The Boondock Saints II: All Saints Day (2009) Review:

Cult films are some of the most phenomenal things about movies. When a film reaches a cult status, that means it has transcended the odds of becoming something more than just a movie from a certain year. It has managed to leave an impact on a set group of viewers who hold it in high regard. No matter what its initial reviews were when it first came out. This could very well be said about The Boondock Saints (1999), which was dismissed by several, only to arise with significantly large approval. On Rotten Tomatoes, the film has a 91% audience rating. That's extremely high. Unfortunately its sequel would not fare as well, although that was kind of expected. However, some may not be aware of just how bland this sequel is to the original.

Julie Benz

Written and directed again by Troy Duffy, the Boondock Saint brothers Connor (Sean Patrick Flanery) and Murphy MacManus (Norman Reedus) are summoned back to Boston after they learn of one of their priests being killed by someone trying to frame them. The assassin (Daniel DeSanto) framing them is hired by Concezio Yakavetta (Judd Nelson), the son of "Papa Joe" Yakavetta from the original film. All the while FBI Agent Bloom (Julie Benz) now replacing Smecker leads the investigation with characters Greenly (Bob Marley), Duffy (Brian Mahoney) and Dolly (David Ferry) returning. Aside from a few extra new faces, the plot is practically the same to that of the first. This sequel is an exercise in regurgitation and not much more than that.

Sure, other characters return like II Duce "Poppa" (Billy Connolly) and Rocco (David Della Rocco - for a flashback) but this doesn't mean a whole lot. There's even an appearance from Peter Fonda, who quite honestly does a great job not sounding like his usual self. Unfortunately this is not enough to propel this sequel to a decent entertainment value. The Irish brothers even pickup a new side kick to help them in their "righteous" mission by the name of Romeo (Clifton Collins Jr.). While Collins' character is supposed to add comical elements to the picture, a lot of those moments fall flat. And while Julie Benz displays a convincing southern accent, her purpose is no different from that of Smecker. This isn't the end to the issues though.

From an entertainment perspective, the scenes and dialog put to film are just boring. The conversations held between crime bosses, their cronies or the protagonists themselves is just disengaging. Everyone's screaming and hollering at each other like it's some kind of competition. Much of the dialog itself isn't that diverse either. There's nothing wrong with having cusses thrown in, but to have them take up more than 75% of every sentence said by every character is little much. On top of that, the characters in general are just unappealing to look at. There are multiple faces on screen that just wouldn't make a viewer want to continue to keep their eyes on the screen. Making it worse is the number of slow motion shots used for all the action sequences.

"I knew I never was good at the limbo!"

The action sequences themselves aren't bad, but the fact that they are majority slow motion really pads out the timing on this already long film. For action, the shoot outs and ritual prayers are fun, but they are very small tidbits to the rest of the film. The cinematography was also competently shot thanks to Miroslaw Baszak, who makes the movie look very much like Adam Kane's work from the first film. Baszak also worked on Land of the Dead (2005). As for music, Jeff Danna returns to compose for the score, who incorporates the same kind of musical elements from the original. Whether it be opera, electronic synthesizers or regular orchestra, the music is wildly all over the place. Just like the film, so good luck enjoying it.

The original film may have captivated its audience by somehow capturing lightning in a bottle, but that is not this film. The film may be professionally made, but all the components that make it up from the dialog, cardboard cutout characters, overly drawn out action and messy music make it a very tiresome viewing experience.

Points Earned --> 3:10