Rating: C+
File Under: Lackluster Sequel with a Great Supporting Cast
I love Kevin Smith, I love Jay and Silent Bob, I love Clerks, and I love gross jokes. This movie had all of those, but unfortunately it just didn't do it for me. I felt like the whole time the characters were trying to pedal a cliche message by thinly veiling it with potty humor. There are only so many times I can watch Jay do the Buffalo Bill Dance from Silence Of The Lambs without any sort of substance underneath the jokes. I understand that it is a sequel and sequels never live up to their predecessor, but I frankly expect much more out of Kevin Smith.
Many people insist that Quentin Tarantino is the master of colloquial dialog, but I strongly disagree. I think that Kevin Smith's writing much more accurately portrays average human life, but if that is the case, why is he wasting his time writing crap like this movie. I understand Dante and Randall are terrible employees, we established that in Clerks. It gets really stale when 75% of the jokes in the film are about the one fact that we are already familiar with. Even if he had just filled dead space with more of Jay and Silent Bob I would have been fine with that.
All together the movie feels rushed and phony, like the writer/director felt the audience needed closure for these characters, and he was going to do it in the most mundane and predictable way ever. In the View Askew-niverse things never go normally and for the movie to end on a high and happy note that everyone saw coming from miles away, it feels like a cheap and sad send off for this portion of Kevin Smith's career.
All bad words aside, it was entertaining to watch once, although I doubt I would watch it again, it was nice to see Jason Mewes and Kevin Smith take up their classic roles for one last go, and watching someone dance to "Goodbye to Horses" is always insanely funny. Watch it once, chuckle to yourself, laugh out loud once or twice, and then just watch the original Clerks. Its funny enough for the both of them.
