The Boondock Saints

Plot synopsis:
This film opens with mass in a Boston Catholic church, where Irish American fraternal twin brothers Connor McManus (Sean Patrick Flanery) and Murphy McManus (Norman Reedus) pray while a sermon is read, mentioning Kitty Genovese, a real-life crime victim brutally murdered while her neighbors watched without intervening. As the priest begins his homily, the brothers approach the altar and kiss the feet of a crucifix. They depart as the priest reminds the congregation that they should fear not just evil but also the "indifference of good men". The brothers conclude that the priest finally understands, Connor stating, "I do believe the Monsignor's finally got the point..." and Murphy replying, "Aye".Connor and Murphy work at a local meatpacking plant. While celebrating St. Patrick's Day in a neighborhood bar, three Russian "soldiers", led by Ivan Checkov, enter and order everyone to leave, as their organization has decided to evict the pub. In the ensuing bar brawl, Connor, Murphy, and the patrons publicly humiliate the mobsters, who the next day ambush the brothers in their home. As Murphy is dragged into a nearby alley to be executed, Connor escapes to the roof and drops a toilet, along with himself, off the roof and onto the mobsters, killing them and rescuing Murphy.The Russian mob's involvement summons FBI agent Paul Smecker (Willem Dafoe) to the murder case, and he surmises that the mobsters' death was not a professional hit but self-defense. As the police begin a manhunt for the killers, Connor and Murphy arrive at the police station to clear their names. During the initial interrogation, the brothers impress Smecker with their multilingualism (including Gaelic, Russian, French, Spanish, Italian, and German) while recalling the specifics of the barfight and subsequent self-defense the next morning. Smecker believes their story and allows them to stay overnight in a holding cell to evade the press. That night, Connor and Murphy receive a vision from God telling them to destroy all that is evil so that which is good may flourish.The brothers resolve to rid Boston of "evil men" with the help of their friend and former mob package boy David "The Funnyman" Della Rocco (David Della Rocco). The brothers trade in the weapons and valuables stolen from the mobsters' bodies for their own, and use Connor's knowledge of Russian to locate a meeting between Russian syndicate bosses at a local hotel. Crashing into the room through an overhead air duct, the brothers draw their guns and fire, killing the 8 underbosses. Forcing the leader, Yuri 'Big Man' Petrova (Victor Pedtrchenko) to his knees, the brothers recite a short prayer:"And shepherds we shall be, for Thee, my Lord, for Thee. Power hath descended forth from Thy hand, That our feet may swiftly carry out Thy command. So we shall flow a river forth to Thee And teeming with souls shall it ever be. In Nomine Patris, et Filii, et Spirits Sancti."The two then execute him, placing pennies over his eye sockets, in which both of his eyes were shot out. While the brothers are preparing to leave the hotel, they are surprised to find Rocco dressed as a bellboy knocking at the door with a tray of food. They decided "to fuck with him" and pull him into the hotel, concealing their identity with masks, and threaten to execute him. Eventually they reveal their identity to Rocco, who decides to join the brothers in their mission. Once again, Agent Smecker is brought to the front of the murder case. The fact that all the killings involved the Russian Mob leads Smecker to the theory that the executions were the result of the feud between the Russian and Italian mobs.The following day, the brothers try to convince Rocco that he was sold out by Italian mob boss Papa Joe Yakavetta (Carlo Rota), because he was sent to the hotel with a six-shooter .38 revolver despite the fact there were nine mobsters in the hotel room. Rocco soon realizes this after killing two of Yakavetta's men at a deli later on, who hint to Rocco that he really was sold out. In retaliation, Rocco and the brothers hunt down and kill Vincenzo Lipazzi (Ron Jeremy), underboss of the Yakavetta crime family at a local strip club. Also killed at the Strip Club are two street criminals with no connection to organized crime (thus disproving Smecker's mob war theory). The three vigilantes proceed on a series of increasingly violent missions, cleansing the city of vicious criminals and others who have eluded justice. Papa Joe, believing that the mob killings are an act of revenge from Rocco for setting him up to be killed, contracts the infamous contract killer Il Duce (Billy Connolly), to deal with the vengeful package boy.Rocco insist that he and the brothers murder a hitman that Rocco had briefly worked with. According to Rocco, the man was responsible for murdering an entire family and had burnt their remains in a dumpster. They head to the hitman's house and murder all of his men. After a hand-to-hand fight, Rocco beats the hitman to death with a cue ball. As they leave the hitman's house through the front door, the trio is ambushed by Il Duce, and in the resulting shootout the trio manage to chase Il Duce away. Rocco's finger is shot off and each of the brothers receive serious, but not mortal, gunshot wounds which they cauterize with a hot iron.Hours later at the crime scene, Smecker discovers the finger and secretly takes it to conduct his own investigation. Discovering that it belongs to Rocco, whom he previously met, Smecker begins to unravel the mystery surrounding the various murders. His sympathy for the brothers conflicting with his professional desire to bring them to justice, Smecker (a flamboyant homosexual) goes on a drinking binge at a gay bar before seeking advice from a nearby Catholic church. Bemoaning the futility of the courts that fail to punish evil men and his uncertainty with the MacManus brothers' actions in a confessional, Smecker is oblivious to the fact that Rocco, who has tracked Smecker to the church, is forcefully directing the priest's responses to preserve the Boondock Saints' identities. Connor sees Rocco follow the priest into the confessional and, disgusted with the blasphemy, pulls Rocco's head through the other confessional at gun point. In whispered tones, Rocco tries to explain to Connor the circumstance while still holding his gun to the priest's head. Smecker is advised, reluctantly by the priest, that the Saint's are acting as messengers from God and that "the laws of God are greater than the laws of man." Inspired by the advice, Smecker decides to help the brothers.The McManus brothers and Rocco infiltrate the Yakavetta headquarters to finish off the family, but are captured by Papa Joe and his henchmen who recently arrived to protect Papa Joe from such an attack. Papa Joe executes Rocco to intimidate the brothers. The brothers manage to free themselves and tend to Rocco while Smecker, disguised as a female prostitute, distracts the other mobsters. Smecker kills the remaining mobsters only to be knocked unconscious by Il Duce who mistakes Smecker for a woman. As the brothers say their family prayer over Rocco, Il Duce arrives and sneaks up behind them.As he hears them recite the family prayer, and upon seeing that the man he was hired to kill (Rocco) is dead, he lowers his weapons and joins them. It becomes apparent that Il Duce is their long-lost father, as the brothers had previously refused to teach Rocco the prayer because it is only passed down in their family. He then joins them in their mission to rid the city of evildoers.Three months later Papa Joe is sent to trial, and though there seems to be enough evidence to convict him, the reporters on scene anticipate his acquittal due to his Gotti-esque charisma. The trial is forcibly interrupted when the two brothers and Il Duce, aided by Agent Smecker and several police officers, infiltrate and lock down the courtroom. The three then publicly declare their mission to destroy evil and recite their prayer one last time, killing Papa Joe with several bullets (and a shotgun blast) to the back of the head. The media dubs the three "Saints", and the movie ends with various "man-on-the-street" interviews in which various Boston citizens reflect on the question "Are the Saints ultimately good, or evil?"

Tags: comedy, dark, neo noir, murder, cult, violence, flashback, insanity, revenge, queer

Review:
The Boondock Saints is one of the most pleasant surprises I've had in my years of watching indies, and it proves conclusively that you don't need a massive budget to do a terrific action film!Two blue-collar Boston Irish brothers (Sean Patrick Flanery and Norman Reedus, who are both terrific!) rid their favorite pub of an influx of Russian gangsters, and soon decide they are on a Mission from God to execute all the 'heavy hitter' criminals from the city.
You actually like the brothers, and may be hard-pressed NOT to root for them, even if you do feel a bit guilty about it!The Boondock Saints is a fabulous film, one that deserves your attention!.
This film had the sad history of being blackballed in the United States due to the incident at Columbine...which is a real shame, because it is a treasure...written and directed by Troy Duffy, Boondocks is set in Boston...it is the story of fraternal twin Irish boys (Connor and Murphy McManus) who work in a meat packing plant...when their friend, Doc, is being stiff armed by the Russian Mafia, the boys and their friends step in to help...and away we go!
Dafoe's character is Paul Smecker, a gay FBI agent specializing in organized crime...Rocco plays an Italian Mafia package boy who is a close friend to the Irish brothers...the central theme of the film is the indifference of good men...Connor and Murphy are not indifferent, and after helping their friend, Doc, the two embark on a crusade to rid the streets of Boston of criminals...with the assistance of their comical and zany friend, Rocco...This film had positive elements on all sides...humor...a moral message...and incredible actors...you will no doubt find yourself repeating the many memorable quotes from the film...I am a woman, and not at all into your typical "shoot 'em up" guy films...this is not another one of those films...it has become an underground "cult" sensation...See it...you will not be disappointed!.
Preliminary remark: the comments refer to a pre-release version that was shown at the "Fantasy Film Festival" in Cologne, Germany, in August 1999."Boondock Saints" is a clever, funny, sufficiently violent movie with an overall high entertainment value.
The action/shooting scenes are well-choreographed with a fine eye for the detail, but it's the main characters, their dialogues and developments around which the movie is develops rather than the action sequences.On top of this, we get a fractured time/place structure that's already familiar from movies such as Kubrick's "The Killing" or Tarantino's "Reservoir Dogs", but "Boondock Saints" takes it to new extremes - and thus it's fun to watch.Of course, the characters are a bit shallow every now and then and one would love to learn more about their background, but that's only a slight criticism.
The social commentary should probably be looked at as more of a plot device than intelligent thought, but I found myself watching this movie repeatedly and enjoying it more the second and third time around.
However, Memento uses it to keep the movie watcher guessing until the very end, whereas Boondock Saints puts the pieces on the table, letting you try to put them together, but then will continue handing you pieces until the picture becomes clearer.Clearly the movie is designed to be over-the-top, both from Williem Dafoe's character to the action sequences themselves.
Writer-director Troy Duffy dives into the murkiest depths of the "law," and its apparent futility in modern times, and how it takes two Irish fraternal twin brothers, Conner and Murphy (Sean Patrick Flanery and Norman Reedus - both of whom are a little too convincing in their roles), to stir up enough debate about vigilantism to become media heroes.
The only real annoyances were Willem Dafoe's character being a know-it-all, and David Della Rocco who screams his head off throughout the whole movie.
But I held in there for the full duration of the movie just so I could write a review about it today.Well, here's the premise: two Irish Catholic brothers in South Boston, on an apparent mission from GOD, start killing members of a Russian mafia.
But, to watch it in the context of your friends telling you that it is a legitimate good film makes it one of the worst pieces of junk ever.
Capsule review: Think Dirty Harry or Death Wish as vomited up on the screen by formerly molested altar boy who has just seen Pulp Fiction.It's an "angry white dude" vigilante movie for the oi/fascist/skinhead crowd, since Dirty Harry just isn't cool anymore, Clint Eastwood's too old, Charles Bronson doesn't have enough tattoos, and well, Rambo's too establishment.
While the first 45 minutes still seem to deserve the benefit of the doubt, and there are some nice things about the film (Willem Dafoe's flamboyant character, specially), it is clear after the confessional booth scene that the plot is going nowhere.
Finally, the message that it's good for vigilantes to kill the brainless ethnic stereotypes that pass for mafiosi in this movie (as well as random guys at a strip club; I guess they're criminal scum as well) whenever they feel like it will appeal to armchair suburbanites scared of those big city lowlifes whom they've heard about on the news--it will seem ludicrous to anyone else.
As for the director's debut: He needs a lot more practice and I'd like to know how he goes from an absolute nobody to getting such a movie budget to make such a horrid film.
But I was so impressed and appalled, I registered with IMDb just to post this glowing tribute!) Subtract the ingeniously varied F word bleating from the mouths of the salon coiffed pretty boy cast, shoving their fully erect pistols into various faces, and blowing brains against walls, over and over and over again, and you essentially have a silent movie of a high speed slaughterhouse with MTV soundtrack.To understand the "story" of this film, you simply take the "logic" of the National Rifle Association, multiply by the number of executions of Gov. Bush's last year in Texas, and divide by the average IQ of a 13 year old puppy killer.
The film looks alright, and the editing is almost as good as you would expect from a first film, but largely it's a gimmick film and a derivative one at that.Duffy clearly has an agenda (and a pretty crappy worldview.) I think he would be well served to learn more about the world before he creates propaganda on how to fix it.Lord help us that he is making a sequel..
Let's even skip all the poorly made attempts of "black humour", which for Troy Duffy just consists of having the "heroes" molesting corpses of females, saying the f word a million times and using a toilet as a weapon in the most improbable way you could think of.No no no, forget all that, what it boils down to it's this: Boondock Saints is not a fun movie to watch, at all.
It's like if the movie was repeating itself to just cover the fact that the plot is invisible, an insult to your intelligence, that the action is sub-par and that the whole movie has no reason to exist other than bore you to death with it's absurd fetish of violence and it's "unique" sense of humour.There's just so much stuff to point out, i'll just throw one more example right away: there's a scene where our two "heroes" and a third character are shooting each other within a very small range of distance.
The movie is 100% sure that it has created a "cool" action piece, and that it's pro-vigilante/religious fanaticism message is something to be taken seriously.There's nothing to like here, not even in an "ironic" way.
If someone ever told me to name the top 5 absolute WORST movies ever made, the first one I would think of is this worthless piece of amateurish filth.Honestly, there is not one single redeeming quality of this entire "film".
You can now watch Michael Bay movies with a big smile on your face, thinking "hell, this ain't so bad!" But me, I'd rather try sneezing with my eyes open than have to suffer this kind of agony again.The only reason why I somehow managed to do the impossible and watch this from start to finish is because I was in a state of physical shock after seeing how incredibly awful it was.
It will be a lot more healthy, satisfying, and a lot less likely to cause gastrointestinal cramps...and chronic diarrhea.Troy Duffy should quit film-making and find something that he's actually good at..
In terms of production Duffy tries to throw gritty gangster film in with stylish action movie but just ends up with scenes that don't flow together at all.
The attempts at adding quirkiness to most of the characters are cack-handed at best and simply makes them seem unbelievable and at times embarrassing to watch.The only possible saving grace for The Boondock Saints is the plot idea of not showing the various set pieces within the standard chronology of the narrative but only revealing them after the detectives have theorised on what happened.
The laughingly bad scene of how the two brothers help each other escape the Russian mafia lair after they're held captive is like a case of a bad director without a budget or creativity, so it just cuts to flashbacks all the time as a failed means to plug in the huge holes.
Did you see so many Pepsi cans being drunk at the breakfast table by these two Boondock "Sugar Saints?" How apparent was it that the director Troy Duffy (who does a horrible cameo appearance of himself at the Irish bar in the beginning of the movie, acting like an ugly midget from a gay porno movie) blew the money for the film on partying and ended up with half the time of the film just of guys getting drunk on camera and shouting the f-word louder and louder (like ornery obnoxious drunks, which is what Troy must have been while making this abomination of a stinker).
If you're searching for a good movie in this much, watch "Overnight," the documentary on the making of the film which shows Troy Duffy's ego running havoc and he's reduced to yelling at himself while flat-down drunk on a street corner.Sure there's some of his paid people that come on here and now try to sell it as a cult film (more like Jonestown Cult).
Boondocks Saints is a cut-and-paste version of better movies and blatantly lifts dialog from another films.
The ease of the crime and the general local opinion that they did a "good thing" only encourages them to carry on and, with masks and heavy weaponry, set out to take down those that the law cannot touch  but Smecker and the authorities are only a few steps behind them and the criminals themselves have weapons to strike back.A few years ago I saw the documentary Overnight which charts the implosion of the writer/director of this film and shows how fame reveals just what one is like  in this case, arrogant and obnoxious.
The best thing about the film is the structure, which sees us following Dafoe in regards seeing the aftermath of the action sequences before we see the action itself  this I liked and thought it added some interest to the delivery that the very simple plot didn't.Other than this though the story is quite straightforward and offers nothing particularly good in the way of dialogue or content.
The closing credits are the closest it ever gets and that is too little, otherwise it does nothing to challenge the viewer or even to promote a political view  it just uses it to produce a generic action film.Of the cast, all credit must surely go to Dafoe for the wonderful way he hams it up.
Connolly is there for the money and his character is superficial at best and a cameo from pornstar Ron Jeremy is just a pointless and obvious bit of casting.The Boondock Saints is a cult film but it is far from a good one.
Dafoe's recreations of the crimes was inconsistent in both intensity and composition (ie the way shots were put together).After i saw "Poolhall Junkies", i realized that the two movies were similar in quality of production value, but somehow "Poolhall" managed to keep my attention.Don't rent "Boondock Saints".
Poor acting, bad writing and aimless script aside, the film's worst sin is how badly it wants to be cool/funny/stylish and how miserably short it falls of that goal.
I have no idea how "Boondock Saints" ever got produced, but it makes me believe that getting a film made in this country isn't about talent, or a good script, or decent acting or directing, but rather, who you meet or know.
Hint : you can tell a genre switch is coming up whenever the soundtrack switches from traditional Irish folk music to electric guitar.Add some incredibly bad acting, Willem DaFoe as an unrealistically gay FBI agent (or an "unorthodox" agent as the back cover puts it), blatant Quentin Tarantino rip-offs, and a stupid plot about a couple of dorks who kill in the name of God, and you have got yourself one seriously bad movie.
If you liked this movie, please go rent Straw Dogs or A Fistful of Dollars or Hard Eight or any other gangster/vengeance film that doesn't suck and then get a life.
So I eventually had some free time and headed out to my friends house to check it out.Big Mistake.Before the film even started they were telling me "Man you're gonna love it!" and "Dude this movie is soooooo badass!" and "Wait until you see this one scene, its so damn cool!" I'd to put part of the blame on my friends over-hyping as to why the movie was terrible, but thats just not the case.
The only reason people think they like the film is because of the violence, but I am 100% honest when I tell you that the best violence in the world could not help this awful movie.This is definitely one of the worst movies I have ever seen.
The action is so bad it's comedic, the characters are poorly crafted and underdeveloped, the soundtrack is one of the worst ever set to film, and the lame attempts at humor irritate far more than they amuse.
Let's see, choppy directing that sucks, bad actors (except Willem Dafoe who could do nothing with his poorly written part), bad action, awful script (simply putrid), a foolish fan base, one dimensional characters, etc.
The two leads (Flanery and Reedus) have particularly poor Irish accents that they can't even sustain throughout, and how the usually great Willem Dafoe ended up in this abortion of a movie is anybody's guess!
I like Willem Dafoe and he doesn't do a bad job; but my God there are a litany of unbelievable events that make this thing pretty tedious to watch.
Writer-director Troy Duffy hasn't any talent working with actors, and this cast is strictly on their own (which may explain why Willem Dafoe turns in his very worst performance).
People who like this movies need to start watching some good movies..
Here we have a movie that tosses the stylings of Tarantino ("Reservoir Dogs"), Rodriguez ("El Mariachi"), Woo, Scorsese, Winner ("Death Wish"), Stone ("Natural Born Killers" in particular) and even Singer ("The Usual Suspects") into a blender, and the end result is uniformly awful all around.The Plot: Sean Patrick Flanery (proving there's no life after "The Young Indiana Jones Chronicles") and Norman Reedus ("8mm") play devoutly religious Irish brothers living in Boston; when the Russian mafia begins to infiltrate their territory, they become relentless vigilantes, not only offing the Russians, but any generic scum who crosses their path.
The plot, however, is such a mess--perhaps deliberately so--that the film jumps from one clumsily-executed setpiece after another, pinning us to the wall with so much badly-edited 'action' that one questions whether the filmmakers were so naive to think we wouldn't take notice.As written and directed by novice auteur Troy Duffy, "The Boondock Saints" is pretentious, would-be crime thriller dreck that carries a pungent aftertaste of arrogance on the filmmaker's behalf.
It's always frustrating to see that a movie like `Plan 9 From Outer Space', whose only failure is the lack of budget and that otherwise has a complex statement and very good directing  is labelled `The Worst Film Of All Time' and movies like `Boondock Saints' are not.
I have never wanted EVERY character in a movie to die before until I saw this film.
I'm not saying that I am a genius or know everything about movies, but if you gave me any amount of time i could make a better film than this.
This is the kind of trash that frat guys must think of as cutting edge cinema.In a nutshell, the film is about two violent Irish brothers that decide to kill people that they perceive as being 'evil'.
But the people who write the bad reviews not only trash the movie but deem anyone who liked it childish or just plain idiots.
Possibley the worst film I've ever seen.This movie sucked.
I know he has now been cast to reprise his role in All Saints with a more prevalent showing but with such a bad first film and a part two without Mr. Dafoe, I feel Mr.Connelly's talent and time will be wasted with this role.
Even if you like this movie, how can you think it's made in any way like a Tarantino film?
They'd love the message in this film.That's one of the main reasons why I think this is one of the worst movies ever made.