The Boondock Saints II: All Saints Day (2009)

- The Boredom Saints

I never cared about the controversy surrounding the first appearance of the Boondock Saints. Troy Duffy's first feature film about the two crime fighting hitmen who, in the name of god, took law in their own hands and made it their quest to wipe out all the evil and corrupt, was heavily accused of vigilantism. Their methods were indeed questionable and the films archaic moral values, that probably originate in an Old Testament's merciless deity and an 'eye for an eye' type of attitude, inevitably provoked big arguements. With its stylized and often jolly approach it probably crosses the line and, in fact, glorifies violence. Therefore it is quite comprehensible why so many critics hated the first film. It still got only a 16 % rating on the tomatometer. But I never even bothered about this discussion as I don't think this movie even deserved to be discussed beyond its surface. I don't think the movie offers any worthwhile commentary on a relevant social subject and in terms of filmmaking it was not much more than another Tarantino-offspring in a post Pulp Fiction era. However, part one featured some really wacky characters, a foulmouth and entertaining script with some very amusing and quotable lines and quite some energy. Now comes the tired and completely uninspired sequel and even the former Saints' loyal followers are now likely to lose their faith.

As we find the so-called Saints at the beginning of the film, who never deserved that title anyways, they live in exile with their old father and laid down their weapons. When a Boston priest is executed in the same fashion as they used to do it, it is a provocation by a new underground boss and again the call to arms for the two brothers. From Ireland they're instantly shipping up to Boston. On their trip they stumble upon the first substitute. Since Rocco is dead at the end of part one there is now a strange mexican guy taking his place. He is a weird, dull and ultimately annoying person in a role that is way overplayed. He teams up with the killers even though he is completely incapable of doing the job and continiously fooled around with.
The film doesn't not take any time to establish some kind of a story. Basically the trio just shoots the way through the criminals all the way to the boss. It's three or four set pieces when the guys neutralize all the tangos. The scheme is the same again. Starting with the aftermath and three clueless cops who try to figure out what happended. Greenly, Duffy and Dolly, already named like three idiots, are back but the funniest and most compelling character of the 1999 film does not return in the role of the leading agent Smecker. Instead the FBI sends a woman to investigate and she is doing the exact same thing. She is eloquent and intelligent and always listening to classical music during her investigations. She is played by Julie Benz but she completely lacks the integrity that Willem Dafoe had. Dafoe, who is a fearless and first-class actor, played the character with such conviction that we did not only buy into it but it was almost fascinating to watch him figure out the events and bullying his inferior partners. This time the creativity and surprises are completely missing and the dialog is delivered without any passion. The jokes are mostly recycled from the first film or really dull and of course accompanied by vulgar languague and f-bombs throughout that seem terribly forced this time. The first film was so entertaining and full of laugh out loud punchlines that all the cursing kind of played within the rhythm of the film. This time it seems like they had to do it because they couldn't come up with anything new.

As if the movie had not yet overstreched our patience already all of the boring shootouts are presented in super-slow motion with heavy rock tracks playing in the background. The film degenerates into a lame music video. The brothers argue prior to a shooting again, there is the joke with the rope again and the reference to Charlie Bronson (The Charles Bronson film "Deathwish" was condemned for similar reasons). There is absolutely nothing in the film that would justify this installment. I did not laugh once in two hours that feel so long; way too long. 90 minutes should have been enough for a movie without a story. It is the prototype of a bad sequel. A completely uninspired reissue of the first film with all the good things removed from it.

Like a cheap excuse they try to come up with a backstory told in a flashback sequence that is supposed to bring some weight and meaning culminating in just another bloody fight scene. If this is all Troy Duffy could come up with ten years after his directorial debut he really should have stayed away from it. If the Saints ever have been sacred enough to appear on a screen then they have now given all their credits away. And if god is as cruel and merciless as they are then he is already behind them saying a prayer and ready to pull the trigger. After recent rumors about a third part we can only hope that Duffy takes this warning seriously.

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Watch the Trailer for 'The Boondock Saints 2' on Youtube