i started watching this film late one night. i was immediately interested. the music and the tension between the characters was mesmerizing. although some of the characters actions did seem unrealistic. i did not watch the rest of the film until the next evening. all day long, i happily anticipated getting back to this movie. watching the rest of the film was less than satisfying. relationships developed and/or pre-existed without explanation. i was amazed when the credits rolled. i felt a whole chunk of movie had gone missing. i really wanted more from this film. and the potential for being great was there. ryder and haas were intense and had chemistry together. peripheral characters had charisma, others were detestable. then, others seemed pointless. the "problem" in the story did not match the intensity of the mystery in the beginning of the movie. i do not recommend watching this film. there just isn't enough "meat" to make it worthwhile.

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.

"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)

Ok, so, yeah, it was weird & a tad boring at times, but i thought that all in all, it was pretty enjoyable for a boring Saturday afternoon, because after i started to watch it for 2 minutes, I discovered that I was so curious to see what was going to happen next that i was mesmirized. The guys in it are kinda good-looking and pretty funny, if you're willing. And I have to say, I love the picture of Winona Ryder on the movie cover, she has a certain look to her that's just mysterious and attractive. I heard that the script of this movie changed and after Winona heard about that she didn't like it and wanted to refuse to be in it, so she must've been very un-willing to this movie during filming.. you can kind of tell if you pay close attention too. I wouldn't recommend renting it or buying it, cuz it comes on tv all the time, and if your bored enough I'm sure you'll enjoy it.