Movie Reviews
Clerks 2 
Rated R, 1:35 (2006)
Starring: Brian O'Hollaran Rosario Dawson, Jeff Anderson, Jason Mewes, Kevin Smith
Direction: Kevin Smith
Production:
Screenplay: Kevin Smith
MGM / The Weinstein Company
by Vincent St. James
The Lowdown:
Ladies and Gentlemen: the Return of Kevin Smith.
Clerks
Clerks was, and still is, an Indie classic. It represented what was true and raw about our worlds: we mostly like to sit around and talk non-pc, and usually about other people. Not only that, but the original Kevin Smith flick also set the stage for a career in which comedy stemmed from "normal" people and their words that usually made us think, if not go "groooosss." Well, Smith has gotten older over the years, has quite a bit of filmmaking under his belt, and even got to experience making a movie with Ben Affleck and Jennifer Lopez.
Now, more than a decade later, Kevin Smith has returned to his roots in Clerks 2. This movie, which stars Brian O'Halloran and Jeff Anderson as Dante and Randal, respectively, serves us the laughs in much the same manner as its predecessor. The Quick Stop has burned down, though, and they now get their laughs from a place called "Mooby's." Before all is said and done, they have thoroughly dissected the Star Wars and Lord of the Rings Trilogy , watched a man, well, do it with a donkey, and seen Jay strike an eery pose reminiscent of Silence of the Lambs' Buffalo Bill.
As with any Kevin Smith film, the writing and relationships prove to be more valuable than the acting. We're glad the whole gang is back (almost) to keep that authentic feel, but what really separates this one from it's predecessor, besides an attempt at actually being darker in comedy, are its authentic messages about Love and Life. Don't get me wrong, the movie is very funny in true Kevin Smith (read: Jay and Silent Bob)style, but it makes it so much better when we actually care about the characters. Most of the leads are there just to say the lines Smith has written, and Jay and Bob are as slick as ever, but credit must be given to Rosario Dawson for adding another dimension to the movie that I was not expecting. It was hard to recognize Dawson at first since her acting seemed so much more fluent and natural than some of her other movies, and her perfomance thankfully adds a lot to this one, unlike it did in Sin City. The relationship between the two male leads cannot be overlooked either...when they say they love each other ("in a totally heterosexual way"), we believe it.
Smith is great at interpersonal relationships, but here shows he knows what its like to be a man pondering about his life. The film takes plenty of steps to show the inner workings of middle agers reflecting and second guessing their pasts as well as pondering their futures. What this means is that this version of Clerks cares a lot more about the place of people in our lives than the original.
Its funny, heartwarming, and just as crazy as anything else that has Jay and Silent Bob. See this one, but be warned: the humor is not for the light of heart.
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