The Boondock Saints has almost cult status amongst film fans. Regarded as a violent, bloody and entertaining thriller-cum-black-comedy about two Irish brothers living in Boston who set out on an idealistic plan to rid the world of all that is evil. It’s a sort of a moralistic Man Bites Dog, but without the wit or darkness.
Two brothers, Connor (Sean Patrick Flanery) and Murphy (Norman Reedus) McManus become involved in a bar brawl with russian thugs, which escalates into murder. Rather than escaping, the two decide to haul themselves in and confess their crime as an act of self defence. Leading the police investigation is Paul Smecker (Willem Dafoe), who starts to grow an interest in the two individuals and suspects there’s more to them than meets the eye.
Rather like Transformers then, expect they don’t turn into cars, just accidental killers. The two brothers follow on from their act and decide to rid Boston of evil, and in doing so attract Smecker’s interest who follows a series of murder sprees trying to track down the killers. Along the way, their friend Rocco (David Della Rocco playing his namesake) tags along, but unlike the other two doesn’t quite have the calm tempremant and turns out to be the most troublesome of the three.
The Boondock Saints is a pretty average film, with a plot that whizzes past implausibility and heads further down towards the ridiculous, eventually making a pit stop at moronic and continuing it’s descent into tragic. What starts off and promises to be an interesting thriller turns into an almost comical farce. Dafoe’s potrayal of a woman is something I will require years of therapy to erase out of my mind. Truly a visual scene that cannot be considered a treat.
Performances are actually rather good,particular from the two leads Reedus and Flanery. Their is certainly a degree of affinity between the two, and a definite chemistry and flow between their scenes. Rocco seems to be one of the many over the top and annoying characters. He’s the Jar Jar Binks of the thriller movie, if you will. An interesting idea, but totally unworthy of screen time and a real big annoyance destroying anything worth watching.
Dafoe is also pretty good as the cop, with a hard as nails attitude at work, and homosexual lifestyle where he’s just as brutal. At times his performance did reek of Oldman’s character in Leon, with the opera inspired moments. It can be forgiven though, as Dafoe really becomes his character and plays it with a certain degree of camp that works well.
It’s just a shame the script is so patchy and awful. The result of all this is a film that is good in parts but a failure in other areas. Never quite sure of it’s direction, and the introduction of Billy Connolly as Il Duce was a huge error. It’s ratehr inexplicable, as is the actual ending which makes little to no sense. The ending too with the faux documentary method seems to echo Man Bites Dog.
Like most films in the last decade, it’s another over hyped piece of average cinema. It doesn’t offer anything worthwhile, it’s lacking in humour, in direction and script. There’s some decent talent in there, without question, most carry out their roles very well indeed, but they’re doing it within the confines of a weak and fragmented script, and laboured direction.
Verdict: Hype over substance. Average, but worth a rent. Just don’t expect to be blown away