Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back directed by Kevin Smith (70%)

Kevin Smith's fifth film, Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back, is the culmination of all his films that came before.  It takes place in the same world as Clerks., Mallrats, Chasing Amy and Dogma. It features, besides Jay and Silent Bob, many of the characters that feature in those previous films as well as featuring cameos from a slew of other famous names and faces.

After watching Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back (I'm just going to call it Strike Back from now on), I just wasn't sure how I felt about this film. On one hand, it's hilarious; from start to finish, Strike Back features some true gems of comedy.. Even better, the film features Jay and Silent Bob in the leads and after four films where they were featured in the sidelines, its great to see them again where they do a great job throughout as the leads of the film. Ben Affleck, Matt Damon, Carrie Fisher, George Carlin, Chris Rock and Mark Hamill amongst many others make some really amusing cameos. And I can't not mention how sexy both Eliza Dushku and Shannon Elizabeth look in this film.

Smith's dialogue really is great in this film. With in-jokes about Hollywood, celebrities making fun of themselves, and some real obscure situations that Strike Back puts the characters in, the viewer is sure to have a good time.  Now I say that the writing is fantastic and the humour is laugh out loud funny and it is true, but like Dogma and Mallrats, Smith throws in some real juvenile humour that just doesn't fit into the rest of the film. His tendency to include an over abundance of poop jokes really brings down the level of his films (which is one of the main reasons why Chasing Amy shines over all other Kevin Smith productions).

Unlike Dogma, the poop jokes aren't the only thing that brings down Strike Back. With Chasing Amy, Smith showed a maturity that wasn't in his two films. He showed he was growing as a director. Then with Dogma, he bloomed.  Dogma looked phenomenal, was striking in it's colours and sets and special effects, and the camera no longer just shot the scenes it became an integral part of the film bringing the viewer into the story and making them feel for the characters. But his direction here seems to revert back to his Mallrats days, and after watching Dogma, it is such a disappointment. The static photography that I hoped was gone was back, and with so much  action and movement in the story, it really made the film feel flat.  It should have looked and felt like Dogma, but instead we the viewer are kept at a distance from everything that we experience on screen.  It makes the film feel choppy, as if we are watching a bunch of scenes haphazardly put together, instead of a well made cohesive story.

But, I digress. Poop jokes and shoddy direction aside, Strike Back is well worth watching if you want to laugh straight for just shy of two hours. If you take the funniest parts of Clerks., Mallrats, Chasing Amy and Dogma and string them together, you still won't laugh as hard as you do in this movie.  (And a word to the wise: This movie will make a whole lot more sense if you have seen all four of Smith's previous films.) (And one more word to the wise: See Good Will Hunting before you see this film.)


Film Rating: 70%

Breakdown (How Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back scored 70%):

Production Design: 7 out of 10
Cinematography: 6 out of 10
Re-playability: 8 out of 10

Originality: 8 out of 10
Costumes: 7 out of 10

Directing: 6 out of 10

Editing: 7 out of 10

Acting: 7 out of 10
Music: 7 out of 10
Script: 7 out of 10