CCC Reviews

The Boondock Saints

It's usually hard to have a truly successful independent film. What bothers me about indies is that more often than not, the film is gold. Wonderful simple story and great cinematography. Which makes me wonder how Hollywood can pound out the crap they call pictures. Dave Foley's The Wrong Guy was hilarious, Vin Diesel's Boiler Room was great and of course, Kevin Smith's Clerks is a classic.

The Boondock Saints is not your typical action film. Sure it has a sort of cliché plot of a Godly charge to vanquish the world of evil, but the way that it's done is what makes this film great. Two Irish brothers, Connor MacManus (Sean Patrick Flannery) & Murphy MacManus (Norman Reedus) are caught in the middle of the Russian mafia's attempts at a fellow Irish-American. In self defense, the two fight away the Russian mobsters. Unfortunately, the Russians return to kill the two brothers. Miraculously, the two defend themselves and the Russians end up dead in an alley.

FBI agent Paul Smecker (William Dafoe) is sent to investigate in the murders. However, not a single member of the public is arguing with the death of the gangsters. The brothers are viewed as heroes righting wrongs that most people wouldn't step forward for. While the brothers are staying the night in the local police station, they both have a dream and accept a holy charge to defend Veritas (truth) and Aequitas (justice). They thus begin a war against the Russian mafia by, mostly through sheer luck, assassinating the high officials gradually getting to the people on top.

What shines in this movie are a number of things. The first being the amazing chemistry between Flannery and Reedus. The two carry their characters like true brothers, joking about everything and taking everything, be it crap or what not, in stride. But the best delivery is done, of course, by William Dafoe. His investigation and level of intelligence and humor is outstanding.

The other thing that shines is the way the story is told. For the most part, Smecker is the narrator. He carries a monologue as he arrives at each crime scene and describes what he thinks could have possibly happened. While he is describing, what is shown is what the MacManus brothers actually did at the scene. More often than not, Smecker's descriptions are 95% right. There are a number of crime scenes that are described in this manner, though not one is told in exactly the same way.

As an independent film, it shines and I'm glad it was independent because it could have been easily screwed up by the Hollywood glitz and glamour. I absolutely loved this movie because of it's technical proficiency and it's entertaining script and story. There's enough twists in this movie that it's difficult to get bored.

Scores for The Boondock Saints
Slacker711 - - "Superb acting, story, choreography, cinematography. Loved it."
Mithos - - "One of my top 5 films of all time."

Cast
Paul Smecker - William Dafoe
Connor MacManus - Sean Patrick Flannery
Murphy MacManus - Norman Reedus
Rocco - David Della Rocco
Il Duce - Billy Connolly

Crew
Director - Troy Duffy
Writer - Troy Duffy
Producer - Chris Brinker
Producer - Robert Fried
Producer - James Jacks
Producer - Elie Samaha
Producer - Lloyd Segan
Co-Producer - Richard Zinman
Co-Producer - Mark McGarry
Associate Producer - Sarah Casper
Executive Producer - David Della Rocco
Executive Producer - Ashok Amritaj
Executive Producer - Don Carmody
Executive Producer - Andrew Stevens
Original Music - Jeff Danna
Cinematography - Adam Kane
Film Editing - Bill DeRonde
Casting - Kevin Fennessy
Casting - Tina Gerussi