Well, I guess Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back wasn’t the last View Askew picture after all. Smith returns to the characters that began his career and launched him as a independent film golden boy / lewd Star Wars obsessed fan. What can I say about Clerks II? Well, at least for this film, Kevin Smith is back!
Clerks II
Custom Rating
Kevin Smith seems intent on recapturing the spirit of the original Clerks with this sequel. It’s a dirty little film that will make you laugh your ass off. The film succeeds in most aspects, though at times Smith seems over ambitious to push through jokes, that if he had a little more patience and trust in the material, he’d understand it’s not necessary to try so hard for every laugh. Even with such issues, the most surprising thing about Clerks II is how its heart seems to always be in the right place (even during a donkey show).
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The film begins with the fiery destruction of The Quick Stop and then jumps ahead in time to find Dante (Brian O’Halloran) and Randal (Jeff Anderson) working at the fast food franchise Mooby’s. Things haven’t changed much for Randal who continues to do as little work as possible while spouting off his unique philosophy. He also likes to torture his co-worker Elias (Trevor Fehrman), a sheltered and more than a little naive teenager who loves nothing more than Transformers and The Lord of the Rings.
Dante meanwhile has a fiance (Jennifer Scwalbach Smith) and plans on moving down to Florida. His life seems to be taking shape, but there are a few complications. As much as he seems ready to leave New Jersey behind, he has to address his feelings for his boss Becky (Rosario Dawson) and the end of his life long friendship with Randal.
Kevin Smith’s latest flick is lewd, disgusting, and very funny. It’s also a very personal and emotional film about friendship and love.
The film examines how people change over time, but how they also stay the same. It won’t be easy for some people to make it through the amount of crude humor that happens over the course of the film, but if you can, the point of the film is rather sweet.
The make-up of the film, much like Clerks, involves debate on pop culture (including a terrific scene about Star Wars versus tLOR), sex (including a donkey show, the prospect of ass-to-mouth, and the discussion of a troll named Pillow Pants), and the use of language (including a laugh out loud scene with Wanda Sykes about a racial slur).
The only problem with the film is Smith seems to be trying a bit too hard at times to get the joke across. The lead up to the donkey show works so well (as does the politically correct term used to describe it which reminded me strongly of a George Carlin joke about how political correctness can distort language to the point where anything is acceptable). But we don’t need to actually see the donkey show on film, we already got the joke. There are a couple places where the script literally beats a joke to death in this manner.
Many of Smith’s old friends show up in cameo appearances including Jason Lee, Ben Affleck, Ethan Suplee, Walt Flanagan, and of course Smith and Jason Mewes return as Jay and Silent Bob, who after the destruction of The Quick Stop, tag along to Mooby’s as well.
I’m glad to see Smith re-embrace his early style of film making and return to crafting films that will make you laugh, feel a little ashamed, but also make you think about relationships and life. O’Halloran and Anderson seem to fit so naturally into these roles, Jason Mewes has come a long way since the first film, and the newcomers added seem to understand Smith’s style and fit seemlessly as new additoins to the View Askew Universe. It’s Rosario Dawson who steals the film, and is fast becoming one of my favorite actresses working today. She’s one to keep your eye on.