Holy crap. The Monster Squad so desperately wants to be the unofficial Goonies sequel, it hurts. While it may not be as good as Donner and Spielberg's kids adventure flick, it has enough talent, energy and originality to still be a fun little romp, even after all these years. Basically, Count Dracula comes to contemporary Los Angeles searching for an mystical amulet (for some reason...wasn't paying attention) and recruits a load of other classic Universal monsters, including Frankenstein's Monster, The Wolfman, The Mummy and The Creature from the Black Lagoon. A bunch of kids with an obsession of monsters, form a club called The Monster Squad to save their town from evil. Hi-jinks ensue.
Fred Dekkar (yes, he of the awful RoboCop 3) delivers his best work here thanks to some script input from Lethal Weapon's screenwriter Shane Black. Bruce Broughton provides a lavish score, Bradford May's photography looks sharp 23 years later, Richard Edlund's effects still impress, Stan Winston's bats-on-a-wire embarrass and Tom Noonan (Cane from RoboCop 2/The Ripper from Last Action Hero) does his best Sloth impression, as the simple minded Frankenstein's Monster who befriends the kiddywinks.
A daft, formulaic romp...but a well made, lovingly told romp with a genius central concept. No wonder they never made a Goonies sequel; The Monster Squad imagined up a storyline far superior than Donner or Spielberg ever could. Now that's impressive.
