I Finally Watched Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back

Introduction to the series
Clerks review
Mallrats review
Chasing Amy review
Dogma review


About a quarter of the way through Kevin Smith's fifth movie, "Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back," a comparison movie jumped to mind: The Muppet Movie. Yes, I just compared a raunchy, expletive-laden film with the big screen adaptation of a TV show featuring puppets, one of whom got his start from the children's classic Sesame Street.

The comparison is accurate.

One film features a pair of characters who decide to make their way across the country in order to stop a movie from being made. Along the way, they experience a series of misadventures filled with cameos before they reach Hollywood. The other film features a pair of characters who travel across the country in order to make a film in Hollywood. Along the way, they experience a series of misadventures filled with cameos before they reach Hollywood.

See? I'm not off base.

Every Hero Needs an Origin

For the two titular characters of this film, they've come a long way from the first appearance in Clerks. In that movie, they were side characters, but with each subsequent movie, they're roles have grown. The fourth film, Dogma, they were co-stars with the protagonist. Now, they are the protagonists. And they get their origins.

Granted, it's nowhere near as tragic as Bruce Wayne or Peter Parker, but, just as you'd expect, it begins outside the very same video story and Quick-Stop from Clerks. It was interesting to see the Quick-Stop in full color, yet the hand-painted sign was still there. It led me to wonder if Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back [Strike Back from here on] didn't take place on or around the same day as Clerks, but I dismissed it. Chasing Amy took place over days and weeks, so the sheet on the Quick-Stop was likely just an in joke.

Self-Referential to the Extreme

Here in 2019 when I am finally watching Smith's films, lots of folks talked about Avengers: Endgame as a unique movie-going experiences. Nowhere in that film was there a recap of the previous twenty or so films. You either knew the characters and the story or you didn't. The folks at Marvel knew this and didn't bother catching up some audience member who might've never seen a Marvel movie before.

The same dynamic holds true for Strike Back. On its surface, the movie is straightforward enough to be enjoyed by anyone. The basic description I wrote above serves that purpose. But if a viewer had already seen Smith's previous four films, then you got all the jokes and references.

Which is precisely the point.

Of the first five films of Smith's career, this is a fan-service film. Having not been aware of the movie back in 2001, I can't be sure of the following statement, but I can't help but wonder if Strike Back was the apology for Dogma. If you've read my review of that movie, you'll remember I didn't particularly enjoy it. Since then, I've read about it and learned it holds a decent score at Rotten Tomatoes and other places, but it is definitely the outlier of Smith's films so far in my watching marathon.

I suspect Smith wanted to make Strike Back on his own, but I also wonder if some studio executive didn't sit him down and lay everything on the table. "Look, Kevin, we know you're a darling indie filmmaker, but can you just go back to making stoner comedies instead of ruffling the feathers of organized religion?"

However Smith came to write Strike Back--and I've only recently learned of the documentary, "Oh, What a Lovely Tea Party" but I haven't seen it yet--he must have had a grin on his face every day he typed up the screenplay.

The Spirit of Mallrats

In Mallrats, you had a really fun film chock full of little asides about various pieces of pop culture or geekdom. The same is true for Strike Back as well, starting with the logo. Sure, I'd never seen this movie until July 2019, but when I saw the DVD in stores, I instantly realized the logo was akin to that of The Empire Strikes Back. And this movie also has Carrie Fisher and Mark Hamill. As Smith has said in his Fat Man on Batman podcast episode with Hamill, he got to play with the live-action Luke Skywalker action figure.

As an aside, I'm re-listening to some of the first episodes of Smith's original Fat Man on Batman podcasts. I just finished the pair of Hamill episodes. What I loved about the timing was when Hamill talked about his inspiration for his villain, Cocknocker, in Strike Back. He said it was Frank Gorshin's cadence as The Riddler in the Batman '66 TV show. He nailed it. His scenes were terrific fun, especially the "Not again" and "Jedi Master" lines. I bet he was an easy get.

The Cameos

Speaking of getting the band back together, I quickly realized I should not peruse the Wikipedia entry for Strike Back before I finished watching the movie. It was so much fun seeing the old characters pop in and out of the movie, deliver a line, or just be there. 

Dante and Randal! Brodie! Matt Damon. Wes Craven?

And Ben Affleck as Holden McNeil. Look, all the cast that showed up for this party on film did great, but I really dug Affleck's scenes. Him describing the internet early on pretty much nailed what the internet was in 2001...and remains today. That he was the one who uttered these lines, years ahead of his own public breakup with Jennifer Garner, is, well, unique timing.

It was with Affleck's internet scene that the fourth wall was broken for the first time. I have always enjoyed when movies and cartoons do this--Wile E. Coyote and  Road Runner; Jerry the Mouse; Ferris Bueller--and for the characters in Strike Back to do it just adds to the in-joke nature of this film.

Having these characters walk in and out of this movie and all the others does create that shared universe vibe. It's part of comic book history. Heck, I do it in my own series of interconnected mysteries. At least with this movie--once I stopped looking at the Wikipedia entry--lent a freshness to the watching experience. "Oh, I wonder who'll pop up next?"

To that end, I loved seeing Joey Lauren Adams as Alyssa from Chasing Amy walking out of the theater. I can't remember: was the lady she was walking with the same one in the last scene of Chasing Amy? Wouldn't doubt it.

Watching for the Trademark Kevin Smith Things

Everywhere you look, there are Smithisms in this movie. More than any other to date, this is a fan service film, and that's perfectly fine. Earlier this year, as he and Marc Bernardin discussed Avengers: Endgame, Smith makes no apologies for the fan service nature of that film. He speaks from experience. And, knowing Clerks II is on the horizon, I suspect he returns to that well at least one more time, two when you throw in Jay and Silent Bob Reboot.

Silent Bob Speaks

Smith's alter ego Silent Bob speaks twice in Strike Back. The first shows what Bob likely thinks about Jay half the time when he screams in his friend's face about the destination of their monkey. The other is late in the film when Bob discusses the legal nature of copyright with Banky. The first was memorable, although his original line of dialogue in Clerks is my favorite, with the Chasing Amy story second.

An interesting thing about Smith's voice. Remember, I was first introduced to him via podcasting in 2012, so I'm familiar with the tenor of his voice in his forties. He sounds different in these earlier films, but he sounds most like what I know him as here in Strike Back.

The Verdict

As goofy and over-the-top as Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back is, I thoroughly enjoyed watching this movie. I'll admit that about a third of the f-bombs could have been cut out, but it's a Kevin Smith film so that's par for the course. I'm not against swearing by any stretch, but f-bombs lose their impact if uttered too often.

I loved the party nature of this film. I've since found out that the was intended to be the last View Askew movie so Smith and company pulled out all the stops. It shows. And the film is better for it.

I started this entire discovery of Smith's films with the intention of being in-the-know when the new film, Jay and Silent Bob Reboot, debuts this fall. Based on interviews in 2019, Smith has an emotional connection to the new film largely a result of his heart attack in 2018. He's said that Reboot would likely have been a different film had no heart attack occurred. Knowing Smith is an emotional guy who cries at many of the same things I cry at, I'm really looking forward to seeing Reboot...because I enjoyed Strike Back so much.

The last thing I wrote on my notepad regarding Strike Back was "And we're back!" I intended that statement to be a summation as to how I perceived Smith's movies before I started watching them. I thought of them as only movies like Mallrats and Strike Back. I didn't anticipate how good Chasing Amy was or the kind of out-of-left-field nature of Dogma. As a writer, I'm more than one type of story, just like Smith. I want folks to know that my imagination can and does go in different directions. I appreciate that aspect about Smith's five films to date. Which is good, because I know Tusk and Yoga Hosers is coming.

But up next is Jersey Girl.

I Finally Watched Dogma

Introduction to the series
Clerks review
Mallrats review
Chasing Amy review

Well, a downturn was inevitable. How else does one explain Kevin Smith's often self-deprecating sense of humor about his own work?

Now, let me admit something: I wrote that opening line before I had finished the movie. Which is a way of saying I enjoyed the ending, but largely didn't enjoy the movie preceding it.

Expectations

Based purely on Smith's on stage persona and the type of guy he is in the podcasts I listen to, going into the Kevin Smith filmography, I had a certain expectation about what his movies were like. As I've mentioned in my reviews of Mallrats and Chasing Amy, those expectations were torn asunder with what I got on screen.

With the wildly divergent kinds of movies the initial three films of Smith's are, I had nothing in the way of knowing what to expect with Dogma (1999), his fourth film. It didn't land on my radar in 1999. I don't even remember hearing about it. The only thing I knew about this film was the presence of Jay and Silent Bob and Alan Rickman.

The Cast

Over the years, and especially when Rickman died in 2016, Smith has talked reverently about the actor. I was very curious to hear and watch Rickman deliver some Smith-penned dialogue. In every scene in which he appeared, Rickman was stellar.

Well, truth be told, most of the cast was pretty good. Ben Affleck (Bartleby) and Matt Damon (Loki) are fallen angels looking to get back into heaven via a loophole in the holy law. Seeing and hearing them deliver Smith dialogue was mostly good, but only in the smaller moments. Like on the bus when the pair see a couple making out and Loki predicts--correctly--that they are not married. I enjoyed seeing them take their road trip from Wisconsin to New Jersey, but some of the banter was just off.

Linda Fiorentino as Bethany Sloane,  an abortion clinic counselor, is pretty good, especially when she comes across with the gruff, seen-it-all sensibility. She's a perfect foil to Jay and Silent Bob, especially while keeping her squeamishness about Jay at bay. It was interesting to see her transformation from skeptic to believer by the end of the film. 

Jason Lee is back as a demon, and he's brought along three hockey-stick welding demons (sub-demons? Lieutenant demons?) to help him. He doesn't have as much dialogue as he did in Mallrats or Chasing Amy, but it's always a joy to see him on screen speaking Smith's dialogue.

Jay and Silent Bob as Prophets?

Which brings me to Jay and Silent Bob. They make their on-screen appearance saving Bethany from the triplet demons in such a way that I initially thought they were going to be transformed into super heroes. Thankfully, that wasn't the case. They're still just their same old selves. But Bob, at the end, gets some emotional heft, a nice change to the character who uttered some fantastic bits of life advice in Clerks and Chasing Amy.

Speaking of Silent Bob, um, speaking, I knew exactly what he was going to say right before he said, "No ticket." When it comes to Bob's dialogue, I guess it's the inverse of the Star Trek films: great wisdom in the odd-numbered films; jokes in the even-numbered ones.

The Ending

So I kind of struggled to watch most of the movie leading up to the ending. I liked bits and pieces of the film along the way, but it didn't seem to add up to a whole.

The ending, however, worked wonders for me. Really, really enjoyed it. By ending, I'm talking about the part when God, as played by Alanis Morissette, shows up on screen. Loved that she didn't talk, leaving Metatron to translate for the mortals and immortals. It serves the point not to get inside God's head because we humans can never comprehend God's thoughts. We will only understand once we shed these mortal coils and enter into heaven.

Then, after seeing all the death and destruction brought on by Loki and Bartleby, the camera zooms in to her face and then back out again. All is well. All evidence of the carnage is gone. Everything is back to normal. Peace has been restored.

But Bethany, who martyred herself, is still dead. Her lifeless body carried by Bob, who is opening crying. God walks over and, with a smile, heals Bethany, bringing her back to life.

I really liked this interpretation of the Almighty, especially in a film so unabashedly irreverent.

Kevin Smithims

First mention, if I remember correctly, of Hetero Life Mate.

The Verdict

The ending, alas, was not enough for me to enjoy the film as a whole. Like with Clerks, maybe I'm too old to get this. Maybe my own faith leads me to see the world differently. Don't get me wrong: I wasn't offended by what happened in the film or what was said. I just see the faithful life more like what God does in the end of the film rather than all the legalistic dialogue spoken by various characters. Damon and Affleck do a great job at pointing out all the flaws of humanity in their trek from Wisconsin to New Jersey. I know these kinds of things happen all the time and it sure would be nice to live in a world where sin was vanquished.

But we're human. We are imperfect. Perfection exists on a different plane, in heaven. Hopefully, we'll get there. In the meantime, we'll have to deal with all the crap we have to deal with down here on earth, always striving to remain vigilant and do the best we can.

In his first three films, Kevin Smith took on pop culture, life, love, and relationships. I enjoyed them all, each in their own way. With Dogma, he turned his focus on religion. Frankly, it surprised me. I would like to know why. Was it his Catholic school upbringing? Did he have some lingering stuff to deal with and Dogma was the way to deal? I'm genuinely curious because in the credits for these four films, Smith thanks God in all of them. Clearly Smith is a believer and knows from whence his talent is derived.

No matter why he made Dogma, I appreciate that he did. Clearly it's not the film for me, but that's okay. An artist should be free to follow whatever muse he wants, and Smith wanted to make Dogma. He did. Some liked it, some didn't. Perhaps more people didn't, and that's why his next film was Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back.

Let's see what happens.

I Finally Watched Chasing Amy

(This is the fourth in a series of how a fifty-year-old geek finally saw the films of Kevin Smith. If you want the origin story for this series, read the Introduction. I've already reviewed Clerks and Mallrats.)

You've got to be kidding me, right? Kevin Smith, the same guy who wrote Clerks and Mallrats, also wrote Chasing Amy?

Three Different Films...

Clerks is the slice-of-life kind of film famed for its indie spirit. Mallrats is a raucous comedy about twentysomethings in the mid 90s. Chasing Amy is an all-out romantic drama with some humorous dialogue thrown in. On the surface, you'd be right to question if the same writer developed all three films. But there's an underlying thread running through all three films.

Chasing Amy starts in a comic book convention. Check traditional Smith trope number one. A fan wanting to get his comic book signed starts an argument with Jason Lee's character, Banky Edwards. Banky is the inker for the famous Bluntman and Chronic book, and he and the fan dispute the importance of an inker. The fan says Banky is merely a tracer. Banky thinks otherwise. They come to fisticuffs, leaving it to Ben Affleck's Holden McNeil (the penciller) to break it up.

[Aside: The worst part about not knowing much of anything about Kevin Smith films and having to go to Wikipedia to verify names is seeing certain characters, like Banky, have their own entry. Thus spoiling things for future films, because the best thing about Smith's films is seeing how and where the same actors show up.]

Now, I'll admit when I first saw Jason Lee, I thought he was the same character as in Mallrats. Ditto for Affleck, which led to wonder how the two characters from Mallrats made up and work together. That's not the case here. In this film, the main stars, like the various other side characters, play different people in this movie.

It's at the comic con where Holden first lays eyes on Alyssa Jones, played by the brilliant Joey Lauren Adams. Alyssa is also a comic book writer, but for a not-very-famous title. Holden is besotted, especially when Alyssa invites him out to meet her in a bar. A very particular kind of bar that Banky picks up on pretty quickly but that Holden doesn't until the shattering moment when Alyssa makes out with a girl.

A Shared Moment

Alyssa is gay. Holden has no clue. He thinks she had eyes for him. She doesn't, but she likes him as a friend. Script-wise, the scene was great. The bartender, Hooper X, (Dwight Ewell) is flamboyantly gay and he's about to tell Holden the truth, but Holden's too fixated on Alyssa singing her torch song to listen. Banky looks around, sees all the evidence that it is a gay bar, and the smile Lee brings the Banky's face is fantastic. It's only when Holden's world is crushed when Banky tells him "That, my friend, was a shared moment."

The Frank Dialogue

In what I'm now realizing is a trope of Smith, Banky, Holden, Alyssa, and her gal head off to a different bar where copious amounts of dialogue occurs. In Clerks, it was about life in dead-end jobs. Mallrats was about suburban pop culture. Chasing Amy is about relationships, love, and sex. Here, Alyssa and Banky see eye-to-eye on many things. And, in a particularly hilarious spoof, they start comparing sexual scars...just like the three characters did in Jaws. When Alyssa props her leg on the table just like Robert Shaw in Spielberg's movie, I busted out laughing. Not only does the dialogue move the story forward, it's also a great in-joke for movie buffs. Just like Kevin Smith.

The Story Twist

After a so typical 90s montage scene showing Alyssa and Holden doing various things, getting along, and, of course, Holden falling in love, the movie comes down to two people sitting in a car. Rain pours down and Holden has to reveal the truth to Alyssa. He declares his love for her in a rather decent manner. Sure, it's not Billy Crystal in When Harry Met Sally, but it's genuine and heartfelt. And selfish.

Watching in 2019, in the week celebrating the fiftieth anniversary of the Stonewall riots, in a year in which it's no big deal to see same sex couples at the grocery store or concerts, I was shocked at Holden's declaration. What was he thinking? What did he expect would happen? I'll tell you one thing: Alyssa's reaction is exactly what I expected.

Joey Lauren Adams Knocks It Out of the Park

Up until this point in my Kevin Smith movie run, Joey Lauren Adams has been the bubbly girl with the unique voice and the infectious laugh. But in this scene when Holden lays out his heart, she is brilliant. The anguish. The betrayal. The anger. It all comes out in this fantastic scene, especially her reaction to Holden's stupid off-hand comment about "a period of adjustment." Great, great scene. I wasn't sure where they were going to go next, but I sure as hell didn't expect the kiss.

Nor the dating stuff. Sure, I expected the scene when Alyssa tells her friends, but what sets Adams's performance above everything in this movie is that she effortlessly goes from the anger of the rain scene to the wonderful explanation scene when she answers Holden's "Why me? Why now?" question. Her answer is so sincere and so from the heart. "The way the world is, how seldom it is that you meet that one person who just gets you - it's so rare." Holy cow, this is good. So good.

And then she turns it back up during the hockey scene and its aftermath. Man, I wanted to slap Holden for doing what every single guy in a relationship tries to do: find the history of the new girlfriend and compare. And Alyssa deservedly lets him have it. "I was an experimental girl for Christ's sake! Maybe you knew from early on your track was from point A to B, but unlike you I was not given a f***ing map at birth, so I tried it all! That is until we, you and I, got together and suddenly I was sated!" That may not be as succinct as "You had me at hello" or "I know," but that's one of the best declarations of love I've seen on screen, and it's delivered like a gut punch. Or a kick the nuts.

Jay and Silent Bob Arrive

Nearly eighty minutes into the film, Jay and Silent Bob arrive. Again, as in Mallrats, you can't help but wonder how a cool kid like Holden even knows or hangs around these two. Again, probably because he's best friends with the writer, Jay gets one of the funniest lines in the whole movie: "Bitch pressin' charges? I get that a lot." He delivers the line as if he's in a Naked Gun movie: deadpan, straight, and with obvious history.

Over three movies, I've been conditioned to expect Silent Bob to speak. He spoke gold in Clerks. He spoke a joke in Mallrats. Now, in Chasing Amy, I expected gold again. I got it, in the form of a soliloquy on love.

"I wasn't disgusted with her, I was afraid. At that moment, I felt small - like...like I'd lacked experience, like I'd never be on her level, like I'd never be enough for her or something like that, you know what I'm sayin'? But what I did not get - she didn't care. She wasn't looking for that guy anymore. She was...she was looking for me, for - for the Bob. But, uh, by the time I figured this all out, it was too late, you know. She'd moved on, and all I had to show for it was some foolish pride, which then gave way to regret. She was the girl, I know that now. But I pushed her away. So I've spent every day since then chasing Amy...so to speak."

Give Smith credit: he can write some awesome dialogue for his actors to say, but he saves some of the juiciest morsels for himself. Other actors might get more memorable and quotable lines, but the heart of the story rests in the words of Silent Bob.

Holden's Stunningly Stupid Idea

I've been keeping notes as I watch these movies. Yeah, I'm a dork, but I want to capture my thoughts. I wrote "astonishingly dumb!" when I realized what Holden suggests he and Alyssa and Banky do together:  have sex. She knew it, Banky was oddly clueless. Did Holden not hear what Alyssa said (and that I quoted here)? Did he not understand what Silent Bob told him? I mean, come on. If Silent Bob breaks his silence to relay some morsel of knowledge, listen man!

But no, Holden didn't listen. He thought the three of them having sex would solve everything, Alyssa's explanation as to why she was walking out the door killed any chance he had with her. Well, heck, let's be honest: after the hockey scene, there was no chance.

Separate Lives

It is still simply wild that Holden would even suggest such a solution, so I was greatly rewarded when the three of them ended up with three separate lives. As much as I was surprised with the initial kiss between Alyssa and Holden, I would have been pissed if they ended up together. Glad they didn't, but it makes the ending, the final line, that much more poignant. A year later, at another comic convention, Holden and Alyssa have a final and proper good-bye. When asked by her companion who Holden was, Alyssa has the perfect response: "Just some guy I knew," relegating Holden to a past lover, a past Alyssa will likely not mention unless asked.

The Verdict

Chasing Amy was an unexpected film. It didn't fit into the mold of what I assumed Smith's movies were like. I assumed he had a career of Mallrats and Clerks clones. That isn't what Chasing Amy is. This is a really good film, chock full of multiple truths, as told by a gifted storyteller with something to say in the mid 1990s.

There's a trend apparent in the first three films that I'm curious to see if it continues. With Clerks, it was all about the truth as Smith knew life as a young twentysomething not seeing himself or his friends represented on screen. It was cheap to look at but rich in character. Flush with success and money, he makes a strikingly different film in Mallrats, an over-the-top comedy I enjoyed but didn't make a lot of money. Batting only .500, Smith had to draw on more truth, this time an emotional truth. Clerks and Chasing Amy both look and feel like indie films. Mallrats doesn't.

This is kind of like the even numbered Star Trek movies being the better ones while the odd numbered ones just move things forward.

Looked at it another way, one might argue Smith's merely flexing his movie muscle, trying his hand at various types of movies he had consumed up until that point: the talky one, the comedy, the romantic drama. Knowing Dogma is next, I cannot even imagine what that film will be like.

But I'm eager to see it.

Watching for the Trademark Kevin Smith Things

A real treat about watching these films for the first time at age fifty and having listening to Smith's podcasts for years is to see how certain things he still says to this day initially show up in his movies. Here are a few I saw:

• First mention of cock knocker
• DeGrasse
• Alyssa overtly naming characters from Clerks and Chasing Amy
• Inker discussion
• Brian O'Halloran is back. That's three for three
• Camera work in the car while Holden and Alyssa are driving, the back-and-forth

Afterward

When I saw this movie in early July 2019, the trailer for Jay and Silent Bob Reboot had not yet dropped. When it did, the world got to see the fact that Affleck and Smith got past whatever had driven them apart. I've now listened to Smith relate the details of Affleck coming down to the set and working again as Holden. Which prompted Smith to write a sequel to Chasing Amy.

Look, I'm in the bag for the Reboot film, but having already seen eight of Smith's films as of this writing [21 August 2019], the Chasing Amy scene in Reboot is probably the one I'm looking forward to the most.