If 2019 has taught us anything, it’s this: Keanu Reeves is iconic. Some of us already knew it the instant he said “Whoa” in Bill & Ted, but now it seems a new generation is discovering the actor’s talents. Reeves is even an inspiration to R-rated comedy Good Boys’ 12-year-old Jacob Tremblay, who said this of his standout scene in this weekend’s top earner:
My favorite scene would be the paintball scene because we kind of did it in one shot, almost. Everyone was dodging, running under the tables, and the pots and plates were smashing everywhere! And I remember when I was preparing for that, I watched that one scene from the first Matrix, when Neo is shooting the guns and doing the slow-motion flips. You can tell I’m harnessing Keanu Reeves in that one scene.
It sounds like an awesome scene to shoot that was tons of fun! The Good Boys action sequence allowed Jacob Tremblay and his other co-stars to play around with paintball guns, even channelling the classic moves from The Matrix when the cast dodges the bullets in slow motion while doing backflips, martial arts and such.
Wait up… isn’t The Matrix rated R? The hilarious bit about the marketing for Good Boys is that the movie’s stars wouldn’t be able to walk into a theater and buy a ticket to their own. You can say the same about The Matrix circa 1999 before Tremblay was even a concept. The Matrix is one of the greats and doesn’t have nearly as many F-bombs, sex toys and all-around adult content than the Keanu Reeves-led movie ever did anyway. By the way, Tremblay watching The Matrix as a kid, even if he didn’t get through the whole thing, was a good call: it’s mind-blowing and sticks with you.
Jacob Tremblay's Good Boys costar Brady Noon agreed that the paintball sequence when explaining his choice favorite scene to Vulture. In his words:
Mine was definitely the paintball scene as well, ’cause I got to break a board over someone’s back. And it was cool, ’cause, like, I got to break a board over someone’s back.
Yep, breaking a board over someone’s back is awesome, and Brady Noon can now say he did it in the No. 1 movie at the box office. Good Boys topped the weekend with a surprising $21 million haul, taking down Hobbs & Shaw in its third weekend after a solid opening night. The R-rated comedy earned mainly positive reviews from critics, with a certified fresh score of 79 percent on Rotten Tomatoes (CinemaBlend gave it 4 out of 5).
Good Boys follows three middle-schooler best friends played by Jacob Tremblay, Brady Noon and Keith L. Williams, who get into plenty of hilarious antics on the day leading up to a spin-the-bottle party. None of the “Bean Bag Boys” have kissed a girl before and their nervousness for the event has them getting into unlikely situations.
Check out Good Boys in theaters now!
