Boondock Saints II: All Saints Day
The original “Boondock Saints” was a common phenomenon among modern cult movies. It barely made a blip at the box-office. Once it hit home video and DVD, however, Troy Duffy’s movie found its’ audience, and has become a favorite for a younger generation.
It’s not that hard to see why. It’s tale of vigilante killers in Boston- devout Irish-Catholic lads who carry two guns and spout scripture as they’re about to off their criminal prey is in line with a lineage of Scorsese, Tarantino, and John Woo, even if the audience who discovered it wasn’t familiar with those predecessors. It’s an entertaining ride.
But if the first “Boondock Saints” is in line with those influences (bringing to mind, in particular, Woo’s Hong Kong gangster films like “A Better Tomorrow” and “The Killer”), the inevitable follow-up is a pure Hollywood sequel (even though it’s released by a true indie in Apparition).
What does that mean? Excess of, well, pretty much everything. Excessive action. Excessive noise. Excessive theatrics. Excessive plotting (yes, there can be such a thing; the first one was lean and taut). Just everything raised up to 11. Duffy is back, as are original stars Sean Patrick Flanery and Norman Reedus as the MacManus Brothers Connor and Murphy, who’ve retired from their game and live with their father (the spry and sly Billy Connolly, used not nearly enough in this film) in Ireland. But when a Boston priest is killed with the Saints’ signature ritual style, Connor and Murphy are compelled to go back to Boston to investigate, and do some “gratuitous violence.”
I’m sure a lot of people went to this one in theatres not having seen the first film. I hope they didn’t judge the first one based on this one- Duffy’s original is worth seeking out. Yes, “All Saints Day” goes through the established beats of what made the first one successful, but gratuitous isn’t a strong enough word for what we see in this movie. Yeah, it’s cool to watch guys saying a prayer before offing a baddie while wearing a rosary, but the first one made us feel the spiritual side of those actions more. A good comparison is with “Pulp Fiction”- the concept of spiritual and religious clarity within violence in the first one felt more in line with Jules’ introspection of his methods at the end of that film; here, it feels more like Jules’ fiery obliviousness to what those actions mean spiritually from early in the film.
That said, everyone’s up to the task. Not that it’s all successful. The trio of cops on the case are just not very funny in any way. Yet I couldn’t get enough of Judd Nelson’s in-charge, over-the-top gangster Yakavetta. Peter Fonda was, quite frankly, a bore as the mysterious Roman. But Clifton Collins Jr. was a bug-eyed, bat-shit crazy pleasure as Romeo, a Mexican who becomes part of the Saints’ hit squad. And I absolutely loved Julie Benz as FBI agent Bloom. Smart, sexy, with a drawl that goes so far over-the-top it goes off a cliff, she seems to know just how ridiculous all of this is that she just goes for broke and, well, let’s just say every moment she was onscreen was pure bliss.
Unfortunately, she’s not onscreen every scene. She singlehandedly made me enjoy this film more than I would have had she not been in the film at all.
