Reviewed by Lamar Kukuk
1/3/10
Among the many ways I’m a
little bit weird is that I’ll go to see almost anything that catches my
fancy in a theater, but it pretty much takes an act of Congress to get
me to rent a DVD. For this reason, I often find myself at sequels
to movies I’ve never seen, even ones I’d really, really like to see.
Take, The Boondock Saints: between the captivating rags to
riches and back to rags story of its bartender auteur Troy Duffy to the
fact that the movie itself sounds like just the kind of violent mess I
love, and it’s a natural Lamar Movie. But it never saw much theatrical
play before attracting its’ devoted cult, and has sat somewhere in the
middle of my Netflix queue as long as I’ve had one. But along comes
a sequel, and I'm there with bells on. The Boondock Saints II:
All Saint's Day encourages and discourages my interest in the original
in roughly equal measure. It's got a delightful anything-goes craziness
the likes of which you rarely see in a theater, but that same impulse occasionally
steers it toward the sensibilities of a bathroom wall. But it's hard
for me to dislike a movie this brazenly homicidal, and Boondock II's
virtues ultimately outweigh its' sins.
It's been years since their
original vigilante killing spree, and the MacManus Brothers, Connor (Sean
Patrick Flanery) and Murphy (Norman Reedus) have retired to a quiet life
in Ireland with their father, known to us as Il Duce (Billy Connolly).
But word travels across the Atlantic that a beloved Priest was murdered
back in Boston using the precise methods for which the brothers became
famous. That's just not gonna fly, and after a montage of shaving
their beards and getting back into fighting shape, the Saints are on a
boat headed back to the States. Meanwhile, Detectives Dolly (David
Ferry), Duffy (Brian Mahoney) and Greenly (Bob Marley) are trying to keep
a lid on the copycat murder, fearing their own complicity in the original
Saints killings will be revealed. They're joined by flamboyant FBI
Special Agent Eunice Bloom (Julie Benz), who has her own reasons to keep
the truth under wraps. When the brothers arrive, they find themselves
with a fanboy they just can't shake. Romeo (Clifton Collins Jr.)
desperately wants to be the third Saint, and nothing short of adding him
to their body count will dissuade him. Their plan is simple:
start beating and killing anything that moves and wait to smoke out the
man behind the murders, and that man appears to be Concezio Yakavetta (Judd
Nelson), a mob boss itching for revenge from the safety of his Panic Room.
But as the boys fight their way to the top of the food chain, Il Duce begins
to suspect a greater design at work, one with its origins in his own vigilante
past.
There is a plot at work in
Boondock Saints II, one that even leads someplace interesting, but
for most of the movie's running time, it's just an excuse to assemble a
bunch of outrageous characters and see who's left standing when the shooting
stops. A little (in fact, any) of many of the supporting players
goes a long way, and the jokes can be hit-and-miss. But Duffy (stepping
behind the camera for the first time since the original Saints)
is always swinging for the fences, and when he connects (particularly in
the bravura crime scene recreation sequences with Eunice), the movie crackles
with originality. This is a red meat guys' movie on steroids, with
a dead character from the original returning for a dream sequence rant
against all things that don't involve profanity, drunkenness and ass-kicking.
And the brothers' level of comic homophobia is quite amusing (at least
I hope it's being played for laughs).
Most of the unfamiliar faces
(even those returning from the original) have the loosy-goosy squirliness
of non-professionals, but Flanery and Reedus have a lot of fun reinhabiting
their homicidal brothers, and Benz is off-the charts campy in a role that
would have it no other way. Collins Jr., who seems to have
become the Steve Buscemi of his day, seems to be looking for laughs under
the seat cushions, and his willingness to do ANYTHING for them is quite
effective. Connelly seems to be on auto-pilot back in Ireland, but
once Il Duce reaches the states, he lives large, and a Special Guest Star
brought in for the climax is very good in his Big Scene.
It's hard for me to put myself
in Saints-fan's head, since the goings-on hardly seem like anything
worth getting tattoos over, but The Boondock Saints II: All Saints
Day is a lot of fun, and I'm sure even moreso for those invested in
the brothers' return. And it builds to a cliffhanger finish that
strongly suggests Saints III will be even better. Maybe even
good enough to get me to watch the original in my Netflix queue. |
