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Review: Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back
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.
This movie is mainly a continuation of Chasing Amy, and tries to tie up the rest of the movies; Clerks, Mallrats and Dogma.
It will also be the last live-action movie featuring these characters. There is, however, a new animated movie on the way, supposedly. Clerks: Sellout, the story of Dante and Randall being offered lots of money to make a movie about a day in their lives.
As with a lot of Smith stuff, you'll either love it or hate it, and a lot of it is fan service for people who've seen his previous movies.
Vintage computer games and RPG books available. Email me if you're interested.
Wow, a jonkatz review that I agree with...hope Satan is enjoying the day and making a snowman.
From the test screening of Jay&Silent Bob I saw a month ago, as well as the final version I saw last week, I'd compare this movie more to Mallrats than any of Smith's other flicks...lots of dick adn fart humor, and even more rhetoric. A formula that has only been pulled off successfully by the New Jersey "Trilogy".
If anyone's really interested, go check out the "Chasing Dogma" comic book graphic novel, published by Oni press (and written, of course, by Smith). About half of the movie is ripped, or at least inspired, by the comic.
And go see the movie, so that Miramax will throw more money at View Askew, and Smith can keep churning them out.
Lawen
It was indeed a terrible reference, but in his own little world, Katz was probably referring to the "director" of the Good Will Hunting spoof, who indeed was Gus Van Sant.
Later,
Patrick
Umm, no, he didn't speak to Chris Rock's character.
In Dogma, he certainly did speak to Chris' character. The 13th apostle said he'd put in a good word for him if he cleaned up his language (actually talking to Jay). Silent Bob said "Thanks".
Reviewers in general take on a Howard Cosell tone. They need to emit words to justify themselves.
Nutshell: this movie is sophomoric entertainment. If you want that, you will be pleased. I laughed, I cried, it was a part of me.
If drug glorification, homoerotic obsession, notional plot, and obsequious in-jokes offend you, your entertainment dollar is best spent elsewhere.
Get thee glass eyes, and, like a scurvy politician, seem to see things thou dost not.--King Lear