Review of The Boondock Saints II: All Saints Day (2009) by Tacie S — 04 Nov 2010

The Boondock Saints 2: All Saints Day is the definition of "cool by association." Because if this film were to stand on its own, without the first Boondock Saints to precede it, it would probably fall flat on its face. I know that sounds a bit harsh, especially coming from such a hardcore BDS fan as myself, but bear with me here. All Saints Day has almost as many moments of epic action, goofy humor and plot-twisty detective work in it as the first BDS film does. It's a fun movie to watch, and it definitely leaves you going "whoa, that was awesome" in several places. It also does literally everything it possibly can to feed the appetites of rabid BDS fans like me, from bringing back 90% of the characters that survived the first film (and one that didn't) to continuing many inside jokes and references from the first film as well, to composing a loose plot that allows all these characters and references to interact in both amusing and thrilling ways. So as far as all that goes, I really enjoyed this movie.

But here's the problem. Because All Saints Day is a sequel, its characters and situation are already a known quantity. The audience pretty much knows what is coming--the specifics may not be immediately clear, but the general thrust of the plot is. And the plot here is very much a carbon-copy of the first film's plot, only bigger.The stunts were more death-defying, the enemies were smarter and meaner, the gunfights were longer, the Smecker-narration of the fights as more detailed--and there's nothing wrong with all that, but it wasn't anything new. Aside from Julie Benz taking over Willem Dafoe's part and Clifton Collins, Jr., becoming the new Rocco (both of whom were excellent, btw), the only real change All Saints Day made was in scale. But it forgot one thing: the first BDS' biggest impact came not because of its relative action footprint size, but because no one had done anything quite like it before. All Saints Day, for all its awesomeness, had no such element of surprise. Instead of being tight, sharp and incisive, it came across as reheated and less than original; instead of breaking new ground, it retread the old. The many inside jokes and reappearances from the first film that I mentioned above actually had a lot to do with this; even as I laughed and cheered at their inclusion, I could tell they were making the film look more backward than forward.

So I have mixed feelings about All Saints Day. I definitely enjoyed it for what it was: a long-delayed answer to BDS fans' screaming for a sequel. But at the same time, I will never love it as much as I loved the original, because it didn't make me feel like the original made me feel: All Saints Day made me say "whoa" a few times, but it didn't once make me say "wow.".