Screenplay: Troy Duffy

Director: Troy Duffy

Producer: Brood Syndicate

Music: Jeff Danna

DOP: Adam Kane

Editor: Bill DeRonde

First Ass. Director: John Rainey

Starring: Will Defoe, Sean Patrick Flannery, Norman Reedus, David Della Rocco [and a white guy named Bob Marley]

Franchise films, 1999

I’m sure you’ve heard of Boondocks, the animated series that, well, spoofs a lot of stuff. I’m yet to watch it, but I hear the controversy is something to write home about. Quite worth a blog post too.

[The word boondocks apparently refers to a remote area that is considered unsophisticated. I’m thinking it’s the contextual opposite of the suburbs. It’s a negative term, and residents are sometimes called boonies – so says the Oxford dictionary and wiki.]

But this is a little different. It’s a film that was commended by the pretty boy that I adore – and I almost always watch what he tells me to. Mostly, his taste is spot on, except of course when he recommends horrors, which he loves. I agree to watch those too – for completely different reasons. **cheeky grin**

The Boondock Saints is an Irish movie. Well, sort of. It stars Irish brothers, with delicious [if not completely consistent] accents. And they are both just yummy, pure eye candy. They fight pretty well too, and sport that a-NNO-ying  jeans-and-a-blazer; they actually make it look good.

The movie starts out in a church, and is a bit hard to follow for the first ten minutes or so. But then it packs message, soul and humour in a way I found completely irresistable.  See, the brothers are vigilantes, and their … job … is taking out bad guys. That’s when they’re not working at the meat factory.

After their first … assignment, a strange gay FBI agent is brought in to capture them. He’s  suave, talented [as a cop] and quite amusing in the eccentric way. He has to be seen to be believed.

This is an artsy movie – what some people would call a film rather than a flick. The music score is haunting, and the philosophy behind it is deep, if not somewhat disturbing. It’s got enough blood and gore to tickle the boys, and the pretty Irish brothers will keep the girls glued. Especially since they take off their shirts a lot; the boys, not the glued girls.

The packaging is great too, especially when the shots jump between past, present and future. And the gay detective is really, really funny.

It’s got a few clichés like Russian gangsters, the feminist butcher girl and a trigger-happy snitch sidekick. But I felt these worked for great comic effect. I liked the ‘family value’ angle, the bond between the brothers; the kind of bond that could easily make a girlfriend jealous.

Speaking of which, there are no girls in this movie, in the sense that there’s no Megan-Fox-type role.  There’s a girl with a cat, and a hooker, and possibly some female cops and waitresses, but they’re mostly furniture girls.

[There’s an old TCM movie called Soylent Green about a futuristic New York, where when you rent an apartment, it comes with electronics and a ‘furniture girl’ who … ‘fulfills your requirements’. Also, soap is a luxury and the government provides some food rations made out of … well, it’s creepy.]

When I got The Boondock Saints, a guy at the library advised against it, saying it wasn’t very good. But I enjoyed the story and the art in it; the beautiful way it was crafted and put together. It was fun drooling at the pretty brothers, and I was giggling the entire time at the script’s subtle humour. It’s definitely a movie I’ll be watching again and again and again, so I’m glad I got a good copy. According to wiki, a sequel was released last year. the plot doesn’t look promising, but I’m sure I’ll check it out.

Verdict: ♫♫♫♫♫

[♫ = useless; ♫♫♫ = passable; ♫♫♫♫♫ = brilliant!]