developers. On their last day together, the kids discover a treasure map that leads to a local legend -- the buried treasure of One-Eyed Willy, a brilliant and vicious pirate. What the kids don't realize is that Willy, greedy even from the grave, has protected his treasure with a myriad of lethal traps meant to chase away treasure hunters and kill those that don't take the hint. But once they're in, the kids are in it for the long haul and battle their way through trap after trap while a gang of ruthless gangsters with a deformed giant of a son are on their trail, eager for a bit of the gold for themselves.

The film is a big pile of fun that holds up even now, and stars a number of kids who would end up major actors in their own right: Sean Astin (Lord of the Rings); Josh Brolin (W., Jonah Hex, No Country for Old Men); Martha Plimpton (best known for her Tony Award-nominated work on Broadway); and, of course, professional celebrity trainwreck Corey Feldman. The Goonies is the very model of a family adventure film, chock full of action, romance, mystery, memorable lines, and boatloads of humor. And now, the fans who grew up with it can share it with their own children.

And the Blu-ray package is designed with just that purpose in mind. The disc itself is simply a Blu-ray transfer of the previous special-edition disc with all of the same special features. One of those features, if you haven't seen it, is an incredible commentary track featuring Donner and a number of the cast, who are all having a great time back together again talking about the film. Every commentary track should have this much energy and fun to it. In addition, there are some outtakes, a making-of featurette, and the classic "Goonies 'R' Good Enough" music video that people my age have seen about a billion trillion times (so what's one more, right?). What makes this box set special is the small extras that come with it. There's a fun little Goonies Board Game that is surprisingly compact -- inside the box is everything you need to play the game: a board, cards, and tokens. There's also a replica "Official Collectors Edition" magazine modeled after the one released in stores around the original release of the film. When I pulled this out of the box, my buddy's eyes lit up and he started flipping through it. "Holy crap! I had this when I was a kid. I loved this magazine." It is filled with photos, stories, and interviews -- all vintage and written with interested kids in mind. Rounding out the whole package is a sleeve of storyboards that include both scenes in the movie and two famously excised ones -- the squid attack and the extended waterslide.

The Goonies (25th Anniversary Edition) is available now on Blu-ray from Warner Home Video.