The Lost Boys Movie Review …

The Lost Boys is one of those movies which you can watch over and over and it never seems to drift out of date. My nephew saw it recently for the first time and he loved it so that just goes to show that an older movie can be enjoyed in the modern world! The Lost Boys has all the vital ingredients which make it work to perfection, a rocking soundtrack including songs performed by INXS, Roger Daltry, Echo and the Bunnymen and Timmy Cappello. The main song played throughout The Lost Boys is the haunting Cry Little Sister performed by Gerard McMahon.

Blending together with the music is the star quality of the actors/actresses appearing in The Lost Boys which include the late Corey Haim as Sam who is the younger of two brothers with Mike, Jason Patric, being the older brother. Dianne Wiest plays the part of Lucy, the boy’s mother, Wiest is always a pleasure to watch and her role in The Lost Boys shows her to be a delicate, fragile butterfly that is very vulnerable after her divorce. Lucy, the boys and the rather adorable Nanook (Sam’s husky) go to live with Lucy’s father in Santa Carla in California.

The late Barnard Hughes stars as Grandpa an eccentric old man with a fascination for taxidermy and reading the TV magazine even though, to Sam’s utter horror, he does not have a TV! The Lost Boys is essentially the story of Mike as he unwittingly turns to the dark side with the assistance of David and his gang of vampires. Kiefer Sutherland is David the leader of the 4 main vampires; his 3 followers are Marko, Paul and Dwayne.

The beauty is added to The Lost Boys in the beautiful form of Jami Gertz as Star, she catches Mike’s eye at an open air concert that both he and Sam have gone to watch. Sam declares he is at the mercy of his brother’s sex glands when they start to follow Star that is until Sam discovers is idea of heaven in the shape of a huge comic store.

Now we meet the hilarious Frog brothers, Edgar and Alan, played by Corey Feldman and Jamison Newlander. They try to persuade Sam to read a horror comic but he insists he does not like horror comics, the brothers tell him it might save his life.

Meanwhile Mike has followed Star only to see her climbing on the back of David’s motorbike where he is challenged by David to not beat him but to just try and keep up with him. The Lost Boys now takes us to a cave which turns out to be the remains of an old hotel which was destroyed in an earthquake, this is the gang’s ‘lair’ they coax Mike into drinking from a bottle convincing him that it is red wine, Star tries to warn him that it is actually blood but Mike does not listen and drinks.

What follows in The Lost Boys is a complete riot of laughs and thrills with the action never stopping, Mike will remain a half-vampire until he makes his first kill. The scenes with both Mike and Sam when Sam discovers his brother is turning into a vampire are some of the funniest in The Lost Boys and the two canine roles Nanook and Thorn, who belongs to Lucy’s new boss and friend Max (Edward Herrmann) deserve a pat on the back for their acting abilities too.

The Lost Boys is about a scary topic, I mean being turned into a vampire and never growing old has got to be pretty damn frightening right? The movie has such an element of fun and humour though that it is hard to be too scared, it has gained its 15 certification as there are some gory moments though so do not become complacent with The Lost Boys content.

The final scenes in the house when Mike, Sam and the Frog brothers try to finish the vampires off are brilliant, even Nanook chips in! They have to kill the head vampire in The Lost Boys so the others can be returned back to normal, but who is the head vampire and will they manage to destroy him/her? The Lost Boys should be on everyone’s ‘must see’ movie list. Top performances for me come from the late Corey Haim who is perfect as Sam, Jason Patric as the innocent Mike and Kiefer Sutherland as the menacing David with great supporting roles from Dianne Wiest and Jami Gertz. Catch a trailer below.

The Lost Boys Movie Trailer

Steven Spielberg is known for some pretty successful movies and this one, at least in my opinion, deserved those 6 Oscar nominations. But let’s try and recall some of the “action” and maybe see clearly what made this movie such a great experience for me.

We’re taken back in time to the World War II. Instead of seeing the war in Europe as we might be used to (at least from another Spilberg movie perspective), we travel even further, to Shanghai. Japan invaded China and the war is more real than ever.

A small smart and still “bratty” boy, Jim Graham (Christian Bale) is more interested in planes and his normal child activities than the tragedy hitting their family. While trying to flee the country, his British parents are separated from the kid. He is now alone, in a crazed crowd, learning to survive. Living alone in their rich villa, with no one to care or feed him proves to be a task he’s able to manage pretty well.

But his life will take a stranger turn, when Jim is taken to the Soo Chow confinement camp. He is able to still keep on developing as a teenager, learn and instill optimism and dignity in the people who share his destiny. It’s amazing to see how a kid can get through all these horrors without sacrificing his passion and innocence.

There are lots of lessons to be learnt for him. Treason doesn’t come always from the clear enemies, friendship can come in the most unexpected ways and a common passion can rebuild relationships an entire war tries to destroy.

We meet John Malkovich (one of the actors I love dearly) as a not so honest person .. well, to be fair, I think he is the NORMAL man who has the normal reactions an adult would have in the given situation. He’s not a kid anymore and there are values he no longer believes in.

The movie is JUST BEAUTIFUL. Excellent directic job, at least in my opinion. A very powerful movie, maybe with an easy to foresee end, but still an amazing production. It’s been years since I first watched it and it’s been a favourite of mine for quite some time. If you haven’t seen it yet, please take it as a personal recommendation to try watch it. If you know it, then please tell me if you liked it as much as I did