Jay and Silent Bob Reboot

The positives:

Lots of callbacks for diehard fans Some excellent cameos Some decent jokes Nerdy references

The negatives:

Harley Quinn Smith Jokes that don't land Jason Mewes' distracting mouth The acting The wafer thin plot The writing in the 3rd act

Clerks 2 was brilliant. Everything after that has been one terrible film worse than the last. Please stop. You are destroying your own legacy with these outings. Love you man. Now rest and do something else. Please.

Let's start with the BAD. And yes there is enough of it.

1. The film by it's nature LOW budget. Granted Smith has always been on the low end and some of his movies have been more successful in spite of the budget. Clerks 1, 2, Amy.. some are hampered a slight bit Dogma.. so unlike 'Strike Back' the camera is much less static and the set pieces and physical comedy are toned down a bit (even the last act fight out could have been bigger).

2. This is not a negative really but at times the meta nature can make the film cheesy.. and on occasion the remake / reboot nature while the in-joke is supposed to be it's obvious is just a bit too much.

Having said that. This much like 'Strike Back' is a reward for the fans who have followed not only Jay and Bob.. but Dante, Holden, Brodie, Alyssa.. his various entries into the DC universe with cameos from his 'Supergirl' gang (sadly the cameos from 'The Flash' either never happened or were cut). But this also includes jokes from Smith about not only himself.. But even more this is a real family affair. The real Kevin and Jay have grown up.. they've become fathers and in this film, do has Jay even though he doesn't know it.

The reboot characters on their own adventure never really get much to do aside from the leader "Milly" aka Millennium Falken. I admit i appreciated her performance much more on the second viewing... She doesn't play a Jay clone and there's an actual friction between them but also as those who know the stories and obvious connection between them (Jay has idea been referred to as Uncle Jay). So it works really well on screen.

Even with the limited budget it's still a nostalgia blast. A few actors return some in their iconic roles and a few in new ones. Usually just a quick scene. I think most of them have been revealed but i won't spoil them here though.

I will say most people not familiar with the characters can enjoy the film on a smaller scale but will not appreciate the nostalgia fueled meta deep dive where most of the best humor comes from.

I can't rate this any better than a "3", while the original is funny this one just misses almost all the marks.

What do you get when you have two 50 year old men playing characters created as and meant to cater to grunge stoner 90s kids? Mostly you get re-jokes. Most of us who were a Kevin Smith fan haven't enjoyed a lot of what he has produced in a very long while. "Jersey Girl" was pretty good.

This movie is just unconvincing, lazy and offensive. I wonder how bad "Clerks 3" will be? This one is just a really poor effort.

I'll open with the simple fact that if you're not familiar with Kevin Smith's body of work, don't bother with this one. Every joke and reference will fly over your head. Having said that...

I actually went to a roadshow screening of this with Smith and Jason Mewes in attendance. Even with seeing those two live and getting a sweet intro, the movie just didn't do it for me. At the same time when it points a finger at the reboot model of Hollywood and mocks it, this movie falls into the same traps as bad reboots. If it were a clever take on the reboot model (22 Jump Street), that would be a different story altogether but instead it's just the same plot all over again with the same jokes all over again. That might be the most disappointing thing about this movie, the comedy. While there were moments I was laughing, so many of the intended jokes were either references to old jokes from Smith's previous films or line for line repeated jokes. This movie isn't Smith saying, "hey! I came up with some new jokes for these old characters" more than it's him saying, "remember all these jokes that were funny 20 years ago? Well....here they are again!" I will call out one scene where I thought to myself, "I wish the movie was as good as this scene" and that's the scene with Ben Affleck reprising his role of Holden McNeil. That scene was funny, heartfelt and concise. Flashes of the Kevin Smith of old with dialogue. While there is more heart in this story than the first Jay and Silent Bob movie, it's handled with the same subtlety as the comedy, beating you over the head with it. Overall, I will say that if you love Kevin Smith's filmography and cherish every one of those films, go see this movie and laugh your ass off. If you're hoping that this movie is Smith's return to form, you'll be greatly disappointed. It's a Kevin Smith's Greatest Hits Tour, the question is, "how much do you like his music?"