In the fifth entry in Kevin Smith’s View Askewniverse, audiences are treated once again to the decidedly silly antics of Jay and Silent Bob.
I’m not as interested in reviewing the film as I am about wondering why he keeps making them. I understand that Smith likes working with friends (hence the constant reappearance of familiar faces like Ben Affleck and Jason Lee), but you have to ask yourself, when is enough enough?
Don’t get me wrong, I like the Smith films (Chasing Amy is my absolute favorite), but Jay and Silent Bob were lovable only because they contrasted so sharply with everyone else around them. When they become the rule instead of the exception, IQs start dropping.
The movie basically has two things going for it, 1) Jason Mewes’ fuck-this-fuck-that delivery and 2) Smith’s unexplainable fetish for real-life-imitates-film jokes. I counted 3 separate occasions where the characters would face the camera and look directly at the audience in a theatrical aside. I’ve never liked that technique, and I’ve never liked films that use them a lot. It’s just … I don’t know, weird.
I’m not sure if Kevin Smith will every completely leave the little world he’s cobbled together in the years since Clerks, but I hope he finds another angle to bounce his stories off of in the future.