Like membership to a secret club, you don't find The Boondock Saints it finds you. The only people I know who have seen it saw it because of word of mouth. No cinema release, no advertising, no press reviews. So far as I know, its only available on DVD from HMV or Our Price. But seeing as it only costs a fiver that's not a problem. Believe me, its worth every penny as its one of the most enjoyable films ever. And as far as jaw dropping moments, its got more than enough to justify a purchase.
<*dv_2*> The film tells the story of Connor and Murphy McManus (Sean Patrick Flanery and Norman Reedus), devout Catholics living it up in South Boston. When we first meet them, after their regular daily prayer session, its St Patrick's Day. The boys are in fine spirits, they twat each other with raw meat at work and start a fight with a heifer-lump who doesn't get their humour and kicks Connor in the nuts. It being St Paddy's Day, its not long before they're down the boozer getting plastered with their mates (including Rocco, a bagman for the local Italian mafia). All is not well though. Their local is in danger of being closed down by the Russian mob, and right on cue three heavies turn up demanding money off the old sauce who runs the place. We learn how good the McManus brothers are at handling themselves as they and the other regulars kick the crap out of the Ruskis.
<*dv_4*> The Russian mob don't take to kindly to this, and next morning show up to get revenge. They cuff Connor to the bog and take Murphy outside to execute him. And here comes jaw dropping moment number one. Connor yanks the bog free from the floor, takes it up to the roof and drops it on Russian A. DEATH BY CISTERN!! How cool is that? Then he jumps on Russian B. From, like six storeys. Totally unbelievable but still very cool. By this point, the film had already become one of my favourites.
<*dv_1*> Now, because they are mob related the FBI are interested in these killings. And along comes Willem Dafoe as scarily perceptive Agent Smecker to sort things out. He lets the boys off due to them defending themselves and all, plus the toilet smashed into a million pieces so theirs no murder weapon is there? What the boys didn't mention is they stole a shitload of money off Ivan and his buddy. With that money and Mafia bagman Rocco's help, they decide to go out and clean up organised crime in the Boston area. They buy a ton of weapons then start picking out targets.
I won't tell you any more of the plot, and I'm tempted to not tell you any more of the jaw dropping moments, but I feel obliged to get you to go out and buy this flick. So, in the interest of selling it, here are some other things you can expect. Pornstar Ron Jeremy pops up (not literally, you pervs) as a Mafia enforcer. Billy Connolly plays El Duce (The Duke), a hired killer so dangerous he's been in prison 25 years. Willem Dafoe manages to ham it up even more than he does in Spiderman AND ALSO dresses as the ugliest woman ever. In one particularly disturbing scene, he's the Green Goblin on heat, wearing stockings. Ewwww. He also gets a great running joke with the Boston Homicide squad about how great he is and how shite they are. At one point the film even features an exploding cat. I'm not done yet, we also get slow-mo and flashbacks used to great effect; as well as three or four shoot outs that are really stunning.
The score may be pretty generic action film stuff, but it complements the set pieces perfectly. All round, the cast do really well and seem to be having a ball with the characters they're playing. Flanery and Reedus have a nice rapport, and Connolly does sinister pretty well. Even Jeremy does OK, despite the fact that a couple of times he looks like he wants to fuck someone, anyone, just to get it out of his system. The film is written and directed by a guy called Troy Duffy, who while needing a few lessons in dialogue, could certainly have made Bulletproof Monk a million times more interesting than it was.
<*dv_0*> Besides the dialogue, the only other faults I can pick out are a few dodgy racial stereotypes (the old guy in the McManus' favourite bar is basically Father Jack from Father Ted, right down to the cries of 'arse' and 'feck') and the guy who plays Rocco: David Della Rocco. The fact that his character's name is the same as his real one should give away how dumb he is. Believing that screaming most of his lines and saying 'fuck' a lot puts him up there with DeNiro in the 'whacked-out psycho stakes', Della Rocco detracts from the other actors around him every time he's on screen. Oh yeah, and even though the film was made in 2002 he sports a ridiculous 80s beard/mullet combo.
<*dv_3*> But it's a small dig at an otherwise wicked movie. In a world where Sylvester Stallone can get 20-odd million to remake Get Carter into a steaming pile of dog shit, The Boondock Saints really should've got more recognition. Its obviously made on a shoestring by a determined cast and crew, and the results all end up on screen. Fucking hell, even the end credit sequence is entertaining. Although it doesn't add anything new to the small-time crime genre (besides Armitage Shanks-endorsed homicide), its easily better than most of the other crime thrillers out there. 8/10. Go out and find a copy, then spread the word.
Review submitted by Booger
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