Review - Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back (2001)

          Hey guys, Chuck here. Well, last year on 4/20 I took a look at Dude, Where's My Car? and, while not the best example of a stoner comedy, it's still fun to watch even today. This year, however, I'm taking a look at a different stoner comedy with Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back. Written and directed by Kevin Smith, this movie is part of the popular View Askew franchise, which kicked off with the low budget classic Clerks, which introduced the characters of Jay and Silent Bob. The two would be featured in the next three View Askew films, including Mallrats, Chasing Amy, and Dogma. So, after being featured as supporting characters, it felt like the right time that the duo starred in their own movie. So, let's take a look at Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back.

         So, the movie opens in Leonardo, New Jersey, with both Jay and Silent Bob as toddlers being left in front of a local convenience store by their respective mothers. While this seems irresponsible, there is one thing we learn: Silent Bob's mother is more soft spoken, and Jay's mother swears like a sailor in front of her own child. After a bit of shouting between his mother and a random passerby, Jay stands up in his stroller repeatedly dropping the f-bomb, leading to a dissolve to Jay and Silent Bob as adults, in their usual spot outside of Quick Stop and RST Videos, where two teenagers are looking to buy some marijuana from the two. It is here that Randal Graves walks up and bad mouths Jay and Silent Bob's favorite music group, Morris Day and the Time. Randal then walks into Quick Stop, where his best friend Dante Hicks is working as the clerk. After the two teens repeat something Jay and Silent Bob told them about Dante and Randal, Randal decides to call the police, taking Jay and Silent Bob away from the stores. Jay and Silent Bob then head to a comic book store, the Secret Stash, which is run by their good friend Brodie Bruce, who informs the two about the upcoming movie in production based on Bluntman and Chronic, a superhero comic that Jay and Silent Bob were the inspiration for. The two then head to find the co-creator of the comics, Holden McNeil, who reveals that he sold off his share if the comic to his creative partner Banks Edwards, who made the deal with Miramax Films to make the Bluntman and Chronic movie. Holden then introduces Jay and Silent Bob to the internet, where people are ripping on the very idea of a Bluntman and Chronic movie. So, Jay and Silent Bob decide to head to Hollywood to stop the movie from even happening. 

        So, the race is on to get to Los Angeles, and along the way, Jay and Silent Bob run into all manner off oddities, including a group of young people that look identical to the characters from Scooby-Doo, a group of catsuit-wearing diamond thieves driving around under the guise of animal rights activists, a hitchhiker played by George Carlin, and a wildlife marshall played by Will Ferrell. Jay falls in love with one of the diamond thieves, Justice. The two also rescue a chimpanzee named Suzanne, don't ask, but the two lose her when she's grabbed by people in a car marked "Critters of Hollywood." When Jay and Silent Bob finally make it to the Miramax lot, they get chased around by the gate security guard, and end up on multiple sets, including for a sequel to Good Will Hunting, a new Scream movie, and even a live-action Daredevil movie. The two finally meet the actors who will be starring in the Bluntman and Chronic movie: Jason Biggs from American Pie and James Van Der Beek from Dawson's Creek. Biggs and Van Der Beek get taken away by security, while Jay and Silent Bob are taken to the set, where director Chaka Luther King is directing the film, with Banky on set. So, they start filming a scene for the movie, where Bluntman and Chronic's so-called Blunt Cave is attacked by a Mark Hamill performance. No, seriously, they literally spell it out that it's Mark Hamill. Justice arrives, along with the other three diamond thieves: Chrissy, Sissy, and Missy. A fight between the four breaks out and Jay and Silent Bob strike a deal with Banky for half of what he makes from the movie, after Silent Bob breaks down that the movie deal technically required Jay and Silent Bob's permission, as the two were the character basis and likeness basis for the characters in the comics. Justice and the other three go to prison after Justice cuts a deal, Jay and Silent Bob travel across the country kicking the crap out of those who trash talked them on the internet, and the movie, officially titled Bluntman and Chronic Strike Back, is released to universally negative reviews. A party is held across the street from the Leonardo movie theater, featuring a live performance by Morris Day and the Time. An after-credits scene shows Alanis Morissette close the book on the View Askew universe. 

        So, Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back is really funny. With clever writing and directing by Kevin Smith, this movie is great. The cast, led by both Jason Mewes and Kevin Smith, includes the likes of Will Ferrell, Matt Damon, Chris Rock, Ben Affleck, Shannon Elizabeth, Eliza Dushku, Ali Later, George Carlin, Jason Lee, Brian O'Halloran, Jeff Anderson, and many more, and they're all fun to watch in this movie. The humor here is on point, and Mewes and Smith definitely make every scene they're in together just flat-out hysterical, and I love it. Ultimately, this film is definitely for Kevin Smith fans, as a lot of the throwbacks to Clerks, Chasing Amy, and Mallrats might be lost on newcomers. So, this movie only gets a rating of 4/5. This is Chuck signing off. Have a great 4/20, and I'll see you guys Thursday with my review of Avatar.