Review: Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back

What the Internet is really for, explains one sage in Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back, the latest in Kevin Smith's continuing series featuring the two drug-dealing, sex-obsessed slobs from central New Jersey, is so kids can slander other people anonymously. In his previous movies -- Dogma, Chasing Amy, Clerks -- Smith chronicles work, sex and blasphemy. This time the sub-theme is the Net and the waves of brainy but obnoxious adolescent jerks who have helped set its sometimes nasty tone in recent years. Many readers of this website will especially love the ending, one of the few Hollywood got right this summer. Spoilage warning: plot is discussed, but not ending.

In a way, Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back is a series of inside jokes, albeit some very funny ones. Smith gets that movies are a universal experience of his young audiences. Still, only attentive, die-hard movie buffs will get them all. The cast, plots and references are closely tied to other Smith films, lines, scenes, actors and plots, along with some that aren't his. (There is a hilarious spoof of Good Will Hunting which Ben Affleck and Matt Damon good-naturedly join in.) Smith's studio Miramax is continuously ridiculed (Bob Hope also used to poke fun at Paramount in some of his road-trip comedies with Bing Crosby). Chris Rock pops up with some riffs on race.

The movie's director, Gus Van Sant (CT:Good Will Hunting, not J&SBSB of course), has a funny bit part, and Smith parodies Charlie's Angels, The Fugitive (so specifically he includes a reference to Provasic, the drug that nearly destroyed Richard Kimble's life), Scooby-Doo,Hannibal, and even Star Wars (Carrie Fisher and Mark Hamill appear, the latter in a loopy take-off on the mythic brawl between Darth and Luke.

The Net figures heavily in this sometimes hilarious if uneven movie, yet another comedy that self-referentially uses pop culture as humor, reference point and plot line. Jay (Jason Mewes) and Silent Bob (Smith) are outraged to learn that kids online are flaming the movie based on the comic book -- Bluntman and The Chronic -- that the pair inspired. Besides, they're not getting a dime out of any of it. Jay, who's never even heard of the Net, is astonished to learn that people can call you names online, and he flames them back, urging them to lick his private parts. He and Bob set out for Hollywood to stop the movie's production and end the besmirching of their alleged reputations. They have various misadventures along the way, including dust-ups with a nun, the Utah State Police, animal rights activists, federal wildlife officials, and nasty child geeks.

There is, of course, the inevitable moment when Bob speaks -- as always, finally provoked by the genial stupidity and crudity of his "hetero-life mate" Jay. This movie backs off from the controversial religion-bashing of Dogma, which triggered some boycotts and threats on Smith and the movie's producers. If the movie is frequently gross in the now-standard scatalogical way of studio films aimed at the hip and the young, it is good-natured and easy-going, not even remotely controversial. Jay is still obsessed with getting laid and with his and everybody else's masculinity, but this round is much more relaxed about it.

Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back is less of a coherent movie than a series of one-liners, set gags, set-ups and cultural in-jokes and spoofs. There are moments of genius and of stupidity, also flashes of satire and comic genius. It works best if you've seen a substantial chunk of the Smith canon. If you haven't, a lot of it will sail over your head. But it will still probably be the funniest movie you've seen all summer.

Comments

What the f**k's wrong with /. ?

[SpinyNorman]

The last few days the site is hosed half the time. Now, I can handle not being able to login, or links not working correctly, but now today my config choices are ignored and I'm getting this John Katz shite again. Unacceptable.

Dogma _are_ beliefs

[eweaver]

Yes. Religious dogma are religious beliefs. No kidding - try looking it up next time.

PS. Any serious Catholic - in fact, almost any serious Christian - would tell you that that film was extremely offensive. Are you saying Catholics thought they were offended, but were actually mistaken ("typically flew over their head")? I mean, what makes you the arbiter of offense all of a sudden? One would expect that the Catholic Church, since it is Catholicism, can say whether the movie was respectful or not.

Besides, you appear are prejudiced against the Church anyway, so you wouldn't be the greatest judge, I don't think...

Re:how do you filter Katz?

[fmaxwell]

Get a life. Jon Katz wrote a movie review that you clicked on and chose to read! He is an insightful, talented author with many book reviews to prove it. The fact that you cannot appreciate his writing does not mean that you need to attack the man personally every time he posts something on Slashdot. You remind me of the stupid troll that keeps posting the "*BSD is dying" crap every time an article about BSD appears. If you don't want to read stuff by Jon Katz, then don't read it. But don't subject Jon Katz and his readers to your childish insults and whining.

Bug alert!

[BillyGoatThree]

Posted by JonKatz

I have this idiot filtered out, why are his "stories" appearing on my front page? Maybe he's coming out with a new book again, like last time this happened.