Review: JAY & SILENT BOB STRIKE BACK

THE CURTAIN CLOSES ON THE STILL HILARIOUS JAY & SILENT BOB
                                       

(reviewed at AMC Granite Run on Satuday, August 25th, 2001 w/ Jack and Annie)

   This is it. This is the end. The end of the View Askewniverse. If it even needs a name. It is, after all, Kevin Smith’s universe. His “dick and fart jokes” universe, built upon by slackers and stoners and clerks.
    It all started in 1994. Clerks hit it big at Sundance. Then Mallrats hit but didn’t make any money, and a lot of a-hole critics panned it (Steven Rea gave it three stars…I still remember). So Smith came back with a hard-core independent titled Chasing Amy. It was funny but grown-up (a little bit, anyway). Then Dogma, his religious epic, hit. Now Smith has released Jay & Silent Bob Strike Back, his worst effort so far, but that doesn’t mean much. Why? Because Smith is one of the best writer/directors working today. Clerks and Mallrats are legendary. They are hilarious. They are entertaining. Dogma is funny, but also very complex and interesting. Chasing Amy showcased Jason Lee once again. And Ben Affleck became a star. It’s all over, however. Kevin Smith’s universe is done with. No more Dante. No more Randall. No more Brodie or Banky or Jay or Silent Bob or Steve-Dave. No more.
    This is the fifth and final chapter of Kevin Smith’s expanded trilogy. He has said that he wants to make more serious films, or at least, ones that don’t involve his characters that we have come to love and admire. He’s moving on. He’s got a more serious film lined up to star Jason Lee. And then he’ll probably make that Fletch movie. It wouldn’t surprise me if his other stars show up as different characters, and I doubt we’ll see the end of Jay or Silent Bob, but for now, this chapter in Smith’s life is over.
    Jay & Silent Bob Strike Back is Smith’s end to end all films. It’s the apotheosis of all dick and fart joke movies. If you actually look back at Clerks, that film was major serious compared to this latest opus of zany proportions. Basically, in Chasing Amy, Banky and Holden McNeill created a popular comic book based on both Batman & Robin and Jay & Silent Bob. It was titled Bluntman & Chronic. Holden moved on in Amy, and sold the comic book rights to Banky. In J&SBSB, Banky has sold the rights to Hollywood, where a big motion picture is underway. Jay (Jason Mewes…just about as hilarious as ever here, he eats up the screen in every scene he’s in) and Silent Bob (the writer/directior himself, Smith) find out that a movie is being made, and they haven’t gotten a dime. They soon find out that people on the internet (one of the greatest lines in the film comes when Jay says, “What’s the internet?”) with screen names like MagnoliaFan are bad mouthing Jay and Silent Bob. The Laurel & Hardy of the 90’s/00’s want revenge. They head out on a road trip from Leonardo, New Jersey to Hollywood, California to strike back.
    While there is a lot of funny stuff in this film, including a plethora of cameos, and a healthy heaping of inside Hollywood jokes (many Hollywood pros play themselves), there are a lot of sequences that just fall flat, namely the pseudo-action scenes. While Clerks was hilarious, it was never over the top. It was silly, but never out of bounds. Mallrats was over the top also, but it never went too far. This film goes a little bit too far. It’s out there. It’s all over the place. You either go with it or you don’t.
    Jay & Silent Bob Strike Back never comes near Clerks in the funny department, or Mallrats. But it is highly entertaining and a downright funny ride. These characters are great. The only real problem beyond the over-the-top factor is that some of the funniest characters in the View Askewniverse, like Jason Lee as Brodie or Banky, and the clerks themselves, don’t appear as much as they should.
    But Jay and Silent Bob couldn’t be funnier. They’re great. And while this film is never as great as it could have been, it makes a point to take everything Smith wants to say about “dick and fart” jokes and lay them to rest.
    I’m going to miss these guys and these characters. I’ll never forget them. Kevin Smith has created a wild world, a wild place to hang out and just have fun. It was great while it lasted, and for the most part, this is definitely a fun comedy to cap off a great five picture ride. **1/2

Review: AMERICAN PIE 2

AMERICAN PIE 2 IS HALF-BAKED

(reviewed at the mecca with jack, steve, and debbie on Sunday morning, Aug. 12th, 2001)

    In February of 2000 I finally saw American Pie. Like most, I thought of it as the next generation of Porky’s. What I realize now is that American Pie, the first one, may have had a lot of hilarious sexual hi-jinks from High Schoolers, but it wasn’t as bad as Porky’s. The first American Pie had some “gross” scenes like the infamous fucking the apple pie incident. But all in all, that film was never as over-the-top ludicrous or as silly as Porky’s.
    Yes, a High School senior had sex with a much older woman. Yes, a premature ejaculation was shown live via the internet. And yes, a red headed nerd was secretly fed a laxative so that he had to take a horrendously loud shit in the girls bathroom.
    Okay. I admit it. American Pie was silly and over-the-top and funny, but for my money, it was never as stupid or dumb as Porky’s or The Revenge of the Nerds. American Pie was in a class by itself. It was a great movie.
    The sequel, American Pie 2, however, fits perfectly with Porky’s and Nerds. Why? Because the sequel has no heart. It’s all gross out gags and ridiculousness. It’s like they forgot that the first film was half-gross out but also half realistic. The sequel is the kind of film that you watch and laugh at a few parts, but you come out saying, “The first one was better.” American Pie 2, for my money, is the kind of film that you see and wish the word “sequel” didn’t exist. Yes, AP was a lot of fun. Yes, we laughed at Stiffler and at Finch and at Jim and Nadia’s love interest. It was a great film. It was legendary. Does that mean we need a sequel? No.
    Sadly, Universal only saw the bottom line, and at least they got back the entire cast and screenwriter (though Paul and Chris Weitz, the co-directors, smartly disappeared).
    The last time we saw the guys was at Dog Years, toasting their sodas to “the next step.” We cut to the last day of their first year at college where coincidentally some of the main characters not only go to the same schools but have the same classes. The guys head back to East Great Falls, Michigan where they all decide to rent a summer house for the, uh, summer. It’s right up against Lake Michigan. And it is gigantic and huge and right on the beach, yet they have no problem affording it. Go figure.
    Basically, American Pie 2 focuses on the summer with the guys by the lake.
    That’s it. There isn’t really a “plot”, not like they needed one. After all, the first film’s only plot was about losing one’s virginity before High School graduation.
    If you have seen any previews for this film, then, sadly, you have seen just about every funny scene in the thing. The best aspects of this flick are Stiffler (of course, although he isn’t nearly as funny as he was in the first one…it seems like the crew overdid his part a bit…he’s funnier in small bits), the Sherminator (and we never do find out who invited him to their beach house in the first place), and the walkie talkie scene. Yes, the walkie talkie scene is more or less a complete rip-off of the internet scene, but it works, and it is the funniest and best thing in the entire film. As for what doesn’t work? Everything else. I won’t ruin anything, but Michelle, the red headed band geek, shows up more than once or twice, and sadly, she isn’t funny at all. The other bad aspect is the total waste of the other characters. Finch is given nothing funny to do. Kevin and his old girlfriend are more or less just there. They get nothing to do. Jim is given more abusive and embarrassing hi-jinks, but none of them are nearly as funny as the apple pie debacle. And the worst part of this film is the ridiculousness of it. The first film may have some odd things like internet stripping, but at least it was based in a world of reality. The world this sequel takes place in is a fucking fantasy realm. They added way too much silliness that would have been better suited in Porky's.
    American Pie 2 on it’s own would have been a funny film. But the first one was so much better, so much fresher, and so much funnier. It had everything and more. This one is a pale imitation. It’s not that funny, it’s boring, it’s too long, and it wastes everything the first film cemented. I hate when sequels diminish their predecessors. And sometimes, sometimes you wish the word “sequel” never existed. *1/2 (out of ****)

Review: RUSH HOUR 2

TUCKER & CHAN PUT THE FUN BACK INTO THE POPCORN FILM

(reviewed at AMC Granite Run 8 with Mom on Wednesday, August 8th, 2001)
 
  This summer has to have been one of the worst summers on record. No, I am not talking about weather wise or real news wise. No, I’m talking about movie wise. The summer movie season is always my favorite. I anticipate it after Christmas because it’s the next big thing. Yes, it helps that I get off school for 3 months, but in reality, I would love the summer movie season even if I was working.
    This summer’s crop looked somewhat promising. But so far, with only a few left to hit (Jay & Silent Bob Strike Back, John Carpenter’s Ghosts of Mars, Captain Corelli’s Mandolin, and The Curse of the Jade Scorpion to name the biggest), this summer has turned out to be the Hollywood Summer of Shit 2001. I missed a lot of films, including A Knight’s Tale, Evolution, Tomb Raider, Swordfish, Atlantis, Scary Movie 2, The Score, Made, Ghost World, Sexy Beast, America’s Sweethearts, Legally Blonde, to name a few. I saw a lot too, including The Mummy Returns, Shrek, Pearl Harbor, A.I., Jurassic Park 3, The Planet of the Apes, and American Pie 2.
    Shrek was a little bit too over the top for me, but it was entertaining and great to look at. Spielberg’s A.I. was a hit or miss film, but I think I enjoyed the majority of it. As for the rest, where do I begin? Pearl Harbor had a good forty minute explosion sandwiched between some of the worst horse shit put on film. Jurassic Park 3 may have been made for children, but it still royally sucked. How hard is it to make a friggin’ good dinosaur movie??? And the worst movie of the summer had to be one of the most anticipated, and yes, with The Planet of the Apes, we should have realized going in that Tim Burton and co. were going to fuck it up. They even ripped off the surprise ending from a Kevin Smith comic book (unproven, but still, I think it’s funny that USA Today and The New York Post wrote about it).
    How hard is it to make a good popcorn film? It shouldn’t be hard at all. Is it harder to make a good popcorn film than a good drama or a comedy? Maybe, because I have only seen two good popcorn films all year, and only one of them hit this summer. The summertime is supposed to be the time we see these great popcorn films. Remember when popcorn films were actually watchable? Jurassic Park was awesome, as was True Lies and Speed. I haven’t seen a good popcorn film like those three in years.
    And this late in the summer (Friday, August 3rd- Opening Day) we finally get to see a good popcorn film. Not an awesome popcorn film, but one that just makes you smile and have a good time with. To smile and laugh and clap and leave the theater smiling proudly.
    This movie, not surprisingly, is Rush Hour 2. This sequel re-teams Jackie Chan and Chris Tucker as the yin and yang (one’s funny, one’s exciting) detectives out to solve a pseudo-plot. If you remember the first film, then you recall that a Chinese girl was abducted in Los Angeles and Jackie Chan was sent to solve the case. Chan had to team with a street smart detective played by Chris Tucker. If you remember the first film, then you remember the arguments (“Do…you…understand…the…words…that… are….coming…out…of …my…mouth?”) and the lesson on how to sing the song “War.”
    In this sequel, Chris Tucker heads to Hong Kong for some vaca, while Chan is busy attempting to solve the mystery of a U.S. Embassy bombing. The reason to see this film is not for the plot however, which only gets sillier and sillier. And even Zhang Ziyi (the feisty little beauty from Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon) is half-wasted as a villainious non-speaking bomb expert (don’t ask). The reason to see this film is for Chris Tucker and Jackie Chan. There is more action in this film than in the first, but this film is first and foremost a comedy. And what a comedy it is. Chris Tucker may annoy those over thirty, but to me he is downright hilarious. He makes this movie truly watchable. Some of his quips are legendary, especially his Godzilla tidbit.
    Rush Hour 2 is not an Oscar winner. It is not a dramatic feat for the eyes. It isn’t even as funny or good as the first Hour (though it’s pretty close). I enjoyed Rush Hour 2. It had some action, a lot of laughs, but in the end, it’s just plain entertaining. I enjoyed it a lot. I didn’t want it to end. I laughed every time Chris Tucker turned his head. I was loving every action scene that they could fit into the film. This is the best popcorn film of the summer, which is kind of sad almost, but, granted, I’m glad we got at least one. **1/2