The History Boys
Fox Searchlight Pictures | Release Date: November 21, 2006
6.1
USER SCORE
Generally favorable reviews based on 59 Ratings
USER RATING DISTRIBUTION
Positive:
32
Mixed:
13
Negative:
14
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User Reviews

User scoreBy dateMost helpful
2
D.W.Dec 4, 2006
Not just a bad movie; despicable. I can only guess that the high rating for this film is due to the predominance of homosexual critcs who found here a compelling fantasy of a world where man/boy love is the norm: embraced, winked at or (as Not just a bad movie; despicable. I can only guess that the high rating for this film is due to the predominance of homosexual critcs who found here a compelling fantasy of a world where man/boy love is the norm: embraced, winked at or (as is the case with a devoutly religious boy) admired for its boldness; nevermind it's set in early eighties Britain. Even then, it's poorly shot, with close up after close up of the most unattractive people, and, for all it's pretense of being literate, apart from quoting a lot of arcane poetry, it ain't that smart.… Expand
0 of 0 users found this helpful
1
GabrielM.Mar 9, 2007
My GOD... This movie is so BAD, that i could not stand it for only 10 minutes. The critics say its all good, that's why i started to see it in the first place, but man! I HAVE NEVER seen a more boring movie, I prefer to watch nothing My GOD... This movie is so BAD, that i could not stand it for only 10 minutes. The critics say its all good, that's why i started to see it in the first place, but man! I HAVE NEVER seen a more boring movie, I prefer to watch nothing than to watch that. How can people say its funny, It makes you want to cry of the money wasted.… Expand
0 of 0 users found this helpful
2
AndyG.May 24, 2007
Technically, well done, hence the 2 points. The movie itself is terrible though. The oh-so-thought-provoking aspect of it is that some (supposedly) 17-year-old students (the youngest actor actually was born in 1984, the rest between Technically, well done, hence the 2 points. The movie itself is terrible though. The oh-so-thought-provoking aspect of it is that some (supposedly) 17-year-old students (the youngest actor actually was born in 1984, the rest between 1978-1981, and it shows) get really really inspired by their pederast teacher who can't keep his stubby fingers to himself. Do me a favor and imagine the same story, but replace the boys with girls: A fat old guy groping girls when he gives them a lift home on his moped.. The dialogue may be witty, but with guys in their mid-20's posing as adolescents, it all seems awfully constructed and lame. I especially despised the ending scene where all the students are told their future. It is so incredibly melodramatic that it makes you wonder how they could pull it off. This movie stinks and will bore you to pieces. Please do yourself a favor and don't waste 109 minutes of your life on this.… Expand
0 of 0 users found this helpful
0
DH.May 30, 2007
This film was a severe disappointment. Critics raved, and I sat through what was perhaps the worst movie of all time. The first thing that bothered me was that the film was not even funny, nor was it witty (after trying so hard to be). The This film was a severe disappointment. Critics raved, and I sat through what was perhaps the worst movie of all time. The first thing that bothered me was that the film was not even funny, nor was it witty (after trying so hard to be). The second thing that made this movie intolerable was the pederastric relationships between a male teacher and his boy students. This fat instructor was praised for his teaching even though he thought it was acceptable to fondle his boy students. And the worst thing about it was everyone in the school knew about it and turned the cheek. Also, there was another male teacher who had a seemingly pleasing relationship with a boy student. Take this movie off the shelves, it is not worth the space.… Expand
0 of 0 users found this helpful
2
VladD.Jan 10, 2008
This film was abysmal. It does not establish any sort of emotional connection between the viewer and any of the characters. The end should have made more of an impact, but instead, I remained completely apathetic throughout. The film, though This film was abysmal. It does not establish any sort of emotional connection between the viewer and any of the characters. The end should have made more of an impact, but instead, I remained completely apathetic throughout. The film, though it tries hard, is nothing but a string of loosely connected, or often, completely unrelated events (and extremely long, wordy, irrelevant quotations) culminating in an uneventful, predictable and overall boring conclusion. A scene that stands out in my mind as particularly terrible is when Dakin approaches Irwin, his teacher, about his desire for Irwin to "suck him off" at a future date, to which Irwin cancels his prior engagements and consents. This scene did nothing other than suggesting that every single character in this film is homosexual. To what end? Are we discussing the acceptance of homosexuals into society, or exploring the gradual process of a man examining himself and realizing he is homosexual, or even observing a budding "forbidden" relationship between student and teacher? No. This scene is entirely irrelevant, comes completely out of left field and has no bearing on any of the other events of the story. This 109 minute movie felt like four hours of the same four dull scenes looping over and over and over. Don't bother picking this up.… Expand
0 of 0 users found this helpful
0
JuH.Apr 30, 2007
A homosexual propaganda film which infers that its ok for a male teacher to have sex with 17 year old boys and to molest them on a regular basis.
0 of 0 users found this helpful
0
UmbertoS.Jan 16, 2007
I HATED this movie. It was excruciating to sit through. Tedious. Ugh. The rest of the small audience was about 65 years old and laughed at things that were just not funny. I would rather be stabbed in the leg with a fork than sit through it again.
0 of 0 users found this helpful
3
DanielB.Jan 19, 2007
My girl friend and I went to this movie on my insistence, based on positive reviews. We lasted maybe 40 minutes before leaving. A great disappointment. I found it rather pretentious and although I enjoyed the little skit in French My girl friend and I went to this movie on my insistence, based on positive reviews. We lasted maybe 40 minutes before leaving. A great disappointment. I found it rather pretentious and although I enjoyed the little skit in French (especially because I could understand it with their very clear, British accented French), I couldn't see how that made the play smarter. It just seemed to make it harder for the average viewer to appreciate. The actor who played the professor was excellent, but I found the students to be rather undistinguished except in their appearance, as in, oh there's the fat guy and there's the Asian. I was a little offended that the most sensitive likable student was gay. I know that is possible, but it sounds rather like a setup. I lived in England for a year in the mid-80s and taught there, though in a junior school (ages 7-11), but these students still seemed more dramatic types than kids I'd really see in a classroom there. Anyway, we left after I started dozing off. We walked across the hall and watched about 10 minutes of a Bollywood movie. Now that's something you should see, not because they're good, but because you'd neve expect them to be that way. Sort of like sexed-up, modern Elvis movies.… Expand
0 of 0 users found this helpful
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