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The Lost Boys (1987)

Full Reaction You can either stream the Full reaction below using the embedded video player, otherwise you can click the 'Download' button which will take you directly to Google Drive, enabling you to save the video to your computer instead. You must provide your own footage to watch alongside the full reactions.

Comments

Jenny Chalek

OMFG you got to THIS movie! So excited to watch with you, haven't seen this movie since it came out.

Ryan

Movie fans all love to judge production decisions with 20/20 hindsight, and I'm as guilty as anyone, but one that I've been pushing back hard on for years is that if I'd been a Warner Brothers exec in 1993, I 100% also would have said "Have you seen The Lost Boys, Flatliners, and Falling Down? This Joel Schumacher guy seems like the perfect choice to take over Batman now that we've lost Tim Burton." And this film showed him being especially savvy about what audiences wanted, two years after the punk-themed horror comedy Return of the Living Dead thoroughly cleaned the clock of its straight horror competitor Day of the Dead. And he still had to spend the whole production dealing with meddling studio people who couldn't wrap their heads around a movie being scary and funny at the same time, plus trying to handle heavy rewrites from the original concept that both the two brothers and the vampires would be around 10 years old (as you can still tell from the title and a few lines). But he managed to pull it together, creating an iconic film of the era that's still a Halloween favorite for many. Another big piece of the magic is Kiefer Sutherland, in the role that represents him fully stepping out of his legendary father's shadow and proving he was a great actor in his own right. He'd gotten some attention the previous year in Stand By Me, but it wasn't exactly a role that showed his talent to best effect (if I ever meet Stephen King, I'm definitely going to say "I'm so sorry for whatever school bullies did to you that makes you write them like you do"), and David is much more of what would become his type, with charisma that pulls you in despite his obvious villainy. He had such a great time on this film that he worked with Schumacher several more times, including after 24 had exponentially increased his star power (and permanently changed his typecasting from villain to hero, which I'm sure a certain person here isn't too happy about). And he at least half-counts as another Twin Peaks actor, from the half of Fire Walk With Me that's not actually about Twin Peaks. It also helps that the rest of the film is populated with such fun characters in their own right. I figured you'd be nuts for Grandpa, and one part I very much appreciate is that there's never any twist to the role of the Frog brothers: they earnestly want to help, all their information is good, and while their inexperience in actually fighting vampires causes some issues, they're competent when the chips are down. Plus, Alex Winter in the one role anyone's likely to know him from besides Bill and Ted. Oh, and as someone who managed to see it in the '90s, I can confirm that Max was supposed to be an actual twist, as the movie didn't invent the rule that vampires need to be invited in, but it was a very niche part of the lore compared to stuff like garlic and reflections until Buffy made such heavy use of it. All five movies in this bunch had wider franchises attached to them, and this is easily the most ignominious one. As you can probably guess, David's body staying intact was meant for a possible sequel where it turned out the antlers weren't quite enough to count as wood and just knocked him out. But it ended up not happening until two direct-to-DVD sequels decades later, with the Frogs returning but absolutely no one else. Both of them sucked, and the third film suffered horrible sales numbers as no one was in the mood for it after the recent death of Corey Haim, which seems to have thankfully put a permanent end to them. Rob Marshall was also going to make an anthology show for the CW showing David's gang in different decades, which I can kind of see working, but the odds of it hitting that sweet spot are so low that I'm glad it didn't go anywhere.

Thomas Corp

In terms of films that should have been viewed by now, I never saw this myself until I rented and watched it this past Friday to prepare for your reaction. Thus, it’s the only film of the series that is new to me; the others I’ve seen before. Nice to see that Richard Donner and Harvey Bernhard reteamed again following The Omen, Ladyhawke, and The Goonies. Shame Donner was busy with Lethal Weapon and couldn’t direct; I would have liked to have seen him bring his style to this. I’m going to start by apologizing that I didn’t seem to be as taken with the film as it seems the masses are. Roger Ebert, as I’ve read, was fairly middle of the road, praising aspects of the film, such as the cinematography and “a cast that’s good right down the line” whilst ultimately calling it “an ambitious entertainment that starts out well, but ends up selling its soul.” Now having seen the film, my own opinion feels similar to what Roger expressed, albeit it leans towards somewhat more positive. That fact aside, it does make me very happy to see that you loved this film a great deal, Jess. I do agree that it juggles tones well. I did expect that given (I’m told. I haven’t seen the show) the similarity in vibe with Buffy, that you would have a stronger positive reaction than I. Makes sense. Vampire-wise, I’m more old school being a Bela Lugosi and Sir Christopher Lee man myself, with love for Frank Langella and Gary Oldman as well. Leslie Nielsen’s good too. Knowing your love for Buffy, it as I said, makes sense, your love for this, and it warms the heart to see you loved it more than you were anticipating. Kiefer Sutherland tends to be the most talked about cast member of this. Now seeing the film, it makes sense. The one big scene where Kiefer is sitting in the certain way in the light, I observed, “Jesus, he looks just like his dad there!” Nice to see we have the shared response of discovering Dianne Wiest, icon, like you said, is in this film. I freaked out in excitement a mite seeing Dianne, saying, “...Wait, Dianne Wiest is in this!? ...Why does nobody tell me these things?!” Good note on the likeability of the main family and Dianne being such a sweet lady that investment in them is strong with their dilemma in the murder capital of the world, which, I thought the murder capital of the world was Cabot Cove, but whatever. KNEW you were going to have a strong reaction to the Michael Emerson business by the way. You ask is Sam you in kid form. He might be. He’s not me in kid form, I’ll tell you that much. All fairness, I don’t think I’ve ever seen a fictional kid be me in kid form. Even when I was a kid, it never happened. Nice to hear you express love for Sammy. Had a shared laugh over Sam saying the “wait until Mom finds out” line. Made me ponder how my own mom would take such a revelation, which, well, frankly, she’d be rather shocked by which son became the vampire. You were on my mind with Nanook and Thorn, and when first seeing them, I said, “...ah, shit.” Loved how they lived, and you were relieved by that, and I especially loved your reaction to Nanook doing the most, becoming, to the surprise of no one, your favorite character in this. I take issue with how easy it was to predict about Max. Setting aside the fact that the film never provides any other viable suspects as to who the head vampire could be, which you pointed that out yourself, I had Max pegged as a villain the second I laid eyes on him. No non-villainous man sports loud outfits like he did. Even for the eighties, that silly man’s wardrobe was gaudy as SHIT. Certainly not like the fashionable robe that Sammy sported. The grandpa was a character that I got a kick out of how you loved him. I would have been so pissed off at him at the end, saying, “...Didn’t cross your mind to maybe mention the vampiric shenanigans sooner!?” Other notes. The romance is the weakest and clunkiest part of the whole film, though I doubt anybody’s surprised by that. The question of where they got so much garlic, my family goes through so much garlic, I didn’t even bat an eyelash on that one. Your observation that they could have prepared for the final attack better was shared by me. I mean, my house has a cross or two in it, but even without that, making crosses to board up everything is easy. All you got to do is put two sticks together and you got a cross. Peter Cushing does that all the time. Loved your musical commentary. And I heartily agree with you on the sax by the way. All in all, a fun time sharing this with you, even if I wasn’t the biggest fan of the film itself. And now we have the final movie in this series to look forward to where we turn on the juice and see what shakes loose. Until then, thank you, Jess, for a most fun and enjoyable reaction.

Thomas Corp

That hindsight judgment goes either way sometimes. MASSIVE problems though I have with Schumacher’s Batman films, the second one especially I maintain that there is not enough booze in the world to make that one good, I find with the benefit of now thirty years of hindsight that the greater issues with the films are more on the shoulders of the executives who kept wanting to bring the Batman films to being more comedic and lighthearted. Not to mention the idiot parents that took their little kids to see Batman Returns, which really should have been R rated, so again, the executives are at fault. I confess I got my own lukewarm reaction to most everything outside of Batman that Schumacher directed. What the fuck ever, and I went into this giving it a shot, hoping that I would have a favorable response, and ended up having a similar lukewarm response as in the past with Schumacher’s work, albeit one that leaned toward positive. And I did really like how Jess loved it, so fuck what I thought of this. If she was happy, good. It’s interesting too that note about a movie being scary and funny at the same time considering up next, we have a film which came out the year after this one that so excelled at that, to the point it’s become a massive cult hit, spawning an animated series, a Broadway musical, and as of last month, a LONG-awaited sequel which I loved. Always heard that Kiefer was a big part of the appeal in this. Bit surprised by how minimal his screentime was given that. You do wonder about Stephen King’s experience with the bullies. Given the comment about 24 reversing Kiefer’s type presumably was directed at me, in terms of villainous performances, I favor his dad on that one. The Hunger Games, I was intrigued hearing the gist of it, then hearing Donald was playing the main villain became the biggest hook. And both father and son are versatile enough to be completely believable as either hero or villain, that I don’t mind much Kiefer being typecast more as heroes, though yes, it would be nice to see him play more villains again. I hear there’s another Hunger Games prequel on the horizon where President Snow is an older man, yet not as old as when we first saw him. I’d be super down for Kiefer playing the part, if he wanted to. Solid assortment of characters. Good note on the Frog brothers. I did notice Alex Winter. My one joke after the anarchy that came when he got killed was, “They seem to get a bit touchy over people killing a wild stallion. Bogus.” The funny thing with the Max twist is that the invitation thing was in Fright Night two years before, though like you note, it perhaps wasn’t a widely known part of the lore. His comment about the invitation rendering those in the house powerless against him felt unique to this, though I might be wrong on that one. It just was too easy to predict Max being the villain. As this past Friday was my first time seeing this, I’ve obviously never seen the other Lost Boys films, though everything I’ve heard tells me that I’m not missing much; I see you note the same. The anthology show idea you mentioned, I could see that perhaps working provided it got developed properly.

Ryan

Hell, Salem's Lot (the source of the "vampire kid outside the window" image that this film makes so much use of) has a workable cross made of popsicle sticks and a rubber band.

Ryan

A Time to Kill seems to be the one film that just about everyone likes, and as a bonus has both Donald and Kiefer, though they never appear together. The downside is you have to be willing to sit through Kevin Spacey and Doug Hutchison in sizable roles.

Ryan

One other thing I have to note is this film gets an incredibly clever reference in Jordan Peele's Us, where the opening scene is set during the filming of the carnival scene. There's no direct reference to it being The Lost Boys, it's just there for you to get if you know what movie would be filmed at that time and place.

Thomas Corp

A Time to Kill is probably his best film. As I’ve mentioned before, Kevin Spacey I am largely able to separate art from artist, and it helps he usually played some really damn good villains, so the excellent villainy helps distract and make his presence tolerable. I do get sick to my stomach watching him in American Beauty, and yet I still get sucked into that film by the directing and the other excellent performances in that, much though I’m not happy about that. L. A. Confidential likewise, the skin crawls during the one plotline, really damn good film though it otherwise is. Doug Hutchison’s image was ruined even before you knew he was a creep given his role as Percy. And in A Time to Kill, he is a loathsome piece of shit, hence it makes it easier for you to agree with the statement that yes, he deserved to die, and I hope he burns in hell. Does stink that Donald and Kiefer don’t share scenes. Still need to see the one western they did about a decade ago.

Thomas Corp

Peele does love his little Easter eggs. One thing I forgot to mention was that I got a touch distracted by the song that Sammy was listening to when he was taking his bath in the one scene. I heard the song, said, “Wait a...” it clicked that it was the song I recognized, and I laughed and said, “And now I have Joe Pesci forcibly telling the dealers to shove playing cards up asses stuck in my head. Hahaha.”

Ryan

Trying to pitch people on LA Confidential inevitably turns me into Dr. Fronkensteen. "Yes, yes, yes, we all know what he did."