The Boondock Saints
Starring Willem Dafoe, Sean Patrick Flanery, Norman Reedus
Written and Directed by Troy Duffy


Imagine sleeping with a supermodel and then being disappointed afterwards. This is how I felt after watching The Boondock Saints. It seemed like everybody I met was telling me to watch The Boondock Saints. So finally, I watched it. And sadly, I was majorly disappointed. I was so excited about watching this film -- from the cool DVD menu to all the comments about how cool and funny it was -- I was pumped for this film. Maybe that was why I was letdown, maybe not, since I have been pumped for a film before and been satisfied afterwards. Whatever the case may be, The Boondock Saints left me half-cocked, so to speak.

The story, oh the story -- it definitely had potential. Two Irish brothers living in the shady parts of Boston believe God is telling them to kill off all the “bad guys” in their neighborhood. How cool is that?! Very! We also have Willem Dafoe playing a gay and flamboyant (like that never goes together) homicide detective that is hot on the trail of these two brothers, not knowing if he should arrest them or join them. How cool is that?! Very. Each killing is deconstructed by Dafoe first, and then the actual killing is revealed -- creating a very fun and unpredictable cat-and-mouse type story. Great stuff! With the always cool, Sean Patrick Flanery and Norman Reedus playing the two brothers, this movie had a lot going for it. Now comes the bad part. About half-way through the movie, a character known as “The Funny Man” joins the two brothers on their bad-guy killing spree -- and that for me is when the sh*t hit the fan. This character is annoying to the point that I wanted to punch him through my TV screen. He was played way, way, way too over-the-top and ruined the feel of the film. Then came all the cliches. Note to all new filmmakers: STOP TRYING TO BE QUENTIN TARANTINO OR WORSE, GUY RITCHIE! Whenever you hear of an independent movie like The Boondock Saints, this first thing you hope for is that it doesn’t try to imitate a Tarantino or Ritchie flick. The Boondock Saints has a lot of original things going for it -- but it also unfortunately contains too many bad guys talking cool and slow motion gunfire to make it unique.

So, I am sure at some point in time you are going to have someone tell you to check out The Boondock Saints and when they do, just remember that the less you expect from it, the better. Let this also be a lesson to not always date supermodels.


THE RUNDOWN:

The Good: Some cool sequences, good lead characters, if anything just watch the film for Willem Dafoe.

The Bad: Falls into the “hey, let’s copy Tarantino and Ritchie” trap.

The Law: Check out the film, but don’t have any expectations going into it and you might enjoy it.