On B List of Movie Reviews

(For optimum viewing, adjust the zoom level of your browser to 125%.)

---

The Boys Next Door (1985)

Rate: 7
Viewed: 3/20

3/20: Penelope Spheeris gets one thing wrong about the two protagonists: they're not serial, but spree, killers despite the matter-of-factly opening sequence.

What I like about The Boys Next Door is the realism that's almost on the same level as Henry: Portrait of a Serial Killer. However, it holds a lot back and isn't as edgy as I've hoped for. Angry about getting no offers for two years after the predictable failure of Grease 2, Maxwell Caulfield gives the best portrayal of a soulless killer in the making.

He and Charlie Sheen do a good job of what it's like to be loser characters, Roy and Bo, and kill freely without thinking about the consequences. If not for the former, the latter wouldn't have thought about going that far, but he got caught in the momentum. Interestingly, Charlie's father, Martin Sheen, played the same exact character in Badlands and tried to talk his son out of it before he was cast as Bo.

All in all, Penelope Spheeris made good movies before she sold out to direct mainstream comedy crap.

---