If there’s a subject I’m interested in, I will watch any movie about it if there’s a chance it’ll be a good one. For me, it’s post apocalyptic survival movies. Some B-movie won’t top Book of Eli or I Am Legend but it may be enough for me. If ethnic mob biographies are your post apocalyptic survival movies, Kill the Irishman will be a pleasing discovery.

Danny Greene (Ray Stevenson) took over the Cleveland unions in the ‘70s and ran it his way. He was really a neighborhood hero for fixing things, but when his corruption was exposed, he was forced out of the union. He becomes a loan enforcer for Shondor Birns (Christopher Walken), stands up to the Italian mob and tries to start his own business. They don’t like that.

Greene is a badass. He open hand slaps city officials. He stands up to Shondor when he wants Greene to pay the Gambinos for money that was lost before it ever got to him. He fights a biker in the street.

The film looks bigger than a contained neighborhood story. The camera composes cinematic shots and sweeping setups. A point of view from a bullet holed windshield appears rather poetic.

The violence is thrilling. Writer/director Jonathan Hensleigh has some personal touches to make action thrilling, and the scale is ambitious. There’s a montage of 36 explosions. A house bomb rips the building apart with nuance, not just shards flying in a perfect blast radius.

If you’re not pre-hooked or a movie critic who’s going to watch it anyway, you probably won’t care that it has higher production value and technique than the made for TV versions of these type of stories. Irishman is in a few theaters in time for St. Patrick’s Day but really it’s for DVD. If you end up watching it, you won’t be bored.