Kevin Smith’s Jay and Silent Bob defend their reputations in the duo’s final flick
Kevin Smith is calling it quits — at least as far as his self-proclaimed, five film “New Jersey Trilogy” is concerned.
The cult-favorite writer/director of the New Jersey-based films “Clerks,” “Mallrats,” “Chasing Amy” and “Dogma” has recently been quoted as saying his “askew-niverse” of recurring characters that pepper his films has come to an end with his latest effort, the rabidly funny “Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back.”
“It’s just time to move on,” Smith said in an interview last year with Entertainment Weekly. “I’m going to be 31 in August [2001]. I’d like to afford myself a shred of dignity before my kid’s old enough to notice her old man’s a walking, non-talking cartoon.”
If his fans feel jolted by his latest revelation that he’s closing the book on his “askew-niverse,” “Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back” is more than enough of a remedy to soothe their aching souls.
The film, which is currently available on video and a two-disc Collector’s Series DVD, features the scene-stealing stoners in their own feature-length film, which is filled to the brim with riotous Kevin Smith humor.
The barely-there plot follows the two blunt-puffing slackers as they engage on a cross-country trek from New Jersey to Hollywood to stop production on a movie based on their comic book alter egos, Bluntman and Chronic.
The two slackers believe the reputation-threatening movie will make them the target of Internet ridicule and will seriously impede their sex-lives.
Although the film’s cast is full of Hollywood heavyweights, the true star of the film is Jason Mewes’ Jay.
As Jay, Mewes’ foul-mouthed, trash talking, sex-starved antics are the undeniable heart and soul of the movie.
Jay is a fireball of comedy, drawing the audience in and making us love and accept him for who he is—a motor mouthed mack daddy who lives for two things: sex and smokin’ weed.
In the not-so-challenging role of Silent Bob, Smith dons his character’s traditional overcoat and backwards baseball cap and engages in his usual amount of smoking and nonverbal communication.
With the help of an all-star cast that includes Ben Affleck, Matt Damon, Chris Rock, Jason Lee, Will Ferrell and Shannon Elizabeth, the unconventional Mewes and Smith play well off of each other do a fine job of carrying the film.
Even Luke Skywalker, er … Mark Hamill, makes a side splitting cameo as a sucker-punching villain who manages to make film history by becoming the only actor to ever steal a scene from scene stealing masters Jay and Silent Bob.
But the film reaches its comedic high point during the exchanges between Damon and Affleck in a scene where the Academy Award-winners poke fun at themselves in a “Good Will Hunting” parody.
Although fans may experience a hint of sadness in knowing Kevin Smith’s beloved “askew-niverse” is coming to an end, Smith’s loyalists won’t be disappointed with “Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back.”
The film is the perfect swansong for the characters we’ve come to know and love.
Although this chapter of Smith’s career appears to be over, he isn’t ready to throw in the towel as a filmmaker just yet.
The writer/director has said his next movie will sport his “Chasing Amy” cast of Affleck, Lee and Joey Lauren Adams and will center around the topic of fatherhood.
“How many more experiences can one have to write about?” Smith said. “The only real big thing you have left to talk about is death, and when I do know enough about that, I won’t be making movies anymore.”
J. Colin Trisler