Boondock Saints II: All Saints Day Director’s Cut Blu-ray review

Starring: Sean Patrick Flanery, Norman Reedus

Clifton Collins Jr, Julie Benz, Judd Nelson, Bob Marley, Brian Mahoney, Peter Fonda, Billy Connolly, David Ferry

Directed by: Troy Duffy

Genre: Action, Comedy, Crime, Drama, Thriller

Runtime: 10 minutes

Release year: 2009

Studio: Apparition LLC

 

 

 

I found the original Boondock Saints film to be highly overrated and unoriginal, but tolerated it as mindless entertainment. A sequel was of lesser quality, making it even more difficult to appreciate the simple enjoyment of the first film. All of the faults from the original return in great quantities, and the movie feels stuck in the 1990s. Filmmaker Troy Duffy seems stuck on this one-hit-wonder of his, essentially giving excessive amounts of senseless violence and off-color humor in hopes of making some of the same happy accidents as the first film. The director’s cut is significantly longer and more coherent. The faults remain the same, but the admirable qualities shine brighter in this well-paced cut.

 

        At the beginning of this sequel the MacManus brothers (Norman Reedus and Sean Patrick Flannery) are living in hiding with their criminal father Il Duce (Billy Connolly) in Ireland. When they get news of a priest being killed in a copycat manner from their assassinations, they return to Boston to seek justice. Along the way they pick up a Mexican sidekick (Clifton Collins Jr.), which gives more racial jokes for the humor of the film and additional complications in the harebrain schemes they come up with to kill the endless supply of useless bad guys.

 

        The numbers are so stacked against the criminals that you would think that Duffy might have thrown an obstacle or two in the way, but the movie quickly becomes more about the brutal gunplay than anything else. Style overwhelms substance so much that the action scenes are often ripe with visual errors. The brother swing into a room shooting guns, attached to rope, much like the first film. In the first film they are tangled in the rope and forced to dispatch the bad guys by hanging upside down, but in the second film the rope simply disappears and they are magically no longer attached as they ceaselessly fire their weapons with both hands. Logic is gone, but at least the actors look cool while they shoot in slow motion.

 

        The Blu-ray release of the director’s cut also includes a disc with the theatrical version, for the purists. The Blu-ray exclusive special features highlight what is most important in the film with a featurette on the weapons in the film. There is also a feature on secrets from the set with cast confessions, and a featurette on the Comic-Con appearance. Features that are also on the DVD release include deleted scenes, a filmmaker and cast commentary, and a behind-the-scenes featurette.

 

       

Entertainment Value: 8/10

Quality of Filmmaking: 6/10

Historical Significance: 4/10

Disc Features: 7.5/10