The Boondock Saints II: All Saints Day Movie Review

The Boondock Saints II: All Saints Day (2009)

The Boondock Saints II: All Saints Day on Amazon Video
Written by: Troy Duffy (screenplay), Troy Duffy & Taylor Duffy (story)
Directed by: Troy Duffy
Starring: Sean Patrick Flanery, Norman Reedus, Billy Connolly, Clifton Collins Jr., Julie Benz, David Della Rocco, Peter Fonda
Rated: R
Watch the trailer

Plot
The MacManus brothers are living a quiet life in Ireland with their father. When they learn that their beloved priest has been killed by mob forces, they go back to Boston to bring justice to those responsible and avenge the priest.

Verdict
This feels like a fan-fiction send up of the original Boondock Saints, but it's written & directed by the same guy. The first movie is really good, this is really bad, proving the first was a fluke. This basically copies the plot of the first movie while adding unnecessary backstory and missing what made the first movie fun.
Skip it.

Review
I really like Boondock Saints, it was just a cool movie that explored vigilantes. The story behind the movie is just as interesting. Troy Duffy goes from bartender to movie mogul before finding himself pushed out of Hollywood due to his oversized ego. This sequel was his first movie after The Boondock Saints. While I knew this movie existed, I had no desire to watch it. I've watched some bad sequels. I've seen all the Jurassic Park and  Jurassic World movies.

This starts with a monologue by Rocco, who appeared in the first movie. He doesn't appear in this movie as he died, which I didn't realize until well into this movie.

The first time we see the brothers, they have big bushy beards and long hair, apparently not having shaved or cut their hair in ten years. It's silly. I wondered if this was going to be much more comedic as this scene seems like parody.
The brothers return to the states to avenge a priest. The setup for the plot is shaky at best.

This follows nearly the exact same formula with the brothers murdering criminals. Jule Benz plays Eunice Bloom, doing her best Willem Dafoe impersonation. Dafoe made his character work in the first movie, Benz can't do the same though that blame rests mostly on the writing.

Their first attack is reminiscent of the first movie's initial attack with the plan based on movie scenes, though this time it's worse. We also get the same non-linear storytelling but that too is forced, like much of this movie. These things worked in the first movie, but miss the mark here. Part of it is attempting to recreate the first move wholesale. There is nothing new or interesting here. This is the first movie, just worse.

The humor goes for irreverent but it's not funny, instead it's middle school level. The jokes rely on making fun of sidekick Romeo's masculinity and a side characters lack of height. While those subjects aren't especially humorous to start, the movie bangs that drum far too long.

This has a lot of flashbacks that reveal the brother's father's backstory. It's a cheap knockoff of The Godfather Part II. The scenes are so awkward I thought there was something about the chair with the way the camera focused on the object. There's not.

I asked the question, "Why?" a lot. Why is this scene here? Why is Romeo crying? Why does this movie exist? I like the ending with the boys looking over a prison yard. The implication is they'll have a lot of work to do. That's the lone good part of this movie, but overall it's a weird fan fiction style movie.