Film Review: Jay & Silent Bob Strike Back

The stars from 'Clerks' are back. Again.

In 1994 a maverick young writer/director called Kevin Smith burst onto the scene with an excellent debut feature called 'Clerks'. Shot in black and white, the film basically revolved around two convenience store employees & their customers. Two characters in that film, Jay & Silent Bob, subsequently went on to star in Smith's other films: 'Mallrats', 'Dogma' and the very funny 'Chasing Amy'. They basically hang out, smoke dope, deal drugs and make comments about everyone and everything that crosses their collective paths.

Two who cross their pathsare Banky (Jason Lee) and Holden (Ben Affleck), the writers of a comic called 'Bluntman & Chronic', characters that are directly based on Jay & Silent Bob. When it transpires that a Bluntman & Chronic movie is being made without Jay & Bob's permission, the two head to Hollywood to sabotage the production and restore their good names. This is mainly because of the negative internet publicity the production has been getting.

Jay & Silent Bob are brilliant characters, and the movie works because of this and the fact that they meet so many other great characters on their road trip (Carrie Fisher as a nun, a gang of gorgeous jewel thieves and the entire cast of Scooby Doo!!!). There's also cameo performances from Wes Craven, Matt Damon, Shannon Doherty & Mark Hamill. If you're looking for a road movie with loads of bad language, sexual innuendo, orang-utans, ex- and current actors, this is the one for you.

Oh yeah, don't bother if you're easily offended - in parts it makes Jerry Springer look like one of Oprah's 'makeover' shows.

Derek Nagle