Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back
Another long night

by RICHARD DRAKE
for The Parthenon

And it was a long one, but of course it was very much in a good way. Obviously, I'm talking about the opening night of the absolute funniest movie of the year, "Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back." Thank you, thank you, thank you Kevin Smith for finally giving us something worth seeing this summer. If you haven't seen this flick yet, see it. If you have seen it, see it again. If you think it's too crude or beneath you, all the better for you to see it.

The last of writer-director Kevin Smith's "View Askewniverse" movies, J&SBSB is not the best of the five (preceded by "Clerks," "Mallrats," "Chasing Amy" and "Dogma"), itÕs not my favorite (that goes to "Mallrats;" Brodie rules!), but it is the most entertaining and laugh-out-loud funny movie he's made.

The big knock on J&SBSB is that it's made only for Kevin Smith fans; that there are too many in-jokes that the average movie-goer won't get. Well, that may be true but so what? Sure, there there's a ton of reverences to other Kevin Smith movies and plenty of in-jokes, but that only serves to make the movie more fun for those people who catch it all. But, the flick certainly has enough non-in jokes and the strength to stand on its own as a summer comedy so that the audience member who hasn't seen Smith's previous movies will still find it funny. The simple fact is that too many people feel they're above fart jokes, leather clad female diamond thieves, kidnapped orangutans and the other breath-of-fresh-air, low-brow humor that the movie industry so desperately needs. The movie-going community has taken itself too seriously for far too long. Have a sense of humor, see J&SBSB and laugh.

Besides when was the last time we had a good orangutan movie? It certainly wasn't that piece of trash that starred Joey from "Friends" and some chimpanzee. Remember that tone? That's okay not many people do, it was called "Ed" and it was a baseball movie too. Nice combination guys; great choice for a flick Joey (and it wasnÕt even a real chimp either!) We haven't seen a good monkey-buddy movie since the man himself, Clint Eastwood, and his pal Clyde gave right turns to bad biker gangs all through "Every Which Way but Loose." Now that was a good monkey movie and I'm happy to say J&SBSB joins it as one of the greatest monkey movies ever made.

Jason Mewes stars as Jay, the foul-mouthed drug dealer from New Jersey and Smith joins him a s JayÕs master of the facial expression sidekick, Silent Bob. The duo head out to Hollywood to stop a movie called "Bluntman and Chronic" from being made. Bluntman and Chronic are comic book characters based on Jay and Silent Bob. The two learn of the flick at the same time they learn that the internet buzz is centered around how stupid Jay and Silent Bob are. So how to stop all the Internet bashing? Stop the movie. Simple and plausible, and it shows how the two characters have grown throughout the five films. In J&SBSB they have a darn-tootin' good reason for trashing a movie set; to save their good names. Whereas in their second outing, Mallrats, they were going to trash a dating game show just because they had nothing else to do. As with any road movie, there are cameos galore. Keep your eye out for Carrie Fisher, James Van Der Beek, Judd Nelson, Diedrich Bader, George Carlin, Mark Hammil (make sure you applaud), Alanis Morissette (be patient, she's there), Chris Rock, Tracy Morgan and many others; plus the many View Askew alums that us geeky fan-boys are used to.

All I ask is you open your mind and experience something you might usually skip. I guarantee you will laugh. You will also be treated to the funniest closing credits song ever; as it joins the funniest opening credit song ever, "Now You're a Man" from Trey Parker's hugely underrated "Orgazmo." And who knows, it may spur you on to check out Kev's other flicks, or movies that references are made to, or even Ben Affleck in "Phantoms" (which I and maybe 22 other people have actually seen).

Richard Drake reviews movies for the Chicago-based television show, 3 Guys Pickin' every Monday night on CAN TV. Comments can be sent to him at parthenon@marshall.edu.