Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back (2001)

The fifth film in Kevin Smith's View Askewniverse, this is an absolutely hilarious film which very effectively parodies Hollywood. It tells the story of Jay and Silent Bob's rather eventful trip to Tinseltown to stop the production of the film adaptation of the comic "Bluntman and Chronic" based on their lives. As it was originally going to be the final View Askewniverse film, Smith decided to make his two signature characters the focus of the storyline for the first time. It features numerous references to the earlier films, though only a handful to "Dogma", and includes at least one character (other than the eponymous drug dealers / prophets) from each of them. It does not make any allowances for those who have not seen the first four films and as such it is doubtful that people not familiar with them would be able to fully appreciate it. Smith's writing and direction are both very strong. Rather than dealing with serious topics as was the case with "Chasing Amy" and "Dogma", the film is simply an excuse to have some fun. For my money, it is Smith's funniest film since "Clerks".As it is to be expected, Jason Mewes is hysterical as Jay, who remains as foulmouthed and idiotic as ever. One of the funniest parts of the film is when he imagines a devil on each shoulder - and later a battered and bruised angel - when he considers whether he or not he should drop his trousers in front of Justice, whom he has only known for a few hours. He eventually decides against it, which is perhaps for the best. What makes the scene works as well as it does is that all the time that he is receiving advice from these imaginary spirits, Justice is getting increasingly freaked out, if not downright frightened, by the fact that he keeps looking at his shoulders and reacting to nothing. Justice, a sexy international jewel thief - is there any other kind? - with whom he quickly falls in love, is played very well by Shannon Elizabeth and she has great chemistry with Mewes. When it comes to his relationship with Justice, Jay displays a softer side, after a fashion, and even stops calling her a "bitch" at her request. He instead calls her "boom boom kitty f***." He becomes so gallant and debonair as the film progresses that he could easily be mistaken for David Niven. Although he has far more screen time than in the previous films, Silent Bob has only two lines - perhaps he fell out with the writer-director - but his facial expressions communicate a great deal throughout. Smith's use of the film to mock his online critics may not have been the most mature thing in the world to do but, by God, it was funny.The film is basically an exercise in self-indulgence on the one hand and breaking the fourth wall on the other. And I love it for that! For instance, Ben Affleck reprises his role as Holden McNeil from "Chasing Amy" in the early part of the film and praises the talents of the talented young actor Ben Affleck, though he was not too fond of "Good Will Hunting". Later in the film, he plays himself and is depicted filming a scene of the considerably more violent "Good Will Hunting 2: Hunting Season" with Matt Damon, who is still annoyed that Affleck convinced him to do "Dogma". Gus Van Sant has a cameo as the uninterested director, who spends his entire time leafing through a script, seemingly that of another film. Perhaps he was contemplating doing a shot-for-shot remake of "Clerks". I would love to see the fictional "Scream 4" in which Jay and Silent Bob's orangutan friend Suzanne is revealed to be Ghostface! Jason Lee reprises his role as both Brodie Bruce and Banky Edwards from "Mallrats" and "Chasing Amy" respectively. Even though he has only one scene as Brodie, he manages to be funnier than he was at any point in "Mallrats" as he was given much better material. If there is one thing that I have learned from the View Askewniverse films, it is that New Jersey has a surprisingly small gene pool for a place with almost nine million people. Will Ferrell is good as Marshal Willenholly but he could have been considerably better. Eliza Dushku, Ali Larter and Smith's wife Jennifer Schwalbach are great fun as Sissy, Chrissy and Missy, Justice's partners in crime who are basically evil versions of Charlie's Angels. In skintight black leather. Chris Rock is incredibly funny as the "Bluntman and Chronic" director Chaka Luther King. Any resemblance to Spike Lee is purely coincidental. The film is full to the brim with great cameos but my favourites other than those I have already mentioned are Carrie Fisher as a nun, George Carlin as a hitchhiker, Mark Hamill as himself playing Bluntman and Chronic's arch-nemesis Cocknocker, Judd Nelson as a sheriff, Joey Lauren Adams as Alyssa Jones, Dwight Ewell as Hooper X (who is seemingly Banky's boyfriend these days), Jason Biggs and James Van Der Beek as themselves and, of course, Brian O'Halloran as Dante and Jeff Anderson as Randal.Overall, this is a laugh riot from start to finish. I am glad that this was not the end of the View Askewniverse after all but I would have been more than satisfied if it had been.

Spoiler alert!!!OK I really liked the whole idea for the movie and the idea of two no life's actually being inspirational. This whole movie is really funny and it feels like a dumb and dumber film just with more swearing, violence, and an annoying black so-called comedian bashing on white people all because he's having a bad day. I mean this movie was ruined not only by the white bashing but it was the talentless Chris rock! This guy drives me crazy and every time I see him, I'd like to punch the TV. I just have to ask why must a racist African American even be brought up? This movie was fine without him and besides he serves no comedic purpose except to make the viewer wish he was killed during the end fight scene. Now I don't expect you to agree with me about whether Chris rock is funny or not I just wish people would understand that race bashing should be outlawed. Come on whites get called racists because of this how come black people could get away with this?! Anyway the movie was very good it had a very good cast, with the exception of Chris rock. Overall I think the funniest scene was when the orangutan likely kills Jason Biggs and the other guy dressed up as Jay. I mean wasn't expecting it, that was ingenious. I give it a 7 out of 10.

I'm a fan of Kevin Smith, even though I didn't like Jersey Girl, he still makes great movies. Clerks, Dogma, and Mallrats I really like, even Chasing Amy is decent enough. So going in, I didn't know what to expect. Jay and Silent Bob had always been kind of in the background, so I was glad to hear that they were stretching this into a feature.There are a lot of good laughs throughout and I really liked it. Of course, the plot isn't supposed to be taken seriously and the characters are quirky. Even though Jay can be obnoxious, this character still has a lot of heart to him. Kevin Smith as Silent Bob is enjoyable to watch and when he finally says something, it's like a breath of fresh air. This movie is full of satire, endless cameos, and so many cross references to Smith's other films.It's one of those funny comedies that you watch with some friends late on a Saturday night. This was a pleasant surprise and I wasn't disappointed. I recommended it to anyone who like Kevin Smith's work and isn't easily offended!

Jay and Silent Bob have to trek across country to stop a movie from being made , based on their likenesses. after being kicked off of their block where they hang out at the corner store, they run into someone they know and they tell our heroes about a movie being made , and it turns out it's about them, they get advice from George Carlin and many other,, they get involved with sexy girls,, stealing a monkey,, and many other misadventures along the way including a showdown, with Ben Affleck and Matt Damon,, this is one of the funnier movies that I have seen in the past 20 years,, lot's of crude sexual humor, and sight gags,, lot's of references to other movies that have been made recently. if you're looking for a great funny "road trip" movie, than this is definitely worth watching,, and by the way Shannon Doherty is great in this movie as well.