Look out, Hollywood. The saints are back and they’re still vicious, violent and very bizarre.
Almost 10 years have passed since The Boondock Saints saw its limited release in five movie theaters for only one week. Since then, the film has gained a massive cult following which has now produced a worthy sequel guaranteed to please fans of the original.
For those uninitiated, The Boondock Saints is the story of two Irish Catholic brothers who receive a call from God to eliminate organized crime in Boston. What follows is a strange, violent, somewhat blasphemous and low-budget shoot-’em-up film.
Police and an eccentric FBI agent (Willem Dafoe) attempt to track down the brothers, but the main focus of the movie is on random violence and odd humor. To understand what this means, one would have to watch the first film, as The Boondock Saints II: All Saints Day is more or less a blood-drenched love letter to the fans of the first.
Those fans will most likely love All Saints Day. All the characters from the original film return, and there are countless references to the events from the first movie, provoking great moments of nostalgia-induced shock and hilarity.
There are a few new additions to the story, such as Special Agent Eunice Bloom (Julie Benz), who replaces Dafoe’s (now dead) character.
All Saints Day still carries many of the flaws that made the first film universally hated by critics: mediocre acting, shoddy writing, random editing choices and a lack of subtlety. But are those really reasons anybody goes to see a movie such as this?’
All Saint’s Day is not a cinematic masterpiece. It’s pure guilty pleasure, a mindless action film at its best.
The sequel is better than its predecessor from a technical aspect. Also, the tone seems to fit better with the sequel, as All Saints Day emphasizes humor instead of the dark drama that characterized the first film.
One of the best tests to see if one will like a movie is to read the movie’s more absurd lines. There is a scene in All Saints Day in which a character says, ‘I am so f**king smart that I make smart people feel like they are retarded!’
Those who laugh at this rather than cringe would probably enjoy the movie.
All Saints Day knows its audience inside and out and gives fans exactly what they want, something most sequels don’t manage to do.
It’s funny, it’s bizarre, it’s original and it does what every other action movie wishes it could do: be completely ridiculous.
