Latex Movie Review - Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back

Clerks was suppose to be the first in a trilogy of films taking place in New Jersey. It was the least expensive script in the trilogy an therefore became the only one independent film director Kevin Smith could afford to film. Clerks went on to be a modest hit and Smith drew attention from Universal who were interested in releasing his next film, but not particularly interested in his other movie planned for the New Jersey Trilogy, the controversial Dogma. Smith came up with the idea of trying to revive the screwball teenage comedies of the '80s that included Fast Times at Ridgemont High and the result was Mallrats which became the second in the trilogy. This was followed by another indie hit Chasing Amy which should have completed the trilogy, but mid-production Dogma got the green light. This gave Smith's trilogy an unprecedented fourth movie. What tied these films together was that each featured the characters Jay and Silent Bob played by Smith and his friend Jason Mewes. The films had picked up a cult following and fans began to ask Smith when he planned to release the next chapter in the trilogy. Smith decided that the next film would be the last one, and since he would be doing it strictly for the fans then the story would center around the seires most popular characters, Jay and Silent Bob.

In what was suppose to be the final View Askewniverse movie Smith went overboard at making it as silly as possible. Jay ( Mewes ) and Silent Bob ( Smith ) have discovered that the comic book with characters based on them called Bluntman and Chronic is about to be made into a major Hollywood movie. After reading some negative threads on a movie website ridiculing the Bluntman and Chronic characters and realizing they were not getting any royalties from the movie, Jay and Silent Bob head off to Hollywood to stop the film from being made. While the first fifteen minutes of Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back brings back characters from all four trilogy movies, each with their own brief cameo role, what follows is a long road picture featuring the characters misadventures traveling to California. Things turn bad when the guys hook up with a van full of sexy girls who claim they are animal activists. They talk Jay and Bob into breaking into a building to rescue animals from a lab. This turns out to be a diversion as the girls are really a gang of jewel thieves. And while the clueless Jay and Bob keep the police busy they will be in a different building stealing valuable diamonds. Jay and Bob end up eluding the police and escaping with an Orangutan named Suzanne ( a reference to a visual gag seen at the end of Mallrats ). Almost immediately it becomes a Will Ferrel movie as he plays Marshall Willenholly who is more interested in tracking down the stolen Orangutan than the stolen diamonds. Pursuing Jay and Bob all the way to Hollywood, the entire cast ends up meeting up again at Miramax studios where Jay and Bob both have their names cleared when the real jewel thieves are caught, destroy part of the set of the Bluntman and Chronic movie, and end up getting the royalty money they were owed. For those expecting something with intelligent depth as was seen in Clerks, Chasing Amy or Dogma there is none to be found. Much like Mallrats, Smith was only interested in a set of sight gags. One could even argue that Mallrats is far more intelligent. As a comedy Jay and Silent Bob Strikes Back is among Smiths best. He is not interested in writing intelligent dialog that will win awards at the Sundance Film Festival but giving a treat to his fans. Half the jokes are all inside and only those who had seen all of the other View Askew movies as well as regularly read his website would understand them. For the rest of the audience new to View Askew and the trilogy there is Will Ferrel acting like, well, Will Ferrel. There is also Jay and Silent Bob who are always the dumb comedy relief in the past movies, excluding Chasing Amy where Bob in one of his few non-silent moments has an intelligent heart to heart discussion with Ben Affleck. The antics of Ferrel, Smith and Mewes is enough to entertain those who like low comedy, but for those who want to laugh at all the jokes I suggest they first watch all of the early View Askew movies, Good Will Hunting, the Scream trilogy and have read up on the history of View Askew films if they want to get all the inside jokes.

THE SCENE
About 36 minutes into the movie, the girls ( Shannon Elizabeth, Eliza Dushku, Ali Larter and Jennifer Schwalbach ) have just tricked Jay and Silent Bob into breaking into the animal lab. Once they are in the building the girls step out of the van, now all dressed in latex catsuits. Kevin Smith milks this scene for all it's worth, and immediately after leaving the van they all begin posing for the camera showing off all their curves. This is followed by a wonderful night time shot of all four girls walking side by side down the street. They reach the diamond exchange and send Schwalbach off while the other three break into the building. Schwalbach was the odd girl out here. The wife of Kevin Smith, he admits during the audio commentary that he had cast her because he could not say no when she asked to be in the movie. I am not putting her looks down. She is an attractive woman, and if only Jennifer Schwalbach was the one wearing a catsuit it would still be worth seeking out. But she is in the same scene with three of the top sex symbols of the 90's, a latex vixen dream team of Dushku, Elizabeth and Larter.

The remaining girls find the room where the diamonds are conveniently in a display case. Dushku sprays the air with a mystery substance which reveals the otherwise invisible laser beams which act as the security system. Break a beam and the alarm goes off. In addition the alarm is rigged to go off if there is any noise. Eliza begins doing somersaults through the laser beams making it across the room and next to the display case. Shannon follows also doing somersaults. Ali shows them off by doing Matrix style somersaults on the side of the wall, also evading the laser beams and reaching the display case. But when she lands she gives off a fart, setting off the sound alarm. So much for getting in and out without being noticed. Eliza breaks the case with her elbow and grabs the diamond, and all three run out of the building.