Back circa 1999, the independent film Boondock Saints was panned so hard by critics that it lasted at least both days in theaters. Quick as a hiccup it went to DVD and a funny thing happened: it became perhaps the greatest cult-following movie this side of El Mariachi, if not Rocky Horror Picture Show.
Ten Years Later, Boondock Saints II: All Saints Day is released on Halloween Weekend 2009.
Movie Critics sharpened up their quills for their over-the-top reviews:
“Time may have healed some of (writer/director) Duffy’s wounds, but it hasn’t made him a better Tarantino knockoff, unfortunately.”
“The result isn’t art but it is an improvement: a scurrilous, lowdown, sub-Tarantino action comedy that, unlike the original, doesn’t make you want to claw your eyes out. How’s that for praise?”
“Duffy’s film made me sad for the Irish in general and Irish-American vigilantes in particular.”
The most generous critique was from The Star:
“In every respect, this movie deserves to be beaten senseless with a soggy shillelagh. Yet how do I explain the fact that I sat through it with a silly grin on my face, and the so-bad-it’s-good 2 1/2 star rating I have generously assigned it?”
The critic from The Star must not have a blog.
Huh?
Let me explain…
Movie critics still write in the classic Platonic sensemy suspicion that movie critics 9-to-5 their day job with unquestioning, soldier-like, empirical duty in hopes that their employers never suspect that they moonlight as bloggers as if there’s a perfect movie out there with which to aspire. That approach hasn’t appealed to the majority of movie goers for 20 years – if ever. Yet the critics still use the approach. Their steadfast loyalty to this ancient style only reaffirms . Nothing else explains their painful grasp to this archaic methodology in papers
Proof The Boondock Saints II Rocked
Just do a Twitter search. It took me 3 days of monitoring twitter for the term “boondock saints ii” to find someone who has something bad to say about the film.
To paraphrase my favorite tweet:
“Boondocks saints wasn’t good but it was awesome.”
C-Ho Mesothelioma Rating: 1 out of 10
I’d give it a much higher rating, but I now consider print movie critics as double agents for movie fans to keep the corporate media from squeezing every last drop out of character-driven, fan community-based films.
Boondock Saints II Gets Wider Release
And just to show if you write for the fans, the fans get your back. Thanks to a rabid online movement by hardcore fans, The limited theatrical release is now becoming a national release! The release was originally expanded on the weekend of the 13th and will be expounded over the next couple weekend.
Here is the message from Boondock Saints II writer/director Troy Duffy.
Somewhere a movie critic was just shot twice in the back of the head, laid on the ground with their hands folded over, and had placed two fresh copper pennies of their eyes. Because they were bad men.
