Clerks 2 Lives Up to the Kevin Smith Standard

I wasn't planning to see Clerks 2 at first. Being a huge fan of the original movie, I didn't really see what good a sequel would do, especially as this sequel had crazy things like a budget and color. Several of my friends ended up seeing the movie as soon as it came out, and from the bits of the plot that I heard from them, I decided that I would rather spend my $7 elsewhere.

Eventually, however, my boyfriend won out. We're both huge Kevin Smith fans, but his enthusiasm is greater than mine. When we found the DVD version of Clerks 2 that came with a plastic cup, hat, nametag, and cute little box, he couldn't resist it. He agreed to watch the movie first, and tell me if I was really going to hate it. His opinion was that it was really good, and that I would actually like it. Trusting his word, I sat down to watch it, finally.

He was right. Even though Clerks 2 diverges from its predecessor, there is enough about Clerks 2 to make it enjoyable for someone who thinks that Clerks is probably the best Kevin Smith movie to date.

The plot, roughly summarized, is that the sequel takes place about ten years after the first movie. After a fire destroys the convenience store and video store where Dante (Brian O'Halloran) and Randal (Jeff Anderson) worked, they both get jobs in fast food, working at Mooby's. A year later, Dante is preparing to leave New Jersey with his fiancée, Emma (Jennifer Schwalbach Smith), but begins having second thoughts. His concerns are compounded when he learns that his manager, Becky (Rosario Dawson), is pregnant with his child. Add to this the fact that Randal increasingly makes it apparent that he doesn't want Dante to leave New Jersey, and Dante is forced to make a major decision: leave the state he hates with a woman who he doesn't necessarily love, or stay in the comfortable place where his best friend and the woman he really loves live.

As for the acting, Jay (Jason Mewes) and Silent Bob (Kevin Smith) are up to their usual antics, and O'Halloran and Anderson as Dante and Randal give their characteristically good performances. Rosario Dawson also turns in a great performance, and I'm embarrassed to admit that I didn't even recognize her from Sin City until I was watching some of the special features. I personally wasn't particularly impressed by Jennifer Schwalbach Smith in this movie, but even her poor acting is far superior to some of the ridiculously poor acting from the first Clerks movie.

If you liked Clerks, then the crude humor of Clerks 2 is probably right up your alley. Kevin Smith pushes the envelope a little further in this movie, but the crude jokes are in somewhat slightly better taste, being more about sex and less about death. I can only hope that he will keep making movies like Clerks and Clerks 2, and less like Jersey Girl.