Boys (1996)

Best movie ever!

It’s not bad or unwatchable but despite the amplitude of the spectacle, the end result is underwhelming.

Blistering performances.

All of these films share one commonality, that being a kind of emotional center that humanizes a cast of monsters.

Look, you don't watch every movie because it's a good movie. "Boys" – the title has wandered in from some gay porno flick shopping list -- is for all intents and purposes a bad movie and even nice film critics have been mean to it. But if this is a failure, this is not your average failure. Oh, no. It has moments, and an interesting, borderline cultish, cast. Skeet Ulrich is almost forgotten, but in his fleeting appearances he has a dysfunctional neediness, luminous sex appeal, a scary attraction – you see that also in "As Good As It Gets," where he robs and beats up Greg Kinnear. There's something dangerous – and expendable – about Skeet. We may think of John C. Reilly in PT Anderson's "Magnolia," and see that same homely touching appeal on idle here in his Maryland State Police role. This was probably the only time the mercurial, offbeat Lucas Haas was conventionally cute enough to match up with a pretty -- at times quite beautiful -- girl like Winona. And her dazed, out-of-it quality – she's clearly a young lady who makes nothing but wrong choices in men -- contributes to the curiously touching moments the two have in the amusement park when the high school boy briefly but intensely falls for the 25-year-old and proposes marriage and eternal loyalty and they kiss sweetly and the rest of the world disappears. That's the high point. Now, there's nothing more tedious than the boys in the opening segment nattering at each other, threatening to rat on each other, but curious to get in on any trouble that's going to come down—but the way they behave and look in this movie is completely natural and believable. Like most real schoolboys they're likely to bore each other to death before they'll ever enter into some sort of Lord of the Flies adventure. Chris Cooper – what is he doing here? He's playing an archetypal father, the one we don't see in "Dead Poets Society," the flipside of his twisted military dad in "American Beauty." James LeGros and Catherine Keener complete the surprising cast. Using a classic college campus – St. Johns, Annapolis -- for a fancy prep school works and heightens the posh effect. The movie doesn't altogether work otherwise. It's energy is sluggish; it has no drive.. But you come back to it looking for something that didn't come together, but might have, because some choice ingredients were there. And won't come this way again.. Check out Haas in "Johns", dated the same year, with David Arquette for another good offbeat role, a wilder, quirkier one that also seems to fit him like a soft old glove. He's never had the role he deserves, but what an actor. James Salter, whose story this is based on, is a very fine writer. The music isn't inappropriate; it's just obtrusively loud, the way schoolboys would play it, if they weren't being properly supervised.

This movie is underestimated and I'll tell you exactly why: the characters are incredibly realistic, they are searching for something or someone to feel less alone and you could imagine this story really happening. John could have taken the girl to a hospital but he takes her to his room instead just because he feels the need to have something of his own, something no one else knows about. Another aspect about the movie which I can appreciate is the sphere. I cannot explain exactly why, but I was taken away by the beautiful autumn setting and the well chosen soundtrack. There is one scene that might be the best example: the scene in which Jonh wakes up near the fair, you can almost feel the coolness of that autumn morning and can imagine how he feels realizing the girl isn't there anymore and he is all alone once more. This movie in a way, is about how people sometimes just do not want everybody to know everything about them. The girl keeps it a secret what happened to her, the boy does not tell anyone about the girl he found. The only thing I didn't like about the movie was the title, I don't understand what "boys" has to do with the story.

"Boys" tells a flimsy story to which Cochran tries to add mystery by keeping information from the audience and revealing it piecemeal via flashback. Cheap shot. Ryder is found unconscious, after being thrown from horseback, by a boarding school student (Haas) who takes her to his room (yeah, right), instead of the obvious choice, the hospital. You know, HOSPITAL...where you take injured people for professional medical care. Duh. Anyway, this dumbassed flick has a list of negatives too long to go into here. File "Boys" in the boys room and don't forget to flush. (D)

I watched this movie late at night and thought it was very funny. The schoolboy characters are sharp as well as their dialogues.The music is great fun, and the photography is great. The story line may be a little thin, but this does not matter. Listen to the music, the hide and seek in the first hour is almost theater and the kids are great.But, I did not like the ending. Too romantic and incredible but nice movie to watch when there's nothing else on TV.In Belgium this movie got two stars, I think it deserves 3 stars, only for the great dialogues.