Actor and producer Seth Rogen has been behind some of the most vulgar as well as most successful comedy films ever made. A quick look at his IMDb page shows that the comedy actor has also written screenplays for some pretty innovative comedies of his generation such as Superbad , and one of the most successful animated adult feature films, Sausage Party . Rogen returns with another coming of age but also explicitly R-Rated film, Good Boys.
Produced by Universal Pictures, the first trailer for the film released on their YouTube channel gives a restricted red band trailer, which is definitely not safe for work (NSFW). The trailer introduces audiences to these new characters in the midst of a discovery which they are unable to handle given their youth. Being the first trailer, there is less of a focus on the story here, and more just shock value scenes with hilarious jokes and a lot of verbal profanity from the young lead actors. It looks like the story is about the incredibly funny misadventures of pre-teen kids in a very adult story told from their naive and inexperienced perspective.
The Good Boys red band trailer opens with a scene featuring Seth Rogen, introducing himself as the producer of the film, advising the young boys that they cannot watch the trailer for their own R-rated movie. He goes on to explain that while it’s okay for them to say and to do R-rated things in the movie, they just can’t see themselves doing or saying those things.
Just because you make a movie, doesn’t mean you’re old enough to see it. Please enjoy the red band trailer for #GoodBoysmovie . pic.twitter.com/6TDOLSmwoJ
— Seth Rogen (@Sethrogen) March 11, 2019
Good Boys sets the expectations with the first trailer right away with the Rogen scene, making it clear that the film will not be for kids, despite the main stars being kids, a situation that could’ve caused misunderstanding for unaware audiences. The trailer itself sees the young kids experiencing everything from graphic sexual references, drug use, to a lot of profanity. The main element of the comedy seems to stem from that novelty of young kids swearing, or coming across very adult-oriented experiences with no frame of reference of understanding.
Good Boys is directed by feature film debut director Gene Stupnitsky, who has previously worked on The Office and written films such as Year One and Bad Teacher . Good Boys stars Jacob Tremblay, Keith L. Williams, and Brady Noon as the three young men who embark on a series of middle school misadventures that take them into grown-up realms. The movie definitely feels like the grown-up comedies of Rogen’s own past such as Superbad.
Good Boys releases on August 16.