YMMV / The Goonies

• Accidental Innuendo: "One-Eyed Willy" sounds a lot like a euphemism for a certain body part.
• Awesome Music: Dave Grusin is normally known for jazz-type film scores, but he knows how to put together a good adventure movie theme.
• Director Displacement: It's very common for people to think that the film is directed by Steven Spielberg, rather than Richard Donner (who is hardly obscure, himself). He has only producer and story credits (this is true of a number of Spielberg-produced films). He did direct all of the gorillas scenes in the movie, however those have never been released. The only evidence we have the shots were filmed is by interviews and extremely low quality footage of some of the footage.
• Fan-Preferred Cut Content: There's a Deleted Scene where after Mikey, Chunk, Data and Mouth set off on their bikes to begin the treasure hunt, they stop by a town store first. The store turns out to be selling maps of the Oregon area, which Mikey puts it together that the coastline on the treasure map is similar to the one seen on the shop's map. Had this scene been in there, it provides a bit of a better explanation as to how the Goonies knew to go to the Oregon coastline to start their search.
• Harsher in Hindsight: Chunk's lie about Michael Jackson supposedly stopping over at his house to use the bathroom becomes a bit hard to watch in light of Jackson being accused of child molestation.
• Hilarious in Hindsight:
  • While entering the Walsh house, Data plays the James Bond theme on his Walkman. Robert Davi, who plays Jake Fratelli, would later star as Franz Sanchez, the villain of Licence to Kill.
  • And Data's propensity to build gadgets hits different when you see his actor using a fanny pack to fight in another film.
• Hype Backlash: It's a good movie but its fans have a habit of talking it up to such huge degrees that when new audiences finally sit down to watch it, it can't possibly live up to their expectations.
• Jerkass Woobie: Jake Fratelli is an ass towards Sloth, not to mention a killer, though it's hard to not feel sorry for him as the The Un-Favourite in the Fratelli family.
  Jake: Francis was always your favorite, Ma, you always liked him best!
  Ma: *slaps Jake* That's right!
• Les Yay: The scene where Stef is comforting Andy when the gang encountered the skeleton of Chester Copperpot. Highlighted by Martha Plimpton in the DVD Commentary: "This is our love scene right here..."
• Magic Franchise Word: "Hey you guys!"
• Magnificent Bastard: One-Eyed Willy is a legendarily successful, self-made pirate who warranted having a whole armada sent after his ship, the Inferno. This armada chased Willy to uncharted territory and trapped his ship in a grotto, but he and his crew survived and spent years setting traps throughout the surrounding caverns, which killed at least one treasure hunter centuries later. Willy killed most of his crew to keep his treasure secure, but one man escaped with a map and the story. When 1980s schoolchildren find his map, they enter the caves and barely navigate a series of deadly traps. Willy's respect for anyone capable of making it a certain distance is demonstrated by how his later traps have posted warnings offering people a chance to go back, but also allow treasure hunters to continue forward if they display enough intelligence. The final trap is only triggered by taking gold that Willy was weighing for himself before his death, while the rest of the treasure is available to anyone who wants it.
• Memetic Mutation:
  • Spawned a string of indie T-shirts in the UK, bearing slogans such as 'Sloth love Chunk' and 'Do the Truffle Shuffle!'
  • And on YTMND, there are various sites based around Chunk, like "Chunk is Indestructable", where Captain Picard from Star Trek: First Contact tries to shoot down Chunk, and "Chunk Addresses Congress", where Chunk chastises the US Congress over the War in Iraq.
  • "HEY YOU GUYS!!!"
  • "That's what I said, booby traps!"
  • NUNA NIVRE!^note  A deliberately misspelled "LULA LIVRE", which means "FREE LULA" in Portuguese. In Brazil, a pic of Sloth with those words has become a meme, meant as mockery of the ex-president's supporters who protested againt his conviction with that saying.
• Moral Event Horizon:
  • The Fratellis, especially Mama, cross it via their Madwoman in the Attic treatment of Sloth - and her casual line on repeatedly dropping him as a baby.
  • Troy's idea of a prank? Holding Brad who is driving a bicycle while in a car and dragging him along until leading him to tumble over a cliff.
• No Problem with Licensed Games: Both games by Konami and the LEGO Dimensions Level Pack^note the last LEGO Dimensions Level Pack ever released were quite good, surprisingly.
• Pop-Cultural Osmosis: People are more likely to assume "Hey you guys!" is from this movie rather than The Electric Company (1971).
• Retroactive Recognition: Sean Astin and Josh Brolin are one thing, but the two Fratelli boys that aren't Sloth, Joe Pantoliano and Robert Davi, are significantly bigger names now.
• Signature Scene:
  • The truffle shuffle scene on the porch.
  • Once Again: "HEY YOU GUYS!".
• Special Effect Failure:
  • The reason for cutting the scene of the octopus, which was about as threatening as a bathtub toy.
  • On the DVD Commentary, Jeff Cohen berates Richard Donner for one unfortunate bluescreen shot of the kids standing in front of the beach coastline.
    Corey Feldman: Hey I saw Superman, and I believed a man could fly.
    Jeff Cohen: You could show a man flying through the air, but couldn't show a bunch of kids standing in front of a coast?
  • The bats are clearly fake in their looks and movements, and in wider shots they're replaced with bowties. Doubles as Narm.
• Spiritual Adaptation: Of The Little Rascals short "Mama's Little Pirate," if Leonard Maltin is to be believed.
• Tear Jerker: Initially the Fratelli's interrogation of Chunk can be heart-wrenching to see the poor kid so terrified and crying. Thankfully, the scene quickly becomes comedic when, after being told to tell them "everything", Chunk misunderstands and begins confessing to all the bad things he's done.
• Ugly Cute: Sloth. Despite his deformities, his expressions and personality still make him downright adorable.
• Unintentional Period Piece: The film has the fashion (especially Mouth wearing a Purple Rain shirt and a child's equivalent of a Members Only jacket, and Brand's workout clothes with the headband and sleeveless shirt), Data's gadgets made with 1980s technology, a Cyndi Lauper song recorded especially for the film, and Jerk Jock Troy driving his fancy new 1983 Ford Mustang GT.
• Visual Effects of Awesome: Despite the one noticeable greenscreen, mentioned above, almost everything else: the stunts, set pieces and fantastic sets (especially the location of Willie's ship) were all done practically and have aged fantastically well as a result. A fact proudly pointed out in the Special Edition commentary.
• What Do You Mean, It's for Kids?: The film is generally remembered as a kids' film, what with it centering on the adventures of a bunch of kids. However, the film features a man hanging from a noose, a child stuck in a closet with a corpse (which has a visible bullet wound in the forehead; tiny and essentially bloodless, yes, but still a headshot), a deformed man chained up in a basement, panty shots of a teenager, jokes about drugs, a whole scene dedicated to a statue's penis and several scenes of adolescents swearing. When the Special Edition was released celebrating its 25th Anniversary with a PG-13 (12A) rating some were surprised, until they viewed the film through adult eyes.
• The Woobie: Poor Sloth. Even when we and Chunk still assume he's a dangerous Madman in the Attic, it's impossible not to feel bad for him as he sits chained to his seat, begging for food from his jerkass brother.

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