Movie Review - "Clerks II"

You pretty much love Kevin Smith movies or you hate them. Either way seeing Clerks II is not going to change your mind. I've always found Smith to be a very poor man's Tarantino. He creates very original characters and is actually pretty good with dialogue. The difference though is Tarantino usually has very good plot development, whereas with Smith you know going in that the story is very secondary to the meandering, crude, and pointless conversations that will take place throughout the movie.

The story centers around former young slackers Randal and Dante who have turned into, well, older slackers. The movie begins with The Quick Stop of the original movie burning down and the boys having to go work at a fast food joint. Dante is now engaged to a women he thinks he is supposed to marry (played by Smith's real life wife)but is really in love with his boss Becky who it turns out is pregnant with his child (not a big surprise so I'm not really giving anything away). The razor thin story revolves around Dante and Randal realizing that at some point they may actually have to grow up and whether Dante moves to Florida with his fiancee or stays to be with Becky.

But as I said the fun with Jay and Silent Bob flicks is the conversational riffs and arguments that take place. In this case there are plenty to keep fans happy. Randal's confusing Helen Keller and Anne Frank, his argument that "porch monkey" is not a racially derogatory term, and a hilarious argument between Randal, his protege Elias (who he frequently torments) and a customer as to whether Star Wars or Lord Of The Rings was the better trilogy. Throw in cameo appearances by Ben Affleck and Jason Lee, stupidity from Jay, and a graphic beastiality, or "inter species erotica" scene, and you have a pretty typical, which is to say enjoyable, Kevin Smith movie.

If you like his style go see the movie. If you don't, well you probably stopped reading this review a few paragraphs ago.

Rating - 7/10