MovieChat Forums > The Boondock Saints (2000) Discussion > Most overrated IMDB score ever?

Most overrated IMDB score ever?

posted 14 years ago by SuperFlange
86 replies | jump to latest

Considering the general scores this film tends to get by critics (http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/boondock_saints/), how can this fim get a median of 9 here?

I can't let go of how overrated this film is, when I first watched it some ten years ago (not having heard or read about it), I left feeling angry at all the cheap "this'll be cool" type writing.

The two scenes that annoyed me the most (from what I can remember) were the first killing of the Russians by the oh so cool Irish geezers having a stupid relaxed conversation while easily picking them off. The second one was when they had been hit by bullets, and while still being shot at, take the time to conterminate their own blood at the scene. Yeah! These guys are just so cool! Sigh...

I'd like to understand why this film has achieved such a following, I can't think of any other filmreview score that varies so between the public and the critics.

[–] bfb9000 14 years ago

you obviously dont remember much.... they didnt talk at all during the killing of any russians... i dont know if you meant the two they killed after one jumps from the rooftop in the alley or the group in the hotel room, but either way they didnt talk during. and the other thing which really bothered you didnt happen either... they were done being shot at, and they sprayed blood on a pillar one foot from where they were with an aerosol can of ammonia, it didnt take much time.

must be a pretty terrible movie when the only 2 things you didnt like didnt actually happen.

[–] SuperFlange 14 years ago

I will try to download the film and see it again, just to try to understand why it became a cult hit. I'm not 100% sure about the talking in the initial assassination scene but the spraying of ammonia to hide their DNA annoyed me so much, I'm pretty sure that was in there. I'll take down some notes on what else makes this such a stinker, and then you can reply with why it deserves the high IMDB score that it has, OK?

[–] bfb9000 14 years ago

sounds like a plan

the dna/ammonia thing did happen, just not while they were being shot at.

ps- you dont have to download it... stream it from surfthechannel.com

[–] julianobandito 14 years ago

I just watched it, primarily because of the high IMDB score.
Yes - thoroughly overrated.
Most over rated IMDB score ever might be a bit to far though - theres alot of lousy films with ratings in the high 7s.
fairly typical action flick, I was a bit disappointed

[–] 14 years ago

[deleted]

[–] Goodfella222 14 years ago

Here is exactly what you are saying.....

http://getyourfilmfix.com/2010/07/28/why-the-film-the-boondock-saints-sucks-part-1/

[–] Psychedelics8 12 years ago

Get your facts straight before posting something like that. If you don't remember what happened, rather don't say anything.

[–] professorchaos_54 11 years ago

I just watched it, and here are some thing from this excrement of a movie that are completely ridiculous:

1) The whole scene in the meat plant with the big, fat, angry lesbian. (Not only was it not funny, the lesbian was an over-the-top parody, and the whole scene had nothing to do with the film)

2) "Papa Joe's" accent reminded me of Luigi from "The Simpsons". Again, an over-the-top parody of a character.

3) William Dafoe's character was asinine. "Oooh! Look, he's quirky! He listens to classical music in an effeminate way while walking through the crime scene!" Plus the fact that he was gay, the fact of which had nothing to do with the rest of the film. And don't even get me started about the whole storming around dropping F-bombs at the top of his lungs while having what looks like a nervous breakdown.

4) Speaking of the FBI character, it was great how conveniently genius he was, as compared to the local cops who were incompetent on an epic scale. A 400lb "serial crusher"? Really? That's the best you can come up with?

5) The whole "Il Duce" thing made me want to puke. A prisoner whose real name is unknown, that is so dangerous, they have to bring him before the parole board in chains, with an armed escort. (Note to Troy Duffy - Correction Officers don't carry guns in prisons, braniac. Even police are required to check their weapons). Yet despite the fact that he has not even cooperated with prison authorities enough to give them a NAME, somehow, he manages to get released on parole. Then you have the **Twist** that this hitman who has been described as "an animal", "the worst of the worst", who you only want to hire when there is ABSOLUTELY NO OTHER OPTION, is actually the boys' father, and just a misunderstood Irish vigilante with a heart of gold.

6) The scene with William Dafoe in drag. I love when movies have a male character in drag, and it obviously looks like a man. Yet still, all the guys get hot and bothered, like a dude in a dress is the most beautiful woman they've ever seen.

7) Rocco killing his girlfriend's cat. Why? For that matter, the whole, over-the-top ridiculous scene at his girlfriend's apartment, when he has a major spaz-attack at her and her friend.

This movie looks like it was written by a bunch of drunken, no-talent frat-boys. You know how whenever there is a movie-within-a movie, it is usually laughably bad (i.e. Tropic Thunder)? This movie sucked that bad.

Not only is Troy Duffy a terrible writer, a terrible director, but if you've ever seen "Overnight", he's a terrible person, too. I watched bought this on Blu-Ray because 1) It was on sale; 2) Its cult status as one of the greatest movies ever; and 3) After watching "Overnight", I thought it had to be pretty good, since most people who are as arrogant as Troy Duffy usually have some talent or reason to back it up.

Nope. Imagine if William Hung (the guy from American Idol) carried on like Kanye West. Or imagine Brian Griffin, in that episode of Family Guy where his crap self-help book became a best-seller.

[–] 72ainman 11 years ago

LOOL it is just a movie and your reaching... obviously this movie was not made for you... go watch something you like then post about how much you like it instead of trying to find things wrong with a movie you don't completely understand while at the same time wasting our time and yours :D

[–] hunterprimm99 11 years ago

Yeah. We can just go watch the movies that this movie completely ripped off that are so much better than this one. Who needs this when you have Pulp Fiction and Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels.

[–] TRhett 9 years ago

Amazing, isn't it? Haven't you noticed that imdb has been overrun with "WORST MOVIE EVER" and "I ABSOLUTELY HATED THIS MOVIE" threads? Look around . . . you'll see a thread like that just about EVERY movie on here.

[–] movie_nazi 9 years ago

Amazing, isn't it? Haven't you noticed that imdb has been overrun with "WORST MOVIE EVER" and "I ABSOLUTELY HATED THIS MOVIE" threads? Look around . . . you'll see a thread like that just about EVERY movie on here.

Oh absolutely. It is mandatory. I bet even the #1 rated film here at IMDB has a "WORST MOVIE EVER" or something akin to it.

My Vote history: http://www.imdb.com/user/ur1914996/ratings

[–] ml-125 10 years ago

It's funny to me how you neglected to point out the scene where one of the brothers leaps off the roof of a FIVE STORY BUILDING barely lands on a guy on the ground and survives. LMFAO That was the most ridiculous scene in this mess. Well,that and the scene where they're shooting at Il Duce from TEN FEET AWAY and no one gets killed. WTF???

[–] m-bjork-1988 8 years ago

ITS A MOVIE YOU STUPID &(%)/096=(%89

[–] bill_ferencz 14 years ago

Certainly overrated. So is the sequel.
Just bad movies overall.

[–] therealman 14 years ago

The sequel is not over rated. Everyone thinks it sucks.

This movie is not over rated. It is great.

[–] swc11-48-550133 12 years ago

Of course some people will consider this overrated (especially the people on here who shouldn't be because this is not a genre you would watch and I know because i looked through peoples movies watch and forum list). There is people on here who should have liked it and no amount of telling why we liked it, what was unique or how cool such and such was will change there. Theres people out there that also consider The Godfather 1 & 2, Empire Strikes Back, the Beatles, Citizen Kane, bacon, etc overrated. You can't argue with these people because they will never admit they are wrong and everyone else is right.

So, drinking beer makes you an alcoholic, drinking wine is ok?

[–] brpunker0421 12 years ago

Great... based on what? Script, poorly composed. Subject, played out. Acting, meh. Dafoe saved this move from being complete *beep*

[–] ctrilling 11 years ago

You know what the greatest part is? The sequel did suck yes...but it was just more of the same. People saw the sequel and finally realized how bad the movie(s) are. They just still don't want to admit the first one blows. Its a bandwagon film, that got popular from 1.) riding success off the matrix 2)frat boys who also think van wilder is great and 3) people from Boston who think any movie with people from boston or who are Irish is automatically good. I'm sure the only two films on their shelf are Boondock Saints and The Town.

[–] QBallFra3 14 years ago

Meh, I don't think it's THAT overrated. Sure, it's a little over the top, but that's really what makes the film so lovable. It's not supposed to be smart, it's supposed to SEEM smart, but still do the trick when it comes to the action. When I first saw this film, I never heard of it, and I enjoyed it very much. I think people go into movies with too high of expectations, based on what OTHERS say about it. No one has the *exact* same taste in movies.

I am the phantom... My real name is Jerrryyyyy.

[–] ty806 14 years ago

This movie is for idiots.

If you are lonely when you're alone, you are in bad company.

[–] Tyler_Durden_pt 14 years ago

Not sure whether it's for idiots, but it's pretty lame. I give it a 4/10 because it has some funny scenes, but overall it's quite poor.

Another movie that is as overrated than this in IMDb is The Usual Suspects. They're both quite silly, yet get amazingly high scores here. Go figure.

[–] Six-Shooter 14 years ago

Whoa, whoa, whoa. Whether or not you like Boondock Saints is certainly subjective but The Usual Suspects is a *beep* classic.

The knack to flying lies in learning how to throw yourself at the ground and miss.

[–] movie_nazi 9 years ago

Another movie that is as overrated than this in IMDb is The Usual Suspects. They're both quite silly, yet get amazingly high scores here. Go figure.

That's amazing. I didn't realize people still smoked CRACK. The Usual Suspects over rated? 

My Vote history: http://www.imdb.com/user/ur1914996/ratings

[–] Tyler_Durden_pt 9 years ago

I wrote that years ago but TUS is still a silly movie. It's crap, actually. As is your puerile reply.

[–] movie_nazi 9 years ago

Crack kills. Say nope to dope.

You are decidely in the minority if you say TUS is a crap film. The only explanation is the use of hard drugs clouding your judgement.

[–] BakedEel 8 years ago

The Usual Suspects was terrible. Spent about 2 hours being clever by borrowing cliched stuff from superior movies and ended up with a story less believable than Suicide Squad, and making half as much sense. It's *beep* awful. Some bits are funny, though, I give you that.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VoxZuggJk0I&t=7m06s

[–] movie_nazi 8 years ago

The Usual Suspects was terrible. Spent about 2 hours being clever by borrowing cliched stuff from superior movies and ended up with a story less believable than Suicide Squad, and making half as much sense. It's *beep* awful. Some bits are funny, though, I give you that.

I will have to respectfully disagree. Not that it means much but it was Spacey's first Oscar for that role. I won't argue the finer points of the film but it is no way in league with this sh!t. What did you rate The Boondock Saints?

My Vote history: http://www.imdb.com/user/ur1914996/ratings

[–] BakedEel 8 years ago

I'd rate it four and a half used condoms. Also terrible. I concede that for his first film, Troy Duffy does a reasonable if not that original job at directing, but the sheer level of reactionary rightwing emowank over the virtues of being an unapologetically Catholic Bostonian Irish-American with an inexplicably acquired accent for people who've never even been to Ireland makes me want to throw up.
Duffy claimed he was so angered and moved by the experience of coming home to find a dead prostitute being carried from the apartment opposite his that he sat down and wrote a 2-hour polemic about how superior the Irish are to everyone else, and how being Catholic justifies being a serial killer. He also doesn't like feminists, lesbians, and is okay with gay men as long as they go to confessional and are paradoxically homophobic. If I didn't know of his notorious personality, I think this film would have already given me a big clue. It also says something for the reasoning behind the message in it that it was first heavily recommended to me by a (apparently partly reformed) neo-Nazi. The Punisher is my favourite Marvel character, second fave superhero (despite not really being one), I'll watch anything with him in it, and feel totally at ease with the message of a character who executes mobsters and thus saves the lives of their future victims. However, he is best when written from the perspective of an atheist such as Garth Ennis, and with very strict provisions. THIS film is one long sermon of unadulterated BS served by a school preacher with intellectual dysentry. It sucks.
Apart from all that, it's okay.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VoxZuggJk0I&t=7m06s

[–] patkav6 13 years ago

Agree, not even a fun camp movie. 4/10

[–] I_Created_U 8 years ago

3/10 for me. Ugh.

People who don't like their beliefs being laughed at shouldn't have such funny beliefs

[–] vader421 14 years ago

Rarely can I justify giving a film a 1 but this film certainly earned a 1. There was absolutely nothing good about this movie. It's all bad. Acting, writing, shots, direction are all abysmal. I am in awe that people praise this movie as being great as I certainly do not see anything worth praising.

[–] jungetorless 14 years ago

The only other highly rated movie that I can think of that's as cheap, amateurish, and generally terrible as The Boondock Saints is the first Saw movie. But that one at least had some element of originality; Saints is just one cliché after another. First you have the Guy Richie intro, then the sub-Tarantino dialogue, and then Willem Dafoe replicating Gary Oldman's character in Léon.

I'm all for turning off your brain and just enjoying something, but Boondock Saints didn't even feel like an actual movie to me. It seemed like someone gave some teenager who just finished watching a couple of crime movies six million dollars and told him to knock himself out. And the biggest problem was it actually thought it was clever, as can be seen with the mock documentary footage at the end. OMG are they actually doing good or are they just criminals who have no right to judge others? There's soo much to think about!

So yeah, the critics were right on this one.

http://dasfilmblog.blogspot.com/

[–] k-jonesy 14 years ago

I really enjoyed this film, I dont know what it is about the film that makes it deserve the rating it has but it just does. I dont really have a bad thing to say about the film, Flanery and Reedus were great, Connolly was also. And Rocco really did make me laugh. Plus Dafoe was just genius. The situations they get into, the whole plan looking like a sound plan only to have it go wrong somewhere and in the end actually works itself out. I dont think a 7.8/10 is an over rated score. Too many decent films just get low ratings and this has happened to slip through the low ratings and get a respectable and deserved one.

[–] Free-d 14 years ago

@stratoculture - I couldn't agree more. After watching parts of 'Overnight', the 'making of' documentary, just add drinking games to the equation and I think you pretty much hit the nail on the head. I didn't make it all the way through 'Overnight', due to an overwhelming sense of embarrassment.