Barnes & Noble

A wonderful direct-to-video hit, Boondock Saints delivers a wild and visceral experience in the form of a mythical modern tale of vigilante justice. The film begins unassumingly with two brothers, Sean Patrick Flannery and Norman Reedus, hanging out with their buddies at their favorite South Boston bar. When Russian mobsters show up looking for money, the affable pair defend their turf, eventually with extreme prejudice. This sets in motion a series of events that seem more calculated for startling cinematic effect than anything else, and it all pays off brilliantly. Flannery and Reedus, curiously devout Catholic boys, make a most unlikely pair of psychopathic assassins, and their elevation to sainthood by the locals makes sense only within the zany confines of a movie. However, the most gleeful departures from reality are reserved for Willem Dafoe, portraying the tortured FBI genius who is tracking the boys' escalating murder spree. Dafoe plays Agent Paul Smecker as a flamboyant and self-loathing homosexual: He arrives at a crime scene where the lads have slain at least a dozen thugs, slips on his headphones, turns up an opera, and exuberantly re-creates the action as if he had been there. To call the performance over the top would be an understatement. Is Smecker appalled by the atrocities? Oh yes. Does he approve of the vigilantes' actions? Maybe. But one does not get the feeling that rookie director Troy Duffy is trying to make any sort of social statement here, or that anything in the film should be taken seriously. This is pure entertainment for people who aren't afraid of a little blood -- and are also eager to see a toilet bowl employed as a murder weapon. Greg Fagan

All Movie Guide

Feeling that they are doing God's will, two Catholic men from Boston set out to kill everyone in this Reservoir Dogs-style vigilante thriller. Brothers Conner and Murphy MacManus (Sean Patrick Flanery and Norman Reedus) take to performing their divine duty against the Russian mob. They massacre a bunch of unsuspecting Mafioso in a scene of absurd violence, then they let more blood in a mass killing of porn-shop customers. Instead of getting thrown in jail, they are dubbed "saints" by the Boston Herald, and they are praised by brilliant, tortured, and gay FBI agent Paul Smecker (Willem Dafoe). Jonathan Crow

Product Details

• UPC: 024543028079
• Source: 20TH CENTURY FOX
• Region Code: 1
• Aspect Ratio: Cinemascope (2.35:1)
• Presentation: Wide Screen
• Sound: Dolby Surround, Dolby Digital 5.1 Surround
• Language: English
• Subtitles: English, Español
• Time: 1:50:00

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