Chris Knipp Look, you don't watch every movie because it's a good movie. "Boys" – the title has wandered in from some gay porno flick shopping list -- is for all intents and purposes a bad movie and even nice film critics have been mean to it. But if this is a failure, this is not your average failure. Oh, no. It has moments, and an interesting, borderline cultish, cast. Skeet Ulrich is almost forgotten, but in his fleeting appearances he has a dysfunctional neediness, luminous sex appeal, a scary attraction – you see that also in "As Good As It Gets," where he robs and beats up Greg Kinnear. There's something dangerous – and expendable – about Skeet. We may think of John C. Reilly in PT Anderson's "Magnolia," and see that same homely touching appeal on idle here in his Maryland State Police role. This was probably the only time the mercurial, offbeat Lucas Haas was conventionally cute enough to match up with a pretty -- at times quite beautiful -- girl like Winona. And her dazed, out-of-it quality – she's clearly a young lady who makes nothing but wrong choices in men -- contributes to the curiously touching moments the two have in the amusement park when the high school boy briefly but intensely falls for the 25-year-old and proposes marriage and eternal loyalty and they kiss sweetly and the rest of the world disappears. That's the high point. Now, there's nothing more tedious than the boys in the opening segment nattering at each other, threatening to rat on each other, but curious to get in on any trouble that's going to come down—but the way they behave and look in this movie is completely natural and believable. Like most real schoolboys they're likely to bore each other to death before they'll ever enter into some sort of Lord of the Flies adventure. Chris Cooper – what is he doing here? He's playing an archetypal father, the one we don't see in "Dead Poets Society," the flipside of his twisted military dad in "American Beauty." James LeGros and Catherine Keener complete the surprising cast. Using a classic college campus – St. Johns, Annapolis -- for a fancy prep school works and heightens the posh effect. The movie doesn't altogether work otherwise. It's energy is sluggish; it has no drive.. But you come back to it looking for something that didn't come together, but might have, because some choice ingredients were there. And won't come this way again.. Check out Haas in "Johns", dated the same year, with David Arquette for another good offbeat role, a wilder, quirkier one that also seems to fit him like a soft old glove. He's never had the role he deserves, but what an actor. James Salter, whose story this is based on, is a very fine writer. The music isn't inappropriate; it's just obtrusively loud, the way schoolboys would play it, if they weren't being properly supervised.

Xapora Let me begin by saying, I love Winona. I think she's great. This movie is just terrible though. It's boring, slow and forgettable. Her performance is really bad. She looks tired, bored, fed up - her heart just wasn't in this one. Compared to her *fantastic* efforts in Heathers, Mermaids, Reality Bites, Little Women et al, this is just tripe. The "romance" between her and Lukas Haas is unbelievable and awkward and there's zero chemistry, the scenes in the dormitory are boring, I just can't name any redeeming features except for the beautiful Maryland scenery. And there's a scene where there's all this Spanish being spoken and NO sub-titles. Ridiculous. I know some people enjoyed this movie and I respect that, but if you decided to see this thinking it'd be another Winona classic, forget it. Oh, and as for the "mystery" of "What's up with Patty?", well, by the time we find out, I really didn't care anymore. Sorry Winona, you CAN and HAVE done MUCH better than this. 1.5 stars (for the scenery). May be of interest to some to see Christopher Pettiet in one of his final roles before his untimely death.

George Parker "Boys" tells a flimsy story to which Cochran tries to add mystery by keeping information from the audience and revealing it piecemeal via flashback. Cheap shot. Ryder is found unconscious, after being thrown from horseback, by a boarding school student (Haas) who takes her to his room (yeah, right), instead of the obvious choice, the hospital. You know, HOSPITAL...where you take injured people for professional medical care. Duh. Anyway, this dumbassed flick has a list of negatives too long to go into here. File "Boys" in the boys room and don't forget to flush. (D)

Scott Winona at her finest! Absolutely wounderful performance by Winona,excellent acting and a twisted ending. Skeet Ulrich is good as the ball player Bud Valentine and Hass is decent as the kid....it made me want a sequel!