THE BOONIES (2019)

THE BOONIES (2019)

Tagline: On the eve of graduation in Boone, Texas, five disparate seniors - once childhood best friends - are united by a dead classmate's cryptic video directing them to embark on a treasure hunt inside the halls of Boone High School.

(Mystery, Drama, The Worst Friends Ever) [PG-13]

Note: This originally appears to be a planned TV series from 2017 that never quite panned out and instead came out instead in 2019 on streaming services as a movie. So if you look this up on IMDb you will see it listed as a TV series. It’s not. Elsewhere it’s properly listed as a movie. 

You can’t leave me, you’re supposed to leave the weird one or the b----y one, not the pretty smart one...

This story revolves around a kid named Doug who dies in a horrible car explosion leaving 5 of his friends Chuck, Holly, Stephanie, Elektra, and Teddy in mourning during their senior year in high school. One night during a party the night before graduation they get a video from Doug that calls them together as “The Boonies” to go on a treasure hunt for $1,000,164.00 at the high school they all attended. Assuming it’s a person doing this for Doug they decide to go on the hunt. Meanwhile, the event was broadcast to everyone so the hunt draws the attention of a trucker gang called the “Silver Skulls” another group called “The Outcasts” and psychotic cheerleaders. Now everyone is after the treasure, will THE BOONIES get their first?

What I thought sucked about this movie is the fact that they made it crasser than it needed to be and it doesn’t add anything to the movie at all. We get a lot of really good dialogue and a lot of really bad dialogue. I also don’t love that these characters pretty much fight the entire movie and there are so many references to Holly’s breasts and Stephanie’s vagina that it stops being funny after the first time it gets brought up. The story does borrow heavily from movies like THE GOONIES of course, but the actual storyline isn’t anything like THE GOONIES in light of what a lot of reviews might be trying to make you think. I don’t even think they were attempting to do that here. 

So if you were going into this expecting to like any of these characters, they seem to purposely be making them as hard to like as possible by turning them into boring archetypes and self-centered clichés. The movie even mentions that happening. It is pretty rare that I like a movie that has so many dislikable characters, but Elektra and what we know of Doug are actually this films saving grace when it comes to the characters. I found myself actually rooting for both of them. 

When it comes to the stuff that works Stephanie’s sarcasm is almost infectious because even though it makes her a jerk, they tell you that is all she can do. She can only talk in sarcasm, so it works to an extent. She isn’t a great person though, like at all. The other thing that works is the score. Every time certain characters appear they use a certain beat and that consistency is awesome. The flashbacks are well thought out and Doug’s parts in this are oddly charming and slightly brilliant. Under the weird attempt to tie itself to THE GOONIES in theme, this movie is actually extremely clever on its own and does have a lot of great moments. 

I think that is why it has a middle-of-the-road score on most sites from critics. The movie's biggest draw is probably Andi Matichak who plays Holly and is best known for the HALLOWEEN series. Amymarie Gaertner is also solid as Elektra but hasn’t been in anything in 5 years. Calum Worthy is also fantastic as Doug. By far my favorite character. He is getting lots of roles these days and recently did some voice work for PACIFIC RIM: THE BLACK an animated series. I also have to hand it to Wyntergrace Williams who plays Malinda (the main cheerleader) and is very good. She is mostly famous for b-movies like ATTACK OF THE SOUTHERN FRIED ZOMBIES. 

If you are looking for something where everyone looks like a model and nothing is overly serious, this one is actually pretty fun for the most part. It’s also got a very short 77-minute run time so even if you hate it like some people did, you won’t feel like you wasted half your life watching it. They even manage to shove a little bit of heart in here along with the humor. 

THE BOONEYS is a 5 out of 7. Expect a film that looks like it was made by some film class with a clever script that is a bit over the top and you might have a good time watching this. 

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