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Dangerous Lives of Altar Boys is AMAZING!

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Dangerous Lives of Altar Boys is AMAZING!

Old 11-01-02, 09:24 PM
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Dangerous Lives of Altar Boys is AMAZING!

I will admit I rented this hoping to see a movie along the lines of Heaven Help Us (a movie from a few years back set in the 60's about Catholic school boys and their lives and run ins with the priests who ran the school. What I found was something completely original and completely different than what I was expecting.

I knew I was in for something I would ultimately love when after the first scene (two of the main characters chop down a telephone pole to test triangulation, which they learned in school) we are introduced to the four teen boys who are working together on a fan made comic called the Atomic Trinity, and we are treated to an animated opening sequence of their note book doodlings. The movie is set in the 80's (I believe, I heard it was supposed to be in the 70's, but all I saw it it was from the 80s) and the setting is so convicingly done, I was checking on IMDB.com to make sure this movie did come out in 2002 and not 1982. It centers around the four comic book making boys, but ultimately focuses on two main characters of Francis Doyle (who comes up with all the main comic book ideas and plot lines) and Tim Sullivan, played by Emile Hirsch and Kieran Culkin, respectively. And I must add played extremely well. (Is it me or can those Culkin kids act incredibly well? The younger brother also did an amazing job in Signs with Mel Gibson.)

Contantly under the scrutinty of Sister Assumpta (Jodie Foster), the boys rebel and plot to steal a cougar from a zoo to set it loose in the Sister's office. Assumpta is also the main comic book villian in the boys' fantasy world as Nunzilla.

That sets up the basic plot line of the movie without giving away any spoilers. It's a coming of age story that is up there with Stand By Me and October Sky. It's also an incredible independent movie worthy of much attention, and I would place it up with Ghost World to rival for top place for my personal top ten movies of all time.

But this movie is more than Stand By Me meets Heaven Help Us . It's Stand By Me meets Heaven Help Us meets Spawn. That's right....SPAWN. Intersperced through out the movie are animated sequences from the mind of Doyle (they are not animated by him or the 14 year old boys, they are just in his fantasy, but we see them on the screen) and they are incredibly animated by Todd McFarlane. He is listed under "other crew" on IMDB, but he is certainly an integral part of the movie, and adds to the mix in such a way that it would not be complete without him, and I think he deserves billing near the top for his work on this movie. The animated sequences follow the adventures of the Atomic Trinity and, yes, you get to see Jodie Foster's nun character as a bad ass biker villian named Pegleg (she's a one legged nun in the movie.) The dialoge is cheesy but really incredible ("Let's kick a bad habit.")

Side note: SOMEBODY PLEASE SIGN TODD MCFARLANE ON TO DO A FULL LENGTH ANIMATED MOVIE!!!!

As far as DVDs go, this is well worth the price. Don't wait for a special edition on this: the special edition is here! First up is Anatomy of a Scene, a full 30 minute Sundance documentary on the making of the movie that is both exhaustive and illuminating.

Next up are the Animated Scenes, which put all the animated sequences in the movie together as one story, and they are available to watch with commentary from Todd McFarlane.

The deleted scenes are really extended scenes, and really aren't all that. Not the strength of the DVD features, that is for sure.

Illustrations is a nice feature, showing pictures from the Atomic Trinity doodle book in detail. This one is actually very good in that it shows some of the most creative art from the movie that you couldn't really see all that well in the movie itself.

There are also production notes, biographies, a featurette (which is five minutes of fluff), trailer, TV commercials, and trailers for other movies. I think the strength of the extras are the Sundance documentary and the animated sequences with Todd.

There is also commentary with the director and screen writer.

The movie is based on a book, which I have not read, but certainly plan to after seeing this movie.

One last note: the menus are also a nice treat: they are layed out in a comic book format.

This movie gets all stars possible in any rating, all thumbs up, two snaps, whatever it takes to convince you this movie is great, the DVD is awesome, and you will be missing out if you don't see it!
Old 11-01-02, 10:33 PM
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I quite enjoyed the movie, but I am suprised that from you description the deleted scenes aren't "all that". From my perspective I thought the DVD will show us scenes that I felt were missing in the first place - will definately want to rewatch this movie on DVD for all the extras.
Old 11-01-02, 11:24 PM
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Originally posted by Giles
I quite enjoyed the movie, but I am suprised that from you description the deleted scenes aren't "all that". From my perspective I thought the DVD will show us scenes that I felt were missing in the first place - will definately want to rewatch this movie on DVD for all the extras.
The deleted scenes really are just extended scenes, and it's pretty obvious why they cut the scenes down. It's nice to have them on there, but they also really don't add much, IMO.

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