If you’re Irish Catholic, a male, and an asshole, chances are you’ve seen and cherished “The Boondock Saints.” The straight-to-dvd hit of nine years ago developed an infamous reputation, partly because it was yet another proudly inept slice of post-Tarantino crime film nihilism with an added layer of sexism and racism on top. We forget who it is, but someone with a good head on their shoulders suggested “Boondock Saints” was the type of movie Ed Wood would make had he grown up in modern-day Boston and was raised on crime pictures. How did this eyesore become a cult phenomenon? Bad taste is evidently a wide spreading infection? Or nerds just can’t get enough cheap and sloppy fourth-rate Tarantino? (it’s kind of like saying Creed is your favorite ’90s grunge band with a straight face).
Whatever the case, enough fans rented the movie to make “Boondock Saints II: All Saints Day” the first ever sequel to a direct-to-disc title debuting onscreen, unless here’s a “Mansquito” tentpole we don’t know about. The film hits tomorrow on only 68 screens, but that’s 68 too many. The original is a serious contender for the worst film we’ve ever seen, and director Troy Duffy didn’t do himself any favors by playing a monster portraying a maverick genius in the documentary “Overnight.”
Duffy claims, rightly, that he was eviscerated unfairly by the filmmakers behind “Overnight,” but that neglects to take into account that the footage captured for the doc essentially captures an ugly, violent, vulgar person who lorded his unpleasantness over others, all the while making some terrible music in the process. Today, Duffy seems a bit more relaxed and a bit more calculating in his miscalculated misanthropy— in this recent interview with Movieline, he passes the buck regarding the second film’s casual homophobia while discussing plans for a third “Boondock” film. It’s all clever window-dressing for the fact that you’d have to be a literal bad person to bring “Boondock Saints” into this world.
For those of you who want to be open-minded about a crime film featuring a wild supporting turn from Clifton Collins Jr., feel free to sample the beginning of the sequel right here. Click away and you’ll be transported to a wonderful world of cartoonish caricatures, terrible rock music and ill-advised nudity. You’ve been warned.