The Dangerous Lives Of Altar Boys
Trouble Is Their Only Defense Against Boredom.
One of the most critically acclaimed films of the year, The Dangerous Lives Of Altar Boys, is a movie experience you won't forget.
Tim (Kieran Culkin) and Francis (Emile Hirsch) are best friends, doing their best to cause trouble without getting caught. Under the watchful eye of Sister Assumpta (Jodie Foster), the boys plot to unleash the ultimate prank, involving a man-eating cougar, their school's statue and a lot of cough medicine. While the boys imagine their exploits in a comic book called The Atomic Trinity, Francis begins his growth to adulthood with Catholic schoolgirl Margie Flynn (Jena Malone).
Member Reviews
Misleading - crazyboutmovies
With independent films, the experience is often either very good or very bad. I was bitterly dissapointed with this movie, and had to have me finger on the fast forward button throughout.
I do not know what offended me more, the obnoxiousness of the boys, the one-dimensional portrayal of religious men and women, or the negative view of Catholic education.
The title itself is misleading. The story had nothing to do with the fact that these boys were alter servers at Mass. Their behaviour throughout the story was more suited to John Belushi's "Animal House".
I am also a product of Catholic schools, and I find it difficult to believe that students in their early teens are capable of such destructive behaviour.
As a Catholic, I am very much offended by this movie.Not your typical coming of age story - andy4
Definetly worth watching, The Dangerous Lives Of Altar Boys, portrays a group of young Catholic school boys at a coming of age point in their life. In my opininion Kieran Culkin and Emile Hirsch did a fantastic job in the movie and did a good job connecting with the audience. A young Jena Malone also did a great performance of a girl with a troubled past. I was suprised Jodi Foster did this movie, with the "B" movie quality of it, and it was not a great performance on her part. Overall, the movie was great and I will probably go out and buy it. As a fan of indie and big hollywood movies, in my opinion a must see.The Dangerous and Dramatic world of kids - Alleee
When I was a kid, we did a lot of things that our parents never knew about. Kind of dangerous things, really. We also went to the corner store where they sold nothing but candy, soda, ice cream and comic books. The only things I didn't do were sedating cougars and going to catholic school. It's amazing how much free time was given to kids of my generation and older. I guess our parents just didn't want to talk about what could happen to us and what kinds of trouble we all were capable of getting ourselves into.
I was really curious about this a few months ago, and made a little unscientific survey: how much free, unscheduled and unsupervised time were you allowed as a kid? I was a bit surprised when I found out that I was on the cusp, the wave of this giant change in child rearing. Persons not ten years younger than me had less than half the freedom I had, and those my age and older had pretty much everything open except for mealtimes and school (excepting the rich kids that took horseback riding and ballet. Even us musicians were free birds).
I have a theory about what happened around, say, 1980 that imprisoned children nationwide: Donahue. He was the first to use the word incest, the first to discuss pedophilia, the first to utter those words that (needlessly) terrify parents across the country. He is why people think we are living in dangerous times, and they are getting worse as each year passes.
Of course, if that were true, kids would be walking to school with bullet-proof vests and Hazmat suits.
Wait a minute...
I understood this was the theme of The Dangerous Lives of Altar Boys about five minutes into the film. My brother and I started discussing this, and we found ourselves missing entire scenes of the movie. Focusing our attention on the three-dollar reason for our conversation, we realized the conversation was much more engaging. My review? Mmeh.
Member Reviews
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Misleading - crazyboutmovies
With independent films, the experience is often either very good or very bad. I was bitterly dissapointed with this movie, and had to have me finger on the fast forward button throughout.
I do not know what offended me more, the obnoxiousness of the ...Not your typical coming of age story - andy4
Definetly worth watching, The Dangerous Lives Of Altar Boys, portrays a group of young Catholic school boys at a coming of age point in their life. In my opininion Kieran Culkin and Emile Hirsch did a fantastic job in the movie and did a good job connecting ...The Dangerous and Dramatic world of kids - Alleee
When I was a kid, we did a lot of things that our parents never knew about. Kind of dangerous things, really. We also went to the corner store where they sold nothing but candy, soda, ice cream and comic books. The only things I didn't do were sedating cougars ...