Twelve years ago, Kevin Smith gathered up a bunch of his friends from New Jersey, a camera, and a dictionary and created what would become one of the most well known and loved cult indie comedies ever. Since then, Smith and co. have come back time and time again with those same familiar characters to create a following of nerds and regular people alike. This year, Smith went back to the one that started it all and made Clerks II, the sequel to his indie success.
The film starts out almost exactly like the first Clerks, except that when Dante (Brian O'Halloran) opens the store (that yes, he's still working at,) he realized it's on fire. Cut to a couple years later; Dante and Randall (Jeff Anderson) have found new jobs at Mooby's, a fast food restaurant franchise that should seem very familiar to Smith fans. Dante is engaged to be married to the obnoxious Emma, played by Jennifer Schwalbach, who wears a "Mrs. Hicks" shirt through the whole movie. The two of them are planning on leaving New Jersey behind and moving to Florida... with her parents. The film struggles with whether or not he should go- leave the life he's known for over 30 years behind, and start something completely new. Of course, there's also the fact that he has an unlikely love fling going on with triple threat hottie Rosario Dawson, who plays Becky, the temporary manager of Mooby's. There is also a new awkward teen character, Elias, played awkwardly wonderfully by Trevor Fehrman. Throw in a few appearances of Smith's friends including Ben Affleck, Jason Lee and the always hysterical Wanda Sykes, ethnic jokes, beastiality and Star Wars/Hobbit arguments, and you get a pretty good idea of what the movie is like.
If you are a Kevin Smith fan, or atleast like Dogma, then you will probably enjoy this film. It's not the most amazing thing ever, and its faults are ones that are common with most Smith films. Since Smith has such a following, he doesn't really cater to the average movie going audiences, he caters to his fans. It's great that he's able to do that, but let's face it: if you don't like his other movies, save your money. This film has moments of comic brilliance, and also moments that will make you squirm with uncomfortably. Unfortunately, the acting talents of O'halloran and Anderson have not improved much over the past 12 years, but this is forgivable in the end. The film is enjoyable, and definitely worth seeing if you're a Smith fan. It may be one that you can suffer the wait until it comes out on DVD, though. Also, don't forget to sit through the credits, which are quite entertaining, and stay after the credits for the list of Clerks II MySpace Buddies. Also, you may want to rewatch part of Silence of the Lambs before going if you haven't seen it in a while.
Overall Grade: B-
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