Tell me this frank, have you ever seen a movie so uplifting? The religous aspects alone could turn an atheiest to a die hard catholic in seconds (well, maybe not, but even if an atheiest saw it, they would most likely be moved by it). The ending made me and prolly everyone else (exept your pansy ass) to get up and do something about crime. Your reveiw was very short sighted and inaccurate and your veiw on violence should not effect your veiw of movies at all. Saving Private Ryan was violent, but it that was an amazing movie. And How could you even THINK about comparing Pulp Fiction with The Boondock Saints. These are two movie saying compleatly different things with very different directors. How could you call yourself a critic? The only thing i agree with you on is Defoes outstanding performence. I'd give this movie 6 stars if i could.

Thanks for the discussion...

First of all....let me guess, how old are you? 15 or maybe even 16? It is widely know that this movie appeals to a largely younger audience. There is a reason for that!

There is also a reason why movies go straight to DVD/video! And there is a reason that every so often a movie is not pre-screened for critics. This movie went straight to video and it was never screened for critics. Let me hear your suggestion as to why both of these facts are true. Hint: The adventures of Pluto Nash was not screened to critics either!

Secondly, your statement that I compared this movie to Pulp Fiction is totally inaccurate.My statement was that many people feel that Pulp Fiction set an 0n-screen violence standard and that Boondock Saints surpassed that standard. A fact that can't be argued. In no way did I say that these two movies are similar or worthy of some type of comparison.

Your belief that The Boondock Saints is uplifting is both a statement of the disillusionment of today's youth as well as a window into your movie insights. There are many uplifting movies out there but I'm sorry, The Boondock Saints is not one of them. The last thing the movie tried to be was uplifting. In what way did you find it uplifting? Did it make you cheerful? I just hope that you chose the wrong emotion when you said "uplifting".

Yes, you are correct, this movie did make me want to get up and do something about crime. But it showed me that taking actions into our own hands is not the right way to do it. I'm curious as to what it made you want to do about crime? What would be the state of our society if acting against crime with violence were the accepted norm?

The opening remarks in my review of The Boondock Saints was that I think violence in movies can be a very powerful and emphatic device. However I do have an aversion to movies that glorify violence or that attempt to make a statement that violence can solve our problems. Boondock does both of these!

I did like the latin symbolism and Defoe's performance, but in many places I felt the dialogue was not well developed and the idea of vigilantism is not a unique one. Another thing I liked was the technique they used to show Smecker solving the crimes. It's almost as if all the energy and ingenuity was put into Smecker's character at the expense of the movie's other aspects.

And honoring violence will never be an acceptable message for me or for most civilized humans.

Well he can call himself a critic because he doesnt like this move all that much, he wrote it down, and doesnt get fussy when people like you rip him apart. That is a real critic.

Now on to you Frank, I was wondering if you could send me a link to the census on movie viewership that shows how young the viewing audience for Boondock Saints is since it is "widely known" that this movie is favored by younger audiences.

Also, your facts are quite simply false. This movie was realeased in theatres in Boston and also in Europe. It was not realeased widely in America due to the poor timing (Columbine). It was not sent straight to DVD because it was a poor film...that generalization is painfully ignorant.

Also, I don't feel that you are qualified to asses the disillusionment of the youth of our nation. You watch and review movies...lets get real here.

"could send me a link to the census on movie viewership that shows how young the viewing audience for Boondock Saints is since it is "widely known" that this movie is favored by younger audiences."

Besides the fact that the industry unofficially classifies BS as "teen gore" you can go to its imdb.com ratings here:
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0144117/ratings. These ratings are "weighted" (IMDb publishes weighted vote averages rather than raw data averages. Various filters are applied to the raw data in order to eliminate and reduce attempts at 'vote stuffing' by individuals more interested in changing the current rating of a movie than giving their true opinion of it). You will see that the two highest rated categories are males & females under 18 and Males under 18 which verifies the claim that BS is a teen targeted film.

"It was not realeased widely in America due to the poor timing (Columbine). It was not sent straight to DVD because it was a poor film...that generalization is painfully ignorant."

Yes, BS was pulled from theaters due to its violence (that reinforces my thoughts about it anyway), but the fact still remains that it was not screened for critics which is the distributor's means of "sneaking it under the radar."

The movie DID NOT go straight to video, it was in theatres then the Columbine Tragedy happened and all movies with too much violence were pulled from theatres. the movie was then released onto video without any special features and because so many people requested the movie be rereleased it came out once again stocked with special features, The Boondock Saints II: All Saints Day is being filmed due to popular demand. And if you dont like the movie so much then why are you at this forum?

The worst movie I've ever seen.

I would ask you, Sam, do you agree the ideals put forth in the movie? Odds are...you don't.

Ok...I must say that there was an awful lot of cursing in this film, however, I believe the real reason this movie never made it "big" was do to numerous things not excluding:
1. The extensive religious content(particularly christian)
2. It's difficult dialogue.(It is hard for some to get past the accents.)

My own experience with this movie was a great one. I am 23 years old, not 15-17, and I found the movie to be very humorous, yet having very deep rooted meanings. I do not believe they were promoting violence, but taking what everyone feels like doing in real life and putting it on screen. If you notice there are many parts of the film where the mood is so lightened to a comdeic level because of the overly viloent character of the actors that you can;t take it serious. Take for instance Roco when he says outside the strip joint "We could kill everybody"...come on...you have to see this as being humorous.

This film didn't make it to the big screen because it lacked such overrated actors like Tom Hanks or wasn't obscure enough, let's say, like The Blair Witch Project. Oh please. The Blair Witch made it to the big screen but not the Saints? You have to be kidding me. That movie blew and everyone knows it. They just don't want to admit it because they fell to it's mass advertising scheme, payed 14 bucks to go see it in the theatre, and was so shcoked at it's complete lack of everything good so they cryed themselves to sleep that night. When they awoke the next morning their minds had convinced themselves that the movie was "groundbreaking". Please.

Anywho...what was I saying? Oh yeah...The Boondock Saints ruled...and just because there are a few fat headed grey old men who said it was to risky to go to the big screen sent this fine piece of work to video and dvd. It's all politics. Just like everything else.
Peace.

The timing was ruined by the columbine shooting. The media was playing the blame game, pointing fingers at movies like the matrix and music bands like slipknot and marilyn manson. I guess they just thought in the best interrest of the film to put it to dvd and vhs to save the producers media trouble.

Catch ya on the flip side.