The Boys Next Door (1986)

One of the most extraordinary films you will see this year. Take that as you want.

Worth seeing just to witness how winsome it is.

I enjoyed watching this film and would recommend other to give it a try , (as I am) but this movie, although enjoyable to watch due to the better than average acting fails to add anything new to its storyline that is all too familiar to these types of movies.

Actress is magnificent and exudes a hypnotic screen presence in this affecting drama.

Pure genius this movie is one of the best ever. Mostly because of Maxwell Caulfield's outstanding performance words cant describe how good he captured the mind of a sociopath. I was totally blown away by this movie when I saw it for the first time about a year ago. This movie was never accepted by the mainstream mostly because they cant relate and they never will. But those who can will love this film there's no one like it and its mostly because of Caulfield's performance. I have never seen anyone play a sociopath more convincing.Roy-"That motherf*cker... is the one who will keep us from going anywhere"

The fawning over this lesser Spheeris effort is incredible. The only reason for it is that this melodrama hits the spot for knee-jerk self-proclaimed progressive minds, this being that terrible angst is created in aimless young men by a mindless uncaring society, fomenting into no particularly understood (by them) rage against anyone stepping in the way. What a moronic, simplistic view. Everything here is boiled down to pop psychology and endless unrealistic stereotypes. Even to the point of stereotyping those with whom we are supposed to feel empathy. Along with this is the hinted latent homosexuality from where it appears much of one of the boy's anger stems, yet it's never confronted nor really developed as it should be. We are supposed to just guess then accept that homosexual tendencies are repressed and then erupt into violence, a LOAD OF BUNK and on par with the stupidity of the gay-baiting cop the film supposedly refutes. From the very beginning, where the supposed "normalcy" of various serial killers is trumpeted (point of fact: the killer Kemper was nowhere near normal), to give credence to the jingoistic "boys next door" title, onward to the undeniable effort to show these "boys next door" as nothing like normal in the eyes of their peers, this is nothing more than an immature 90 minute student film. The simplistic and ignorant moments are so many that it's way too difficult to list them all, but if this isn't the worst thing Spheeris has done, then I have yet to see her worst. Better to watch Charlie Sheen and a buffed-up Chris MacDonald in TERMINAL VELOCITY instead of this pile of crap.

Roy and his hetero life-mate Bo are psychopaths who have a night of killing in LA. This movie, while not that great, is still good and MILES above the very over-rated crap fest that was "Natural Born Killers". Penelope Spheeris does a pretty good job directing and Charlie Sheen plays Bo low-key to nice effect. This is also the only film I can stand Maxwell Caulfield in, so don't even mention "Grease 2", "Empire Records" or any of his other less-then-stellar (to put them VERY mildly) movies to me. Plus I like pretty much everything that Glen Morgan and James Wong write, well they only have one bad film to their credit. Or rather their only bad film is "The One". Thankfully this is not "the One" Look for Moon Unit Zappa in a small role.My Grade: B- Anchor Bay DVD Extras: Commentary with Penelope and Maxwell; Cast and crew info; and Theatrical Trailer

The most shocking thing in this unsettling film is the way it accurately portrays the state of mind of the two "heroes"; murder seems to be just another inconsequential act of "escapism" for them, and the (sincere) grief that Sheen's character feels for some of their victims is brief and quickly lost amid the "thrill" of it all. The movie handles the violence in an uncompromising but not exploitive way, and it may not have all the answers, but at least it isn't afraid to touch the subject. (***)