The MacManus Brothers (Sean Patrick Flanery and Norman Reedus) serve up a second helping of bloody justice in All Saints Day. If you want to see a killer action movie — and by killer, I mean one with ripe and meaty death dealing and pitch-black hooks that dig deep into your funny bones while teasing you with some in your face sexuality — Boondock Saints II certainly aims to please.
The gunplay and violence here are never in short supply but the tone shifts a bit too much at the start before it hits a decent groove. The juxtaposition of extreme violence, not quite residing in the torture porn ghetto certainly just down the urban block, with broad slapstick creates a dissonant mixed marriage along the lines of a smash-up of the Punisher film with Thomas Jane and a Tarantino knock-off without whatever degree of street cred either of those might have.
Plus, as with most movies today, there’s the sense that sex is the deadliest sin, the one vice too extreme for our delicate sense and sensibilities. If, as a filmmaker, you’re going for excess, then you need to be willing to go all the way to earn the blessing of your target audience. Grade: D-plus
Opens Nov. 27. Check out theaters and show times, see more photos from the film and get theater details here.
