I watched this because I have a soft spot for any of the Culkin kids. IMDb listed this movie as a comedy, so when I watched it I was ready to have some light hearted laughs at a seemingly cheesy film. What started off as I expected ended up leaving me devastated. The four boys deal with the difficulties of young adult life, interest in girls, smoking and drinking, growing apart, and a fantasy world which reflects their interest in comics. (It softens the blows of their lives by mimicking it and helping them cope.) It reminds me a lot of The Virgin Suicides with the tone it sets, and almost similar to Wristcutters: A Love Story.It's definitely a good film and worth the watch as long as you understand that it isn't going to leave you happier after watching it.

Okay, so I avoided seeing this movie for YEARS because everyone said it sucked. I read the book, though, which I thoroughly enjoyed, and I was always curious about the movie. I should have listened. The setting, characters, and general mood of the movie was so dishonest to the book. Jodie Foster comes off as severely out of place. The boys in the movie seem to be way to unreal also. I'm not just talking about bad acting. There's like this film over them of boys that are just a little too perfectly placed. What's really great about the book is that the boys are total dumbasses, but not in a way that any other boy that age isn't. In the movie, though, it's very apparent that a script is being read. All that glorious, natural dumbass behavior turns to pre-fabricated pulp and makes me a little ill. As far as movies go, it would be okay to watch if say, nothing else were on and both your arms were broken and your legs and you had nothing to do but watch television and thank God that your parents didn't send you to Catholic school.

Does any one know where I could find the script for this, the best movie our fried brains have ever processed? I don't really want to say anything more, but to submit my comment I have to write 10 lines or more. I need this script to perform it at my college. I study Producing, Directing and Script Writing at AFDA, African Film and Drama Association. For my Directing class I had to select any script, and I chose to do this one. I want to do the scene where Francis talks about the fish. Do you think that fish actually exists? I need this script urgently, but can't find a website that has it. This movie is one of the reasons I study film, and I have to return the favor by introducing other people to it. *Sash*

'The Dangerous Lives of Altar Boys', directed by Peter Case, is a coming of age story about two boys, Francis (Emile Hirsch) Tim (Kieran Culkin) who supplement their boredom at Catholic school and their home lives by playing pranks and working on their own comic book. Their main nemesis in life, who they turn into the villain in their book, is their teacher, Sister Assumpta. (Jodie Foster) I wish that I could add more to the synopsis, but there's not a lot more to tell. The film centers around the hijinks of these characters, then tries to throw in some character development that generally go absolutely nowhere.Most of the film is spent planning a prank on the Sister that goes awry, but after awhile it becomes so boring that when the climax of the film arrived I didn't remotely care. 'The Dangerous Lives of Altar Boys' has been praised for its creativity and the mixed genres, (the film turns into a Todd McFarlane produced form of anime at times) but even these moments were just plain boring. Jodie Foster, as always, is wonderful in the film, but despite the fact that she is supposedly the evil nemesis, she has an aggregate screen time of perhaps ten minutes, so there wasn't enough of her to truly enjoy.Generally, films that deal with topics such as incest, ghosts, and untamed youth are at least thought-provoking, but 'The Dangerous Lives of Altar Boys' didn't provoke anything in me but boredom. 'Coming of age' films have been done many times before, but they can still be effective if done well. (See a film as recent as 'The Virgin Suicides') Unfortunately 'The Dangerous Lives of Altar Boys' doesn't come remotely close to approaching effective, or well done. I expected more out of a Jodie Foster production and am disappointed I didn't get even an average film.--Shelly