"Let's do some gratuitous violence."
All Saints Day is a fun, exciting action flick that manages to recapture enough of the original movie to satisfy our nostalgia. Having said that I think it rather suffers from the Die Hard 2 syndrome, in that while it is a good movie in its own right, as a sequel to The Boondock Saints, it feels like it lacks something. As of now it has an average of 20% on Rotten Tomatoes, but lets be honest this is not a movie the vaunted critics were ever going to like, they're still spending their time swooning over Jim Cameron and Avatar. If on the other hand we flick RT over to user reviews, then the score jumps to 81%.
The plot is a little different this time around. In the first movie we saw the story of how the MacManus brothers became the avenging angels we have come to love in the year s since. This story begins several years later where Connor, Murphy and their father have apparently moved back to Ireland and live a quiet life on a remote farm. Back in Boston, a priest is murdered and the body is staged to look like the Saints did it. This doesn’t sit too well with the brothers who immediately make their way back to Boston to enact vengeance upon anyone responsible. On their journey the encounter Romeo, a feisty Mexican who winds up joining the brothers as something of a replacement for the beloved Rocco who perished in the first movie. From here on out its your typical day in the life of the Saints, which entails guns, guns and more guns.
I was very glad to see that they were able to get all the old faces back together for this sequel. The three Boston PD detectives return (Greenly, Duffy and Dolly), though some of them look a little worse for wear (namely Greenly). Willem Dafoe’s agent Smecker is sadly not present, but Julie Benz actually does a great job as his replacement (she does use a southern accent that takes a bit of getting used to though). Of course both Connor and Murphy are played by the same actors and even Billy Connolly returned (he has a much larger role this time around).
Some things did change though. The cuts between the cops running the crime scene and the Saints committing the crime were a little rougher than in the first movie. During the introduction of Julie Benz agent Bloom there were also some weird cuts that seemed a little out of place. One other gripe I could make is that if you hadn’t seen the first movie, you might be a bit lost as to what’s going on in this one.
The music was once again excellent. Some great accompanying scores really make the scenes come alive on screen. Especially when the brothers visit their friendly neighborhood arms dealer, once again played by Richard Fitzpatrick.
I had a great time watching this movie, the plot was solid, the acting was once again great and the score was terrific. Another nice touch is that this one begs for a sequel much more than the first did. The final scene hints that we may not have to wait nearly as long for the third chapter as we did for the second (and features a really exceptional cameo, that I did not see coming). We can only hope!! If you loved the first movie as much as I did, you owe it to yourself to see this one in theaters. Don't forget to buy it on DVD too.
Final Verdict on The Boondock Saints 2: All Saints Day:
