26 Years Ago, One of the Most Iconic 2000s Action Movies Was Released (But Does It Even Hold Up in 2026?)

January 21, 2026, 9:30am

In the mid ’90s, bar employee Troy Duffy wrote a screenplay titled The Boondock Saints. And, in 1997, there was a bidding war for said screenplay. Miramax Films won that bidding war, which was unintentionally related to the film’s legacy in several ways. For one, Miramax was the distributor behind Pulp Fiction and if The Boondock Saints is anything it’s a sign that Troy Duffy had definitely seen Pulp Fiction. Two, The Boondock Saints has aged…not well. If there ever were a late ’90s or early aughts movie with cancellable elements, it’s this one. Fitting, considering Miramax was co-founded by Harvey Weinstein. Now, Miramax ended up dropping out, and that too ended up being important.

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Because of that, there was no longer a big push behind the film (it also had its budget shaved down by about 60%). Granted, that was due to the then-recent Columbine High School massacre more than it was the size of Franchise Pictures, but regardless, it played in all of five theaters for just a single week, staring January 21st, 2000. Of course it didn’t find its fans in theaters, because it didn’t have the chance to. But that tiny beginning did allow it to be a word-of-mouth cult hit.

How Has The Boondock Saints Aged Poorly?

The Boondock Saints is loaded with problematic moments. On top of how cloyingly unoriginal the whole screenplay is and how perpetually over-stylized it insists upon being, Duffy’s film has several scenes that have aged about as well as the dialogue spouted by Tarantino’s character in the aforementioned Pulp Fiction.

For one, there’s a scene where David Della Rocco’s “funny” guy, also named Rocco, attempts to tell a joke to a crime boss. He’s nervous, and as he tells his racist joke he says “Black guy” to which the boss then yells, well, a different word. He once more says “Black guy” later in the joke and the crime boss’ assistant, played by the now very much cancelled Ron Jeremy, once more “corrects” him with the horrendous epithet.

Next, there’s the scene where Rocco points a gun in a pair of women’s face, one of whom is his girlfriend. To her, he gloats about killing her cat to end their relationship. And that’s not even true, the cat was shot to death by accident, which is played for a laugh (even though it’s not funny). To the other woman he directly aims the gun at her face and berates her for her promiscuity while calling her the expected list of insults.

And that’s not all for Rocco because, in the next scene, he and the two Saints attack Ron Jeremy’s underboss at a peep show. We’re supposed to cheer for these three and despise Jeremy’s character, but it’s hard to see Rocco as a hero when he fondles a woman’s breast while she’s unconscious (as romantic music plays over the scene, if we couldn’t already tell the movie sees the action as a joke).

Then there’s the movie’s homophobia. Thanks to his abilities as a performer and his willingness to have fun, Dafoe manages to sell FBI Agent Paul Smecker as the most entertaining character of the film. But this is still one ridiculously problematic character.

Because the movie goes out of its way to give him effeminate mannerisms, we get the point early on that he’s homosexual. But that’s not enough for the film, because we then see him in bed with a younger man. That’s fine, but what isn’t is Smecker calling his younger companion a three-lettered homophobic epithet. And, if that wasn’t enough to convince us that the movie is edgy, it then goes out of its way to have another character accidentally use said epithet in front of Smecker in the next scene.

But that’s not all, because the movie also uses a bartender’s Tourette Syndrome as the punchline of a few jokes. Why not have the bartender hurl out uncontrolled string of expletives in front of children and nuns in a hospital? Hilarious. Why not have the bartender struggle to get out a proverb by both stammering his way through the delivery and (For some reason) mixing various proverbs so the end result is nonsense?

In short, The Boondock Saints is a movie that really does think it’s cool, is positive that it’s stylish, and is beyond sure that its dialogue is clever. It has its fans, and more power to them, but it’s tied for first alongside The Crying Game and Ace Ventura: Pet Detective as the most problematic ’90s movie.

What are your thoughts on The Boondock Saints? Can you see past its flaws and just enjoy the admittedly quite charming lead performance by Norman Reedus and Sean Patrick Flanery? Let us know in the comments.