For as long as the genre has existed, comedies have attempted to test the limits of what can be shown on screen. Sure, their main goal is to make us laugh. However, sometimes the funniest things we see are some of the more shocking things. Very few comedies try and do that today, because of the overabundance of people who are offended by everything. Though some movies try, and the new film Good Boys, from the producing team of Evan Goldberg and Seth Rogen, attempts to make an R-rated comedy about kids. Talk about risky territory.
The film follows three best friends, Max (Jacob Tremblay), Thor (Brady Noon), and Lucas (Keith L. Williams), who have been doing everything together for as long as they can remember. They have a bond that can never be tested no matter what. So, when Max is invited to his first kissing party by the popular kids, he is stressed that he won’t know how to kiss the girl of his dreams. This leads to the three using Max dad’s drone to spy on his teenage neighbor Hannah (Molly Gordon). However, this causes the drone to be confiscated by her and her friend Lily (Midori Francis). Thor steals Hannah’s handbag as collateral, but they end up with illegal drugs that the girls will do anything to get back. This leads the three friends on a journey around town that takes them from one bad decision to another, putting them at odds with cops, frat boys, and even each other. While it may be off-putting to watch preteen boys constantly swear and play with BDSM attire, that’s the whole point of the film. Much like 2016’s Sausage Party was an R-rated take on animated family films, this film is like an R-rated take on goofy kid comedies you might see on Nickelodeon. Your ability to accept something like that will definitely determine whether or not you like it. For those willing to, you’re in for a real treat. Good Boys delivers more than enough brilliantly timed jokes and gross-out gags to make-up for its somewhat weak story, and even has an unexpected heart to it that may bring a tear to some people’s eyes. It also has a surprisingly well-handled message about the powers of friendship and what it means to truly be a kid, and manages to make it universally relatable to the adults this film was made for (since kids really shouldn’t see this film). It’s the three young leads that really blow it out of the water. Tremblay, Noon, and Williams feel like actual best friends, and watching them play with and explore adult things they don’t have a full grasp on is an absolute delight. One of the funniest scenes involves the boys arming themselves with sex-themed toys and masks that they believe are weapons, then confronting a total stranger armed and dressed with them. It’s priceless. The real highlight performance here, however, is Jacob Tremblay. Ever since 2015’s Room, he has been one of the most talented child actors working today. He’s only 12 and he hasn’t had one bad performance yet. Even though last year’s The Predator was terrible, he was the one good thing about it. Here, he really gets to try something new and test the waters of a different kind of character and he nails it. It’s good that he’s doing this at such an early age, so it might be easier for him to transition to adult acting as he gets older. Sure, the humor does stay in the “highly profane” range for practically the entire runtime, and fully relies on the adult things the characters do and say. However, the film manages to handle this by delivering one gut-busting joke after another. Pretty much ever single jokes sticks a strong landing, and even when some don’t, they are immediately followed some that do. Very few comedies these days are capable of that. As said above, the one thing that brings the film down a bit is its story. It doesn’t have the strongest story to back up its creative humor. Max, Thor, and Lucas’s adventure just feels like going from one backdrop to the next to setup the next series of gags. This causes the film to slow down in places, and sometimes makes us pine for the next gag. It manages to get by; just not as well as one might have hoped. However, the story isn’t a complete wreck. In fact, it does something that most comedies these days don’t even try to include: it has a heart. Beneath all the crude humor lies a surprisingly heart warming side that makes us actually care for the characters. Most modern comedies would do away with the heart, creating characters who we don’t care about. This movie is filled with characters that we care for because they feel like actual human beings who care for each other. Even the villainous teenage girls they encounter have their likable moments. It may even be enough to bring a tear to someone’s eye. Good Boys may not end up becoming a comedy classic, but it successfully pushes the boundaries of what can and can’t be shown on a film without overstaying its welcome. It manages to balance its profane humor with a genuine heart, and is led by three great performances from its adorable leads. It doesn’t just test the limits, but actually tries to deliver a true standout within it’s crowded sub-genre, and it very much succeeds.
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Now that superhero movies are no longer the bottom barrel genre of the film industry, one genre still holds that title: video game movies. This is still a tough subject to crack, though that hasn’t stopped people yet. To give them a break, more effort actually has been put into making them as good as they can be. Warcraft is proof of that. It may have been a terrible film, but it showed that studios were willing to at least try and put some effort into making them decent.
Another example also comes from 2016; the animated feature film adaptation of Angry Birds. That film took what very little existed within the games and made a story that was feasible enough to satisfy fans of the game. It also sported a perfect voice cast and some beautiful and stylish animation. If anything, the film was a glorious treat for the eyes. Now, thanks to the success of that film, the birds are back in The Angry Birds Movie 2. After saving their home from the conniving pigs, Red (Jason Sudeikis), Chuck (Josh Gad), and Bomb (Danny McBride) spend their days engaging in an endless war with them, led by Leonard (Bill Hader) and his assistant Courtney (Awkwafina). They fire one prank after another, with no true end in sight. That is, until the pigs make a discovery that may require them to put their mission on hold. On a distant, frozen island, previously hidden from view of the birds and pigs, an eagle named Zeta (Leslie Jones) is fed up with her life living in perpetual winter. She plots to use a giant ice ball canon to drive the birds and pigs away and turn their homes in her own personal resort. In order to save their homes, Red and his friends must form an uneasy alliance with Leonard, along with a team consisting of Chuck’s sister Silver (Rachel Bloom) and a pig genius named Garry Pig (Sterling K. Brown) to stop Zeta before they all meet an icy doom. Critics weren’t too fond of the first film (which wasn’t much of a surprise), so it was almost shocking how warmly they started to receive this film. And for once, the critics were right. The Angry Birds Movie 2 is an improvement over an already entertaining animated film that focuses less on adapting the games and more on developing its own story, characters, and worlds. It also boasts more of the beautifully crafted animation and new additions to the cast that are just as great as the returning cast. Of course, this is a kid’s film first and foremost. So, the humor isn’t entirely effective. It’s very kid friendly humor, which means a large amount of gross-out gags, which sometimes tend to overstay their welcome. However, one thing to mention is that these gags are less prominent in this film than in the first one. The previous film had much more potty humor, but this one does it in a more tasteful way. It’s not always successful, but it’s more so than the last one. As with the first film, the voice cast was pure perfection, especially Sudeikis and Hader. Now that their characters are forced to work together, they have a lot more comedic potential to dive into, and it’s a wonder to behold. These two actually have fantastic comedic chemistry that makes their interactions about as entertaining as they could be. When ever Red and Leonard butt heads in this film, it’s always good for a hardy laugh. But Leonard isn’t the only character that has great chemistry with Red. Sudeikis also has great chemistry with newcomer Rachel Bloom, who voices the decidedly less speedy but just as crazy sister of Chuck, Silver. Silver is portrayed as a potential love interest for Red, a plot point that adds great comedy to the film. Watching Red and Silver butt heads about who should be the true leader of the team is just as funny as watching Red and Leonard do the same. Also just like the first film, the animation is absolutely stunning. I found myself awed by a shot of Red popping popcorn, which seems strange. The reason being that it looked about as realistic as possible. It was a strange sight that practically blurred the line between what was real and what was animated. Apart from that, the sheer amount of detail put into creating the world of Angry Birds is astonishing. You can tell that the filmmakers actually cared to put great effort into making the world look unique. What helps this film rise above its predecessor is its focus off of the games. The first film’s goal was to adapt the games, so the plot is basically a compilation of little references to the game’s story and play mechanics. Now that the game has been put to screen, this film decides to focus on its own potential. It has its own characters and worlds that aren’t even featured in the games (unless you count Zeta being added to Angry Birds 2). Because of this, the franchise really gets to stretch its legs and explore its potential in the best way possible. The Angry Birds Movie 2 manages to improve upon the original film by doing what most video game movies don’t. Instead of getting hampered by a need to adapt the games, this film creates its own story that takes its characters to new places that will keep the audiences guessing on what will happen next. We’ve already fallen in love with these characters, and the studio decided it was time for them to explore places outside of their games. With this, along with Pokémon: Detective Pikachu, it’s safe to say that we have found what it takes to break the video game movie curse (at least until Sonic the Hedgehog comes out next year). The Fast & Furious franchise has been with us for almost 20 years at this point, and it is still going strong. After the last two entries, Furious 7 and The Fate of the Furious, made over 1 billion dollars at the box office, it has becomes Universal’s most successful franchise, and one of the most powerful properties in the film industry. No matter how far they stretch this series, it doesn’t show any signs of slamming the brakes.
So it only makes sense that the studio would do whatever they can to keep it going. Despite running for eight films, there are some places still left to look. That is, if Universal is willing to look hard enough. There are truly places for the series to go, but it isn’t a very large target to hit. But that won’t stop them from trying, and now they give us the first spin-off in the long running franchise, Fast & Furious Presents: Hobbs & Shaw. After their reluctant team up in The Fate of the Furious, Luke Hobbs (Dwayne Johnson) and Deckard Shaw (Jason Statham) are working as hired hands, taking down whatever crime their respective governments anonymously puts into their hands. However, their latest mission finds them hunting for the same thing; a super virus capable of wiping out billions of lives within a short period of time. For Luke, this is another job to save the world, but for Deckard, it’s personal because the one in possession of the virus is his sister, Hattie Shaw (Vanessa Kirby). But they’re not the only ones after the virus. Their main adversary is Brixton (Idris Elba), a cybernetic-enhanced assassin working for a sadistic tech cult called Eteon. He and his men are capable of doing just about anything to get their way, and they wish to use the virus to make the world in their own image. Luke, Deckard, and Hattie will have to put their differences aside and work together to stop Brixton before he and Eteon destroy the world. It’s safe to say that this film is the true definition of a spin-off. It has almost nothing to do with its companions in the main series, making no mention of Dominic Torreto and the others aside from a few tongue-and-cheek references. And aside from a few muscle cars, it has completely abandoned the franchise’s street racing origins for almost comedically over-the-top stories involving advanced technology and international espionage. The good news; the series is still as hard hitting and fun as ever. Hobbs & Shaw may not be the best film in the gargantuan series, but its fast-paced, well choreographed action and irresistible chemistry between Johnson and Statham makes this one of its most entertaining. There’s also a level of humor in this one more so than the previous films, arguably making it the funniest film in the series. It’s no cinematic art, but it’s exactly what a summer blockbuster should be; fun, funny, and purely brainless. This film does loose some points for not being as heartfelt as the previous films, specifically the last two. There isn’t much in the way of character progression or truly affecting drama in this one. It’s primary focus is the action. If you’re are unfamiliar with the leading characters and what they’ve done up to this point, then you probably will find it hard to connect to them or the world around them. At this point, you’re either with the series or not. But for established fans of the franchise, they should breathe a sigh of relief that they should find something to love about this film. Whether it’s the hilariously insane action sequences or just the banter between the lead characters, there’s loads of fun to be had with this little romp. In an age where movies are sloppy, CGI messes with poorly handled social commentary, it’s refreshing to have a film who’s only focus is to entertain the audience. Much of the film’s fun comes from Johnson, Statham, and Kirby. The former two were the best part of the previous entry, so now they get the chance to truly test the limit of their comedic potential. And boy is it fun to watch. No matter what, their banter and one liners never get old, and it gets better with the addition of Kirby. Statham and Kirby actually feel like they are brother and sister, so their rivalry humor works even better. Needless to say, these three are the best matched trio in recent history. The series continues to top itself in terms of action, to the point where the action in this film is almost cartoonishly over-the-top. Rather than pushing the laws of physics like the previous films, this film completely does away with them. Whether or not you’re accepting of this will depend on if you like the film. For this reviewer, it’s the film’s best asset, and what makes the action work is that it’s well done. It’s consistently exciting and unexpected in ways that keeps the film from getting boring. The film also breathes new life into the series with its humor. Sure, the previous films had a good amount of humor largely thanks to the chemistry between the ensemble cast. But this one is the first in the series to truly act like a comedy. It presents the audience with actual jokes rather than just the witty remarks its characters make. This is also thanks to some truly unexpected cameos (which will go unnamed for spoilers sake) that adds some great laughs to the film. Fast & Furious Presents: Hobbs & Shaw lacks the heart of the franchise’s previous two installments, but thanks to the infections chemistry of its leads, some truly laugh-out-loud humor, and well made and deliriously ridiculous action, it manages to rank among the series most entertaining films. The Fast & Furious saga still has places to go, and if they keep going down this route, it will still have a place in our hearts as the ultimate escapist film series. |