A quirky little indie film, that's starting to make some noise in the video stores.

Conner MacManus (Sean Patrick Flanery) and his fraternal twin brother Murphy (Norman Reedus) are working class guys in Boston. While they are having a few beers at a local Irish hangout on St. Patrick's Day, the owner/bartender (Jeffrey R. Smith) informs them that the Russian Mafia has bought the property, and that his bar will soon be shut down.

This news is bad enough, but "soon" ends up being within the next few minutes--and on St. Paddy's Day, no less!!

Sure enough, Russian Mafia enforcer Ivan Checkov (Scott Griffith), and his henchmen arrive on the scene, and attempt to close the bar right then and there. A fight breaks out, and by next morning, there are a few Russian corpses in an alley behind the bar.

As the crime scene is being investigated by the Boston Police, along comes FBI agent Paul Smecker (Willem Dafoe), of the organized crime task force, who pretty much takes charge.

It doesn't take Smecker long to connect the MacManus brothers with the killings and interview them, but as the details unfold in vivid flashback, Smecker calls it a case of self-defense. During the interview, we find out that the brothers speak several languages, and seem to have a strong sense of morality. Just why they are living a bleak existence in a crummy tenement is asked, but is never really answered. At any rate, in saving the bar, they become neighborhood heroes, or saints.

Using Checkov's pager, the brothers pick up a message (in Russian) advising that a meeting involving crime bosses, drugs, and big money is scheduled to take place the next day at a local hotel suite. In a scene that combines TV's old Mission Impossible with The Professional (1994), the saints emerge through the ceiling of the suite's parlor, and dispatch the entire gang--making off with the money, which goes to worthy causes.

After this event, Smecker's curiosity is really piqued. Plus, we learn that he's not only eccentric, he's also gay. He is starting to admire the perps, whomever they may be.

Conner and Murphy confide in their friend Rocco (David Della Rocco), a errand boy for the Italian Mafia. Rocco is impressed that the brothers are getting rid of the bad guys, and he wants to join them. After all, Rocco DOES know lots of bad guys. His first target is a soulless hitman, familiar to Rocco's employers, Yakavetta (Carlo Rota) and Lipazzi (Ron Jeremy).

The vigilantism is starting to worry Yakavetta, who hires super hitman Il Duce (Billy Connolly) to take out the saints, and at the same time tries to set up Rocco. This plan backfires, Lipazzi is soon killed, and now the target is Yakavetta.

At this point, agent Smecker joins up--unofficially of course--and helps the brothers when they need it most. There's also a surprising turn regarding Il Duce.

With an underpinning of Catholic theology, salty dialogue, and good old fashioned violence, this movie defied all the Hollywood odds and got made. Director Troy Duffy never took a film class or a writing class, and certainly didn't play the game. Not surprisingly, the pic was ignored by all the critics, who are mostly industry wannabees and sycophants.

Premiering in August, 1999 at the Munich Fantasy Film Festival, and opening in January, 2000 in only three cities in the US (New York, Los Angeles, and Boston) The Boondock Saints gets a new life in video.