I was beating my head against the wall yesterday trying to come up with an idea for today’s strip and was really strained for ideas. Between This Is It (which I covered Wednesday) and Boondoock Saints 2: All Saints Day, Gentlemen Broncos and The House of the Devil were the only other new releases this week.
Feeling those last two movies were too thoroughly obscure to reference, I decided to settle on Boondock Saints 2: All Saints Day.
Of course, your enjoyment of today’s comic is completely reliant on whether or not you’ve seen the first Boondock Saints. So, if you haven’t… sorry about that.
If it helps you at all, here’s a picture of Willem Dafoe running around in drag. I won’t spoil the reason why. You should probably see it for yourself.
Check out this link as well to help further paint the picture. There’s audio, but don’t worry. It’s safe for work.
The Boondock Saints was a movie that people have told me for years to check out. But by the time it had really taken off as a cult picture, I kind of stopped renting movies. I finally got around to watching it earlier this summer, and while I enjoyed it, I didn’t find it to be the cultural phenomenon that others have.
I think it’s a question of timing. I wasn’t really there when the movie took off on DVD, so I didn’t experience that sense of discovery that is so key to making something like this feel like it was “mine.”
Does that make sense? I don’t mean to sound like a jerk about it. Think of it like being the last one to hear the story behind a particularly delicious inside joke your friends are all sharing. By the time you get clued in, everyone is on to something else and looks at you like an idiot for making any references to it. That’s what The Boondock Saints is to me.
I think if I were a freshman or sophomore in college in 1999 and not graduating from school that year, I probably would have been all over this. As one with Irish heritage, I instantly felt a kinship with The MacManus Brothers. But the depravity, gunplay and violence liberally sprinkled throughout the movie kind of made it feel like a Pulp Fiction knockoff to me.
Ironically, I had seen Overnight, the documentary about the making-of The Boondock Saints long before I saw the actual movie. If you haven’t seen Overnight, I strongly suggest you check it out. The movie is about writer-director Troy Duffy who came from nowhere, sold his script to Miramax and then promptly imploded in a nuclear blast of egotism and arrogance.
Watching that film makes you wonder how Boondock Saints 2: All Saint’s Day ever got made. But Duffy himself explains the situation quite well in this interview with Movieline (thanks to Mike Russell at Culture Pulp for the link). As always, it boils down to money.
“The fans made Boondock I successful. Whether they know it or not, they got the sequel made, because at a certain point these [studios] are like, ‘It’s financially irresponsible not to make this movie.’ Boondock I has been a financial juggernaut since Day… One, and it’s put up numbers every single year for a decade. How many films are even viable after 10 years to make a sequel at all? Boondock just never… died. It just kept getting bigger and bigger and bigger. And finally the powers that be went, ‘We gotta make this thing.’”
So, on the one hand, it’s pretty cool that the support of a dedicated fan base over the course of a decade led to a sequel being made. But on the other hand, if money is the primary motivator for everyone involved, can it be a genuine experience.
Granted, the movie has reassembled its principal cast and the majority of it’s crew who – according to Duffy – are working for very little money. But like I said, in the end, it all comes down to money and I’m curious if the fans who made the original film a cult sensation are going to pick up on that. I imagine it would be a real turn-off.
If you’re excited to see Boondock Saints 2: All Saints Day, I don’t mean to be a buzzkill. All I’m saying is keep your expectations in check.
That’s it for me today. I’m looking forward to tonight. We’re taking Henry out for trick or treating. Wanna know what he’s going as? Lightning McQueen from Cars and it was totally his idea.
Yeah, yeah, yeah. I know it’s a Disney thing, but Cars is a movie, by George. So I can’t help but feel like I’m putting him on the right track toward a proper pop culture obsession.
Leave your thoughts about The Boondock Saints, Overnight, Troy Duffy or anything else that might be on your mind in the comments below.
Cheers!
Nah. Pass.
What? Why not?
Willem Dafoe's not in it. Why bother?
Oh, I get it. If Willem Dafoe isn't running around in drag, you're not interested?
I already TOLD you this is a Halloween costume!
I had seen the trailers for Boondock Saints, and couldn’t wait to see it, but when I finally did, I wasn’t terribly impressed, either. Maybe it was just that 1999 was such a good year for movies that it didn’t really compare well. I’ll be taking a pass on Boondock Saints 2, anyway.
I pretty much feel the same way about The Boondock Saints as you do, Tom. Several years ago,
I kept hearing that it was the be all and end all of movies so I rented it. Didn’t do a whole lot
for me. And that was so long ago that I don’t remember why Willem Dafoe was in drag and don’t
think I want to be bothered to rewatch it again to find out why.
I remember seeing something about Overnight but never got around to watching that. I might
if I have a chance but I figure it might have more impact of I watched The Boondock Saints again
to remind myself what it was about. So, probably not going to happen.
I would probably watch the sequel if it ever makes it to telly around here.
Willem Dafoe is an amazing actor, but really does make an ugly woman.
i did enjoy boondock saints when it was new and fresh and usually watch the movie every year on st. patty’s day. that is actually how i saw it the first time because my cousin was my college roommate and he introduced me to the movie. To a degree i was excited for this weekend to see the movie but unfortunately it is on limited release and i can’t find a theatre near me that has the movie so i may be stuck waiting until it comes out on dvd. i think i enjoyed the movie because it had humor sprinkled in with all of the violence, where at one point you might say whoa that’s crazy but then there is a line that just has you cracking up (like when rocco’s gun goes off, blows up the cat and he asks “is it dead?”) in a way though not as extreme, it reminds me of the original Last House on the Left. That is a movie that really just has you sitting in your seat with your jaw dropped, but the comedy provided by the bumbling cops has you going back and forth between shock and laughter.
Boondock Saints was great the first time I saw it, and each subsequent time its gotten exponentially worse. Things that were really clever the first time around seem either accidental or unintentionally funny on repeated viewings. The music makes no sense in the context of the film. And it has the same problem other cult films (ie Fight Club, Donnie Darko, etc.) have in that it has too many d-bag followers who live and die by its every word, making it even more frustrating to sit through. I’ll pass on the sequel.
That said, Troy Duffy’s band (also called The Boondock Saints) is not all that terrible.
==TJ==
TJ,
Like I said, I’ve only seen Boondock the one time – but I can’t imagine it holding up over repeat viewing, like you warned against. I would think David Della Rocco’s performance as Rocco would be very annoying the second time through.
Boondocks Saints is a movie that continues to baffle me. Namely, how a movie that is at best nearly-decent and at worst (and often, for that matter) exceedingly mediocre can have such an enormous following. It just doesn’t seem to deserve it (and Rocco genuinely annoyed me from the second he stepped onscreen, which probably didn’t help considering how key he is to the film).
So, needless to say, I’ll be skipping the sequel.
And having just seen my roommate perform a shadowcast of Rocky Horror (he was one of the dancing transvestites), I found today’s strip especially hilarious.
I thought Troy duffy’s band was called The Brood. Or is that the old band? Maybe he is in a new band???
Overnight is a solid documentary but like all documentaries it has to be entered into with deep suspicion. It may seem the truth but it is never THE truth. I love watcing docs because I like to peer into the darker corners that the filmmakers don’t sine their light of truth on.
The two dudes who made Overnight hate Troy Duffy. That alone is enough to cause concern in terms of their documenatries construction and editing.
Duffy may be a knob and I know I’d not want to spend even 10 minutes bending an elbow with him but I doubt that Overnight is anything but a biased view of the man.
David,
You’re completely right about Overnight being biased. But at the same time, Duffy exhibited some pretty extreme behavior. It’s not like he didn’t do or say those things. But, yes – It’s biased when the context leading up to those outbursts is removed.
As with the Donnie Darko sequel (S. Darko), BS II will probably also suck. Rarely do you ever capture cult classic lightning in a bottle twice… Shock Treatment anyone? BS II is just plain too late & clearly something I will not have to wait too long to queue up on NetFlix.
Unlike quite a few posters here, I loved Boondock Saints I, but I guess I saw it at the right time and in the right context.
i guess ill be the first to say, i am still very pumped for this movie, i am hugh fan of the first (blu-ray owned) and am going to see all saints day this upcoming tuesday with some friends. i dont know if i am just an easy pleaser, but this film was just a really great watch and once my friend showed it to me, i ran out to best buy the very next day to pick it up. and that overnight doc. ive heard the same thing on it being bias, both sean patrick and norman redus were on the joblo podcast and shared there thoughts on the guys who made it and they knew what was going on and had no part of it. either way you slice it, the saints have there following, and they may lose some of it after this weekend due to some people think that this just might not live up and that it is terribley made, ill hold off on any real judgement til tuesday though.
I’ve found that most of the guys I know that have watched the movie like it. Girls are kind of split about the whole thing. I still enjoy it.
Partially, I think it’s because I live in Boston. And also partially because I was shown it by senior members of my ambulance service when I was new and it’s usually eventually watched on duty to share it with the now new members. So there’s some nostalgia involved…which I can’t say would be true for everyone.
The first time I saw Boondock Saints was when I was a kid. It was showing on one of my local channels on a Saturday afternoon and almost completely censored, but I still loved it. And I was already part of that cult following before I even saw the movie in its complete awesome f bombing entirety a year later. I understand why guys love the movie: it’s about two guys just kicking ass. Why do girls like me enjoy the film? Director Troy Duffy said that real women like real men and the movie just emphasizes what men will do to follow through with their convictions. Plus it’s about two guys just kicking ass.
I watched the sequel a few nights ago at a screening at UCLA with Troy and the actors. I went in with low expectations and not appreciating Troy, thinking that he had this huge ego because of what other filmmakers said about him and how he hasn’t directed another film for 10 years since Boondock Saints. But that’s the case for so many other directors in Hollywood. During that hiatus, Troy made this incredible movie that may not be Oscar worthy, but it was made SPECIFICALLY for the fans. I LOVED IT despite it being super stylized, but that’s what made it a fan movie and I recommend everyone who was a fan of the first to see it.
It’s too late for me to be of any use in this conversation but just for the sake of it — Boondock Saints II was a much more enjoyable experience for me than Boondock I. Rocco was replaced by a much funnier sidekick and though he did reappear, his sequence was somehow rendered genuinely funny to me. The exploitation of the female FBI agent’s sex wasn’t very awesome (for reals, Duffy, she ain’t no Megan Fox so let’s let the girl work without the red-inlet high heels, shall we?) but as someone who was actually upset about Dafoe’s contribution to the first movie, his absence wasn’t something I lost sleep over.
All in all, I actually laughed at Boondock Saints II which was something I did not do in Boondock I. Boondock I, I just kept sitting around, waiting for the brothers to get back on screen.