Rating: 7/10
Fangirl rating: 9/10

Writer: Troy Duffy (screenplay), Troy & Taylor Duffy (story)
Director: Troy Duffy
Cast: Sean Patrick Flanery, Norman Reedus, Julie Benz, Clifton Collins Jr., Billy Connolly, Judd Nelson
Studio: Apparition

This is a review that needs to come with some disclosure. I am a huge, huge BOONDOCK SAINTS fan. Huge. The original SAINTS has a 17% rating on Rotten Tomatoes. But it also has a 7.9/10 rating on IMDb, with over 35% of those votes rating it a 10 (and an additional 40% rating between 9 and 8). I’m not breaking any new ground here. Critics hated THE BOONDOCK SAINTS, but the film still amassed a cult following the likes of which should surely be studied for years to come. I have no problem announcing my fanhood in regards to the SAINTS, but I also have no problem understanding that not everyone feels the way I feel about the film. That said, I promise to try to deliver a review as unbiased as I can.

The sequel to THE BOONDOCK SAINTS has been ten years in the making, and the film kicks off with a nod to that timing, taking place eight years after the events of the first. ALL SAINTS DAY finds our MacManus clan (Connor, Murphy, and papa “Il Duce” Noah) living anonymously on a sheep farm in Ireland. They get word of a priest-killing back in Boston, set to look like a Saints job – two bullets in the back of the head, pennies over the eyes. It’s not the work of a copycat, it’s the work of someone beckoning the Saints back to Boston. Because, of course, they’ll answer.

Fans of THE BOONDOCK SAINTS will not be disappointed in this entry. Worth a ten year wait? Maybe not, but it’s a worthy successor and packs all the punches fans loved in the first. Will it make new fans out of former haters? Probably not. There’s no denying that Troy Duffy has a damn clear vision when it comes to his SAINTS, and ALL SAINTS DAY stays in line with what he created ten years ago.

Though it’s not a retread, fans of the first film will find familiar beats in ALL SAINTS DAY, including a version of the biggest (rope-based) shoot-out in a remarkably similar setting. With a larger budget this time around, Duffy gives us a bigger show, but the overall feel of the MacManus’ gun fights has a strength of continuity to them. The twins are back to their old-bad-assness, God forgive them for not softening up after eight years of relaxation.

One of the benefits of Duffy’s dedication to the vision of his work is that those who have come before are not forgotten. If you died in the first SAINTS, you are still going to be recognized and discussed in the second. And if you’re dead, you’ll get a nifty replacement that harkens back to your contributions to the first. Our new Smecker is Special Agent Eunice Bloom (Julie Benz), a Georgia peach with a wicked tongue (“I’m so fucking smart, I make smart people feel retarded”). Trained by Smecker, Bloom is certainly not at her first barbecue, and is a saucy edition to the Saints lexicon (they needed a little lady blood). The boys also get a new sidekick to replace unofficial third Saint, the departed Rocco, in the form of Clifton Collins Jr.’s Romeo. He’s Mexican and he’s badass and he cries when he gets emotionally overwhelmed. Romeo is an interesting micro-study on the overall tone of the SAINTS films.

Duffy still attempts things as a director that are probably far beyond the scope of his training or even his talent level. The first SAINTS is rife with attempts at stylized action that were so simultaneously self-aware and self-involved that they were hard to take seriously. This doesn’t change much in the second SAINTS. Duffy uses a lot of quick cuts that practically look accidental, like a reel has fallen out of sequence. But even that doesn’t change the fact that there are moments of visual interest that almost verge on accidental brilliance. Part of the appeal of the Saints is their complete rejection of fear in the face of injury and death, and Duffy’s work as a director reflects that.

Duffy also uses out-of-sequence storytelling in this second SAINTS installment. Generally speaking, both films show the MacManus brothers setting up a plan, followed immediately by the bloody aftermath, followed by Smecker or Bloom guiding the rest of the cops through it and describing what happened (while it “happens” around them). ALL SAINTS DAY sticks to the formula with a few tweaks here and there, stylistic flourishes that are still exciting, while also being self-indulgent. Duffy also employs dreams and flashback sequences, allowing us to learn more about the MacManus tradition of vigilantism, including how ol’ daddy Il Duce became, well, Il Duce.

And you know what? It’s fun as hell to watch.

No matter how you feel about Duffy or the SAINTS films, you have to give the guy credit for creating his own mythology and epic and fully committing to it. Even when some of the plot twists of ALL SAINTS DAY get a bit weak (and, for an extended sequence, boring), Duffy is clearly dedicated to building on his original story in a way that fans will respond to and enjoy. If you’re a SAINTS devotee, it’s a can’t miss.