BEFORE: Sean Patrick Flanery and Norman Reedus carry over from "The Boondock Saints", and so do about 10 other actors. And a big Birthday SHOUT-OUT to Norman Reedus, born January 6, 1969. I was going to watch both "Boondock Saints" films together on January 5, but then I checked the birthdays - it's no problem to just delay the sequel by a day for a proper birthday salute.
I think I solved the problem with too many films to watch in January, I was going through the list of Nicolas Cage films, one is no longer available on HBO Max and another isn't really available on streaming yet, both are on iTunes for 4 or 5 bucks, but it's also quite easy to just drop those two films from the plan and table them for a later date, maybe. If I do that, suddenly the January plan has 32 movies in it instead of 34, that's a lot easier to accomplish and still make it to where I want to be on February 1. But come on, HBO Max, why such a high turnover rate? Why can't you keep your films streaming for two years like the other services do? Why get me excited to put a film on my watchlist only to be disappointed a couple months later when it's disappeared? It's an odd way to run a business, just saying.
THE PLOT: The MacManus brothers are living a quiet life in Ireland with their father, but when they learn that their beloved priest has been killed by mob forces, they go back to Boston to bring justice to those responsible.
AFTER: Well, the first "Boondock Saints" movie came out in 1999, and it didn't do much box office, because it got released around the time of the Columbine high school shootings, and how the hell do you promote a film where the heroes use guns to make the world better, just after something like that? The film eventually found an audience via DVD rentals and cable and such, and built up a cult popularity to the point where a sequel was warranted 10 years later. I wish I could say there were no school shootings in 2009 when the sequel came out, but I think we all know the truth is sadder than that, there were probably so many that people in general became numb to the same story again and again, and feeling pretty helpless to do anything about it, so screw it, let's just watch a movie.
The good news for the franchise is that "Boondocks Saints II" made more money on its opening weekend than the first film did during its entire theatrical run. So now they're talking about making a third movie, schedule-wise that would have been released in 2019, but obviously there has been a delay, it's always hard to get the band back together. But get the band together they did, and they will, as long as it's profitable to do so. Too cynical? Just wait until tomorrow...
But's let's stick to today's film. The MacManus brothers met their father, which brought a screeching halt to the first film, and they all vowed to continue their vigilante war on crime, then they took off for Ireland and went on break for 10 years. Wait, what? That doesn't seem to logically follow, unless the filmmakers couldn't get a sequel together for 10 years and they didn't want the fans to think that they MISSED a whole bunch of criminals being killed by the brothers in new and interesting ways. But their father realizes that he can't keep 'em down on the farm, not when they get that killing urge again - I think they were almost HAPPY to find out that somebody in Boston killed a priest, so they could get back to it.
On board the cargo ship back to Boston (because who can afford to take a PLANE when you're just a couple of sheep farmers?) the brothers get involved in a Fight Club and meet Romeo, a Mexican guy who figures out their identities and wants to be their fixer/driver/sidekick/underworld contact in Boston. They've also got those three screw-up cops that helped them cover their tracks since the first film, and there's a new Federal Agent on the scene to take the place of Smecker, who made the terrible decision to die at some point. Yeah, they both wore high heels, but I think Agent Eunice Bloom pulls them off a bit better than Paul Smecker did - but hey, different strokes and all that. She's got the same ability to "read" a crime scene after it happens, but the sequel follows the same formula as the first, we get to see the mass killing happen in flashback, after the FBI agent figures out what went down. And by the end of the film, the past scenes merge with the walkthrough, so she's somehow right "there" even though she wasn't there.
Another twist, the guy who killed the priest made it look like the Saints did it, so they have to clear their names before they get tried in the court of public opinion - half the people interviewed think the Saints did the hit, the other half disagree, and ONE GUY thinks that maybe the priest was dirty. Well, it wouldn't be the first time.
Another twist, the cops are getting better at "staging" the scenes, to make it look like the Saints didn't do what they did. Sure, 8 guys from the same crime family went into a bar, and they all shot each other dead. Well, again, it probably wouldn't be the first time for that, either.
I don't know, there's a little too much comedy mixed in with the ultra-violence here, a little bit is fine but when you mix in too much then it seems a little disrespectful. Know what I mean? There are probably a ton of little Easter eggs I missed, like a riff off that scene in "The Untouchables" where Al Capone kills one of his own guys at the table, here the head of the Yakavetta family does something similar, only he hits the guy with a salami, not a hammer. And then there's a whole "Godfather II" storyline where we see the elder MacManus in flashback, when he was a young man working in the leather furniture business and decided that he liked killing mobsters, and after that there was no stopping him, until somebody stopped him. I guess this is important to the story, because it explains why the brothers never knew their father growing up, but you'd think at some point maybe they would have wondered about him? No?
It's an odd thing to say, because I usually like films that don't take themselves too seriously, but in this case I find myself wishing that this one did, maybe just a bit. Also, don't look for any Boston scenery here, this was all filmed in Toronto and Hamilton, Ontario - there's maybe one shot of the Prudential Tower, but that's a commercial property, it's not a building like a hotel where a mobster would have a suite.
Also starring Billy Connolly, (redacted), Bob Marley, David Ferry, Brian Mahoney, Richard Fitzpatrick, David Della Rocco, Gerard Parkes, Tom Barnett, Matthew Chaffee (all carrying over from "The Boondock Saints"), Clifton Collins Jr. (last seen in "Honey Boy"), Matthew Lemche, Mairtin O'Carrigan (last seen in "Long Shot"), Julie Benz (last seen in "Punisher: War Zone"), Judd Nelson (last seen in "Billionaire Boys Club"), Peter Fonda (last seen in "The Ballad of Lefty Brown"), Daniel DeSanto (last seen in "Little Italy"), Bob Rubin, Aaron Berg (last seen in "The Lookout"), Louis Di Bianco, Tig Fong, Paul Johansson (last seen in "Alpha Dog"), Pedro Salvin, Robert Mauriell, Sweeney MacArthur, Robb Wells, Dwayne McLean (last seen in "Robocop" (2014)), Joris Jarsky, Zachary Bennett.
RATING: 5 out of 10 rosary beads
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