When I first read that Kevin Smith was going to make yet another Jersey film, my eyes rolled. Since Chasing Amy, the View Askew films went downhill fast resulting in the tragic bomb of Jersey Girl which I admit, I have not seen.
Although I have always respected Smith for his geek roots, his films have annoyed me. Specifically his writing style - he seems to have the same issue I have when writing characters in that they all at some point start sounding like each other. Jason Lee’s rants in Chasing Amy were brilliant but really, all of the characters in all of the films rant - and I suspect they deliver rants that personal friends of Smith have all heard before. In Dogma, the rants were preachy; in Jay and Silent Bob they were lame.
Clerks II contains some of those moments but at least they are somewhat fresh at this point and are fewer and further between. The all-new rants, updated for 2006, were much more funny than they were preachy. When you think about it, The Lord of The Rings trilogy really was just a bunch of walking…
The characters are the same but different. Jay and Silent Bob were characters again and not parodies of themselves. Rosario Dawson was great. The nods to the previous Jersey films were brilliant as were the pop references. This is a great sequel.
Clerks II sets a new bar, ala American Pie, for taste in comedy, major motion cinema. I don’t want to spoil anyone but I will say that it involves “inter-species erotica”. The easily offended should review Smith’s past films to make sure you’re up to the task for this one.
The film also delivers a fantastic message: happiness is found within your own destiny and not of others. On that point, Smith may have reclaimed his crown as the Gen XYZ’ers social commentator. Never fear, the film has a feel-good ending.
Fig 1. A scene from Clerks II or an excuse to have a picture of Rosario Dawson on my blog.
I was plesantly surprised that Kevin Smith actually made a funny movie worth watching. I’ll be interested to see what he does next now that the Jersey characters can be left alone….please…for the love of God.
I was just listening to Q Lazzarus - Goodbye Horses