Caution: Red Band Trailer
In case you hadn’t noticed, Good Boys opened two weeks ago at No. 1 and slipped only to No. 2 last week at the box office. And, with a 78% Rotten Tomatoes rating and an 87% Audience score, where is my review? The thing is I have some not so mixed emotions about the flick. Good Boys begs the question “Should juveniles be in movies that they aren’t allowed to see?” Isn’t this just another example of Hollywood portraying kids as adults long before their time?” For Heaven’s sake, these are sixth graders! Granted, kids nowadays are exposed to more and more at earlier ages than ever before but need we encourage it? Notwithstanding my reservations, given the dearth of options this weekend, I decided to take in Good Boys so I could rant some more. After viewing. I give the film 1 Gavel.
Plot
Max, Lucas and Thor are best friends, the “bean bag boys.” They are not the cool kids, yet Max gets invited to a kissing party. Certain that he will marry Brixlee one day, he must learn to kiss. Learning to kiss via the internet fails, so spying on Hannah and Lily seems the next best option. When the older girls capture Max’ drone, Thor steals their purse containing ecstasy. When a trade goes awry, the stakes get higher. Is a kiss worth drug trafficking?
Actors
Jacob Tremblay (Room and Wonder) as Max is as visually innocent as a child can be. Requiring him to spew four letter words should be a crime. Keith L. Williams (Lucas) cannot tell a lie and will confess to any wrongdoing. His parents are getting a divorce, the bean bag boys are bickering, and he joins SCAB (Student Coalition Against Bullying). Brady Noon plays Thor, the kid that looks rough around the edges but wants to be a singer. Guess who gets bullied?
Final Thoughts
Should you rant about a movie that you haven’t seen? It didn’t bother me as I ranted about The Happytime Murders. In fairness, both trailers gave fair warning about the content. In the end, the critics are wrong on this one, deeply wrong. The trailer gives away, not only the raunch, but the entire plot. Good Boys turns out to be boring. The director attempted to save the flick with a sweet ending, but just couldn’t resist one last “sex” scene. One critic says “it’s funny because its abominable.” I agree about the abominable part, but no way this is worth the price of admission.