The Boondock Saints II: All Saints Day

The Boondock Saints II: All Saints Day - Dir. Troy Duffy (2009)


I highly recommend watching the documentary Overnight which chronicles the rise and fall of Boondock Saints writer/director Troy Duffy. That film and the circumstances behind the Boondock movies is far more interesting than either installment. Duffy was living the dream of every young hopeful trying to make it big in Hollywood. His first script ever was embroiled in a bidding war won by Harvey Weinstein and Miramax. Despite his lack of experience, Duffy was set to direct his screenplay for Boondock Saints. He was pimped out as the next Quentin Tarantino, his band (formed with his brother) was signed to a record deal, and Weinstein was even going to purchase the bar he worked at and allow Duffy to run it. Along the way, Duffy pissed it all away due to ego.

Duffy was eventually able to secure financing on his own to shoot Boondock where it was released in only five theaters in the entire U.S. for a week. Somehow, the movie became a huge hit on DVD, gaining a massive cult following. The film has made approximately $50 million in DVD revenue though Duffy hasn’t seen a single cent after signing over the rights as well as legal entanglements. Now, ten years after the original film, the long-in-development sequel has finally hit the big screen.

Boondock Saints starred Sean Patrick Flannery and Norman Reedus as Connor and Murphy McManus, two Irish-Catholic brothers in Boston who engage in a vigilante war against the mob. Since then, the McManus Brothers have been living a life of isolation in Ireland with their father (Billy Connolly), a deadly hitman nicknamed Il Duce. All Saints Day kicks off with the murder of a priest that is made to look like the Saints. The Brothers return to Boston to find the killer and waste more gangsters and scumbags. The Saints manage to pick up a new comic sidekick in Romeo (Clifton Collins Jr.), a Mexican with a mullet and an overzealous desire to become a Saint. There’s also Julie Benz (sporting a silly Southern accent) as FBI Agent Eunice Bloom, a forensics expert and protégé to Willem Dafoe’s character from the first film. The sequel also explores the previously-unrevealed history of Papa McManus.

While All Saints Day looks more polished and slick than the original, Duffy has obviously learned nothing new during his ten year hiatus from filmmaking. There’s no visual flair or ingenuity to any sequence in the film. The characters are paper thin and the dialogue is atrociously bad. It’s the kind of stuff a 12-year old would write after seeing Reservoir Dogs for the first time. I don’t know what was more idiotic about the picture, dressing Julie Benz up as a cowgirl for a shootout or Peter Fonda's thankless cameo as, of all things, an Italian Mafioso. Worst of all, the end leaves everything wide open for a third movie. Please, no...

Rating: *

Punisher: War Zone

Punisher: War Zone - Dir. Lexi Alexander (2008)

”Somebody has to punish the corrupt.”

Or maybe somebody should punish the folks who can’t seem to put together a good Punisher movie. Out of all the comic book characters there are, the Punisher should be one of the easiest to pull off. No superpowers, no goofy outfit, no crazy comic book science to explain, and no need for $200 million in special effects. Just one mean badass with a shitload of guns. War Zone follows in the tepid footsteps of the no-budget Dolph Lundgren version and the so-so Thomas Jane vehicle. Was the third time the charm? It’s leaps and bounds ahead of the previous versions, but pales in comparison to The Dark Knight and Iron Man in terms of 2008’s comic book adaptations. It has more in common with testosterone-fueled action flicks like Commando or Rambo.

War Zone takes the Punisher back to his roots, plopping him down into the seedy streets of New York City (though it was actually shot in Montreal). Dark, cold tones with neon highlights, a far cry from the sunny beaches of Tampa. His origin remains much closer to the source material and is briefly seen in flashbacks so we can get right into the action. This iteration of Frank Castle is the brooding, taciturn killing machine he needed to be. The man doesn’t even speak his first lines until about half an hour into the movie. Who has time for action hero one-liners when you’re hanging upside-down from a crystal chandelier pumping several hundred rounds of ammo into the bodies of hapless goombas? This is a Punisher who doesn’t bother with Machiavellian schemes involving fire hydrants. Not when he can punch his fist through someone’s face or stab a man through the eye with a chair leg. The violence is like an Itchy & Scratchy episode. The film also features the best use of a rocket launcher in cinematic history. This is a Punisher who really does some serious punishing.

Ray Stevenson fits the role of Frank Castle perfectly. He’s big, mean, and looks like he’s seen some serious shit. Stevenson is the Bradstreet Punisher come to life. Even Wayne Knight (“Newman…”) has some good scenes with Stevenson as the Punisher’s tech-guy, Micro. The rest of the cast doesn’t fare so well on the other hand. Dominic West (McNulty!) goes over over-the-top as Frank’s facially mangled arch-enemy, Jigsaw. West switches from narcissistic mob boss to cartoon character in a heartbeat, a combination of Jack Nicholson’s Joker with a Dick Tracy villain. The same goes for Doug Hutchison as Jigsaw’s cannibalistic brother, Loony Bin Jim, an original creation of screenwriter Nick Santora. Julie Benz (who I usually adore) plays the same damsel in distress role as she did in Rambo, but now with a poor New York accent. In fact, nearly everybody in the film has a bad stereotypical accent, be it Italian, New York, Russian, or Irish.

The film also spreads itself too thin by throwing in far too many characters. The filmmakers mined Garth Ennis’s seminal run on the Punisher MAX series to fill out the supporting cast. There’s sad sack NYPD detective Martin Soap, Paul Budiansky (another NYPD detective in the comics, now an FBI agent), black Irishman Maginty, and Russian gangsters the Bulats. Despite this being his film, the Punisher becomes marginalized too often in favor of characters that are essentially cannon fodder. As a fan of the MAX series, I felt a lot of great villains were wasted. Nicky Cavella is turned into an undercover FBI agent, his psychotic henchmen Ink & Pittsy are now comic relief toadies, and the Bulats (from one of the best Punisher stories ever) are barely a blip on the radar.

In their zeal to create a sympathetic lead, the filmmakers tend to humanize Frank a little too much. Despondent over accidentally killing an undercover officer, he contemplates giving up his alter-ego. After all, we've never seen that in a comic book movie.

In his review, Roger Ebert called War Zone “one of the best-made bad movies.” That hits the nail on the head. Punisher: War Zone is a film for those who are looking for an hour and a half of mindless violence. It’s a throwback to the 80’s style action film. Taken at that level, it works. Lexi Alexander, a German-born kickboxing champion, joins a tiny club of female action directors whose only other member I can think of is Kathryn Bigelow. Alexander handles the gun battles and fight scenes well without relying on the Bourne-style of quick edits and tight close-ups. A guilty pleasure all the way.

Rating: ***