In "The Boondock Saints", a pair of Irish brothers, squatting in Southie, decide take on the criminal underground. They dress in identical black coats and shoot people in slow motion. They look very smooth. And because they are the good guys, they go to mass every morning and say prayers over the bodies of their victims. Ron Jeremy also stars -- with his clothes on for once-- then dies rather violently... and then, Willem DaFoe shows up in drag to help. This is quite a spectacle.
This film was released the same year as both the spiritually violent "The Matrix", and Kevin Smith's "Dogma" -- where hometown heroes Matt Damon and Ben Affleck run amuck quoting the Bible and shooting bad guys. "The Boondock Saints" seems like a lower budget version of these two films. It works.
The MacManus brothers make excellent hitmen; they keep to themselves, they only harm the bad guys, and they are quite creative at cauterizing wounds with household appliances. They also joke around in a way that makes you want to go have a drink with them. Comedian Billy Connolly shows up halfway into the film playing an even bigger, badder hitman. It's cliche, maybe, but the slow motion entrances into this film make everybody look cool.
Though set in Boston, "The Boondock Saints" mostly filmed in Toronto where it was cheaper to shoot at the time. A few second unit exterior shots were done with a local crew. Just because we like it, we're going to ignore the Toronto part and call this a Boston movie.
Final Score = B**
**This is the first review to be downgraded after its initial review. See our review of Boondock Saints II: All Saints Day for an explanation why.
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