CORPORATE LINE: Ten years ago best friends Dante Hicks (BRIAN O’HALLORAN) and Randal Graves (JEFF ANDERSON) were New Jersey mini-mall clerks still slacking off together in their early 20s. Now, Kevin Smith checks back in to see what kind of changes have rocked their lives — in work, romance and their eternally raucous life philosophy.
What he discovers is that never before have so many still done so little while having so much fun doing it. Now working in the fast-food universe, Dante and Randal have managed to maintain, and even hone, their in-your-face attitudes, agile skill with vulgarities and unbridled love of screwing with the customers. But they’re also faced with such shocking new prospects as marriage, leaving Jersey and finding real careers.
Smith (“Clerks,” “Chasing Amy,” “Dogma,” “Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back”) pushes his nothing-is-sacred humor right to the edge and then takes a leap as Dante and Randal invade the world of Mooby’s fast food restaurant, where the slogan is “I’m Eating It.” Behind the counter, where the only other employees are an uber-nerd (TREVOR FERHMAN) and an entirely too sexy manager (ROSARIO DAWSON), Dante and Randal are free to offend anybody and everybody who so much as orders fries in their inimitably irreverent way.
But, even as riotous debates rage between them over such burning matters as George Lucas v. Peter Jackson v. Jesus, change is on the horizon. When Dante announces that he’s going to leave Jersey forever and marry Emma Bunting (JENNIFER SCHWALBACH), Randal plots a going-away party so shocking it will draw the police, the fire department and potential protests from PETA, while altering their lives forever.
THE REVIEW: Clerks is done all over again in color. Perhaps the better movie would have been to release the original Clerks in color. Wait, maybe that’s what this is—it felt that way. It’s funny to see a movie by the same writer/director/actor in a sequel that feels like a remake. If you take out Rosario Dawson this would be mistaken for the first film.
The premise of the film and what is supposed to be funny is that all these years later the characters are still total losers. It was cool when we were in college laughing at these idiots—but the movie is as pitiful as the two lead characters. The biggest problem is how much Smith’s life has changed since making the first film. He’s got money, influence, friends in Hollywood, and definitely lots of friends who tell him he is brilliant. Smith might be brilliant—but there is something missing from Clerks II that was in the original.
FRANKLY: Most of the conversations in Clerks II sound like a daily conversation on the Howard Stern show—where it is actually funny. Clerks II isn’t a total lose—on the plus side it’s funnier than most comedies that get paraded out by Hollywood.
+ Charlie Craine
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