Good Boys is a 2019 comedy co-written& directed by Gene Stupnitsky (The Office, Year One, Bad Teacher, & Hello Ladies). It was co-written & produced by Lee Eisenberg (The Office, Year One, Bad Teacher, & Hello Ladies). It was produced by Jonah Hill (Mid90s, Maniac, Why Him?, Sausage Party, Freaks of Nature, The Sitter, & 21/22 Jump Street), Seth Rogen (Superbad, Knocked Up, The 40-Year-Old Virgin, Pineapple Express, Neighbors 1/2, The Disaster Artist, & This is the End), & Evan Goldberg (The Boys, Preacher, Future Man, The Green Hornet, Blockers, The Night Before, & The Interview). The budget was $20 million & it grossed $110.9 million worldwide at the box office!!!!
Best friends Max (played by: Jacob Tremblay from Doctor Sleep, The Predator, Room, & Wonder), Lucas (played by: Keith L. Williams from The Last Man on Earth, Sadie, & Selfie), & Thor (played by: Brady Noon from Boardwalk Empire) are known as The Beanbag Boys, they enter sixth grade facing their own personal dilemmas: Max has a crush on classmate Brixlee (played by: Millie Davis from Wonder, Odd Squad, Orphan Black, & Little People), Lucas learns his parents (Lil Rel Howery from Tag & Retta from Good Girls) are getting divorced. Thor lets others push him away from pursuing his love of singing. When presented with the opportunity to kiss Brixlee at a party hosted by popular student Soren (played by: Izaac Wang from Clifford the Big Red Dog), Max & his friends use his father’s (played by: Will Forte from Saturday Night Live, Booksmart, MacGruber, & The Lego Movie 1/2) valued drone to spy on his teenage neighbor Hannah (played by: Molly Gordon from Animal Kingdom, Booksmart, Love the Coopers, & I Am Sam) in an attempt to learn proper kissing.
The plan go terribly wrong & it results in the drone being destroyed. The three friends end up in possession of Hannah’s ecstasy. To avoid getting grounded, the three boys skip school to buy a new drone at the local mall with Hannah & her friend Lily (played by: Midori Francis from Ocean’s Eight, Gotham, & The Birch) in pursuit. They try to do the right thing by giving the ecstasy to a police officer (played by: Sam Richardson from BoJack Horseman, Rise of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, & Veep) but they find out that Hannah bought the last drone & she is now holding it hostage to get her drugs back. This leads to a disastrous adventure after an already chaotic day including buying drugs from Benji (played by: Josh Caras from Hell on Wheels, The Punisher, The Glass Castle, & Assassination of a High School President). The three friends have a falling out & go their separate ways ditching their main plans for the night. Lucas tricks both Max & Thor to go the party but only one of them fits there. Can this friendship survive after going through all of this????
Have you ever seen Superbad? This is basically a younger version of that. I actually liked the fact they made a Rated R comedy with little kids that couldn’t watch their own film normally. That really hasn’t been done & it definitely stood out when it comes to this sub-genre. 2019’s Booksmart was similar to Good Boys & it was released around the same time as this, it also had a few members of the cast from that feature. I will say I thought Good Boys was much funnier than Booksmart but when it came to the actual acting those two don’t even compare. That’s the biggest flaw with Good Boys, it may have the same tone & a familiar concept to Superbad but it doesn’t even come close to it at the end of the day. The leads try their best here but they really should stick to being supporting actors because they can’t carry a film & it’s pretty obvious here. Don’t get me wrong, they had their moments every once in awhile but most of it was cringe worthy. Besides Will Forte, Retta, & Molly Gordon, the supporting cast wasn’t that great either. Luckily, comedy can survive some bad acting with pure entertainment & a hilarious script which Good Boys delivered on. Plus the soundtrack set the tone for everything & fit this movie perfect. I thought it was one of the better comedies of 2019 so far. The replay value is strong & it’s just a fun experience, RECOMMENDED!!!!
Let’s talk about the high definition presentation from Universal! This 1080p (2.39:1) transfer looks great, the variety of locations really stand out here. It has various different audio options which includes English: DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1, French: DTS 5.1, & Spanish: DTS 5.1 on this release. The dialogue is very clean & this film is loaded with it. All the chaos is elevated & the music has a nice boost to it especially the awesome soundtrack. It also has English SDH, French, & Spanish. When it comes to comedy it’s hit or miss but this is a real solid technical release for both picture & sound!
Let’s discuss the special features from Universal! “Audio Commentary” with director Gene Stupnitsky & co-writer Lee Eisenberg. “Unrated Alternative Ending” is 2 minutes. 11 “Unrated Deleted and Extended Scenes” is a little over 10 minutes, it includes Turtle vs. Tortoise, Benji Don’t Like That, Customer Service, Ball Pit Shenanigans, Tracking Molly, Stealing a Glance, Upsell Fail, Max Explodes, Best Friends, Traffic Jam, & First Kiss Heartbreak. I am actually surprised some of these didn’t make the final cut. I am guessing they wanted to keep it to a certain running time for a good flow which it had. “Boys For Real” is a little over 3 minutes. It has interviews with director Gene Stupnitsky, co-writer Lee Eisenberg, actors Jacob Tremblay, Keith L. Williams, Brady Noon, Midori Francis, & various members of the production. They chat about putting together the cast for this & finding the right leads. They talk about their chemistry & different personalities. “Gag Reel” is a little over 2 minutes & it features some hilarious bloopers from the movie. “Welcome to Vancouver” is a little over a minute. It has interviews with director Gene Stupnitsky, co-writer Lee Eisenberg, producers Seth Rogen, Evan Goldberg, actors Jacob Tremblay, Keith L. Williams, & Brady Noon. Jacob Tremblay gives a little tour & talks about his home. They chat about using Jacob’s real school for the film. They talk about Jacob showing them around. “A Fine Line” is almost 3 minutes. It has interviews with director Gene Stupnitsky, co-writer Lee Eisenberg, producers Seth Rogen, Evan Goldberg, actors Jacob Tremblay, Keith L. Williams, Brady Noon, Midori Francis, Molly Gordon, & various members of the production. They chat about all the profanity & vulgar language used for the feature with little kids. They say it was funny & awkward with their parents around when they were doing it. The kids jokes that their vocab has expanded but they can’t repeat what they learned. “Ask Your Parents” is a little over 2 minutes. It has interviews with director Gene Stupnitsky, co-writer Lee Eisenberg, producers Seth Rogen, Evan Goldberg, actors Jacob Tremblay, Keith L. Williams, Molly Gordon, & various members of the production. They talk about working with the kids & their experience on Good Boys. “Bad Girls” is almost 2 minutes. It has interviews with director Gene Stupnitsky, co-writer Lee Eisenberg, producers Seth Rogen, Evan Goldberg, actors Midori Francis & Molly Gordon. They chat about the villains of Good Boys. They talk about having fun while playng these different roles. They briefly mention the Annabelle character also. “Guest Stars” is almost 3 minutes. It has interviews with the cast & crew. They chat about all comedians that they got for cameos in this. They talk about their roles & working with them. As you can see, it has a decent amount of extras on here but almost all of are very short. Don’t expect any great information or crazy stories here, it’s just like the movie FUN. It also includes a slipcover, a digital code, & a DVD copy of the release. It’s available everywhere right now, CHECK IT OUT!!!!
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I didn’t really like it. It was trying to be like Role Models almost IMO