Nothing good in ‘Superbad’ knockoff with 12yearolds.
Rrated ‘Superbad’ knockoff with tweens is just superduper bad
The big problem of “Good Boys” is not that it’s harsh or nasty or outrageous or tasteless or shocking or appalling. The problem is that it’s none of those things, when it should have been all of those things. It’s safe and sentimental, with just a few mild laughs.
The film aims to be a kind of “Superbad” with 12yearolds. There’s potential in that idea, or would be, in the hands of someone inspired, who has something to say about being that age. But no one connected with “Good Boys” fits that description. The new movie apes the structure and even copies the conclusion of “Superbad,” but the only inspiration at work here is the desire to make a “Superbad” knockoff.
“Good Boys” is a mere exercise and a pretty empty one.
It’s the story of three boys, who are invited to their first kissing party. Two of the boys, Thor (Brady Noon) and Lucas
(Keith L. Williams), seem to still be in what Freud and Woody Allen called the “latency phase,” but Max ( Jacob Tremblay) already likes girls, one girl in particular, so he desperately wants to go. Still, he’s worried, because he’s never kissed a girl before and doesn’t know how to go about it.
The high jinks that ensue are the result of the fact that not one of the boys gets the idea to Google the words “How to kiss.” Back in the day, we had to go it alone and risk everything, and meanwhile these kids have a world of information at their fingertips and don’t avail themselves of it. Instead they inconvenience themselves and get into all kinds of trouble, presumably for the convenience of the screenwriters.
The way a movie like this usually works is that one bad decision leads to an escalating series of even worse decisions. In “Good Boys,” we do get the bad decisions, but we don’t get the escalation. The comedic situations don’t compound. They stay at the same level, and the possible consequences are always mild. So are the possible rewards. Writerdirector Gene Stupnitsky and cowriter Lee Eisenberg may have simply been constrained by the age of the kids. They may have found out that making a movie of this kind about 12yearolds isn’t really possible.
But there’s one big argument against that — our own imaginations. Any of us who saw the trailer had an idea of what “Good Boys” might be like, and we pictured it in our minds. Indeed, the people who made the trailer were counting on us picturing it, because it’s on that basis that most people will be buying tickets to this. (Forget word of mouth.) So if we can picture it, someone, someday, can make it, but it has to be made with more spirit, imagination and adventurousness than what we get here.
Just one example from “Good Boys.” The kids come across Molly, a.k.a. ecstasy, in a vitamin container. Sorry, but if you’re making this movie, the kids have to accidentally take those drugs, believing they’re taking vitamins. Or, if you don’t want to go down the road of drugging children, then you have to eliminate the drugs from the story. The one thing you must not do is establish a comic expectation and then not deliver on it.
The kids themselves — not the young actors, who are fine, but the roles they play — are bland. Lucas is a wet blanket from start to finish, who does little but advise moderation and caution, that is, all the things that kill comedy. Thor is teased for not being cool, but he looks and seems entirely normal. Comedically speaking, he’s a vague entity. Of the three, Max is more lively, but only in comparison. All three aren’t vivid, and not one is capable of surprising us.
Anyway, if there is a moral to the story, it is this: If you see an interesting trailer, you must always read the review first, but especially in August. Potential classics are rarely released at the end of summer, though every so often it can happen. In fact, it did happen on this same weekend in 2007 — with “Superbad.”