Wednesday 21 August 2019

Review: Good Boys





Good Boys
Cert: 15 / 90 mins / Dir. Gene Stupnitsky / Trailer



So wait, the kid - the award-winning kid - from Room and Wonder is doing dick jokes now? Oh, okay then*1.

Good Boys is a Raucous™ comedy directed by Gene Stupnitsky, written by him and Lee Eisenberg. So far so good. It’s about three male, best-schoolfriends desperate to appear cool and to get to a party where they know girls are going to be. Bells start ringing. It’s produced by Seth Rogen and Evan Goldberg, formerly of the Superbad and Bad Neighbours parish. And now you know what the film is going to be.

And it’s often very funny. Okay it’s deliberately crass, a little try-hard in places and begins right at the Gross-Out™ stage as the trio of twelve year-olds navigate trading cards, drones, alcohol, drugs and sex toys over the course of securing their places at the party, but it is at least very funny*2.

The comedic core of Jacob Tremblay, Keith L. Williams and Brady Noon as Max, Lucas and Thor respectively are solidly cast, drawing on personality archetypes found in the likes of The Hangover, and Williams shines particularly brightly. That said, it’s largely reliant on those (and many supporting) players' performances as the pacing feels like a two-hour movie that’s been condensed down to ninety minutes. It seems to cruise past its natural end-point at least twice.

As consistently amusing as Good Boys is, the film struggles for stamina after sprinting from the off, while Rogen and Goldberg’s fingerprints are all over this – even in the role of producers. You’re left with the impression that Eisenberg and Stupnitsky have crafted this to please the people who green-lit the project, rather than sating any real creative urge of their own.

Even with its prepubescent cast, Good Boys isn’t doing very much new, and I don’t think it’s got quite the heart that it wants to show. But it’s still a solid Saturday-night flick...



So, what sort of thing is it similar to?
File this on the same shelf as Booksmart, Superbad, Mallrats and Weird Science.
Although there are firm nods to Ferris Bueller and School Of Rock in there, too
.


Is it worth paying cinema-prices to see?
If you're in the right frame of mind and you know what you're letting yourself in for, sure.


Is it worth hunting out on DVD, Blu-ray or streaming, though?
This is definitely a beer-and-friends movie.
Although not for your twelve-year-olds.

They'll do that when you're out
.


Is this the best work of the cast or director?
Keith L. Williams is a rising star, here.


Will we disagree about this film in a pub?
Try me.


Is there a Wilhelm Scream in it?
Not that I heard, although there's one that's pretty close.


Yeah but what's the Star Wars connection?
Level 2: Mollie Gordon's in this, and she was in that Booksmart with Billie 'Connix' Lourd.


And if I HAD to put a number on it…


*1 Yeah, he made The Predator in between so what the hell, I guess? I can picture an agent saying to him "Kid, those roles will get you the Oscar for the mantlepiece, but it's the dick jokes that pay for the house around it. Now sign the damn contract."
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*2 And credit where it's due, perhaps my loudest guffaw was at the sight of three children trying determinedly (and failing repeatedly) to get a child-proof cap off a pill bottle. All the better since the bottle was originally for children's vitamins (even though the one in question ends up loaded with molly). Add that to a sequence where the three kids try and cross a busy freeway as a masterclass of cinematic tension, and it's that silliness at the centre of the movie which really makes it work.
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DISCLAIMERS:
• ^^^ That's dry, British humour, and most likely sarcasm or facetiousness.
• Yen's blog contains harsh language and even harsher notions of propriety. Reader discretion is advised.
• This is a personal blog. The views and opinions expressed here represent my own thoughts (at the time of writing) and not those of the people, institutions or organisations that I may or may not be related with unless stated explicitly.

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