Ten years after his debut film 'The Boondock Saints' bombed at the box office and subsequently went on to become a cult DVD hit, filmmaker Troy Duffy is back with his sophomore effort -- and, not surprisingly, it's a sequel entitled 'Boondock Saints II: All Saints Day.'Like the first, it follows the peacoat-wearing, tattoo-sporting, twin-silencer-wielding McManus brothers (Sean Patrick Flanery and Norman Reedus) as they cut a bloody swathe through the Boston mob world. And judging by reviews of the film, Duffy -- whose behavior during the making of the original 'Saints' pretty much got him blacklisted in Hollywood -- should have stayed hidden. Critics have labeled the stylized shoot-'em-up as latently racist and homophobic ... and basically called it Diet Quentin Tarantino. But don't take our word for it. Check out reviews below, then let us know what you think.
Variety: "The film's style mirrors that of the original, which was already late to the Reservoir Dogs ripoff party and feels doubly dated now, with Duffy still relying on his old trick of cranking up the heavy metal and techno music to boost excitement."
The Boston Globe: "[It] isn't art but it is an improvement: a scurrilous, lowdown, sub-Tarantino action comedy that, unlike the original, doesn't make you want to claw your eyes out. How's that for praise?"
The Los Angeles Times: "Time may have healed some of Duffy's wounds, but it hasn't made him a better Tarantino knockoff, unfortunately. He tamps down his best instincts -- occasional wry humor and the appealingly oddball supporting character (Willem Dafoe last time, a bug-eyed Clifton Collins Jr. here as the MacManus' admiring Latino cohort) -- and doubles up on his worst: homophobic gags, tedious '90s-era slo-mo shootouts and overwrought gangster tropes."
'Boondock Saints 2' showtimes and tickets
Village Voice: "Duffy is still chasing his perfect slide-and-shoot, except now with more self-satisfied posturing, awkward pop-culture referencing, casual homophobia and racism, and the most vulgar co-opting of religious iconography this side of Dan Brown."
The New York Post: "ALL tats and tribes and artery-opening vengeance, the sequel to 1999's "The Boondock Saints" is a throwback picture that returns you to the late '90s, when every third filmmaker thought he was the next Quentin Tarantino."
The Hollywood Reporter: "If Duffy's decade away has proved to be a humbling experience, you wouldn't know it from this bloated follow-up, which tonally goes all over the place, but its primary direction is over the top. Although the Tarantino influence still is tangible, this time around Duffy reveals himself to also be a big Francis Ford Coppola fan, but the cartoonish end result plays like 'Godfather III' meets the Three Stooges."
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