‘Jay and Silent Bob’ strike out

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With the movies, “Clerks,” “Mallrats,” “Chasing Amy”
and “Dogma” to his credit, I was expecting a lot from Kevin Smith in
“Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back.”

I didn’t get anything I was expecting.

I don’t think anyone did.

The plot gets rolling after Jay (Jason Mewes) and Silent Bob (Kevin Smith) track
down Holden (Ben Affleck) to find out why they aren’t getting a cut of the
money for the Miramax film version of “Bluntman & Chronic.”

Having sold his half of the comic, Holden can’t help them. He does show them
how to navigate the Internet, and they discover a site where people are calling
them every name in the book.

More concerned with silencing the critics then getting their money, Jay and Silent
Bob begin a trek to Hollywood to stop Miramax from making the film, hoping it
will stop people from saying bad things about them.

Despite the less-than-a-plot story line, there were other things about this movie
that were incredibly disappointing.

The high number of gay jokes throughout the film was offensive. Anyone who has
seen a Kevin Smith film before knows that Jay has at least one scene where he
insists he’s not a homosexual, but in this film, it grew so big it became
a subplot. From George Carlin’s appearance as a hitchhiker who informs the
duo that if they want to get rides, they have to “give head,” to the
two pretending to be a modern couple in order to escape, the negativity surrounding
homosexuality issues goes way overboard to the point of irritation.

And the fart jokes, pot jokes and sex jokes aren’t funny this time. At all.

The superego Ben Affleck has not one, but two roles in this movie, aiding in its
perpetual downward spiral from beginning to end. Having Ben Affleck in a film
with his whiny mouth and confidence on overdrive is bad enough these days, without
having him play two roles. Interesting enough, it’s clear Affleck feels too
big for Kevin Smith movies because he looks right into the camera while he’s
talking to Matt Damon and says something to the effect that sometimes people are
in movies only because they owe a friend a favor.

Like all the other View Askew movies, Jay talks too much, thinks with the wrong
head and gets the two into a series of trouble. So much for originality.

The only aspect of this film that keeps its viewers paying attention is the little
references to the four prior films. Anyone who is a true Kevin Smith fan will
get more out of this movie than someone who has been hiding under a rock and hasn’t
ever seen “Chasing Amy” or “Dogma.”

Like all good small directors, it seems that Hollywood has finally gotten to Kevin
Smith, and “Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back” can be considered his sellout
movie. With overdone rip-offs of “Star Wars,” “Charlie’s Angels,”
“American Pie” and other past favorites, “Jay and Silent Bob Strike
Back” is no better than pathetic unoriginal films like “Scary Movie”
and the second mistake, “Scary Movie 2.”

While laughter is possible during this movie, don’t depend on it to get you
through the whole thing. The best part of the whole movie was the orangutan, who
they continue to refer to as a monkey. She definitely steals the show, and is
the one aspect of the film that is funny without being offensive.

For Kevin Smith fans who insist on seeing his film no matter how bad it is, they
should wait for it to come out on video and use their free rental from a local
movie store chain. It’s not even worth spending the $2.49. If it comes out
on DVD, that would be an even better free rental because at least then there would
be the director’s cuts and possibly interviews to help the film save face.

The cast includes actors from past View Askew flicks and new faces as well: Joey
Lauren Adams, Jules Asner, Diedrich Bader, Jason Biggs, Marc Blucas, Wes Craven
(cameo as himself), Matt Damon, Shannon Doherty (cameo), Eliza Dushku, Will Ferrell,
Shannon Elizabeth, Carrie Fisher (cameo), Mark Hamill, Steve Kmetko, Ali Larter,
Jason Lee, Tracy Morgan, Alanis Morissette, Judd Nelson, Joe Quesada, Chris Rock
(cameo), James Van Der Beek, Seann William Scott, Jeff Anderson, Ever Carradine,
Dwight Ewell, Renee Humphrey, Brian O’Holloran and Scott Mosier.