7.4 | / 10 |
Users | 2.5 | |
Reviewer | 2.5 | |
Overall | 2.5 |
Tired of the crime overrunning the streets of Boston, Irish Catholic twin brothers Conner and Murphy are inspired by their faith to cleanse their hometown of evil with their own brand of zealous vigilante justice. As they hunt down and kill one notorious gangster after another, they become controversial folk heroes in the community. But Paul Smecker, an eccentric FBI agent, is fast closing in on their blood-soaked trail.
Starring: Willem Dafoe, Sean Patrick Flanery, Norman Reedus, David Della Rocco, Billy ConnollyAction | 100% |
Thriller | 95% |
Crime | 85% |
Dark humor | 50% |
Video codec: MPEG-4 AVC
Video resolution: 1080p
Aspect ratio: 2.36:1
Original aspect ratio: 2.39:1
English: DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 (48kHz, 24-bit)
English SDH, Spanish
50GB Blu-ray Disc
Single disc (1 BD)
Digital copy (on disc)
D-Box
Slipcover in original pressing
Region A (locked)
Movie | 2.5 | |
Video | 3.5 | |
Audio | 4.0 | |
Extras | 2.5 | |
Overall | 2.5 |
“I love cinema,” says Michael Scott’s nephew in the season seven premiere of The Office. “My favorite movies are Citizen Kane and The Boondock Saints.” The colossal joke of putting Orson Welles’ classic and Troy Duffy’s sub-Tarentino vigilante justice film on the same level illustrates the paradox of The Boondock Saints; it’s simply not a very good movie, but yet it’s esteemed by a cult following that includes aspiring filmmakers who have a misguided admiration for Duffy’s “rags to riches” Hollywood career trajectory. If you can call it a career, that is. Duffy, a bouncer/bartender-turned-screenwriter/director has made only one other film, the poorly received sequel, Boondock Saints II: All Saints Day. Much more interesting than The Boondocks Saints itself is the documentary that charted its creation, Overnight, a 2003 film that was supposed to be about Duffy’s meteoric rise in the industry, but ended up showing his downfall as an abusive egomaniac who quickly became too big for his own britches. (In Duffy’s case, figurative and literal britches. He’s frequently seen in a ridiculous pair of overalls.) For reasons inexplicable, The Boondock Saints, which only played a handful of theaters for less than a week in 1999, has raked in more than $50 million on home video. It’s already been released once on Blu-ray, in 2009, and 20th Century Fox has trotted it out yet again for this 10th Anniversary “Truth & Justice” edition, which thinly justifies its existence through the addition of a single special feature—an all-new thirty-minute retrospective. And no, I have no idea how a film that came out in 1999 can have a “10th Anniversary” in 2011.
It appears that 20th Century Fox recycled the same 1080p/AVC-encoded transfer that graced The Boondock Saints' 2009 Blu-ray release, and that's not such a bad thing. Sure, small improvements could possibly be made, but I see nothing dramatically wrong with this transfer. It won't blow you away in terms of clarity and color, but it appears faithful to its fairly low-budget source material. Grain is entirely intact—no DNR scrubbing here—and aside from what looks like minor edge enhancement from time to time, there's no noticeable digital tweaking. Any inconsistencies in sharpness can probably be attributed to source, and overall, the image exhibits plenty of high definition detail, from Willem Defoe's wrinkles and the nubby texture of the terrycloth robes the brothers wear at the hospital, to the metal intricacies of the ample weaponry on display. The film's color palette is muted and realistic, with hues that are suitably dense even if they're not particularly vibrant. Black levels vary somewhat between solid and grayish, but never detrimentally so, and skin tones only occasionally slip into overly ruddy territory. Finally, the print is good condition—you'll only spot a few white specks— and there are no noticeable compression problems.
The film's DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 track is also the same, and this is definitely a good thing, as I don't see much room for enhancement. Although the sound design isn't quite as explosive as you might imagine, given the emphasis on gunplay—certain firefights impressionistically omit all noises besides the music and selected effects—there's more than enough high-octane energy in the mix to give your home theater system a good workout. When the gun battles do come alive they do so spectacularly, with punchy gunshots and bullets criss-crossing the soundfield. Even during the quieter scenes, ambience is spread into the rear channels, bringing out Boston city sounds—wind through the alleyways, distant traffic—police station clamor and barroom chatter. The soundtrack is a generic mix of American-Irish music—some of it supplied by Duffy's own band, The Brood—but it sounds good at least, with deep, defined bass, clarity throughout the range, and a strong presence in all channels. Dialogue is always clean and easy to understand. The disc includes optional English SDH and Spanish subtitles.
With one addition—and one subtraction—this new "Truth & Justice" edition has the same set of supplements as the 2009 release. The film's script, which was on the old disc, is missing here, but in its place we have an all-new retrospective featuring the director and main actors. This release also contains both the theatrical and directors cuts of the film via seamless branching, but the differences between the two—amounting to about five seconds —are so slight as to be almost not worth mentioning.
I've never understood The Boondock Saints' enduring popularity. At best, it's marginally entertaining, and at its worst it's a thoughtless, wannabe Tarentino film with no real substance. Fox knows the film is a cash-cow, and the studio is tempting fans to double dip by offering "an all-new special feature that takes you deeper into the Boondock world." This is all they've added, though, and in all other respects this disc is practically identical to the one that was released in 2009. I don't see any reason to upgrade—the new retrospective is nothing you'll miss—but if you like the film and don't yet own it, I suppose this is the edition to get.
Theatrical and Extended Cuts
2000
San Diego Comic-Con 2013 Exclusive
2000
SDCC 2014 Exclusive
2000
Collectible Cover Art
2000
2000
Theatrical and Extended Cuts
2000
20th Anniversary Edition
2000
Director's Cut
2009
2009
2013
2014
2006
2001
2008
2008
1991
2004
2003
2008
The Dirty Harry Collection
1983
The Dirty Harry Collection
1988
2010
2015
Rogue Assassin
2007
2013
Tokarev
2014
2005