"Good Boys"

 ☆☆☆½ 

The R rating is the come-on, the gimmick to make you think Good Boys will be raunchier and much more shocking than it is. So, it's a little surprise that Good Boys is better than it needs to be, a foul-mouthed cross between "The Little Rascals" and Risky Business.

The boys in the movie call themselves "The Bean-Bag Boys," but someone wisely figured that would be a lousy name for a movie. They're a trio of hyper-hormonal 12-year-olds led by Max (Jacob Tremblay), who's the ringleader, with doting Lucas (Keith L. Williams) and dutiful Thor (Brady Noon) his hangers on. The coolest kid in school invites them to a "kissing party," and the movie follows their misadventures as they try to figure out just what that means.

The action is non-stop, and is often genuinely funny, frequently uncomfortable, and occasionally derivative -- like a crossing-the-freeway scene lifted straight from Bowfinger, but with a kicker that made me laugh harder than anything else in the movie.

Largely, your enjoyment of Good Boys will depend on whether you think it's funny for boys whose hormones are ranging to use the F-word and talk about sex and drugs. If you're instantly turned off, the movie is uninterested in bringing you around. Its filmmakers and its audience are probably unaware and unconcerned about how often this has all been done before, but fortunately Good Boys does most of it well enough. It'll make you laugh. Sometimes, that's all a comedy needs to do.

Viewed August 25, 2019 -- ArcLight Hollywood

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