Review of The Boondock Saints II: All Saints Day (2009) by Dan Y — 03 Sep 2010

10 years after what has been a serious cult classic, a sequel to it brings us a greater understanding of the Saints; Connor McManus, Murphy McManus and their father known as Il Duce.

BD2 contains both triumph and failure, as it is the first movie on a grander scale. Troy Duffy went over the top in the first movie and it worked, here he has to go even further in order to keep from remaking the first one. Does it work? Yes and no. The good: shootouts, much of the humor, the tie in with the history of the brothers' dad and the 'flashbacks' with Rocco. The bad: acting. There are a lot of times where it feels so awkward, so forced, you feel torn between which hand to use for a facepalm and end up using both. The Romeo character (Clifton Collins Jr., standing in for David Della Rocco) has a number of moments which ruin everything, even Norman Reedus and Sean Patrick Flanery seem a bit off their game in places, as if they can't wait to get the scene over with. The replacement of the widely loved Agent Paul Smecker with Eunice Bloom (Julie Benz) is both positive and negative at the same time. Negative due to Benz being unable to match Willem Dafoe's magic, positive in that she's bleeding gorgeous and has a hot southern accent here. Another thing that is hard to buy is the fact that Romeo is shown having a La Raza tattoo on his back the size of Mexico City. The idea that a supporter of that racist group would have anything to do with two lily white Irishmen is a joke. Perhaps I'm taking it too seriously, but it came off as beyond ridiculous.

The original Boondock Saints is looked upon with pleasure by me, but with II I feel rather "Ehhhhhh" about it. Don't get me wrong, there are some cool scenes, but it lacks the charm that helped make the first film the highlight that it was and still is. The sequel feels...dare I say it, manufactured.