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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.
Kevin Smith directed the film, not Gus Van Sant. The latter directed Good Will Hunting and that's why he's in that area of the film.
The pair is called Bluntman and Chronic, not Bluntman and The Chronic.
Of all the times Silent Bob speaks, this is the only time it's provoked by Jay's stupidity. In Clerks, he speaks to Dante to convicne him that Veronica loves him. In Mallrats, he delivers his Jedi line. In Chasing Amy, he tells the story of Amy to Ben Affleck's character. And in Dogma, neither of his two lines are delivered to Jay; one is to an extra, the other Chris Rock.
Isn't there something that requires movie reviewers to actually know something about the movie they're discussing?
I saw it on the sneak preview and laughed my ass off. There were some people there who hadn't seen any Kevin Smith movies and they laughed their asses off. It's just a funny movie. Go see it.
I know everyone loves to hammer Katz, but hammer him for the right thing. If you read carefully, the problem is that the reference to Good Will Hunting is so weakly made that it is easy to miss. It is the weakness of Katz's writing that you see working here -- it doesn't appear that he thinks that Van Sant is the director of Jay and Silent Bob...he just writes in a way that would make you think so.
Also, Holden's line:
The best irony in the film is a joke on many levels. Jay and Silent Bob become incensed about posting on moviepoopshoot.com which is registered to:
Registrant:
View Askew Productions
PO Box 400
Red Bank, NJ 20902
US
Registrar: Dotster (http://www.dotster.com)
Domain Name: MOVIEPOOPSHOOT.COM
Created on: 09-JAN-01
Expires on: 09-JAN-03
At a deeper level though, Smith is ranting about postings on Internet message boards, made even more ironic by the focus of his site which contains an extensive message board, to which he posts. (And occasionally answers questions.)
I found the irony and asides to the camera to be great fun in this movie and would highly recommend it on the basis of in-jokes alone (Of which the material I mention is only a tiny part.)
Some people have a way with words, and some people, um, thingy.
Dammit, I thought I had jon katz filtered out. What is this crap? I want a refund.
Anyway, while I'm here, I thought I'd throw out a reference to Affleck and Damon from the Filthy Critic in his review of Dogma, which was right on the money.
Ben "I still can't act" Affuck and Matt "My friend can't act" Damon are two fallen angels [...]
I semi-admired Smith's work before Dogma. Clerks was a diamond in the rough, and Chasing Amy dealt fairly intelligently with a sensitive subject. Even Smith panned Mall Rats as being the product of a studio that wouldn't let him have creative control.
Finally, Dogma came out. Here was Smith's opportunity to shine. He had the money to hire some big names, the clout to make the film he wanted, and it was based on a pointed look at religion and Catholicism -- a favorite subject of mine. But he blew it! Smith was okay when he was pushing the limits to gain some credibility, but now that he's made it, his self-congratulatory, 7-11 pseudo-intellectual rants are just lame.
I really wanted to like Smith's movies so much. There's a kernel in his work that I want to see flourish, but Smith's execution just leaves too much to be desired. The Filthy Critic really hits the nail on the head when he describes the problems with Dogma. I would recommend reading the review. It really rates a +5 Insightful.
I think I'm going to pass on JASBSB and maybe see it when it airs on HBO. Smith doesn't get me out to the theatres again until he gets a little hungrier.
Why are you letting these clowns ruin our country?
Gotta agree. :)
What was amazingly smart, in Dogma, is that while it mercilessly made fun of the letter of Christianity, it was very respectful of its spirit. The simple allusion to all the doubts, all the fears of a young Jesus bound to a terrible destiny, and still accepting it, probably did more for Christianity than all the biggots who whined about the movies put together.
Smith is great. I didn't know of his other movies, but I'll be sure to look them out.
-- B.
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