Rudy (1993)

Director: David Anspaugh

Cast: Sean Astin, Ned Beatty, Charles S. Dutton, Jason Miller

Have I Seen It Before: Oh, sure.

Did I Like It: There’s a certain emotional target that I imagine most films are probably aiming for, and if they hit that target they move beyond the confines of normal movies. It is an ephemeral goal. For every, say Rocky (1976) or Saturday Night Fever (1977) that hits it, there are any number of examples like say… Staying Alive (1983) (to mix and match the same ingredients) that miss it entirely.

It doesn’t matter what the topic of the film is, if the target is hit correctly. I return again to my affinity for the Rocky (and by extension, Creed) films. I couldn’t possibly sit through a single boxing match. For that matter, I don’t really have any particular desire to serve in a maximum security prison, but I don’t think that a year has gone by where I haven’t watched The Shawshank Redemption (1994).

If the target is hit, it doesn’t matter if the story is schmalzy or too melodramatic for its own good. It doesn’t matter if—in the case of Rudy—that the “based on a true story” parts are, if Joe Montana is to be believed, more of a joke than a rousing triumph of the human spirit. As long as that spirit is right and properly roused, we tend to ignore any and all flaws.

Maybe it’s all tied to Jerry Goldsmith’s score (which I could eat with a spoon, were the opportunity afforded), or maybe it’s that deadly earnestness at the film’s core, but Rudy hits the target with room to spare. It doesn’t really matter that I couldn’t give even a little bit of a crap about football or the University of Notre Dame. It doesn’t matter that Rudy’s (Astin) goal is kind of singularly nuts and he may just need some therapy*.

But it’s probably a good thing he Ruttiger didn’t get involved with ending the Cold War.

*They had therapy in 1972, right?

The Goonies (1985)

DIRECTOR: Richard Donner

CAST: Sean Astin, Josh Brolin, Jeff Cohen, Ke Huy Quan

HAVE I SEEN IT BEFORE: Yes, but…

DID I LIKE IT: I feel like I’m obligated as a byproduct of my age to not only like the movie, but love it to the expense of both movies.

It is certainly not the best Amblin movie of the 80s, not by a mile. You always have to eye a movie with a story by Spielberg, but that he eventually decided against directing*. He had to have thought it was a good idea at some point, and then turned back from it. Very damning, and as I write this I’m trying to avert my eyes from the forthcoming Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny.

I can’t even count in Richard Donner’s best films, when the Lethal Weapon movies can remain so unassailably watchable, despite the insistent existence of Mel Gibson**.

It’s not even the best 80s movie with Ke Huy Quan (yes, in this house we defend Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom (1984)).

But all of that is not to knock the film entirely. For the first half, the score, the breakneck pace, and the likable performances from the main cast are positively electric. But, every time I see the film—and this dates back to the 80s when I was probably first obligated to start loving it—the film meanders after the halfway point, and my level of interest wanes considerably. The kids are still all right, but I’m think of better times with them (Temple of Doom, again). Then the ending comes around, in one of my least favorite trends, not because it is a conclusion or punctuation to the story, but instead because they ran out of runtime.

I like the film, but I don’t love the film. And for that, I can only offer a half-hearted apology.

*Along with Poltergeist (1982) the collective wisdom indicates he might as well have directed the movie, but just opted out of taking that particular credit.

**Is anyone, and I mean anyone at all interested in a Donner-less fifth Lethal movie, much less one (as all signs point to) helmed by Gibson? The mind boggles