Dec. 02, 2009 - Issue #737: Climate Crossroads
The Boondock Saints II: All Saints Day
The characters lack the wisdom and fantasy of a Tarantino persona, and are much more vaudeville. The witty chit-chat relies heavily on racial jokes and don't-be-a-queer-isms. As for plot, both movies could be summed up with a two-shilling limerick: "Two brothers from Boston, they love the lord, and kill the Mafia when they're bored. The FBI are on their trail, or are they really hoping the brothers prevail?"
The Boondock Saints II: All Saints Day gets the theatrical attention the original didn't 10 years ago. It's an interesting case study, part one. Simple word of mouth was enough to give this practically B-movie a shelf life, despite the plot being paper-thin and the characters, caricatures.
For the sequel, writer and director Troy Duffy, who hasn't made a feature movie since the prototype, revives the brothers as if they were zombies. He casts a spell on the vigilantes during their moratorium in Ireland, and then—poof—they've got the urge to splurge guts again. But to give tangible reason, a priest has been killed and his dead body posed with pennies over the eyelids, just like the MacManus brothers' used to do it. Now they return to Boston, guns ablaze.
As thin a story as it is, it unravels almost by free-association. People show up unexplained, motives are vague and its pace feels improvised. When the Italian goons we've come to know as the bad guys are killed off by the good guys, it's as if God reached into the projection room and changed the reel to show us part three. Like, "Here's comedian Bill Connolly to show you something else we've been working on. Check it out."
But there's something that is done damn well by All Saints Day and that's the violence. Duffy cooks up Mexican standoffs like a five-star chef, even though he uses the same ingredients. It's cool, it's creative, it's contagious. It's bloody, fast-paced and it pauses for comedy.
To enjoy Boondock Saints, you have to approach it like St. Patty's Day. Soberly, it's a bunch of obnoxious guys with goatees getting trashed, busting each other's balls, contemplating what's gayer and screaming obscenities. But if you allow yourself to tap into your id—your inner Irish —then suddenly you're on their side. Or maybe it's just Stockholm Syndrome.
Written and directed by Troy Duffy
Starring Sean Patrick Flanery, Norman Reedus and Billy Connolly
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