Only about 5% of the population will like this movie. In order to get the jokes, you need to know all about pop culture, but more than that, you need to have a better-than-average understanding of Kevin Smith's prior movies, which are "Clerks," "Mallrats," "Chasing Amy," and "Dogma." In case you don't know, Kevin Smith is the writer-director of those movies. Actually, if you don't know who he is, you probably shouldn't bother seeing this movie. Anyway, though none of those movies would really be considered a sequel, they're all related through what Kevin Smith calls the "View Askewniverse" (based on his production company, which is called "View Askew"), and "Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back" brings it all to a conclusion of sorts. That makes sense, since this movie may be the last one in the View Askewniverse, as Kevin Smith is gonna be directing "Fletch" movies now. Actually, there's gonna be one more before he goes on to do the "Fletch" flicks. He's doing a movie called "Clerks: Sell Out," which is based on the very short-lived "Clerks" animated TV series. When I say it was very short-lived, I mean it. Only two episodes aired. However, there's a 2-Disc Special Edition DVD of the series that has all 6 episodes, as well as lotsa other goodies. It's called "Clerks: Uncensored," and if you're a Kevin Smith fan, I highly recommend that you buy it.
Me, I'm a huge Kevin Smith fan. I have all of his DVDs (including the animated "Clerks" one), and I've watched all of 'em more than once. I love his style of humor. His movies have comedy that shifts from extremely lowbrow to extremely highbrow in just a few seconds, and he makes a lotta jokes that only geeks like me would get, usually having to do with movies, comic books, and TV shows. Like all of his movies before it, "Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back" has all of those things... but this time, multiply by ten. This movie is totally exclusive to geeks, the cool people shouldn't waste their time with this one. Kevin Smith made this movie for his fans, and his fans only. In order to even know what's going on, you have to walk in with at least a familiarity with his other movies. If not, you'll be lost.
During "Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back," I laughed a lot. Really, I mean, I laughed a LOT lot. The thing is, I gotta warn you, it's a very stupid movie. It's definitely Kevin Smith's stupidest movie, and keep in mind, "Dogma" featured a demon made completely out of human excrement (that's "shit," in case you didn't know). This movie is so insanely stupid that it tests your suspension of disbelief. How much are you willing to accept? The more you're willing to accept, the better your chances of liking the movie.
Aside from that, I think one of the biggest problems in this movie is that somewhere in the middle, it screeches to a halt. The jokes don't seem funny anymore, and the movie starts dragging. It does pick up again, but that slow part in the middle is rough. Or maybe it's just that I haven't been sleeping well lately, I dunno.
Kevin Smith assembled quite a cast for this movie. Many of them are playing the characters they played in past Kevin Smith movies, but Ben Affleck and Jason Lee each play two characters. Ben Affleck plays himself (or more accurately, a satirical version of himself) as well as "Holden McNeil," a character he played in "Chasing Amy." Jason Lee plays "Banky Edwards," a character he played in "Chasing Amy," and "Brodie Bruce," a character he played in "Mallrats." There are tons of people in this movie, including Kevin Smith's wife as a brunette jewel thief and his daughter who plays an infant version of himself, but ya wanna know who really surprised me? Shannon Elizabeth. That's right, the hot foreign exchange student in "American Pie." I never really thought much of her as an actress, but from what I saw in this movie, she can really act! She had an interesting character to work with, and she executed perfectly. Her face is really expressive, and her performance was a pleasant surprise.
There are cameos all over the place (some of which are very obscure), and they usually lead to big laughs. Actually, I don't think I wanna get into the cameos or anyone else who was in the movie. All I'll tell you is that "Jay" is played by Jason Mewes and "Silent Bob" is played by the writer-director, Kevin Smith. Those two may not be "real" actors, but they're still hilarious in their roles. Of course, it helps that this is their fifth time doing it. They're really great, though.
Did you know that while shooting "Mallrats," Universal Pictures tried to get Kevin Smith to hire another actor to play "Jay"? The actor highest on their list was Seth Green. Eventually, Kevin Smith was able to convince Universal that Jason Mewes was good enough, and the executives ended up loving him.
As I mentioned earlier, this movie was written and directed by Kevin Smith. As a writer, the guy is amazing. He's an excellent writer who writes some of the best dialogue I've ever heard. As for directing, well, he's not really all that great. The weird thing is that he KNOWS he's not the best director in the world, yet he still does something that bothers me. He criticizes other directors. Most notably, he repeatedly rips on Paul Thomas Anderson, the genius filmmaker who made "Boogie Nights" and "Magnolia." I like Kevin Smith and I like Paul Thomas Anderson, but I think that Kevin Smith is wrong for doing that. After he saw "Magnolia," he went on his web site and basically ripped the movie apart, saying how awful and boring it was. He even got to rip on "Magnolia" a little bit in this movie. I know that it might make Smith seem more hip or whatever, but he doesn't need to do that. At best, it's unprofessional, and at worst, it's foolish. Recently, he's been attacking my favorite director, Tim Burton. He eventually stopped, though. I don't know why Kevin Smith feels the need to do all that, but I think he should cut it out. It's lame.
So there you have it, I guess. There's not much more I can say (write). If you like Kevin Smith movies, you'll love "Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back." If you don't like Kevin Smith movies, you'll hate this movie more than I hate "Empire Records" (which is saying a lot). And if you don't know who Kevin Smith is, and you've never seen any of his movies, well, you might laugh a few times, but you won't really know what the hell you're watching.
Scale of 1-10: 8