Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back

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.

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.

If you're the type of movie goer who gets uptight hearing countless F Bombs and explicit sexual discussion, then please move along and let others get in line to see one of the Funniest movies I have seen in my recent memory.

"Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back" is a movie that has so much going on, that one screening is not enough for me to all that was thrown at me in 90 plus minutes.

Writer/Director/Co-Star, Kevin Smith (Silent Bob) has without a doubt created if not his best movie, then it would have to be his funniest. A fitting conclusion to his "New Jersey Trilogy" (that now consists of five films instead of the originally planned three) forgoes the serious religious overtones of "Dogma" and the Sexuality issues brought forth in "Chasing Amy" to go for pure Laughs...............and it succeeds.

The film's main plot revolves around the familiar duo of Jay (Jason Mewes) and his "Heterosexual Life mate" Silent Bob and their attempts to thwart a movie based on a comic book about Jay and Bob. It's essentially a road picture as the guys make their way from Leonardo, New Jersey to Hollywood. Along the way they meet international Jewel Thieves, Steal a Monkey, Meet The Scooby Doo gang, Try and Beat up Ben Affleck and Matt Damon, and much more.

As Silly as all this sounds it's done in such a way that's smart, witty, and still has a touch of class about it. And that's pretty hard to do considering I can't even tell you some of the content of the movie without being censored heavily.

If you are at all familiar with Smith's movies (Clerks, Mallrats, Chasing Amy, and Dogma) you will get a kick out of the countless cameos and connections to his other films. For Example, Jason Lee reprises two roles (one from "Mallrats" and one from "Chasing Amy") as does Ben Affleck. Matt Damon appears as himself playing "Will Hunting" in a fictitious sequel to "Good Will Hunting" entitled `Good Will Hunting II: Hunting Season". There are two highlights of this movie that I need to talk about. First Being Jason Mewes as "Jay". This guy is for real, by far and away he has put in the best performance of all his five film appearances as "Jay" He carries the picture and is side splittingly funny. It is my hope that he can now get other roles in movies besides the loveable Dope smoking "Jay". Secondly I want to address Kevin Smith's Directing. To all the people who say Smith can't direct need to see "Jay and Silent Bob". His use of motion should silence everyone who claims there are no moving shots in a Smith film!!! It's almost become fashionable to blast Smiths direction because that's the Thing to do. With all the great action and movement in "Jay and Silent Bob' Smith can finally shrug off all the criticisms of the past.

What can I say to sum up? It's a brilliant movie for everyone, not just Smith fans. You will laugh and laugh some more. Do yourself a favour and go see it as soon as you can!

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.

Whether or not you enjoy `Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back' is going to depend a lot on whether or not you enjoy director Kevin Smith. I, for one, think the guy is a genius. If you don't mind my lauding his name, read on. First, a little background for the uninitiated.

Kevin Smith's movies (Clerks, Mallrats, Chasing Amy, Dogma, and now JSBSB) are a world created by the director himself, in the sense that all are interconnected by characters, plot points, and subtle references. The one constant, though, is the entity known as Jay and Silent Bob, a pair of pot dealers who have more or less spent their entire lives standing in front of the Quik-Stop convenience store. Jay (Jason Mewes) is the long-haired guy we all knew in high school, his endless stream of four-letter epithets almost endearing because the goofy guy just doesn't know any better. Silent Bob (played by director Kevin Smith), Jay's self-described `hetero life-mate' stands by without speaking a word and provides some sort of moral counterpoint for the duo.

In Smith's `Chasing Amy,' Banky and Holden (Jason Lee and Ben Affleck, respectively) created a comic book entitled `Bluntman and Chronic,' based on their real-life buddies Jay and Silent Bob. Fast-forward to `Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back.'

Banky has sold the rights to his comic to Miramax pictures, leaving Jay and Silent Bob in the dark about the business deal. Jay and Bob, with help from Holden, discover via the Internet (`What's the Internet?' asks Jay) that a movie based on them is about to start production. Realizing that they won't see a dime of the money, and even more upset by their defamation on Internet message boards, they decide to truck across the country to stop the film from being produced.

It's important to note that while the comedy is crude, slapstick, and even resorts to fart jokes, it's not dumb comedy, it's satire at it's finest, reminiscent of such self-deprecating masterpieces as `Pee-Wee's Big Adventure' and `Blazing Saddles.' After the fairly serious `Chasing Amy' and the spiritually overtoned `Dogma,' we see that Smith has decided to get together with his buddies and put together one big inside joke. Fortunately, he's decided to let a few of us in on it. The viewer's enjoyment of the movie is going to depend completely on his or her knowledge of Smith's previous films and characters.

Smith's friends show up in cameos, from Chris Rock to Will Ferrell to Alanis Morrissette to Carrie Fisher to Mark Hamill (Smith is an infamous Star Wars fanatic). You can literally see a man's childhood dream coming true when at one point, Smith's Bob gets to carry on a lightsaber duel with Hamill.

Local interest: In one of the many subplots, a group of female jewel thieves bring Jay and Silent Bob to our very own Boulder, Colorado, to steal a monkey from a medical testing facility. `Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back' is a comedy, and doesn't try to be anything else. The only thing I felt was missing was one of Jason Lee's inspired monologues bitterly bemoaning the state of society. Some of Shannon Elizabeth's screen time could have been cut, I felt, in favor of some trademark Smith dialogue.

Smith now intends to focus his time on more dramatic pursuits, and we are given this as the fifth and last film in his so-called `Jersey Trilogy.' The bottom line is, Smith loves his fans, and this film was created for the loyal. A fitting send-off for Jay and Silent Bob, this film gets an `A-.'