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 The characters, new and old, could have easily been replaced by cardboard cutouts and it really wouldn't have made that much of a difference.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.
