Good Boys (Blu-ray Review)

Good Boys for me is just one of those moments in life when you watch a trailer, it reminds you of a blast from the past (in this case Superbad) and you say why not.  Why not refers to the fact that it appears like you could have a fun time with this one.  It may be hard to relate to the age of the main characters, but make no mistake we’re all coming to see this one for the profane humor and raunchiness of it all.  Can you blame us?  After all, Seth Rogen is kind of responsible for this.  So follow me down below and will take a look at Good Boys, which you can warmly call a more innocent reboot of Superbad…with of course a much younger cast.

Film

Good Boys made its debut at SXSW earlier this year.  The film was co-written and directed by Gene Stupnitsky, which marks his directorial debut here.  It stars three main boys, Jacob Tremblay, Brady Noon and Keith L. Williams, as sixth graders who seek out to impress girls (of course) and their classmates through their daring actions and wild shenanigans.  Seth Rogen and Evan Goldberg serve as producers here.  Retta, Will Forte, Lil Rel Howery and more round out the rest of the supporting “class” (no pun intended on the class part).

Like all good stories this one’s about a boy and girl.  Okay so no real surprises there.  I completely get that.  However, what does a drone and learning how to kiss have in common?  In Good Boys it means everything!  Let’s not put the cart in front of the horse though.  Let’s rewind a bit.  This story is all about our three boys, Max (Tremblay), Thor (Noon) and Lucas (Williams).  They are known as the Bean Bag Boys (don’t ask) and sadly don’t exactly fit the ideal mold in the sixth grade.   I would say out of the three Max is the most liked by others.  His appeal is exactly how he landed an invite to his first kissing party, which he was given approval to bring his friends too.  The only problem is none of the three boys know how to kiss, hence the drone.

You see a drone comes in handy when your next door neighbor is known to be a nymphomaniac.  No that doesn’t mean they fall asleep a lot, but instead have sex on land and water.  Ha!  I love that line, but I digress.  The boys decide to use Max’s dad’s drone, which he was explicitly given directions not to ever touch.  They obviously plan on using it to spy on their neighbor making out.  Needless to say things go awry with their plan and the drone well it goes missing in action.  As a result the boys are forced to skip school to find the drone, run from the cops, smuggle drugs, cross the freeway like Frogger, paintball a fraternity and so much more.  

In many ways, and to be expected, Good Boys is very much the coming of age story like Superbad was, but with a tad more innocence due to the super young age of the guys.  It’s super hard for me to relate to the young boys because of the age difference thing, but the raunchy comedy and vulgarity win me over.  Furthermore, the sweet, tender story of it all is just the icing on the cake (complete with a cute CPR doll too).  Underneath the vulgarity of the comedic antics and language there really is a heartwarming tale of growing up here and the difficulties of trying to fit in with the “it” crowd.  I can definitely relate to that being the small geek I was at that age.  One thing for sure is I have a sudden craving to watch Rock of Ages, but I completely digress there.  You’ll get that one when you see it.  

If I had one complaint, it would ironically be of the comedy.  There was never one really over-the-top defining moment.  It was all pretty tame, flat and consistent throughout.  Not that’s there’s anything wrong with it, but for me when you’re talking great comedy movies there’s always those one or two moments you’ll never forget.  In Good Boys, the ride is wild and breezy and the relatable story wins you over, but oddly its ultimately forgettable in the end (for me).  I do encourage viewing the film, but not so sure I would have that much replay value out of it (despite my warm score).  Your mileage may vary, but I’m erring on the side of caution here that you’ll love these three little boys…that is as long as you don’t mind the endless F-bombs, sexual debauchery and more.  I mean who doesn’t love all that?  Ha ha.

Video 

The below video score and related critique of things here are based solely upon my viewing of the 1080p Blu-ray presentation of Universal’s Good Boys.

• Encoding: MPEG-4 AVC
• Resolution: 1080p
• Aspect Ratio: 2.39:1
• Clarity/Detail: If you picture any great looking comedy film on the Blu-ray format, then you know what Good Boys looks like.  Close-ups reveal fine details like pores and freckles and textures like concrete and pillow stitching look excellent.
• Depth: There’s actually plenty of depth to be found throughout here thanks to the razor sharp three-dimensional pop of the overall presentation.  Examples highlighting depth of field here include streets, the kids riding bikes, school halls, woods and more.
• Black Levels: The black levels are are all deep and inky throughout like a comedy such as this usually looks on Blu-ray.
• Color Reproduction: The colors throughout are vivid, bold and brilliant.  I can’t say enough good things about comedies on Blu-ray like these.  They always look grand, but never truly cinematic or Hangover-like.
• Flesh Tones: The skin tones all look natural for the most part in appearance throughout the presentation.
• Noise/Artifacts: Everything looks perfect here with no signs of visible noise or artifacts that would hinder your viewing enjoyment of this fine looking comedy presentation.

Audio 

Like I mention up above in the video section, the below audio score and critical comments of such are based solely upon my viewing of Universal’s Blu-ray presentation of Good Boys.

• Audio Format(s): English DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1, English Dolby Digital 2.0, Spanish Dolby Digital Surround 5.1, French Dolby Digital Surround 5.1
• Subtitles: English SDH, Spanish, French
• Dynamics: This is your standard comedic affair on Blu-ray where the dialogue is loud and crisp and the soundtrack rules the soundstage.  However, there are some good atmospherics where it counts like action onscreen, a drone flying and more.
• Low Frequency Extension: The subwoofer keeps the sound booming throughout thanks to the hip soundtrack used to propel us through comedic situations and various sequences.  Other examples I can think of include crossing a busy highway and a paintball gun/fight sequence.
• Surround Sound Presentation: The atmospherics are the source of immersion here.  The most noticeable one is the aforementioned drone moments within the presentation.  Other than that you’re left with the basics you’d expect here.
• Dialogue Reproduction: The dialog levels are clear and intelligible throughout.  I have no problems hearing or understanding any spoken words here.

Extras 

Good Boys hits the Blu-ray format with exclusive bonus content that includes a never-before-seen alternate ending, deleted and extended scenes and some very quick featurettes with the cast and crew.  While there is an audio commentary also it’s kind of strange there’s not one with Seth or Evan, but I digress.   You’ll also get the Digital Copy of the film redeemable via Movies Anywhere to take anywhere you want.  Unbelievably this disc has BD-Live too so it can serve up fresh trailers for y’all.  So let’s take a closer look at everything you’ll find here housed on the single Blu-ray Disc.

• Unrated Alternate Ending (HD, 2:00) – I prefer the original film’s ending.
• Unrated Deleted and Extended Scenes (HD, 10:26) – There are a total of 11 scenes found here, which are listed below.
  • Turtle vs. Tortoise
  • Benji Don’t Like That
  • Customer Service
  • Ball Pit Shenanigans
  • Tracking Molly
  • Stealing a Glance
  • Upsell Fail
  • Max Explodes
  • Best Friends
  • Traffic Jam
  • First Kiss Heartbreak
• Boys for Real (HD, 3:12) – This is a quick look at the casting process and the real-life friendships that evolved on-set.
• Gag Reel (HD, 2:07)
• Welcome to Vancouver (HD, 1:07) – The kids talk about shooting on location in Vancouver.  This was shot in Jacob Tremblay’s hometown and even his real school.
• A Fine Line (HD, 2:41) – This one is kind of funny as it explores the language used in the film and whether or not the kids actually understood the lines they were delivering.  Ha!
• Ask Your Parents (HD, 2:07) – The cast and filmmakers discuss how they were able to answer adult questions from the curious child stars.  Too funny!
• Bad Girls (HD, 1:45) – A quick look at the two female antagonists in the film with some cast and crew interviews.

• Guest Stars (HD, 2:39) – This one explores you guessed the guest stars who lent their talents here.

• Audio Commentary – This feature audio commentary showcases Director Gene Stupinsky and Producer Lee Eisenberg as they chat about making the film.  If you’re a fan, you’ll learn tidbits from the set.

Summary 

I hesitate to recommend Good Boys to anyone if they’re not onboard with little kids swearing.  Superbad was much more relatable to me because of the kids being older.  It was weird for me to watch these little kids drop F-bombs.  I’m not saying I’m better than them, just had a hard time relating.  However, underneath all the raunchiness of it all there’s really a heartwarming story to ingest that has won me over twice now.  I’m just being very cautious how I set people’s expectations here.  Overall though this Blu-ray package is sound with great looking audio and video and a generous helping of extras.  Your mileage is obviously going to vary with this one so I would first proceed with caution and give this one a rent.  That’s my two cents.  Enjoy!

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DISCLAIMER: This Blu-ray review was judged and graded using the following 4K certified Ultra HD Premium television set found here and player here.  Make sure to check out all our 4K Ultra HD Blu-ray reviews archived here.  The images used above within the review are not actual 1080p Blu-ray screenshots.  They are for illustrative purposes only.  

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Good Boys

Drops F-Bombs & Shenanigans

On Blu-ray

November 12th

PRE-ORDER NOW!

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