Norman Reedus’ Cult Action Movie Is Streaming For Free
Norman Reedus stars in The Boondock Saints, currently streaming for free on Tubi.
If you don’t already know, Tubi is a streaming platform where you can watch tons of movies for free (ad-supported, of course). It’s a great platform for anyone on a budget or anyone who wishes to relive the experience of browsing hometown video stores for something really wild to watch. And now The Boondock Saints, the cult action movie starring fan-favorite Norman Reedus and Sean Patrick Flanery, is streaming for free on the platform.
The Boondock Saints is a movie with a wonderfully simple premise. Norman Reedus and Sean Patrick Flanery play fraternal twins (the MacManus brothers) who end up killing two members of the Russian mafia in an act of self-defense. This prompts the two to become vigilantes hellbent on cleansing Boston of crime, but they must do so while dodging both criminals and a dogged FBI agent played by Willem Dafoe.
Long before he ever picked up a crossbow and started fighting zombies in The Walking Dead, The Boondock Saints was a real breakout movie for Norman Reedus. This film put him center stage and showed that he was able to captivate an audience. And while Sean Patrick Flanery hasn’t subsequently had quite the career that Reedus has, this movie also propelled his own career forward by similarly showing that he could lead a feature film.
While The Boondock Saints is a beloved movie now, it had a very troubled production. The script was very popular throughout Hollywood, but the infamous Columbine school shooting made the studio nervous, so this movie was only released to five theaters and it was only shown theatrically for five weeks. In short, executives were nervous that Norman Reedus and Sean Patrick Flanery, as ruthless killers rocking long black coats, would remind audiences a bit too much of the Columbine shooters.
The film was eventually released on video, and this is where it really flourished. Professional film critics more or less hated the movie, but audiences dug the plot and the hyperkinetic violence. The home video release of Norman Reedus and Sean Patrick Flanery cleaning up Boston eventually earned a whopping $50 million in sales, which meant that we would eventually get a sequel.
Initially, the studio was in no rush to greenlight a sequel despite the financial success of the first film, and director Troy Duffy only confirmed the sequel was greenlit in early 2008. Like the original movie, The Boondock Saints II: All Saints Day had a limited theatrical release (67 theaters compared to the originals’ five), and it once again disgusted critics and delighted audiences (though they were more thrilled by the first film). Most importantly, this sequel brought back Norman Reedus and Sean Patrick Flanery, and this was the last really major project for Reedus before the premiere of zombie blockbuster series The Walking Dead in 2010.
In late 2021, we got confirmation that a third sequel was on its way, and shooting was supposed to begin back in May of 2022. Once more, Troy Duffy will direct, and Norman Reedus and Sean Patrick Flanery will star as the MacManus brothers for a third and possibly final time. And while the third movie is unlikely to delight critics, we simply can’t wait to see these violent brothers get back in action.
