Susan Granger’s review of “JAY AND SILENT BOB STRIKE BACK” (Miramax Films)
Wannabe film students and hipster cinephiles have flocked to writer/director Kevin Smith contemporary culture, slacker movies: “Clerks,” “Mallrats,” “Chasing Amy” and “Dogma.” They’re familiar with Jay and Silent Bob, two secondary characters (imagine foul-mouthed, Cheech and Chong versions of Rosencranz and Guildenstern) who finally have a cult movie of their own. These raunchy Red Bank, New Jersey dudes, played by Jason Mewes and Kevin Smith, learn that Miramax is making a movie about their comic-book alter-egos, Bluntman and Chronic. Not only are they not being paid by Holden McNeil (Ben Affleck), the artist who created them, but they’re also being dissed on Internet movie message boards. So they take to the road to stop the evil production, but detours en route to Hollywood comprise two-thirds of this sex-and-drugs film. George Carlin teaches them about hitchhiking and they encounter some sexy jewel thieves (Shannon Elizabeth, Ali Larter, Eliza Dushku and Jennifer Schwalbach, Smith’s real-life wife) posing as animal rights activists. There are plenty of star cameos, including Affleck, Matt Damon, Jason Lee, Chris Rock, Shannen Doherty, Carrie Fisher and Mark Hamill. SNL’s Tracy Morgan is a card-carrying L.A. drug dealer, while SNL’s Will Ferrell plays a Wildlife Marshall who wants to be an FBI agent. And director Gus Van Sant’s too busy counting his money to yell, “Action!” Crude, vulgar, offensive bathroom humor runs rampant, making “Road Trip,” “American Pie,” “South Park,” and “There’s Something About Mary” look modest by comparison. On the Granger Movie Gauge of 1 to 10, “Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back” is a gross, graphic, film-fanatic 3. Even they inquire, “What kind of buttheads would pay money to see a movie about us?”
