Gold Diggers: The Secret of Bear Mountain

It's 1980. Recent widower Kate Easton (Polly Draper) moves her daughter Beth (Christina Ricci) from L.A. to Wheaton, Washington into the farm inherited from her aunt. Beth struggles with small town life and befriends tomboy black sheep Jody Salerno (Anna Chlumsky). They don't get along at first but they bond over Winnie the Pooh and their dead fathers. Jody has a troubled home life with mother Lynette (Diana Scarwid) and her boyfriend Ray Karnisak (David Keith). Jody tells Beth about Bear Mountain and the legend of gold miner Molly Morgan.

This starts great with two charismatic child actresses in an outdoors adventure that is often left for the boys. Their relationship is interesting. They even get on a boat like all great adventures. The caves are the first signs of trouble. They are grim, artificial, and not magical. What starts as a great adventure turns into a melodrama. The adults are all dumber than the kids. I want this to be Goonies or even Stand by Me. Instead, it teases that but gives something less. In the end, there is still the compelling friendship.

I have seen this movie many times, watched it over and over and I never get sick of it. This is a wonderful story about friendship that has touched my heart. A brilliant family movie that children will especially love for the adventure, fun, and triumph that it presents.

I absolutely love this movie it made me cry the first 5 times I watched it. I think this movie should get 20 stars out of 10, I have seen this movie so many times I have every single word of it memorized, this movie deals with so many issues we face today, and even though it was make in 1995 doesn't mean it's an old fogie movie that doesn't deserve the time of day, just trust me I have seen it enough times to know! lol. I think that if you are looking for a movie to sit down and watch and not want it to be over then you have found the right movie Gold Diggers can make you laugh, cry, and wonder what's going to happen next all at the same time! So if you have yet to see this wonderful movie don't pass it up, go see it now!

PS, See this movie, you have to!

How old was i in 1995..Who knows. Lets be honest here. This movie was made for only one reason. Not, not that 80% of the american teen population had a crush on at least one of these two, not THAT reason. To mop up the novelty of Anna post MY GIRL movies which everybody knew as those exploded as the defacto family movies of the era. And Christina was riding high following the ADDAMS FAMILY movies which too, were seen by all. Unintentionally both movie franchises followed a very similar release schedule. 91 and 93 for addams, 91 and 94 for my girl.

Somebody had the brilliant idea to combine these two together and put them in a movie. But it was the wrong movie you see.. Neither of these 2 were cut for adventure girly movie vanilla script and story. Ricci did nice with dark quirky roles and Anna was more of the girl next door person and required a male actor to get to project that image. Together they had no chemistry. From start to finish.

Here they put ricci as annas role, and anna became some tomboy that does not ooze a single sweat drop of toughness. If they reversed them, it would have worked better. The whole movie is forced and it feels so. It is supposed to be a childrens adventure movie and yeah at the time it worked because we all knew who these 2 were and nobody was going to say anything. But 30 years later i totally can because i watched it again I can see how bad it is. It is sad.

Yet i cannot be too hard on it because this is not supposed to be serious. It was simply combining 2 actors before they aged out completely and rolling out a quick family movie with all the elements of the 90s.

6\10 It is just average... and miscast.

Before Christina Ricci was truly established as the screen's indie queen, it seems that she mostly starred in what were viewed as family movies. "Gold Diggers: The Secret of Bear Mountain" is a prime example. It's one of those movies that seems really cool when you're young. My favorite part of the movie was the history of the woman associated with the cave. Otherwise, the movie isn't anything special (especially since 1995 also saw movies like "Smoke" and "Unstrung Heroes"). As for Anna Chlumsky, she also gravitated more towards serious roles as she aged. I'll give the movie that.

Also starring Polly Draper, Diana Scarwid (Christina in "Mommie Dearest") and David Keith (Drew Barrymore's father in "Firestarter").