Post by Matthew on Jul 24, 2006 2:26:34 GMT -5
Whether or not you are planning on seeing this movie's probably already been decided: my thoughts on it aren't going to sway you one way or another. So I'll just get on with my own reactions to it, and thoughts about it, in a generalized review, with some spoilery squeeing invisotexted at the end, and, well, I guess we can use this thread after the end of this post for discussion of the movie in a venue that ain't gonna spoil anyone else.
So, if you haven't seen it yet, well, just stop reading at the end of the visible part, I guess.
More than ten years gone, and Dante Hicks is still flying whichever way the wind blows. We arrive with him at the Stop 'n' Go to pursue daily routine: opening the shutters on the store to get ready for the early-morning customers. No gum in the lock this time, but the Stop 'N' Go is now Dante's inferno. Randal's left the coffee pot on one time too many.
Fast-forward a year, and our two heroes are working at Mooby's: the Golden Calf parody of McDonald's from Dogma. It's Dante's last day there: at the age of 33, he's finally found someone to settle down with and marry: he's going to have the American Dream life.
Whether he wants it or not.
Emma is a rich man's daughter who has finally come around to seeing in Dante the inner sweetness and giving nature that he has, and has made all the arrangements for their happy life together. Her father is giving Dante a job as the manager of one of his chain of car washes: and she's fairly certain that the wedding gift they'll be getting is a house. She's even picked the date and made up the invitations for their wedding, showing up at the Mooby's with them as a surprise. They are packed and ready to drive to Florida the next day, leaving the life of New Jersey behind: Emma assures him that it's alright to accept this largesse: that just because he's used to having life crap on him, he shouldn't be unwilling to accept it now that he's "hit the jackpot." His manager/confidante/friend Becky describes Emma as his "Golden Ticket."
And therein lies the problem: Dante knows he's supposed to want to run the chocolate factory: he just doesn't know if he actually likes chocolate.
Randal, for once, isn't actively trying to sabotage Dante's plans for his own ends: he's letting him go, and is cultivating a nineteen-year-old innocent named Elias, working at the store on this day with the two of them and Becky, as a surrogate for what he's going to be losing in his easily-exasperated best friend and foil: and Elias is just the kid to do that. An incredibly devout Christian and devotee of The Lord of the Rings and "Transformers" who has no clue where sexual biology ends and mythology begins, Elias is Randal's only hope of continuing on a symbiotic slacker lifestyle after Dante kisses Jersey good-bye. Randal's determined to send Dante off with good memories, and arranges a truly unforgettable good-bye party for his best friend.
Jay and Silent Bob are here again, of course: this time they aren't the Greek Chorus, they are more the deus ex machina, but they provide some truly wondrous sight-gags throughout the day's events. Clean and sober for six months after court-ordered rehab, and sporting their blue chips and their Holy fuckin' Bible and a Buddy Christ shirt, they are still dealing drugs and acting... like Jay and Silent Bob: the mouthy, obscene innocent and his mute keeper.
It's definitely a movie for Kevin Smith's fans: though not so much as Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back was. It's very much in tune with the original Clerks in the way the deepest issues of friendship and love and passion for life, issues that cut to the bone, are wrapped in the layer of juvenile humor and seemingly non-sequiturish commentary on pop culture: and it's got a bonus to it: Kevin Smith has become a better director, and Brian O'Halloran, Jeff Anderson, and Jason Mewes have all learned to act in the twelve years since Clerks, and they are joined by the shining Rosario Dawson as Becky, and Trevor Fehrman in a wonderful standout performance as Elias. And where J&SBSB was a Warner Brothers Cartoon, Clerks II is a fairy tale.
Thus endeth my attempts at professionalism in reviewing: now I'm gonna go all fanboy, and I'm gonna invis-o-text my squeeing about the in-jokes and the stuff that made me laugh until I cried, so as to avoid spoilage for those who haven't seen it and are gonna. And I guess after the end of this post, we won't bother with inviso-texting: consider this the warning of "Beyond here there be spoilers for this movie"
Not much in here, I'd say, other than delight that some of my favorite characters are gonna semi-slack off into the sunset, and that Dante almost grows a spine, after twelve years. I liked the original title of The Passion of the Clerks because I can see Smith making this Dante's "Garden of Gethsemane" experience: and I know bloody well why he just changed it to Clerks II after all the crap he'd gone through with Dogma from people who didn't see the deepness of the current of faith that ran through that movie.
And I loved the cameos by Jason Lee and Kevin Weisman.. and Jay dancing to the music from the Buffalo Bill scenes in "Silence of the Lambs" and the "tuck" shot, whoosh!!!
And "Mr. Pillowpants" and the other trolls... oh lord, that poor boy.. and the look on Randal's face as Elias is explaining the "troll" situation to him. The idea that Even Randal can be shocked. That whole sequence, and the way the kid playing Elias pulls it off.. wondrous.
I only thought about the fact that "Kelly" can be a male name too when the van pulled into the parking lot, towing the donkey trailer.
And the multicultural dance video sequence made me giggle: it reminded me of a similar "music video" type sequence I'd seen recently in the original Pink Panther: completely pointless. And yet funny as hell: and I loved the way that you could see Dante's feelings for Becky in his appreciation of the way she was dancing. "Something a little less demonic, please!"
And oh my god: the "Porch Monkey" argument, and Wanda Sykes' quick little cameo.... So in line with Randal's character to not understand that it's a racial slur.
So, if you haven't seen it yet, well, just stop reading at the end of the visible part, I guess.
More than ten years gone, and Dante Hicks is still flying whichever way the wind blows. We arrive with him at the Stop 'n' Go to pursue daily routine: opening the shutters on the store to get ready for the early-morning customers. No gum in the lock this time, but the Stop 'N' Go is now Dante's inferno. Randal's left the coffee pot on one time too many.
Fast-forward a year, and our two heroes are working at Mooby's: the Golden Calf parody of McDonald's from Dogma. It's Dante's last day there: at the age of 33, he's finally found someone to settle down with and marry: he's going to have the American Dream life.
Whether he wants it or not.
Emma is a rich man's daughter who has finally come around to seeing in Dante the inner sweetness and giving nature that he has, and has made all the arrangements for their happy life together. Her father is giving Dante a job as the manager of one of his chain of car washes: and she's fairly certain that the wedding gift they'll be getting is a house. She's even picked the date and made up the invitations for their wedding, showing up at the Mooby's with them as a surprise. They are packed and ready to drive to Florida the next day, leaving the life of New Jersey behind: Emma assures him that it's alright to accept this largesse: that just because he's used to having life crap on him, he shouldn't be unwilling to accept it now that he's "hit the jackpot." His manager/confidante/friend Becky describes Emma as his "Golden Ticket."
And therein lies the problem: Dante knows he's supposed to want to run the chocolate factory: he just doesn't know if he actually likes chocolate.
Randal, for once, isn't actively trying to sabotage Dante's plans for his own ends: he's letting him go, and is cultivating a nineteen-year-old innocent named Elias, working at the store on this day with the two of them and Becky, as a surrogate for what he's going to be losing in his easily-exasperated best friend and foil: and Elias is just the kid to do that. An incredibly devout Christian and devotee of The Lord of the Rings and "Transformers" who has no clue where sexual biology ends and mythology begins, Elias is Randal's only hope of continuing on a symbiotic slacker lifestyle after Dante kisses Jersey good-bye. Randal's determined to send Dante off with good memories, and arranges a truly unforgettable good-bye party for his best friend.
Jay and Silent Bob are here again, of course: this time they aren't the Greek Chorus, they are more the deus ex machina, but they provide some truly wondrous sight-gags throughout the day's events. Clean and sober for six months after court-ordered rehab, and sporting their blue chips and their Holy fuckin' Bible and a Buddy Christ shirt, they are still dealing drugs and acting... like Jay and Silent Bob: the mouthy, obscene innocent and his mute keeper.
It's definitely a movie for Kevin Smith's fans: though not so much as Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back was. It's very much in tune with the original Clerks in the way the deepest issues of friendship and love and passion for life, issues that cut to the bone, are wrapped in the layer of juvenile humor and seemingly non-sequiturish commentary on pop culture: and it's got a bonus to it: Kevin Smith has become a better director, and Brian O'Halloran, Jeff Anderson, and Jason Mewes have all learned to act in the twelve years since Clerks, and they are joined by the shining Rosario Dawson as Becky, and Trevor Fehrman in a wonderful standout performance as Elias. And where J&SBSB was a Warner Brothers Cartoon, Clerks II is a fairy tale.
Thus endeth my attempts at professionalism in reviewing: now I'm gonna go all fanboy, and I'm gonna invis-o-text my squeeing about the in-jokes and the stuff that made me laugh until I cried, so as to avoid spoilage for those who haven't seen it and are gonna. And I guess after the end of this post, we won't bother with inviso-texting: consider this the warning of "Beyond here there be spoilers for this movie"
Not much in here, I'd say, other than delight that some of my favorite characters are gonna semi-slack off into the sunset, and that Dante almost grows a spine, after twelve years. I liked the original title of The Passion of the Clerks because I can see Smith making this Dante's "Garden of Gethsemane" experience: and I know bloody well why he just changed it to Clerks II after all the crap he'd gone through with Dogma from people who didn't see the deepness of the current of faith that ran through that movie.
And I loved the cameos by Jason Lee and Kevin Weisman.. and Jay dancing to the music from the Buffalo Bill scenes in "Silence of the Lambs" and the "tuck" shot, whoosh!!!
And "Mr. Pillowpants" and the other trolls... oh lord, that poor boy.. and the look on Randal's face as Elias is explaining the "troll" situation to him. The idea that Even Randal can be shocked. That whole sequence, and the way the kid playing Elias pulls it off.. wondrous.
I only thought about the fact that "Kelly" can be a male name too when the van pulled into the parking lot, towing the donkey trailer.
And the multicultural dance video sequence made me giggle: it reminded me of a similar "music video" type sequence I'd seen recently in the original Pink Panther: completely pointless. And yet funny as hell: and I loved the way that you could see Dante's feelings for Becky in his appreciation of the way she was dancing. "Something a little less demonic, please!"
And oh my god: the "Porch Monkey" argument, and Wanda Sykes' quick little cameo.... So in line with Randal's character to not understand that it's a racial slur.
