Boondock Saints 2: All Saints Day

The reviews for BOONDOCK SAINTS 2 have been pretty bad. But then again, so have the reviews for the first one, which I really liked. So, I thought maybe it'd be "if you loved the first one, you'll love the second one".

I didn't love it. It was fun and had a lot of good bits, but didn't love it. Its as if Troy Duffy had written ten sequels in the last 10 years, and threw them all into a blender. What came out was a complete disaster, albeit an amusing disaster.

One of my favorite parts of the first one is when the brothers fight each other in an air duct right before creating a blood bath. They have a similar scene here, which might be just as funny, or maybe it wasn't just as funny but I thought it was because I was thinking about the first one.

At times it is self referential. Rocco makes an appearance as a mental apparition. So does the cat. In the dramatic "come back scene", the boys cut their hair and clean themselves up. A few minutes later, they realize that it probably would've been a better idea to sneak into the country before shaving.

Sometimes its preachy; Rocco serves the role of the preacher. The preaching was funny but I'm not sure what the point of it was.

This time, the brothers befriend a mexican guy. I describe him as such because that's how the movie describes him. There are a bunch of mexican jokes of which he is, usually, a willing participant. He cries a lot for various reasons, and the brothers are always there to rib him about it.

The accents are horrible, intentionally so? There are a lot of dumb people jokes, misuse of words (irregardless), etc etc. A lot of it felt amateurish, but was it by design?

The biggest problem with the movie is, unfortunately, a slap in the face for me. Pretty much everyone I know hates Julie Benz on Dexter. Two of our friends have vigil's every night praying for her character's death. At last, their prayers have been fulfilled. But, I never had a problem with her. I think she is great as Rita, the serial killer's wife. She is a little whiny and clingy and all of that stuff, but that's the point of her character. She is the opposite of Dexter. She serves the role well, and I don't fault her for it.

I never made the effort to defend her. I can see why people don't like her, I just don't agree. To each their own. As long as we can agree that I'm always right and everyone not of the same opinion is wrong, the universe will continue its balanced existence.

Then I saw her in Boondock Saints 2. Not good. I had enough of her after 3 seconds. Every other second that she was on the screen was like someone attacking my face with an electric stapler. On a logical level I can concede that, again, its the character played by Julie Benz, not Julie Benz her self, but on an emotional level where my primal instincts exist, I wanted her to get run over by a parade of spike-enhanced Segways. To close this part on a positive not, I will conclude the paragraph by stating that I also enjoyed her work in Rambo IV.

In the end, its fun. I'll watch it again. But it is in no way as entertaining as the first. I originally feared that making a sequel would be a massive error in judgement, but its not. It could've been better, but it's still worth watching. You might need to see it a couple times to figure out what's going on though.