Punk's Dead: SLC Punk 2 (2016)

Good movie but grossly overrated

A Major Disappointment

Very interesting film. Was caught on the premise when seeing the trailer but unsure as to what the outcome would be for the showing. As it turns out, it was a very good film.

The film's masterful storytelling did its job. The message was clear. No need to overdo.

This turned out like an extended version of a Boy Meets World episode with more content related to my actual life. And it's significantly less corny. But the character development is nothing compared to the original SLC which may have to do a lot to do with it being told in 3rd person. It's also a road trip film and if you read Chuck Klosterman's take on road trip films, this is spot on and the film isn't about the anything other than an interpersonal character growth/reflection. I think the punk aspect is mostly an aesthetic and not very necessary to to the overall story, unfortunately. A lot seemed forced to make this happen, and as a fan of SLC Punk, I appreciate the attempt.

SLC PUNK 2: PUNK'S DEADSeventeen years after writer-director James Merendino released his semi-autobiographical film SLC Punk!, he has returned with Punk's Dead: SLC Punk 2. In the most recent chapter of this series, we follow Ross, "Heroin" Bob's love child with Trish – if you have not seen the first movie – go rent it, come back and then read this review – and his passage thru adolescent angst. This movie is not a "sequel" in any traditional sense of the word. It does not pick up exactly where the other movie left off and fill in the blanks all nice and tidy The movie begins in typical SLC Punk fashion with "Heroin" Bob crashing thru the underworld to narrate the story of his son's trials and tribulations, introduce characters, and wax punkly poetic. I am pretty sure Bob is still in the apartment Stevo & Bob lived in during the original film – nothing like the promises of the afterlife only to end up back in Utah, but I digress. Bob begins by detailing a "here's what happened" synopsis to get us caught up to present day Due to the fact that Bob OD's and Trish, is crazy, Ross does have an overly morbid worldview. Ross has a couple friends – Crash and Penny. Crash, portrayed by rapper Machine Gun Kelly and Hannah Marks portraying Penny. Kelly actually does a pretty impressive job of depicting a troubled teen with a "you wish I gave a ***" attitude – not entirely sure if that's acting on his part – but he does manage to bring some heart to the relationship between Ross and himself. Penny is portrayed as "one of the guys" though I am not entirely sure as to why. After Ross gets his heart broken, the best way to get over a break up is to go party – at a punk concert, which by the by, the way the movie is shot is pretty impressive you're literally in the middle of mosh pits, huge crowd fights, on stage with the band. It's pretty phenomenal. Meanwhile, back in Salt Lake City – Trish, and emo/Mormon, Shelley, Sean, John – the mod, and Eddie – all from the original film join forces to find Ross as he is nowhere to be found and given his recent heartbreak and general gloominess, that can't be good. On a personal note, aside from the analysis of this movie, I am a fan of the original SLC Punk! I thought the soundtrack for both this movie and the original was absolutely amazing. It marries both ends of punk spectrum. I never was part of the punk scene, I'm afraid I was just born too late. I couldn't be a part of it and watch it grow and eventually dissolve. What I did watch was the way that the different genres of music were affected not only by punk music but its mentality. It was the irreverent attitude, the absolute disregard for order, the disdain of conformity, that I found myself, as a teenager, believing in. I think that regardless of whether or not you were a part of this movement or whether or not you even like rock music, punk rock, heavy metal, whatever. You find that these people despite their differences from yourself and their lives from yours, they are familiar somehow. You know them, you love them, you want them to love you, you hate them, they hate you, you want to punch them in the mouth. Somehow though, it is the music and this mindset that brings people together and shatters the differences that separate us. Review by Sara Conrad

I like many other misfits gravitated towards a film like SLC Punk! in the late 90's because it was a great coming of age tale. It was a movie for anyone and everyone who had ever felt like they just didn't belong, especially from a small town where most all forms of personal expression made you some kind of a pariah. So to find a film like James Merendino's original really spoke to the majority of us. It's sequel, however, falls short of delivering anything beyond a few tiny chuckles.SLC Punk! had and continues to have a huge following, of which this sequel couldn't have even been possible without all the fan support. But like many cult classics, it's follow up is overall redundant and doesn't really go anywhere we haven't already been before. After a couple quick feelings of nostalgia for seeing some familiar faces, Punk's Dead is pretty much just a less interesting rehash of the original. The drama is absent in this one, and the important points are ignored in order to make a quick joke that no one will really be laughing about. It pretty much is the polar opposite of SLC Punk! in the worst way possible. The characters, new and old, could have easily been replaced by cardboard cutouts and it really wouldn't have made that much of a difference.It's worth watching once to say you've seen it, but it looks and feels like a much more amateurish film that the original. It spends so much time giving us commentary on how so much has changed and frankly, there isn't much that's interesting to say about this generation. If there's something to take away from the film, it's that simply, some stories are better left untold, even if the characters have moved on and changed since then. Where they end up is just disappointing and it feels as if they just go around in circles for the entirety of this movie. As for me, I'll stick with the first film and having seen this once, I never need to watch it again.

Slc Punk was one of the greatest films about the social commentary of the punk rock scene in the mid 80's. So when I heard this film was getting a sequel I was intrigued. It was great seeing SOME of the original cast return. Devon Sawa saved this movie. I was disappointed with the overall story of this film. It was a road trip film. Penny was behind the wheel most of the movie. The dialogue so bland I couldn't invest myself in the new characters. MGK was fine but was in the shadow of StevO, so he was fighting an up hill Battle. Ross was bland, over emotional with little explanation or character development of the relationship he was grieving over. Many returning characters were misused. At the end of the day, this film suffered from poor writing. Not really having anything groundbreaking to say unlike the first one. Very disappointing.