The Red Circle

THE LONG GOOD FRIDAY 01:
Three Movies to Help You Like THE BOONDOCK SAINTS Less

By Tom Nix

Paul Bettany in "Gangster No. 1"

#1: Gangster No. 1 - 2000, dir. Paul McGuigan

Paul McGuigan (You know him from LUCKY NUMBER SLEVIN, PUSH, and if you’re a girl, WICKER PARK) had only one previous film under his belt when he directed this turn of the century British Gangster Flick about a Kill For His Supper enforcer (Paul “ManGod” Bettany) hell-bent on becoming the top crimelord in town. The excesses and entanglements he finds his way into and out of are best left to the screen for explanation, but unlike other run-and-gun gangster movies, this one lets you in on a secret: How the mob is run. Sure, there are a lot of brilliant scenes of unbridled violence, but there is accountability on the other side. Basically, you take SNATCH and cram it with THE GODFATHER PART II and you have a general idea of what this flick manages to accomplish. This is a Cool Looking Men Posturing With Guns movie that, at the end of the day, means something.

Ben Kingsley as Don Logan in "Sexy Beast"

#2: Sexy Beast - 2000. dir. Jonathan Glazer

If GANGSTER NO. 1 is about how to succeed in the mob by killing a whole bunch of people, SEXY BEAST is how to get out of the mob while you’re still alive. Featuring the incredible cast of Ray Winstone, Ian McShane, and Ben Kingsley (giving THE performance), the flick is about one man’s very dangerous quest to simply live a life of not-crime. Normally calling it quits is an easy thing to do, but when Don Logan is your boss, quit becomes the ultimate four-letter-word. Even if you were to completely ignore the story, Winstone’s Val and Kingsely’s Logan alone make it better than a large portion of crime movies with all the twists and turns. The movie is also notable because it marks the first time a music video director, on his first go-round in narrative cinema, makes a good movie. Strike that. Makes a great movie. One that doesn’t rely on wacky visuals and erratic cutting. It relies on lingering, on doubt, on questions, on friendship, on betrayal, and on lots, and lots, of cursing. Enjoy!

The Editorial Staff would like to note we are sorry for lumping Patrick Swayze into this one, even in death no one should be associated with Troy Duffy (D-Bag, pictured left).

#3: Overnight - 2003, dir. Tony Montana and Brian Mark Smith

This movie deserves a special place in cinema for explicitly showing how one man’s arrogance and total lack of people skills transform him from overnight film savior to friendless, penniless, douchebag. Marvel as the man who eventually made THE BOONDOCK SAINTS, Troy Duffy, manages to take a $300,000 screenplay sale and a $15,000,000 budget to direct his very first feature and piss it away on his own ego. There isn’t any other way to sell this flick. It’s a chance to see a self-absorbed asshole get his. Something that sorely doesn’t happen very often on our planet. For those of you who have seen BOONDOCK, pop this flick in and watch your facehole start to angle upwards with every passing moment. It’s a fitting testament to a man, that, when handed the world, made it into a cherry bomb and forgot to throw it.

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