The Boondock Saints

Reviewed by: RubberDucky

September 18,2000

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rented The Boondock Saints last night. the beau had seen it before and wanted me to check it out. he knows my (somewhat odd, i suppose) taste in movies, so this was a good way, i thought, to gauge his movie selecting abilities. well, i wasn't disappointed. this is a recommendable movie.

the story centers on two good looking Irish blokes who, through some odd circumstances, happen onto a life of mayhem and killing for the sheer enjoyment of punishing "bad guys". the moral ambiguity i wished the movie would have hit on is what happens when the "bad" guys aren't so bad as to deserve death and this is only found out til later? unfortunately, such weighty questions are ignored in favor of several scenes which were irritatingly similar. the scene is the FBI guy piecing together the crime scene after the killings.

the last such scene, however, was very well done with Willem Dafoe reenacting the murders along side the Irish boys as they are mowing down the "bad guys". he describes in detail how the boys are going about their work - fantastic stuff. Dafoe, btw, was very good even if a little hammy here and there. this scene though, makes up for it. seems to me this was kind of the pay off for all the Dafoe moments that i found to be excessive.

the other wonderful scene involves the most imaginative way to use a toilet as a murder weapon i've ever seen.

good stuff if you like seamlessly mindless and excessive violence with plenty of silly relative morality and no higher lesson. so, of course, i liked it.