Good Boys (2019)

Good Boys (2019)

6/10

Starring

Jacob Tremblay

Keith L. Williams

Brady Noon

Directed by Gene Stupnitsky

I started watching this movie with the hope of just passing time because the buzz and the trailer I saw made it seem like a movie that I should not expect much from. I was wrong, the movie is funny and just swings you back to your youth, about being a young man who just got interested in the opposite sex.

It was like reliving my childhood. The three young boys made me feel young again when I didn't know anything about sex, kissing and just wanted to be cool.

Their innocence was just everything needed to make this viewing worthwhile.

The movie plot is about three young boys and their whole bout of misadventures. Their naive view of life and their hope to get to a kissing party.

The three young men in question are Max (Jacob Tremblay), Lucas (Keith L. Williams) and Thor (Brady Noon). Max has a crush on a young lady in his school named Brixlee. He and his two friends call themselves the Bean Bag Boys and they are just known around school as just some losers. Max kind of has a cool flow about him, which made some kids in school think he is better than the rest. So he got invited to a kissing party and knowing that Brixlee will be there he agreed to come, under the condition that he can bring his two friends.

Now this was simple enough, all they had to do was just be at the party and Max will get to kiss his crush. Well, things got complicated fast when the three realized that they do not know anything about kissing.

One bad idea after another followed and those are the things the movie is about.

It started with Max and his friends using his father's valued drone to spy on his teenage neighbor Hannah, in an attempt to learn the proper way to kiss. Hannah and her friend catch the drone and now Max has to get it back. His attempt to get it back didn’t go as planned and the three wound up stealing the girls bag, which had drugs in it. The girls want the drugs back and Max and his friends want the drone back, what could have been an easy trade was complicated by their naive view of life.

Soon everything that could have made their problem easy got more and more complicated as the various kinks in their individual character just made their problems worse.

The movie was directed and written by Gene Stupnitsky and this is his directorial debut.

Worth seeing.

Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark (2019)

Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark (2019)

7/10

Starring
Zoe Colletti
Michael Garza
Gabriel Rush
Austin Zajur


Directed by André Øvredal


I’m not a fan of horror movies because death doesn’t seem to be a form of thrill to me. But Guillermo del Toro is a masterful story teller and when his name is attached to a project, I can be rest assured that it will be a fun ride. This movie was a great ride, fun, engaging and the plot was well written and easy to follow.

It did not waste valuable time like the many horror movies leaving behind loose ends so as to refer to it later, all in the name of suspense. It was so written that it seems like many things are happening at the same time at all corners, but there is a string that just holds it all together and that is the actors (many thumbs up to the writers and director too). They were able to deliver their roles in ways that made it easy to keep up and not get lost.

This horror movie is based on a set of children’s books named Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark by Alvin Schwartz. The books are filled with more than eighty short horror stories and this movie kind of adds an origin to where the stories come from.

Here in this movie (as I have not read the book) the story follows the life of a young girl and her friends, the girl’s name is Stella.
Stella has a sad past as her mother left when she was young leaving her alone with her dad. Stella was mocked and picked on by the school kids and the school bully Tommy was the chief of it all.
Stella has two friends who have always stood by her, Auggie and Chuck – these three live in a town which has its own dark past. Some many years ago in a home belonging to the Bellows, a young lady Sarah was said to have died there. The story is that Sarah hung herself and killed children. The home of the Bellows where Sarah lived is now tagged a haunted house for the locals.

In the present day, in the 1960s, the three friends were plotting a comeback at the chief bully Tommy. The plot was simple, they knew he would drive pass a road and snatch candy from kids so they stood waiting with a bag stretched out, he snatched it and found a stinky surprise waiting for him. The three were not done, they egged the car and almost ruined Tommy’s junk in his pants.

Angry Tommy chased the three who end up in the car of a young man named Ramon. He told Tommy off and the three took him with them to the haunted house to just chill out.
Tommy who was tailing them locks them in the house. While the men were trying to get out, Stella notices a book, she sees it belongs to Sarah Bellows and she takes it reading the stories within.

The door of the house mysteriously opens and the lot went to their homes.

When Stella was at home, she was flipping through the book when she notices a fresh story whose ink had not dried. It told a tale of how Tommy was going to die. The next day Tommy was missing. She tells the others, but they did not believe her until the next tale was about Auggie. This time the writing was being done right in front of her and Ramon.

Auggie goes missing and this time the remaining three Stella, Chuck and Ramon decided to investigate the life of Sarah and see what really happened to her so they can stop another one of them vanishing or getting hurt.

Here is a great movie, and one you will enjoy very much when you take the time to see it.