"The Boonies" Puts Camaraderie At The Forefront Of A Zany Adventure
8/12 ForReel Score | 3.5/5 Stars
In the comedy-mystery The Boonies, Doug ends many of his rants in various video messages with the phrase, “I digress”. As he lays out clues in these messages for his friends to decode, I spent much of the movie decoding for myself whether I was liking it. But liking The Boonies became inconsequential as more and more I found myself appreciating it.
After Doug, a Boone High School senior played by Bodied star Calum Worthy, parishes in a car explosion, a challenge is sent via video message from him to his friends - the Boonies - and their classmates. With $1 million on the line, the Boonies must follow instructions, decode proceeding clues, and evade other menacing cliques to find the money and hopefully survive the night.
What’s respectable about The Boonies is its commitment to its purpose. The movie doesn’t have to be polished or perfect to effectively communicate its deep-seated themes about friendship and camaraderie.
Doug (Calum Worth) in the lair be records his coded video messages from.
But while the goofy tone of the movie is amusing, it’s often what made me leery about the presentation. Goofiness is most conspicuous in the comedy, which is heavy on character self deprecation. But when the script quickly runs out of jokes, it misses the opportunity to execute self-awareness comedy and just overuses the same punches.
In the end, The Boonies is a silly yet fun journey through a night of peril and adventure. It’s a movie that prioritizes fun over perfection, with much more to appreciate than there is to dislike. I digress.
Acting and Casting - 2 | Visual Effects and Editing - 1 | Story and Message - 2 | Entertainment Value - 1 | Music Score and Soundtrack - 1 | Reviewer's Preference - 1 | What does this mean?