jay
& silent bob
strike back |
director/screenwriter
Kevin Smith
producer
Scott Mosier
cinematographers
Jamie Anderson
Billy Clevenger
music
James L. Venable
editors
Scott Mosier
Kevin Smith
cast
Jason Mewes (Jay)
Kevin Smith (Silent Bob)
Shannon Elizabeth (Justice)
Eliza Dushku (Sissy)
Ali Larter (Chrissy)
Jennifer Schwalbach Smith (Missy)
Will Farrell (Willenholly)
Judd Nelson (Sheriff)
Ben Affleck (Holden/Himself)
Matt Damon (Himself)
Joey Lauren Adams (Alyssa)
Jason Lee (Banky/Brodie)
Dwight Ewell (Hooper)
Brian O'Halloran (Dante)
Jeff Anderson (Randal)
Chris Rock (Chaka Luther King)
George Carlin (Hitchhiker)
Mark Hamill (Cock-Knocker)
Carrie Fisher (Nun)
Harley Quinn Smith (Baby Silent Bob)
mpaa rating: R
running
time: 104m
u.s.
release: August 24,
2001
video
availability: VHS -
DVD
official
website
other kevin
smith films
reviewed on this website:
- chasing
amy
- clerks
- dogma
- jersey
girl
- mallrats
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Watching Jay & Silent
Bob Strike Back, I was having too much fun to be sad; it
was only afterward that I got a little melancholy. This, after
all, is the final film of writer-director Kevin Smith's "New
Jersey Trilogy" -- the fifth film, actually, which
puts this "trilogy" on a par with Douglas Adams' five-volume
Hitchhiker's Guide "trilogy." No more Jay and
Silent Bob? In retrospect, the enterprise does have the feel
of a fond goodbye -- characters or actors from Smith's previous
films (Clerks,
Mallrats,
Chasing
Amy, and Dogma)
keep turning up. But if it's a farewell, it's more of a farewell
party. I have no idea how it'll play for people unfamiliar
with Smith's work, but I rolled with it. Smith has earned this
valentine to his fans.
Jay (Jason Mewes, as blinkered
and profane as ever) and Silent Bob (Smith himself, as Jay's
large, eternal, near-wordless stooge) learn that two comic-book
characters based on themselves -- Bluntman and Chronic,
which we saw the Ben Affleck and Jason Lee characters in Chasing
Amy working on -- are now the subjects of a major Miramax
movie. Offended by the "Ain't It Cool News"-type Internet
posts by disgruntled losers predicting that the film will suck,
Jay and Silent Bob take off for Hollywood to sabotage the Bluntman
and Chronic movie (wherein they are being played by American
Pie's Jason Biggs and Dawson's
Creek's James Van Der Beek, a towering indignity in itself).
The movie, like Smith's Dogma
-- well, pretty much like every other Smith movie -- is
a loosely plotted excuse for creative invective, cheerfully crude
humor, and, in this case, celebrity cameos a-go-go. Those who
remember my observation in my Mallrats review -- that
Smith got Marvel Comics icon Stan Lee to do a cameo and would
possibly find a way to get George Lucas in a future film -- will
be amused to see that Smith has achieved the next best thing
here; Smith's love of Star Wars, comic books, past collaborators
(Affleck, Matt Damon, George Carlin, Chris Rock, Dante and Randal
from Clerks), and even his family (his wife Jennifer and
daughter Harley make appearances) suffuses the movie.
Does it help to be a fan --
the kind of rabid Kevin Smith fan who visits viewaskew.com religiously
and leaves posts on its message board -- to appreciate Jay
& Silent Bob Strike Back? I wouldn't go that far. I've
seen all four previous Smith films, but not since they came out;
this isn't a movie that you need to prepare for with a Kevin
Smith DVD marathon the day before. The motor of the movie is
Jay and Silent Bob on the road, meeting colorful characters like
a foxy jewel-thief quartet (Eliza Dushku, Ali Larter, Smith's
wife, and Shannon Elizabeth, who falls for Jay's dubious charms),
a road-wise hitchhiker, a nun, an inept cop (Will Farrell), and
even the cast of a beloved cartoon series -- how devious of Smith
to spoof one of next year's movies before it even comes out.
At one point, Smith has Ben
Affleck (in his Chasing Amy incarnation, that is -- he
also plays himself later on) ask why a creator would want to
continue telling stories about a stoner duo like Jay and Silent
Bob. This may be Smith's way of saying he's finally ready to
move on (his next project is said to be a seriocomic look at
parenthood, á la Chasing Amy, only without Jay
and Silent Bob). I applaud his decision even as I fight pangs
of sorrow that this is the last time the crass stoner and his
beefy sidekick will grace the big screen (I'm sure they'll continue
to turn up in Smith's comic books). But if this comedy duo had
to go out, at least they've gone out with a bang. Kevin Smith
even gets to have a lightsaber duel with Mark Hamill -- how cool
is that? (Though it's kind of sad that Hamill has aged
so poorly that the movie literally has to pause and point out
that he is Mark Hamill.) By the time Jay and Silent Bob
are sharing the stage with one of their favorite bands, you'll
either appreciate Smith's desire to make his farewell to the
boys as fun as possible, or you'll be completely lost. My guess
is, if you care enough about Kevin Smith to have read this far,
you won't be lost.
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