Raunchy, R-Rated Sequel Runs Beloved Franchise Into The Ground

By Chris Snellgrove
| Published 6 seconds ago

As an elder millennial, I have a lot of respect for Kevin Smith. When the filmmaker has something to say, he often creates weirdly profound movies. Clerks is funny, sure, but it also perfectly captured the malaise of getting older and still not knowing what you want to do when you grow up. Chasing Amy had some of the best sex jokes ever put on film, but it also shone a spotlight on the insecurities that can destroy even the strongest relationships. Heck, beneath its many sacrilegious punchlines, even Dogma had powerful things to say about faith, redemption, and embracing the divinity within our flawed, human shells.

When Smith doesn’t have much to say, you are left with self-indulgence and little else. Beyond its charming characters, for example, Mallrats had little to offer but verbose jokes aimed squarely at pot-smoking English majors. One of the worst offenders was Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back, a movie whose only redeeming quality was its banger of a soundtrack. As a fan of the director, I was really hoping that earlier outing would be as bad as it could possibly get, but Smith later outdid himself in the worst possible way. The follow-up film, Jay and Silent Bob Reboot (2019), is an absolutely awful sequel that barely deserves to be called a movie.

Coming Down From The High

The plot of Jay and Silent Bob Reboot is that Bluntman and Chronic are getting a reboot film from director Kevin Smith. Because of this and a surprise court ruling, Jay and Silent Bob have lost the rights to their own name. The two erstwhile stoners hatch an insane plan to head to California and keep the film from being made, thus winning back their names. Once these not-so-young men head west, they discover something shocking: Jay has a daughter he never knew about from a previous girlfriend. With the help of this gal and her band of enthusiastic weirdoes, our heroes hope to blaze (in every sense of the word) their way through Hollywood.

There’s no gentle way to say this, but Jay and Silent Bob Reboot is a hot mess from top to bottom. To start with, our titular duo is played by Jason Mewes and Kevin Smith, neither of whom is a very good actor. They work as zany side characters in movies like Clerks, where their lack of skill as performers gives them a kind of rough-around-the-edges authenticity. But as leading performers, they are seriously lacking, something that is made even clearer by the sheer number of big-name cameos in this film.

Nepo Avengers, Assemble!

Jay and Silent Bob Reboot has appearances from just about everyone in Smith’s beloved Viewaskewniverse. The movie features cameos by Ben Affleck, Jason Lee, Justin Long, Rosario Dawson, and more. Several franchise newcomers are also big names, including Joe Manganiello, Fred Armisen, and Val Kilmer. While most of these established stars aren’t in the film for very long, they don’t need much screen time to act absolute circles around Mewes and Smith. Conversely, our dimwitted duo seems like Oscar winners compared to Harley Quinn Smith. She plays Jay’s daughter in the movie, but in real life, her father is Kevin Smith.

As a family guy myself (and not just because I’m working on a Peter Griffin waistline), I understand the director’s impulse to try to make his child a star. Unfortunately, the result is a perfect storm of sh*t: the collective talent of the bigger stars of this film leaves the younger Smith looking even more out of place than her famous father. But even if she were the best actor in the world, performing in Jay and Silent Bob Reboot would be an uphill battle because she is dealing with one of the worst comedy scripts ever written.

He Needs To Talk About Kevin

Sadly, this isn’t a so-bad-it’s-sometimes-good sequel like Mallrats. Nor does it descend into full schlock like Tusk, which might have made it perfect to watch when imbibing Jay and Silent Bob’s favorite drug. Instead, this reboot is just kind of there: most scenes just feel like excuses to bring old characters back, and the result is less like a feature film and more like a series of shorts held together by forced punchlines. Beyond allowing for reunions with many of his previous actors, Jay and Silent Bob Reboot exists for one reason: so Kevin Smith can offer half-baked (pun very much intended) homages to his own life and career.

Unfortunately, this is another area where this sequel falls flat. Smith’s later film Clerks III does a much better job of looking back on his life and wringing something heartfelt out of all the d*ck and fart jokes. But Jay and Silent Bob Reboot is the worst of both worlds because its broad, deeply unfunny comedy flattens every emotional moment into something flat and brittle. At the same time, the director’s attempts at poignant depth keep the movie from fully embracing stupid slapstick that might, at the very least, earn a smile from time to time.

Let’s Blow This Joint

You won’t smile much while watching Jay and Silent Bob Reboot. You won’t frown, either. Instead, you’ll spend most of your time looking at the screen, head tilted in horrified anticipation at each new scene. Who will be the next famous actor Smith trots out instead of telling a story? What ‘90s-ass punchline will he drop on you next with the full force of your best friend’s pog collection? How else will he screw up the pacing while giving us the cinematic equivalent of a 12-year-old’s “isn’t this so deep” fanfiction?

These are just a few of the questions you’ll ask while watching this film. This is a natural side effect of your mind wandering in its naked attempt to escape the once-funny world of Kevin Smith. Still, there’s a lot here for superfans to glom onto, and it provides unexpected closure to several of this universe’s most beloved characters. Maybe that sounds like something you’d enjoy, or maybe you just want to give your brain a chance to get away from it all. Either way, it’s time to grab the remote and practice your best “snootchy-bootchies!” war cry, because Jay and Silent Bob Reboot is currently streaming for free on Tubi.

JAY AND SILENT BOB REVIEW SCORE