Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back

''f*ck,f*ck,f*ck'' when these words are said by a two year old version of Jay before the film switches to present day Jay doing his rap(''drinkin beers beers beers,rollin fatties,etc)the tone of the film is firmly set.But did you expect anything else?The heroes of Kevin Smiths Jersey film series finally get the screen time,and sadly the send off,they deserve.This film is JOKES from start to finish,the dialogue is funny and in places very rude, especially from Jay.|The cast is full of brilliantly chosen cameos,featuring many people having a tongue in cheek pop at themselves.The Good Will Hunting 2:Hunting season section shows Ben affleck and Matt Damon can laugh at themselves,which in a film like this they would need to!Jason Mewes is on top form as is Kevin Smith,especially when Bob is finally driven to an uncharacteristic outburst of more than a few words.BOUT TIME!!!The continuity of this in relation to the previous Jay and Silent Bob outings is superb,and although it is a funnier film if you have seen Kevin Smiths other Jersey films,there are still plenty of jokes for the uninitiated.This is mostly down to a fantastic supporting cast of some great comedic performers.Will Ferrells WildLife Marshall is funny as f*ck as Jay would say!The movie is not just full of jokes at previous Jersey films expense,but it takes a few good shots at other films and even the film industry itself...could Movie Poopshoot.com be a reference to IMDb.com?who knows?.The 2 disc DVD is WELL worth getting if you like the movie,the outtakes are worth the money alone.And one particular extra ''Ham Affleck'' is worth checking,with Ben showing his real cheese skills(which he would perfected in Pearl Harbour,only that time he was trying to be serious).Also the introductions to the many deleted scenes are worth watching,with Affleck again taking some lighthearted ripping from Mewes and Smith.LOL.Rude,fun poking,loud and very very funny.....just like Jay.9/10

Kevin Smith proved with J.S.B.S.B. that he is no longer just a glorified independent film maker. In past films, Kevin Smith seemed to have a limited appeal, mostly among arm-chair directors (such as myself)who had become jaded with the Hollywood film industry, but with his slap-stick-like middle finger to the movie industry he seems to have branched out and struck a note with the "MTV audience" (10 to 16 year olds). Smith's grade-school humor, delivered mostly by Jay, is nothing new to previous movies, but with the focus on Jay & Silent Bob this humor became more evident AND more inviting to a younger audience.

Nonetheless, Smith has not alienated his core audience who are, "...over and underweight guys who can't get laid." (See Holden McNeil in "Chasing Amy"). The simple visual affects, as in his past movies, are FAR overshadowed by the fantastic dialogue he writes which has Hollywood stars chomping at the bit to deliver. If anything, the only disappointment was a very thin plot (OK, Mallrats: Had a plot, no one ever said it was a good one). But as he did in Mallrats, for what J.S.B.S.B. is lacking in plot, Smith sure as hell made up for it in laughs.

This movie junkie gives "Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back" a 9 out of 10.. .let's just hope what Chris Rock says in the movie doesn't come true. See the movie and you'll get what I mean.

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.

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.

Stoners Jay and Bob spend their time selling drugs in front of a grocery store and hanging out. When they are introduced to the world of the internet they discover that a film version is being made of the comic book that they were the inspiration for. Not only that but people are on the message boards insulting and slandering them. In order to stop the slander Jay and Bob decide to travel to Hollywood to stop the filming and therefore stop the internet discussions. A cross-country adventure ensues that includes stolen monkeys, international jewel thieves, the scooby-doo gang, a star wars confrontation, many many cameos and a million rude jokes.

The plot for this film is very, very weak. However for the most part you're laughing so hard you don't care how thin it is. It's only the middle section where the Scooby Doo bit and the jewel thief bit come in, where the jokes are less funny and the plot is more silly where you feel it. That said it's still really funny - Jay's desire to steal/liberate a monkey in order to get a woman to sleep with him is hilarious ("we steal monkeys all the time in Jersey" "If I'd known stealing monkeys would get me sex, I'd have been doing it since I was 7!") as is his rant on behalf of C.L.I.T.!

The humour is all of one type. If you know these characters from the other Red Bank films then you'll know if you'll like them or not. If you don't know them already then some of the jokes here will go over your head - there's lots of in-jokes and references to actions and characters in the other films that you won't understand (although some are still funny). Some of the references go too far and aren't funny - one joke in particular where the characters say something like "who'd pay to see a movie like that?" or "I hate it when you get roped into a movie by a friend" and then look out at the audience, isn't funny the first time or the 5th time. However most of the jokes are really funny thanks to a) Mewes's wonderfully un-PC, obscene dealer and b) Smith's great writing.

As I said some of the scenes are funny for 5 seconds but soon die out (the scooby doo bit gets dry pretty quick) but the majority is great. Standout bits include the monkey stuff, the whole Miramax-ribbing climax, the Phantom Menace skit and Chris Rock's angry black director (very similar to Hooper in Chasing Amy). The focus on sex related jokes makes for a film you're either going like or hate - and I loved it. Yes too many characters from other film are shoved in unfunny scenes (Affleck's Holden is poor and Lee is given nothing to work with in the role of Brodie that he was fantastic in in Mallrats), but the majority of it is great.

There are too many cameos to mention but nearly all of them are funny - high points include Chris Rock who missed out on making a black Sesame Street (he was going to call it N.W.P. - you work it out!), Carrie Fisher as the nun who lives by the book, Jason Biggs lamenting his pie-humping typecasting, Mark Hamill in the star wars spoof, the director and cast of Good Will Hunting poking major fun at Miramax and money grabbing sequels and Wes Craven directing Shannon Doherty in Scream 4 in a bang-on swipe at the Scream movies. The main acting pressure was all on Mewes as Jay, as Bob doesn't speak enough to carry the film, and he succeeds. Here his dirty mouth is given plenty of funny situations and good lines to work with and it ensures that his good performance carries through the whole thing and stops him getting annoying.

Overall this is one funny film and a very good way to say goodbye to these characters. Dry is some places, brilliant in others this isn't to everyone's taste but will please Smith fans easily. It's not The Godfather but it does what it's supposed to and does it well.