Arty Celluloid Review #004: The Boondock Saints

This film has been what people dubbed as director, Troy Duffy’s version of Quentin Tarantino’s ‘Reservoir Dogs’ & ‘Pulp Fiction ’ meet Luc Besson’s ‘The Professional'. I’ve never caught ‘Reservoir Dogs’, but I simply adored the latter two films. What better plot then a story about brotherhood, loyalty, lots of shoot outs and local heroes (‘Saints’) on a God sent mission to rid off society’s bad eggs. Throw in some Irishness into the film, and you can spray bad language everywhere! Get great actors Sean Patrick Flanery and Norman Reedus, who played the pair of blue-collar Boston Irish brothers and Willem Dafoe, who portrays a different kind of FBI agent. In some ways, the film introduced that super hero unreal feel, yet with a believable touch. There were great flash back editing sequences, some funny parts and some dialogue which came across trying too hard.

Despite its’ plus points, I felt the story fell short in character development; which was about 90% there… with certain scenes making me wonder motive and justification. I somehow feel the director coming through too hard and I haven’t even seen another Duffy film (I think). You want the film to have morals, good lines, funny scenes and great action; I mean, who wouldn’t if it works right? It was a good thing romantic stuff was left out of the film. The last shots brought the camera to the streets, with interviews of passersby on their views of what our heroes have done. So you have a film that has a cult following. And a sequel due some time this year.