Jay & Silent Bob... Fermate Hollywood!

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!

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.

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.