Troy Duffy has done it again...a little too well.

"A sequel to a film...franchise is so important that nothing must be risked that might endanger its success." - David Mamet

Perhaps Troy Duffy and his producers at Stage 6 Studios took note of this particular gamut, but misinterpreted the meaning. The Boondock Saints II: All Saints Day is a blow-by-blow reenactment of its former, utilizing all necessary gimmicks and ploys from the first underground hit to create a sequel 9 years in the making.

It may be hard to remember when The Boondock Saints originally hit theatres. You may wonder to yourself, "Yea, I saw it, but when was it released? Was it before I cared to go and see movies in theatres? Was I too young to notice?" Don't sell yourself short. On January 21, 2000, the film was served a limited release and was mostly overlooked due to the widely publicized 2000 election. However, The Boondock Saints gained a hidden following upon its DVD release, circulating through groups of friends and like-minded individuals around the globe.

Stage 6 Studios, taking a page out of Franchise Pictures original release, gave All Saints Day limited release on October 30, 2009, coinciding with the holiday of its same name. By the 13th of November, the film extended its release nationwide. And yet, you probably didn't know about that. With so little advertising, other than a few scattered commercials circulating around Hallowe'en, it seemed as though its release had been postponed, pending whatever changes stall an already advertised film. The point being, All Saints Day was given the same disservice of its predecessor on a seemingly knowing level: conceding that it cannot compete with the George Clooney manifest (Men Who Stare at Goats and Fantastic Mr. Fox) and big-screen Lifetime movie tear-jerkers (The Blind Side and Precious) mainlining national theatres since mid-November.

I return, now, to Mr. Mamet and his remarks regarding franchise sequels. Let's expand:

"And they [the producers] collude and scheme and test and confab to make sure that each moment of the film is recognizable as that moment that should take place at that time, in a sequel to a film whose franchise is so important that nothing must be risked that might endanger its success."

It is essentially cinematic rule that you should not make a sequel unless you can do it as well as or better than the original. With All Saints Day, Troy Duffy ignites a wave of recognizable scenarios, characters, and institutions that happen, beat by beat, as a mirror image of the original work. The franchised idea of the Saints is propelled, responsibly, by the return of actors Sean Patrick Flanery and Norman Reedus as the MacManus brothers, and Billy Connolly as their father, Il Duce. The slightest details are ensured by this character integrity, going so far as to retain David Ferry, Brian Mahoney, and Bob Marley (no relation) as the three inept and stooge-like Boston detectives, Gerard Parkes as the lovable, Tourettes-inflicted bartender Doc, and even David Della Rocco makes a cameo as namesake side-kick Rocco.*

So, the formula worked the first time: two silly irishmen walk into a bar and end up vigilantes who, based in religious justification, work to take out organized crime in Boston, one low-life at a time. The situation ends up bigger than they can handle when the hired gun, Il Duce, is released from prison to take the boys out. Things turn upside down (vigilante police and gender-swapping included), and the Saints live to serve another day. A trademark sequence in the film happens with the credits, as a film crew gathers mixed opinions of the Saints' actions that we just witnessed throughout the course of the story.

It's time to quit being so bland.

As I've recommended to many-a-Saints fan, if you can make it through the first twenty minutes of this film, then you will not be disappointed. Err, not wholly disappointed. In these twenty minutes or so, the gimmicky, neurotic arguments of the hoodlum detectives trying to impress as well as distract the new FBI on the case, Eunice Bloom (Julie Benz), reaches points of uninterrupted excess as the idea of the Saints' return looms over a new investigation. The mob bosses are full of the same shtick, taking cues from such greats as The Untouchables and The Godfather to run their campaigns without much regard for the revered allusions, and often supplant slapstick comedy for hard-nosed, intimidating antagonism. Not one mafioso is without contrivance. Slowly, between overindulgent flashbacks and references to the first film, the Saints come marching in, and the film be thankful, because I was ready to walk out.

Rather than investing in new, non-guaranteed characters, Duffy and friends have colluded to bring back the standards, but to avoid making the same film twice, tweaks have been devised. Finding that the story unfolds much like the first, utilizing many of the same characters and scenarios, its easy to pick out the swaps.

Character-swap #1: Eunice Bloom for Agent Smecker: Bloom's character takes the professional role of Smecker, FBI agent, as well as the absurdity of his characterization; her eccentricity is both antithetical and equal to him (plugging her ears rather than assaulting them with opera, insisting on wearing 4" heels to a crime scene, and being extremely verbose in her insults on the other detective's work ethic). At one point, during a fantasy replay of a hotel room shootout (harking back to the movie-like mishap of the first film, down to arguing over rope), Bloom dons a full cowgirl ensemble during the recounting in the investigation flashback sequence though not there during the actual shootout. She transcends the time barrier, and is given the same cinematic privileges as Smecker had in the first film.

Character-swap #2: Romeo for Rocco: This is my favorite for two reasons: (1) The replacement is so obvious that Duffy concedes to name the side-kick Romeo, kindred to the name Rocco starting with "R" and no last name. (2) Clifton Collins Jr...Now, if you do not know who Clifton Collins Jr. is by name, let me help:
"I need you like I need a fucking asshole on my elbow. Right here. An asshole. That's how much I need you."
Yes, the outlandish coke dealer from The Rules of Attraction. Or perhaps for the more pretentious fans, the convict Perry Smith in Capote. Collins plays every role with immense intensity and fervor, and its almost transparent how much he knows what he's replacing. Some of the conversations between Romeo and the Saints are nearly identical to those of Rocco, with the same insecurities, as well as the same underground ties, as his former. Collins makes almost no effort to disenfranchise the side-kick, understanding his role is to replace and mimic, not to defamiliarize and thus risk the franchise proper.

Character-swap #3: Napoleon/The Roman for Il Duce: Being that Billy Connolly's Il Duce has moved to the side of vigilante taking his role as overseer of his sons, the savage, soft-spoken mercenary known as Napoleon (Daniel DeSanto, credited as Crew Cut) takes the stage as real, impending threat. He is given a bit of sympathy by his height-complex, but strategically serves as the possible downfall of the Saints, just as Il Duce proved in the first film. He is tactful, obviously answering to a higher authority, and there is a great deal of mystery surrounding him. Not quite legendary, as Il Duce was, he is given the task of muscle - serving as half of Il Duce's replacement in badass-ness. It is The Roman who takes over the full mystery, sympathy, and history of Il Duce's other half, and at risk of inciting a spoiler, will end with simply: played by Peter Fonda.

Character-swap #4: Gorgeous George for Vincenzo Lipazzi: nearly unrecognizable by name, Vincenzo was the muscle about town mobster played by Ron Jeremy who is unglamorously slain beating off in a nudey booth in the first film. Subject to the same humiliating pratfalls, Gorgeous George (Bob Rubin) is interrogated once naked and secondly in a tight, pink speedo. He soils himself, which is served its own embarrassingly unnecessary close-up, and he is tied to a rolling table for the display of his subordinates. His indictments of absurdity are one of the few instances in which All Saints Day attempts to outdo its former, heightening the level of stunt as the risk of contrivance. And the almost insulting use of the name "Gorgeous George," just adds insult to injury. It becomes obvious why Vincenzo's role was so minor: to avoid reaching the level of screwball comedy in a primarily action film.

Rarely does All Saints Day stray from its stylized former, manipulating the flashbacks to make them more enticing and pairing with them with a lively, motivated musical score. The techniques are markers of The Boondock Saints franchise. Thrice, the film relents to something new, something bigger, to alleviate the predictability of its own style.

Preparing their first caper after their sabbatical, Conner, Murphy, and Romeo devise a plan which is enacted on screen. Taking a page from Rodriguez and Tarantino, the enacting plan is given grindhouse aesthetics: fully equipped with damaged film, overacting, and lots of excess carnage. The sequence, albeit brief, instills the film with some authenticity away from the original.

Second is the part which I affectionately call the "Wings of Desire sequence". Rocco, given one last shot at redemption through dream sequence, frees his monologue of all subtext and interpretation. He openly calls upon the superficial nature of humanity and chastises it, carrying a preacher's tone with the trite-ness of an angry Italian. The fantasy imagery does not make much sense, rooftops and hockey rings holding no obvious underlying significance (but I did manage to obtain a "let men be men" motif, thus may be ill-equipped to interpret the spaces as I am, dare I say, female). The ambitious choice is brow-beating, but it further imprints the film with its own moral standing and entertainment value independent of its predecessor.

Thirdly, throughout the film we are privy to flashbacks of Il Duce's history and how he became the monster he was that thus got him imprisioned. The flashbacks are tepid and cold, as though reaching into some deep, repressed memory (which, of course, we are). The distributed presentation paired with pronounced aesthetic feel departs from the typical flashbacks and marks them as something older than "what happened last night." The expanded story, giving the narrative a larger scope of casaulity, risks disassociation from the Saints task at hand. At times, the expansion pulls away from what's going on in the narrative, causing a viewer to question the necessity of the Saint's current combat. But the heightened scope of knowledge regarding past and present events allows Duffy to mill about in something bigger than the Saints themselves, and even opens the door for The Boondock Saints III.

So, as I said before, I will say again, if you enjoyed The Boondock Saints, and can stand to watch the Three Stooges with repetitive plot points for twenty minutes prior watching what you really came to see, then take a chance on All Saints Day. Though Mamet's claim accuses producers of "playing it safe," it is the familiarity of All Saints Day that lulls us into the entertainment. The replays, enactments, reenactments, swaps, reused gimmicks, and repeated quirks offer enough entertainment to rent with your friends on some movie night and applaud the new inception of the original film. If anything, you're likely to get some laughs out of it; why your laughing has yet to be determined.



*I've been asked time and time again if Willem Dafoe makes an appearance in this film as the enigmatic Agent Paul Smecker. My response is and always will be: You'll have to see the film. Though, make note of how many gay-jokes consistently happen between characters familiar with Smecker: it's alarming how quickly they have lost their sensitivity towards the subject of homosexuality. I mean, you teamed up with a tranny, for christ's sake!