The Boondock Saints return...

Sorry I've been neglecting any film news, but school and setting up my own personal computer has been getting in the way. First off I want to say that this weekend I will HOPEFULLY (fingers double and triple crossed) get to see the new Mike Judge film "Extract" with Jason Bateman, Mila Kunis and Ben Affleck as well as Gerard Butler in "Gamer" from Nevledine/Taylor the team that brought you "Crank" and "Crank: High Voltage". Two films I have a strong taste for due to their ridiculously high level of over the top action, style and 80's action hero characters put into absurd situations for our entertainment. Which leads me to my post. Ten years ago "The Boondock Saints" was released in a small number of theaters and had a short run. However as a DVD it did gangbusters and... somehow became a cult classic. Now writer/director Troy Duffy has returned with most of the original cast for a... sequel.

If you can't tell this isn't making me jump for joy. There's a lot of films and filmmakers out there that took things from Tarantino that they loved and thats cool. When I saw Joe Carnahan's "Smokin' Aces" I called it his version of "Kill Bill" and I loved every second of it. I even enjoyed "Lucky Number Slevin" to an extent. But "The Boondock Saints" remains one of my least favorite films of all time because of just how many rips it pulls. By the end of the film I had compiled a list of films, directors and characters it ripped off. Tarantino (of course), but then the musical styles of Guy Ritchie, the likable anti-heroes of Robert Rodriguez, the likable villians of Michael Mann, the slow-mo of John Woo (without the proper gun play however), the aged hitman of a few Luc Besson pictures, the attempts at "surprise" violence of Scorsese and De Niro directed films and last but not least the Oliver Stone "Natural Born Killers" rip at the end which sent me into a rage.

Yes there is very, very few things I liked about the first film. Having seen the trailer for it's sequel due in theaters the day before Halloween, meaning it'll be this shit and "Saw VI" facing off... I know I won't be that weekend, I can say I'm still not impressed and when and if I see it I hope Duffy does something worth while and at least slightly original this time around.

Here's the trailer...