Customer Reviews

Dangerous Lives of Altar Boys

5 star:		(17)
4 star:		(14)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

The Dangerous Lives of Alter Boys is kind of like a cross between The Virgin Suicides and Stand By Me. Set in the 70's (featuring many cool 70's haircuts) in small town Georgia, the story focuses on Francis, a 14-year-old dreamer and troublemaker. He and his pals, Tim, Wade, and Joey cope with life under the oppressive rule of one-legged nun Sister Assumpta (Jodie Foster) at the Puritan Christian high school they're unfortunate enough to attend.

One of their methods of escape is the 'The Atomic Trinity' comic book. Each of them have their own character with superpowers (such as The Muscle, Captain Asskicker and Skeleton Boy), battling against the tyrannical regime of Nunzilla/Pegleg (a gross caricature of Sister Assumpta). These fantasy stories make up the terrific animated sequences of the film. The cool thing is that they are not so totally removed from the reality of Francis, Tim, Wade and Joey.

The boys soon find their way into a lot of trouble though. After stealing the school's nun statue mascot the quartet plan to steal a cougar from the zoo and put in Sister Assumpta's office. A mad plan yes, but their determination and invention behind it is very clever.

Some scenes of the film are very emotional, so if you have soft spot you'll find it tough to get through the scene where Tim finds a dying dog by the side of the road or Francis reading a poem at the funeral.

Francis' relationship with Margie (the very cute Jenna Malone) also takes many curious and unique turns. The scene with the ghost watching them sleep was pleasingly weird.

Taken from the one and only book (posthumously) by Chris Fuhrman (a book I must get as soon as I see), The Dangerous Lives of Alter Boys is attractively shot, wonderfully acted and definitely worth getting.

The DVD is in 1.85:1 widescreen (strangely non-anamorphic, though the region 2 version is) with Dolby 5.1 sound and a mild bunch of extras.

I liked this movie. I'm not saying it's brilliant or life-changing or even a contender for My Favorite Movie, but I liked it.

It's worth a rental.

Yeah, I'll admit this movie has potential... it just seems to blur out from time to time with stupid plot twists and one dimensional characters. Whenever the film grabs you, it takes a turn in the wrong direction. (Namely, the cougar incident. Which was ridiculous from the moment they started scheming and plotting.) I liked Kieran Culkin's character... it's just too bad we don't really learn anything about him...

All in all, it was fair, seeing as how I didn't expect much walking into it. Script was kind of interesting... direction was nothing new or impressive, but still passable... cast was capable. Characters were just abysmally under-developed and, at times, extremely hokey and unbelievable. And cheezy, hokey dialogue doesn't help matters, either. "When you look at me, I can't breathe."

One more thing... I kinda dug the marriage of animation and live-action in this film. It just seemed to work well enough here.

This was an interesting flick that tells the tale of growing up in a catholic school. It uses an interesting method of storytelling, as it interweaves cartooning and live action drama to tell the story of two boys growing up, causing mischief, and just being boys.

The animation is done by McFarlane Studios, who, if you don't know, produces/produced the cartoon series Spawn. Personally, I didn't really appreciate the animation scenes as much as I could have because I almost felt they took away from the drama of the movie, but the QUALITY of the animation was still top notch.

The story was interesting, at the very least, humorous at times, tense at times, and even sad at times. It's a good film to watch, but I don't know if I'd recommend it to everyone to buy. The acting is great in this one, with standout performances by Jodie Foster and Vincent D'Onoforio (sp).

As I said, I don't think I'd recommend this film to EVERYONE to buy, but I enjoyed it and it was well worth the $8 I paid for it, though I wouldn't give it "rave" reviews either.

I don't think I'll do the film justice, but here goes:

The young cast in this film is very talented and give great effort in bringing their characters to life. They do an especially good job depicting the obstacles of adolescence. The experimenting with drugs and alcohol, friendship and trust, love and sex for the first times in their lives, were protrayed very realistically. Sometimes the dispositions of the characters seemed off beat, but it was an exaggeration needed to impress the gravity of the scene. Kieran Culkin as Tim is passionate in his love of language and words if tragically flawed. The animated intermissions serve as a look into Emile Hirsch's / Francis' head, translating what happens around him into something he can relate to and digest through his imagination and love of comics. Jena Malone has a great performance as Margie and is vaguely reminiscent of Kirsten Dunst in The Virgin Suicides for some reason. As a coming of age movie though, this one is MUCH better. Malone also reminded me of a young Natalie Portman in Beautiful Girls. She has a 'thing' about her, a hint that says she's destined for greatness. What a talent. Jodie Foster is Jodie Foster. She and Vincent D'Onofiro do a great job, but the adults in the movie serve mostly as placeholders.

If you are a fan of bang up performances in coming of ages movies, this one has the potential to replace your current favorite. This movie resonated with me personally because in a offhanded way that WAS me and my friends. We had the same love of comics and disregard for authority. We dreamed big and played hard, but we were always able to keep our grand schemes in check. It did a good job of putting me back in that place, in that time.

This is the best coming-of-age movie i have seen. The acting and plot are great. It reminded be about my teenage years. This was definantly a great movie

well wow, this movie blew me away. i was amazed by the cinemetography and the growth the boys expierenced, tugging at my heart strings. rent it tonight, youll be laughing, crying, and rooting for these rebellious teenagers who just want to be remembered.

See this movie. It rocks. I love the comic book scenes, especially the one where the boys change into their own fictional super heros.

This is a rather bland movie. The content definitely recalls my own youth days and the dangerous lives my friends and I led, but I find the storyline trite and the acting bearly tolerable. None of the actors really got into their roles, especially Jodie Foster who as the "evil" nun has no character whatsoever. One of the supporting boys (the one who's not in the "trinity") is perhaps the most memorable character as your stereotypical small-town, all-American kid. All the other characters are easily forgetable. The animation sequences are indeed unique and well edited, although I'd seen this technique used in much earlier Japanese and Hong Kong movies; and the stuff here starts out well but gets boring when they approach the "pearl."

This is definitely a rent title if you want to relive care-free youth days.

"The Dangerous Lives of Altar Boys" is NOT, as you might expect, a film about predatory priests, but rather a slice-of-life tale about four malcontent Catholic schoolboys who spend most of their free time devising preposterously elaborate and life-threatening practical jokes to play on the faculty members of their school.

As a coming-of-age drama, the film is fairly conventional in its plotting - i.e. young boys, in their rebellion against the uncomprehending adult world, experiment with drugs, first love, sex and general rule breaking - although there is a tricky and touchy incest-related subplot that is handled with a certain amount of delicacy and sensitivity. The highlight of the movie is the outstanding performances delivered by youngsters Emile Hirsch, Kieran Culkin and Jena Malone, whom you might remember as the young Jodie Foster in "Contact." In fact, Foster herself appears in this film (in addition to co-producing it) as the uptight nun, Sister Assumpta. Unfortunately, her character is probably the least well developed one in the film, a fact that seems more obvious than it otherwise might if an actress of Foster's caliber were not playing the part.

The film also displays a nice feeling for its early-70's setting and does a good job capturing the way young people actually speak and communicate (the cast members have their nonverbal expressions and gestures down beautifully as well). Working from the novel by Chris Fuhrman, screenwriters Jeff Stockwell and Michael Petroni, along with director Peter Care, interrupt the live action at regular intervals to provide animated sequences that are ostensibly derived from the anarchic superhero comic book on which the gifted boys are collaborating. We know that these sequences are intended to provide a kind of fantasy alternate universe for these troubled kids who seem to find no meaning in the restricted world of religion and rules in which they find themselves, but the fact is that these sections of the film, not very creative in themselves, merely serve to thrust us out of the story at crucial moments.

"The Dangerous Lives of Altar Boys" is an odd and somewhat misleading title for this film, since most of the "danger" these boys face is, primarily, a product of their own stupidity and not of their religious upbringing. Indeed, the religious figures in the film are mainly cranky and/or ineffectual, not really dangerous. "The Dangerous Live of Altar Boys" is an uneven film, but the superb performances by its youthful cast members make it ultimately worth seeing.