When Kevin Smith announced that his next film would be a sequel to "Clerks," most of his fans rolled their eyes. I have to admit, I was one of them. For one thing, he said that it would be titled "The Passion of the Clerks," which I thought was really stupid. Secondly, since his last film, "Jersey Girl," didn't do that well, making a sequel to "Clerks" seemed like an obvious attempt at returning to where his bread and butter was. Finally, it made little sense to make a sequel to "Clerks." The first one ended brilliantly (and I'm not talking about the original ending, where the place got robbed and the main character was killed). Making a sequel to the beloved film seemed foolish and screamed of desperation. Now that I've seen it, I'm thinking that maybe I was wrong. Not only is "Clerks II" a good movie, and not only is it just as funny and raunchy as the first one (perhaps even more so), it's also very poignant. I haven't stopped thinking about it since walking out of the theater.
I watched the first "Clerks" on video (that's right, video... not DVD) when I was in my mid-20s, and at the time, I felt like I could totally relate to the characters. Like them, I worked at a dead end job, and I felt like I had the whole world in front of me. All I had to do was get off my ass and do something. Well, I did, and now I'm in a position where most people would say that I'm relatively successful. I'm no millionaire, not even close, but I'm doing okay. Am I happy? Sure. I could always be happier, but generally speaking, yeah, I'm happy. "Clerks II" is about people who DIDN'T get off their asses and do something, people who had a dead end job in their 20s, and ten years later, they still haven't done anything with their lives. The crazy thing is that even though I'm no longer like them, I can still relate to them. As I said earlier, even though I'm pretty happy, I could be happier, and maybe if I made different decisions in the past, I WOULD be happier.
It's a funny thing being in your 30s. Your 20s is when you're supposed to have fun, be carefree, and live your life to the fullest. But when you're in your 30s, you spend a lotta time reflecting on your 20s. A lot of the best times of my life seemed to be when I was in my 20s, like when I was working at the dead end job I mentioned earlier (a comic book store called Tekno Comix in the Miami International Mall), or while I was learning about film production and digital media at Full Sail. But was I as happy in my 20s as I think I was? I doubt it. Looking back on it, yeah, it seemed like I had a blast, but a lotta times when you think about the past, the bad stuff is filtered out. Then again, I don't remember a lotta good stuff about my teenage years, but who does? Anyway, no matter what your 20s were like, I think a lotta people in their 30s wonder if they should have done things differently. Maybe have more fun, spend more time at school, focus more heavily on their career. No matter how you spent your 20s, I think everyone in their 30s wonders if they should have spent it differently. Or maybe I'm wrong, I dunno. Whatever, anyway...
I really like "Clerks II," but it gets surprisingly corny at times, to the point that I almost felt like cringing while watching it. Also, there are more than a few problems with logic. The stuff that goes on inside of the restaurant is ridiculously over the top, and there's no way that any of that stuff would be allowed to go on in real life. Everyone there would be fired instantly. Also, the scene with the racial slur wasn't nearly as funny as was intended. I wasn't offended or anything, I like ethnic humor, it's just that it didn't work in the movie. It just came across as awkward. Wanda Sykes and Earthquake were funny in that scene, but as a whole, the scene didn't work. The stuff that does work REALLY works, though. The dialogue is vintage Kevin Smith, and for the most part, it's always hilarious. The go-kart scene is great, as is the musical number (that's right, there's a musical number). I like the ending a lot, even if it IS a little too convenient. It also leaves open the possibility for another sequel.
Ya wanna know what the best thing is about "Clerks II," though? Rosario Dawson, by far. She totally blew my mind. I was pretty indifferent to her in the past. I didn't think much of her one way or the other in "He Got Game," "25th Hour," "Men in Black II," or especially "Josie and the Pussycats." I thought she was very pretty, and I knew she was a good actress, but for whatever reason, I was indifferent. Now I'm seeing her in a whole new light. I loved her in "Sin City" last year, and now with "Clerks II," she's officially become one of my favorite actresses. It doesn't hurt that, as it turns out, she's also a bit of a comic book geek. Rosario Dawson plays a character that just about every guy could fall in love with, and she plays her perfectly.
Rosario Dawson is excellent in the movie, and Trevor Fehrman is really good, too. He's an actor I've never seen before, but he's great. The rest of the acting ranges between adequate and pretty damn bad. Also, I think Kevin Smith made a huge mistake casting his wife, Jennifer Schwalbach Smith, in such a huge role. I did like all the cameos, though very few of them are surprises.
I've seen every single one of Kevin Smith's films, and I like all of them. With "Jersey Girl," Smith showed maturity and thoughtfulness, but with "Clerks II," he proves that he can give us the same thing, but without abandoning the raunchy humor that we all liked so much in "Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back," "Dogma," "Chasing Amy," "Mallrats," and of course, the original "Clerks." I don't know what he has up his sleeve next, but I'm happy to see that he hasn't gotten soft or lost his touch.
"Clerks II" surprised me. I knew I'd laugh a lot, but Rosario Dawson was a revelation, and I didn't think it would be as deep or as poignant as it was. I sure as hell didn't expect to be thinking about the movie so much after it was over. And yes, the humor is sophomoric, depraved, and very raunchy, but it's also, most of the time, really funny. I liked "Clerks 2" a whole lot, despite the significant flaws. I'm not the only one. When it screened at the Cannes Film Festival, it got an eight-minute standing ovation. Now that I've seen the movie, I can understand why.
Scale of 1-10: 9