Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back

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-.'

The movie has its moments, but it's just a hodge podge of sometimes clever (sometimes not) walk-on cameos, a road trip (which is a poor screen writing trick to fill a weak plot with 30-40 minutes of loose gags), silly subplots and weak "ha-ha" gags breaking the fourth wall.

Half the movie is an insult to people who can best be described as The Comic Book Guy from The Simpsons (myself included). Half of the "Joke" is ripping on his own fanbase, and any average person who critiques him negatively over the net. This cheazy ploy went out with low-brow comics ripping on Siskel and Ebert (real critics), but now it's like the Slapshot scene where they go into the audience and beat-up their fans.

Except Slap Shot was funny.

Maybe I'm old (I'm Kevin Smith's Age). But F just isn't funny anymore Be clever. Why was Scooby Doo in the movie? It was a waste of 10 minutes that did nothing to the plot. Couldn't he tie that in somehow humously at the end like, those kids show up to expose the jewel theifs, who end up being 3 cranky old men who woulda gotten away with it. And the love interest... we won't even get into that believability.

Anyhow. Kevin, if you ever wanna come over and beat me up, drop me a note and I'll give ya my address.

''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

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.