Boondock Saints 2

I was quite excited for this installment of the epic that is Boondock Saints, I had waited and waited with great patience and greatest anticipation…

Ok that’s a huge lie, Jason mentioned that I should see it (presumably because he wanted a review) and I was pleasantly surprised because I hadn’t even heard of it. And then I was excited - that part wasn’t a lie. It did not disappoint. With a full cast of characters, many from the first movie and some new and interesting additions, it was wildly entertaining. And then there was the pretty much non-stop action which was awesome on a stick.

Connor and Murphy return to Boston after a copycat killing of a priest catches their attention. And as Il Duce remarks in my favorite piece of dialogue: “Someone’s trying to call them out. You kill a priest, in a church, and make it look like it was them. You bring them back with a vengeance. Someone thinks it’s really clever. Only one problem with this little plan…. it worked.”

As Connor and Murphy make their way to Boston they manage to pick up a side-kick, Romeo, a very colorful and intense Mexican bad ass. Also new to this movie is Special Agent Eunice Bloom the Fed who has been called in to investigate the copycat killing, and of course the eventual killings that Connor, Murphy and Romeo are responsible for. Her investigative style is quite reminiscent of Paul Smecker (Willem Dafoe’s over the top character from the first movie) but just different enough to be enjoyable in it’s own way. And of course something needs to be said for the ways in which this woman blends sexy and terrifying. (I was almost recognizing her through the whole movie and I finally have discovered why - the actress Julie Benz played Darla in Angel and Buffy and let’s not forget Rita on Dexter… jeez. -ed).

Returning in this movie are the three decectives, Dolly, Duffy and Greenly, who I believe are responsible for most of the copious prison rape and balls of steel type lines and jokes. They were fun to watch interecting with each other and being in general terrified of Special Agent Bloom. Rocco also makes a brief appearance in a wonderful dream sequence that is both bad ass and hilarious. It’s a sort of Dennis Leary-esque rant about the manliness of manly men. Very entertaining.

The characters I will have to say are the most entertaining aspect of this movie, followed closely by the style of the cinematography, and then the actiony goodness of it. The way in which this film was crafted was very fun and very striking. There were scenes of flashbacks, and of what they were planning (contrasted with what actually went down), and all of it was done with a lot of energy and visual interest. While the story was enjoyable it was a little cumbersome at times and honestly everything else was just so bad ass that I didn’t much care why the Saints were doing things so much as that they were.

There was plenty of sexy to go around as well, all of it blatant, some if it very tongue-in-cheek. I have to mention that I was a big fan of the extreme grooming scene - Connor and Murphy cutting their jesus-hair and shaving their beards and then shots of them showering down. The supposed focus of the shower scene being to show off their bad-ass tattoos, but it was pretty ridiculous and hot to watch all that soapy water running down their backs and over their crucifix tattoos - the sacred and the erotic done action style. But I digress, I assume most of my readers will be much more interested in the new Special Agent Eunice Bloom with her perfect assets and 6-inch spike heels. And that was the thing really, all the blatant sex was done with such humor that not a jot of it was tiresome or irritating.

This movie was action and humor and characters and just fun. I can’t think of a single thing I would have liked to be different or better. It all escalated into a crazy wonderful climax and the promise of more to come.