“For Thee, my Lord, for Thee. Power hath descended forth from Thy hand, That our feet may swiftly carry out Thy command. So we shall flow a river forth to Thee And teeming with souls shall it ever be. In Nomine Patris, et Filii, et Spiritus Sancti.” -McManus prayer

I didn’t first see Boondock Saints until 2005, due in no small part to its extremely constrained US theatrical realease when it first premiered in 1999. It seems that some people were hypersensitive about public gunplay after Columbine, which was a shame, as this was a truly exciting film that later became a cult classic on video and DVD. Now that Boondock Saints II: All Saints Day is in post-production, devine provenance has delivered the original cult classic in the format it was always been fortold in the scriptures: 1080p High Definition graphics and lossless Dolby Digital 5.1 True-HD sound.

Story:
In South Boston, Irish Catholic fraternal twin brothers Connor McManus (Sean Patrick Flanery, The Young Indiana Jones Chronicles) and Murphy McManus (Norman Reedus, Blade II) are in their local pub with all the other regulars for St. Patrick’s Day when their tourette’s-having beloved bartender intimates that he’s losing the bar, being forced out by the Russian mob in a few short days. The mob enforcers show up in the middle of their St Pat’s celebration instead and tell everyone to get out immediately. The brothers immediately show their likability by warmly inviting the mobsters to drink with them instead, as “Everyone is Irish on St Patty’s Day!” The Russians start a fight instead, and they are humiliated by the brothers.

This sets in motion events that escalate the rest of the movie, leading a couple of hard working meat packing boys to become vigilantes, ridding their beloved city of the mob, bit by bit until the mob springs from jail and hires the fabled “Il Duce” (Billy Connolly, X-Files: I Want to Believe), the assassin who cannot be stopped. Except… well, I’m getting ahead of myself.

The movie also features a parallel story of the cocky closeted FBI agent (Willem Dafoe, Spider-Man) who is tracking down the people leaving so many dead mobsters in thier wake. In the end will he capture them or join them?

Extras:
-Extended Director’s Cut of the Film

-Audio Commentary by Writer/Director Troy Duffy (Theatrical Cut)

-Audio Commentary by Actor Billy Connolly (Theatrical Cut)

-Outtakes

-Deleted Scenes

–The Boondock Saints Script

-Enhanced for D-Box Motion Control Systems

“While the wicked stand confounded, call me with thy saints surrounded.”
As described above, this film is very over the top in a lot of ways, but all of them good. While aspects of this movie become predictable after a very short time, you’re still watching with a grin, knowing what’s going to happen but anticipating it eagerly. One great example of this is the Chekov’s gun of “the rope”. Anyone who has watched spy movies or equipped a first level D&D character knows about getting some rope just in case. Let’s just say that as soon as you see the brothers’ method of egress into the gangsters’ hotel room you know how it’s going to go down, but even knowing, you can’t know how amazing everything eventually turns out.

This film is among or at the top of any list of movies in the genre niches: Antihero, Vigilante, Brothers-in-Arms, Crimefighting, Revenge, and probably a good number of others. If you are a fan of any of these and enjoy over the top gratuitous violence, this may very well be the perfect movie for you. I cannot recommend it highly enough, and now that it’s out on Blu-ray, now is the perfect time to own it.

ComicsOnline gives Boondock Saints on Blu-ray 5 out of 5 prayers for vengeance.

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