While watching The Boondock Saints I suspected that the critics' response would be polarizing. As it turns out this movie was universally panned, yet somehow The Boondock Saints has garnered a cult following with over $50 million in rentals and DVD sales compared to the $30,471 it earned in the box office during its limited theatrical run. That has got to be one of the biggest box office/home video disparities ever. It is also interesting to note that while the movie has received largely negative reviews by the critics, user reviews have been generally favorable. Is this a case of the critics being snobby or the average moviegoer unrefined and tasteless? I'm kind of on the fence, but it would seem to me that the critics are on the right side of the argument here.
I love violent movies as much as the next guy, but The Boondock Saints is just too sloppy, too forceful in its style to really make it work. It just ends up being a bloody mess of a movie. It has an interesting premise and a strong start, but once I realized where it was heading it is was all downhill from there. There would be moments of "Oh, cool" mixed with "That was really stupid" making for an uneven experience.
Two Irish twins are suddenly inspired to take on the Boston underbelly Death Wish style. Vigilantism is always an interesting subject matter and once again, this movie proves why you can't just go on executing people whenever you feel like it. It becomes less and less about protecting the innocent and fighting for justice and more and more like Dexter-style serial killing. I never really got the impression that the two twins were good guys; they just seemed like two crazy dudes with an excuse to kill. And when you add in this religious undertone to it all, it becomes a very messy affair.
The highlight of the film is William Defoe as the FBI agent trying to catch the two brothers. He is funny and charismatic and way over the top. One of the distinguishing features of the film is that most of the violence isn't shown in real time; they are all shown in flashback via Defoe's reenactments after examining crime scenes. I thought that was kind of cool.
The Boondock Saints is all about style over substance except that the style is unrefined and all over the place. It also makes itself to sound important when it kind of just sounds ridiculous. The ending is just absurdly bad. That being said, I was never bored while watching. That in itself isn't necessarily a good thing of course, but there are enough good things, namely its energetic style, to keep you interested throughout. And I can see why the movie has a generally high user rating; it is loud, violent, cool, and also mildly retarded.
Grade: C+
No comments:
Post a Comment