The Boondock Saints Blu-ray Edition
Through a few extremely lucky twists of fate two Irish brothers start a crusade against mob gangsters with the help of an FBI agent.
Film making 21/25
Cinematography 21/25
Audio 20/25
Bonus Features 10/25
Total 72/100
The Boondock Saints star Sean Patrick Flannery and Norman Reedus, two Irish brothers who kill two Russian mobsters in self defense and then start a killing streak against gangsters. The brothers are hard working but intelligent men who want nothing more than to live life to the fullest but see the friends and other hard working people getting terrorized by the mob.
When a local bar owner tells the brothers along with other bar patrons he has to close the bar due to the mob wanting the property for their own the patrons are upset. Sending three Russian soldiers of the mob try to force everyone out of the bar early but the brothers and the other patrons beat the soldiers and toss them out.
Two of the soldiers find out where the two brothers, Connor and Murphy, live and go to take care of them by killing both but the brothers get lucky. They cuff one brother to the toilet and take the other out to the back alley to shoot him only to have the cuffed brother rip the toilet out of the floor and drop it onto the head of the one Russian gangster.
The brother on the roof jumps off and knocks out one of the gunmen while the other brother gets up and kills the gangster with the toilet tank lid. The brothers run away from the alley and start a crusade against the Russian mobsters with the help of their friend, Rocco, a small time mob runner.
Rocco knows the mobsters hideouts and homes, routines and even their girlfriends so he knows where to find them and the best ways to get at them. The brothers work their way up the food chain of the mob trying to take out as many as they can, getting rid of evil in the world.
When the FBI is called in to investigate the case of organized crime soldiers getting killed they send Special Agent Paul Smecker, played by Willem Dafoe. Agent Smecker interrogates the brothers when they come into the police station to confess to killing the first two Russian soldiers and is immediately impressed with the intelligent and multilingual brothers.
When the brothers leave the station they begin their crusade against the Russian mob and kill off eight Russians in a hotel while their friend Rocco is sent by his boss to kill what he believes is only two at the same location. The brothers conclude that Rocco’s boss wants him killed and they go after the boss while Rocco goes after the men who knew about the hit against him at a local restaurant.
Agent Smecker is hot on the trail of whoever is killing off the mobsters but is only admiring them for their work instead of being angry for the crimes against the criminals. When the brothers attempt to kill the Russian mob boss they are captured by the boss along with Rocco and are tortured until the boss kills Rocco to make the brothers tell him who sent them.
Unbeknownst to the mob boss the brothers are there on their own accord and not sent by another mobster so the assassin the mob boss hired is on the loose as well looking for the brothers. The mob boss runs away from the mob hideout telling his men to watch out for the assassin who is reputed to be a master at his work of killing off mob men when the mob wants them taken out.
The brothers escape by breaking the hand of one of them so they can slip off the handcuff and attempt to flee only to be confronted by the assassin. When the assassin hears them praying over the body of the man who they killed while escaping the assassin finds out they are his sons.
The three of them later go to the courthouse to kill the mob boss when he is testifying on his own behalf during a trial against him in front of the whole court and witnesses. The scene is one that will strike a chord with anyone who thinks gangsters and mobsters get away with anything when the three vigilantes make a speech about crime and evil.
The men tell the witnesses to tell others when they leave about their mission to rid the world of the evil and the media immediately dub them the Saints. Agent Smecker helps the three enter the court room along with other police officers to finally take down the boss of the mafia family.
The Boondock Saints is a great film and well worth the cost of the Blu-ray edition with its better video and audio as well as the couple of extras. The Blu-ray edition contains a few additional features in a commentary, some outtakes and deleted scenes as well as both a theatrical release and an extended director’s cut of the film.
The Blu-ray edition also includes pictures of the original script that is interesting to see and read if you’re interested. That’s about it for additional content on the Blu-ray edition but the movie is very good with a humorous take on vengeance and the brutal world of mobsters getting what they deserve.
The Blu-ray edition of the Boondock Saints is a great film and well worth the purchase even though the film only released in a handful of theatres. The movie tells a simple tale of two brothers getting in way over their heads and with some luck and help find that vengeance has its rewards.