Review of The Boondock Saints (1999) by Michael M — 22 Apr 2014

This is just an awesome movie. Gratuitous and entirely unapologetic in its bloodletting, but done with such a grand sense of style it all ends up working. Willem Dafoe's character adds a unique style to film and allows the story to be told in an interesting way.

I liked how they incorporated him into the scenes, and I liked how he would sometimes explain a scene before we even see it; it was a very unique approach to the action that I haven't seen before.

The action itself is extreme and violent, but boasting with creativity and a joy to watch. Some of the secondary characters can come off a bit flat, but the main characters have a surprising amount of depth and personality; I especially liked how the two brothers, despite having a spiritual quest of vigilantism, are also just two brothers who give each other shit and get into silly arguments.

The film felt surprisingly real despite its extremes, and I credit a lot of this to the characters and their performers. It's very clearly inspired by Tarantino, and it gets a lot of flak for this; but honestly if you're gonna' take inspiration you might as well go big, and I feel it does enough original that it hardly even deserves the comparison.

It's a gritty, grim, but incredibly fun film.