The Boondock Saints (1999) reviews

The Fuzzy Mushroom take on The Boondock Saints

By Fuzzy Mushroom · Updated 11 November 2026 · The Pros 45 · The Punters 82 · Spore Score 53 · How we write our takes

The biggest split among cult crime films

The Boondock Saints is the definition of a film audiences found for themselves. The Punters give it 82. The Pros give it 45. That gap of 37 points is one of the widest on the site, and the Spore Score of 53 is fuzzy. It barely played in cinemas, critics who saw it disliked it, and it became a huge success on video and DVD, especially among students.

What audiences love

In Boston, two Irish-American brothers, Connor and Murphy MacManus (Sean Patrick Flanery and Norman Reedus), kill two Russian gangsters in self-defence. Believing they have been called by God, they become vigilantes, hunting down the city's criminals with the help of their friend Rocco (David Della Rocco). Willem Dafoe plays Paul Smecker, an eccentric FBI agent who works out what they are doing and starts to admire them.

The appeal is attitude. The brothers are likeable, the gunfights are staged with slow-motion swagger, and the film's mix of religion, Irish pride and dark humour gives it a strong identity. Dafoe's scenery-chewing turn, reconstructing the crime scenes as if conducting an orchestra, is a big part of its cult.

What critics object to

Many reviewers found it a cheap copy of Quentin Tarantino's films, with violence that is celebrated rather than examined. The vigilante message is simplistic, the dialogue is crude and the characters other than the brothers are thin. The film's troubled road to release, documented in the film Overnight about its writer-director Troy Duffy, did not help its reputation.

Who is right?

If you like stylish, quotable crime films and are happy not to think about the moral of the story, The Punters' score makes sense. If you want depth or originality, The Pros were right.

The Fuzzy Mushroom verdict

Hit and miss, Spore Score 53. A rough, loud, fun cult film. Best watched with friends who already know the words to the prayer.