Good Boys (2019)
Directed by Gene Stupnitsky
A group of young boys on the cusp of becoming teenagers embark on an epic quest to fix their broken drone before their parents get home.
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37 films that influenced Good Boys
What critics say influenced Good Boys
As fitting replacements for the hormone-driven teenage boys that are usually at the centre of these types of films (it’s difficult to not compare this to a similarly themed product like Superbad ), Max, Thor and Lucas’s age-appropriate dilemma centres around a “kissing party”.
The tendency is to compare this to something like “Superbad;” it’s an imperfect match, but it’s not that far off, either.
Produced by Seth Rogen and Evan Goldberg, Good Boys aspires to be Superbad for tweens, starting with its structure featuring the main characters facing a series of obstacles as they try to get to a party.
They could have just called it Superbad, Jr. Good Boys, producers Evan Goldberg and Seth Rogen’s spiritual prequel to their (very) seminal coming of age comedy Superbad, certainly believes there are unending laughs in watching three 12-year-old boy virgins say “fuck” a lot, mess around with molly, and get sex wrong.
Taking a few pages from its most obvious cinematic inspiration, the 2007 comedy Superbad, Good Boys is just as side-splitting hilarious and a lot more adorable – like the Little Rascals if the Little Rascals wielded dildos and shot people in the face with paintballs.
Good Boys is produced by Seth Rogen’s Point Grey Pictures, which also brought us Superbad , Neighbors , and Sausage Party , so it should be no surprise that raunch and drug-related shenanigans will be major themes for what lies ahead.
Good Boys is produced by Seth Rogen’s Point Grey Pictures, which also brought us Superbad , Neighbors , and Sausage Party , so it should be no surprise that raunch and drug-related shenanigans will be major themes for what lies ahead.
The ads for the dumb summer fun that is Good Boys remind us that it’s from “the guys who brought you Superbad , Neighbors and Sausage Party .”
While Eisenberg and Stupnitsky did both work on the U.S. version of “The Office,” their prior big-screen credits are limited to “Bad Teacher” and “Year One,” two movies even undiscriminating “Sausage Party” fans may not recall all that fondly.
Co-produced by Seth Rogen, and with a writer-producer pedigree that includes Superbad , Neighbors and Sausage Party , this R-rated romp is a randy coming-of-age comedy about a trio of 12-year-old best friends who find their first couple of weeks of sixth grade a wild ride of f-bombs, sex toys and illegal drugs.
Good Boys is produced by Seth Rogen and Evan Goldberg, the same team that made Superbad , Pineapple Express , and Sausage Party .
Though it’s directed by first-timer Gene Stupnitsky (who cowrote the script with Lee Eisenberg, his screenwriting partner on Year One , Bad Teacher , and several episodes of NBC’s The Office ), the Good Boys marketing blitz has wisely focused instead on its producers, Seth Rogen and Evan Goldberg, attempting to place this reasonably sweet but exceedingly slight August-doldrums shrug in the hallowed lineage of Superbad (no) and Sausage Party (fine).
Although Good Boys largely plays like a tween version of Superbad —with an explicit nod to Stranger Things and even a touch of Stand By Me —it’s clear that writers Lee Eisenberg and Gene Stupnitsky (who also directs) are fans of the great old Tom Cruise vehicle, Risky Business , too.
They are, now and forever, the Bean Bag Boys; the kind of youthful coalition that Stephen King could make good use of and indeed he has in both Stand By Me and It .
There’s as much chemistry among them as there was in the group featured in Rob Reiner’s 1986 work, Stand by Me.
Movies like Stand by Me, The Squid and the Whale, Little Darlings and, if we’re going really dark, 1992’s Kids (wait, that’s NC-17, forget it) have made a lasting impression on popular culture.
As the great coming-of-age film Stand By Me concluded: “I never had any friends later on like the ones I did when I was twelve.
The iconic line from Stand by Me still remains an emotional gut punch.
Although Good Boys largely plays like a tween version of Superbad —with an explicit nod to Stranger Things and even a touch of Stand By Me —it’s clear that writers Lee Eisenberg and Gene Stupnitsky (who also directs) are fans of the great old Tom Cruise vehicle, Risky Business , too.
The drone is the middle school equivalent of the Porsche in “Risky Business,” the red “Ferrari” in “Ferris Bueller’s Day Off.”
The film has strains of Stand By Me, Ferris Bueller’s Day Off , and Risky Business running through its DNA.
The Pitch: Steeped in the grand tradition of youth-getting-into-trouble comedies like Risky Business , Porky’s , and of course Superbad (more on that shortly), Good Boys lowers the age of its characters from young to very young — 12 years old, to be exact.
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The film’s opening scene is an homage to American Pie as Max is staring at animated boobs on a computer and his dad barges into the room.
The result is offensive enough, I suppose, but in a patently inoffensive manner that practically begs reviewers to describe it as “sweet” as they did two decades earlier with the likes of “American Pie.”
Great examples that come to mind include She’s All That, Mean Girls, 10 Things I Hate About You, Easy A, American Pie, Superbad and Booksmart.
Of course he’s interrupted by his goofy dad (Will Forte)—shades of “American Pie”—who promptly congratulates him on growing up before going off on a business trip and warning him not to touch his drone (you’ve heard of Chekhov’s gun; here’s Chekhov’s drone).
Yes, it is that important, and will arguably go down in the annals of teen comedy greats, right alongside the kings of teen raunch-com, Superbad and American Pie .
There is, despite countless American Pie and Road Trip spin-offs arguing otherwise, an art to shaping R-rated comedies.
Just as Animal House inspired countless numbers of frat party comedies, every coming-of-age comedy since Superbad worth its salt has been based around young misfits on a quixotic quest for fun.
As soon as it becomes available on home video I am 100 percent certain it will join Animal House , Superbad , and Whatever Friday The 13th Sequel Your Older Brother Owns on DVD on the Mount Rushmore of Sleepover Party Movies.
Along with American Pie , there are several other nods to various films and television shows including South Park , Ferris Bueller’s Day Off and Rock of Ages.
The drone is the middle school equivalent of the Porsche in “Risky Business,” the red “Ferrari” in “Ferris Bueller’s Day Off.”
There’s a sort of Adventures in Babysitting vibe to the boys’ conflict with a pair of teenage girls who steal the drone the boys have been using to spy on them (in order to learn about kissing, of course).
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Good Boys is produced by Seth Rogen’s Point Grey Pictures, which also brought us Superbad , Neighbors , and Sausage Party , so it should be no surprise that raunch and drug-related shenanigans will be major themes for what lies ahead.
Co-produced by Seth Rogen, and with a writer-producer pedigree that includes Superbad , Neighbors and Sausage Party , this R-rated romp is a randy coming-of-age comedy about a trio of 12-year-old best friends who find their first couple of weeks of sixth grade a wild ride of f-bombs, sex toys and illegal drugs.
Movies like Lord of the Flies (1963), Walkabout (1971), Bless the Beasts & Children (1971), The Bad News Bears (1976), The Cowboys (1972), The Squid and the Whale (2005), Kids (1995), and Pretty Baby (1978) all had a part in pushing the boundaries on how the portrayal of children is seen on film.
Movies like Stand by Me, The Squid and the Whale, Little Darlings and, if we’re going really dark, 1992’s Kids (wait, that’s NC-17, forget it) have made a lasting impression on popular culture.