"Clerks II" SPOILERS!
Jul. 22nd, 2006 03:08 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
nolawitch58Hey, I said there were going to be spoilers. Don't fucking THINK about clicking here if you don't want sizeable chunks of the plot revealed.
I'm usually leery of sequels, expecially sequels written so long after the original movie came out. Also, there's a certain hackneyed quality of sequels that are made after the filmmaker achieves some renown. Kevin Smith's subsequent films have built on the early brilliance he showed with "Clerks". He has wisely stuck to his strong suit and stayed within the New Jersey comedy genre that he pioneered. That genre now contains such films as "Harold and Kumar Go To White Castle".
"Clerks II" started strongly and kept the comedy chugging along at a wonderful pace throughout. The reprise of some of the original scenes at the beginning eased us into the sequel nicely. Dante and Randal working at a Mooby's after the Quick Stop burned down tied in some of the elements from his other films.
Thankfully, Smith didn't tone down any of his iconoclastic tendencies. The language was as vulgar as it could be. Jay and Silent Bob returned to do what they do best and help move the plot along in key scenes and add the glorious absurdities that only they can bring to the table. The roof scene where Becky tries to teach Dante to dance was reminiscent of the hocky scene in the first film and worked perfectly within the structure of the second.
When Dante's fiance Emma was introduced, it was clear that they were an ill-suited match. It was also clear that they wouldn't end up together, although it was interesting how that feat was accomplished. The difference between Emma and Becky as Dante's romantic entanglements helped showcase Dante's problem with decisions and dealing with his future. Randal, as usual, was the voice of deranged reason to Dante's Hamlet-like vacillation. Emma represented what Dante thought he was expected to want. She was beautiful and her father had money. As Becky said, Emma finally understood the wisdom of settling down with a regular guy after fucking her way through the pretty boys in early adulthood. Becky had no idyllic illusions and was more down-to-earth and suited to Dante than Emma was.
The new character of Elias shows promise in any additional sequels. He's an amalgam of the strangely ignorant current crop of youth who've come of age during the craptacular Bush Administration. Elias knows nothing about sex for a person of nineteen. He thinks of his religion as a security blanket, but that blanket is smothering him. That he doesn't know any better than to believe girls have trolls living in their vaginas to prevent them from having premarital sex is an indictment of the idiotic abstinence only programs the Christofascists have instituted in schools. On one hand, you're horrified at his naivete and on the other, you could easily become enraged that someone that age has had the curiosity beaten out of him and he meekly accepts his lot.
Toward the end, the donkey show became the perfect catalyst to tie all the loose ends up and set everything to rights. I heard on Rachel Maddow's show earlier this week that some jerk movie reviewer got up and walked out with a snide remark at that point in a screening. Obviously, the jerk had no clue what Smith's previous films were about or he had a problem with interspecies erotica. The scene wasn't even graphic. That guy must have been a really weak-assed pussy for that to disturb him.
There are several little touches throughout the movie that not only refer back to the first film, but also further develop the characters. Dante shows his intimacy with Becky by polishing her toenails in the same off-hand way he polished Veronica's fingernails in the first film. The scene where Jay does the same dance to the same music as the Buffalo Bill character in "Silence of the Lambs" is hilarious. You can see a brief snippet of that in one of the many commercials for the movie. Totally hilarious. Smith wisely doesn't jump into the next scene's dialog after one of those gems so as to let the audience have its laugh.
If you liked "Dogma", "Clerks", "Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back", you'll like "Clerks II". If Kevin Smith can write another sequel as good as this, he can start thinking about "Clerks III" in a few more years.
I'm usually leery of sequels, expecially sequels written so long after the original movie came out. Also, there's a certain hackneyed quality of sequels that are made after the filmmaker achieves some renown. Kevin Smith's subsequent films have built on the early brilliance he showed with "Clerks". He has wisely stuck to his strong suit and stayed within the New Jersey comedy genre that he pioneered. That genre now contains such films as "Harold and Kumar Go To White Castle".
"Clerks II" started strongly and kept the comedy chugging along at a wonderful pace throughout. The reprise of some of the original scenes at the beginning eased us into the sequel nicely. Dante and Randal working at a Mooby's after the Quick Stop burned down tied in some of the elements from his other films.
Thankfully, Smith didn't tone down any of his iconoclastic tendencies. The language was as vulgar as it could be. Jay and Silent Bob returned to do what they do best and help move the plot along in key scenes and add the glorious absurdities that only they can bring to the table. The roof scene where Becky tries to teach Dante to dance was reminiscent of the hocky scene in the first film and worked perfectly within the structure of the second.
When Dante's fiance Emma was introduced, it was clear that they were an ill-suited match. It was also clear that they wouldn't end up together, although it was interesting how that feat was accomplished. The difference between Emma and Becky as Dante's romantic entanglements helped showcase Dante's problem with decisions and dealing with his future. Randal, as usual, was the voice of deranged reason to Dante's Hamlet-like vacillation. Emma represented what Dante thought he was expected to want. She was beautiful and her father had money. As Becky said, Emma finally understood the wisdom of settling down with a regular guy after fucking her way through the pretty boys in early adulthood. Becky had no idyllic illusions and was more down-to-earth and suited to Dante than Emma was.
The new character of Elias shows promise in any additional sequels. He's an amalgam of the strangely ignorant current crop of youth who've come of age during the craptacular Bush Administration. Elias knows nothing about sex for a person of nineteen. He thinks of his religion as a security blanket, but that blanket is smothering him. That he doesn't know any better than to believe girls have trolls living in their vaginas to prevent them from having premarital sex is an indictment of the idiotic abstinence only programs the Christofascists have instituted in schools. On one hand, you're horrified at his naivete and on the other, you could easily become enraged that someone that age has had the curiosity beaten out of him and he meekly accepts his lot.
Toward the end, the donkey show became the perfect catalyst to tie all the loose ends up and set everything to rights. I heard on Rachel Maddow's show earlier this week that some jerk movie reviewer got up and walked out with a snide remark at that point in a screening. Obviously, the jerk had no clue what Smith's previous films were about or he had a problem with interspecies erotica. The scene wasn't even graphic. That guy must have been a really weak-assed pussy for that to disturb him.
There are several little touches throughout the movie that not only refer back to the first film, but also further develop the characters. Dante shows his intimacy with Becky by polishing her toenails in the same off-hand way he polished Veronica's fingernails in the first film. The scene where Jay does the same dance to the same music as the Buffalo Bill character in "Silence of the Lambs" is hilarious. You can see a brief snippet of that in one of the many commercials for the movie. Totally hilarious. Smith wisely doesn't jump into the next scene's dialog after one of those gems so as to let the audience have its laugh.
If you liked "Dogma", "Clerks", "Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back", you'll like "Clerks II". If Kevin Smith can write another sequel as good as this, he can start thinking about "Clerks III" in a few more years.
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concider in chasing amy....
Date: 2006-07-22 09:29 pm (UTC)...
it wouldn't be the first time it was in a kevin smith movie
Re: concider in chasing amy....
Date: 2006-07-22 09:33 pm (UTC)Re: concider in chasing amy....
Date: 2006-07-22 09:39 pm (UTC)is that it was more an atempt to head into the dramatic, and his skill is, as you said, the iconic jersy comedy...
though it's nice how it all fits together