Jay y Bob el Silencioso contraatacan

While I found this movie amusing, if you haven't seen the entire Kevin Smith cannon, NOTHING is going to make much sense. Ben Affleck as more than one character, Jason Lee as more than one character, and the myriad of cameos from past Smith film characters would be confusing to anyone who doesn't know the history.

A "should see" for Smith fans, but probably not much interest to anyone else.

Whatever went wrong with Kevin Smith's 1995 film Mallrats has been fixed in Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back. Now in 2001, Kevin Smith devotes ninety-five minutes of film to himself. Any negative reviews you may read are surely written by critics who weren't big fans of Smith's previous efforts (especially Mallrats). J&SBSB is a movie for the View Askew fans. The film contains many references to Clerks (1994), Mallrats (1995), Chasing Amy (1997), and Dogma (1999) as well as the Clerks comic books and the Jay and Silent Bob comic book, Chasing Dogma, that bridges the gap between Chasing Amy and Dogma (actually, a great deal of the film's road trip comes directly from this book).

J&SBSB (the fifth film in the New Jersey Trilogy, much like The Hitchhiker's Guide five-part trilogy) is filled to the brim with crude humor that usually turns off most movie critics, but it's crude humor with Kevin Smith's familiar wit. It's written for Jason Mewes to really shine in his performance (I never thought I'd say that).

The major part of this film that stood out for me is the craft. The craft?! What the hell could I be talking about? As many know, Kevin Smith's movies are notorious for having almost zero camera moves. This is Kevin Smith's most technically superior film (probably because it's his highest budget). There are camera moves and excellent camera angles. In Smith's last film, Dogma, as well as this one, he utilizes the 2.35:1 aspect ratio. Why in the world he feels that he needs to use such scope in these films is beyond me.

Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back is not a "real" movie. Chasing Amy is the closest Smith has come to that. For the View Askew/Kevin Smith fans, this is his best film. It will certainly be interesting to see what kind of movies Smith decides to make now that his New Jersey Trilogy has come to a close and he doesn't have the familiar characters to fall back on.

For the record, I have not seen Kevin Smith's previous works, Clerks, Mallrats, Chasing Amy, or Dogma, which, I'm almost positive, affected how I saw the movie, since Smith puts in so many in-jokes and references to his previous movies, I didn't get them, except for the blatantly obvious ones.

Jay (Jason Mewes) and Silent Bob (Kevin Smith) hang out in front of a convience store selling weed. When the get a restraining order, they find out that the comic starring their likenesses Bluntman and Chronic is being turned into a Miramax movie. However, they aren't being paid for it, so what to do? Travel cross-country to Hollywood from New Jersey to stop the movie from getting made, what else?

Crude, inappropriate, and extremely funny. If there's ever a movie that you should watch with your drinking friends and not with a date or family, this is the one! It has jokes about genetalia, bodily functions, innuendoes, and more, and I haven't laughed this hard at a movie for a long time. Call me immature, but I like this type of stuff, ones that actually have substance behind the crude jokes (not like Old School).

Mewes was f-ing hilarious, when he f-ing say the f-ing f-word every f-ing word. It has over 230 f-words along in this movie, with the total number of curses probably around 300. I have never heard so many, but I laughed. I'm not ashamed to admit it: Mewes cracked me up, with his stylish arrogance and foul mouth. Smith, who was laconic for almost the entire film, expressed everything with his eyes, which were funny. There were more cameos than a movie of The Simpsons, with Ben Affleck, Matt Damon, George Carlin, Jamie Kennedy, Chris Rock, Tracy Morgan, Joey Lauren Adams, and many, many more.

There were many pot-shots of American movies. For instance, when Jay and Silent Bob meet a drug dealer played by Tracy Morgan, he says that Miramax accounts for about 75% of his income. Also, everyone on-screen looks at the camera when they mention, `No one would pay to see a Jay and Silent Bob movie,' and when Ben Affleck says that one reason you do a picture is because you owe a friend a favor. As the Bluntman and Chronic movies premieres, someone says, `Well, it was better than Mallrats.'

Are you easily offended? Does the mention of various body parts upset you? If you answered yes to either question, Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back is not your movie. If you answered no, sit back and enjoy the ride!

My rating: 7/10

Rated R for nonstop crude and sexual humor, pervasive strong language, and drug content.

It's almost impossible to believe that this film is from the self same Kevin Smith who wrote and directed Clerks. Gone is the biting wit and odd charm of that film, and in its place, big-budget pointlessness and a dozen more dick jokes. The many cameo appearances of characters from the other movies which comprise the extended 'New Jersey Trilogy' (Clerks, Mallrats, Chasing Amy and the woeful Dogma) serve only to remind the viewer just how good - or even average - Smith used to be. Indeed, whatever it was that made his work so individual and enjoyable was clearly lost some time ago.

Directorially, the 'post-modern' elements (several actors playing dual roles) are fairly well-handled, though presumably quite confusing for those who haven't seen earlier entries in the series. Unfortunately, however, Smith's usual lack of visual awareness and style is once more in evidence. In Clerks it didn't matter: the script was so tight that the primitive direction was irrelevant, but here, with hardly any gags hitting the mark (special mention for Mark Hamill's spectacularly unfunny cameo) it's extremely noticeable.

The acting too, is of a poor standard with too many lines and jokes fluffed, though Jason Mewes' usual one-note performance (essentially playing a toned-down version of himself, by all accounts) works well here. All in all, more puerile and less funny than its predecessors, though foul-mouthed children, stoners and idiots may take to it more than most.

Kevin Smith's previous movies always seemed to be something of a mixed bag. Whether ambitious thematically, ("Dogma", "Chasing Amy"), or outright comedy, ("Mallrats"), the movies as a whole were less satisfactory than their many very funny parts. The sporadic appearances of the second string character duo of Jay and Silent Bob were always a welcome event.

The big question was whether this 2001 styled Laurel and Hardy, when promoted to center stage, could carry a movie. The answer much to my surprise was a resounding yes. Smith outdoes himself, producing an exceptional comedy. It's consistently inventive, with surprises, in jokes and many cameos from Smith regulars, all who seem to be genuinely having a ball. Never has irreverence and bad language been done with so much charm.

Those who disliked Smith's previous works would do well to stay away, they are unlikely to be converted. But for fans, Smith really does deliver the goods, in a big way.

I was totally baffled by reading that certain gay groups took offence to this movie. It would seem to me a total misreading as well as a great deficiency in the humor department. Apart from the fact that Smith lampoons all and sundry, it actually struck me as a particularly gay friendly movie. The fact that a gay character sums the movie up as one big gay joke should be taken as a compliment more than anything else.

It's clear that this brings Smith's cycle to a close. He couldn't have wished for a better ending.