Clerks 2 Reviews

[Highly rated reviewer]

Disapointing

What Kevin Smith achieved with the original Clerks on a shoe string budget has to be commended; it was edgy, believable and most importantly funny. Ever since however the quality of his films has been on a steady decline, culminating in the God awful Jersey Girl and unfortunately Clerks 2 doesn’t alter the trend. 10 years on the lead characters are older, fatter, and none the wiser, and with age they’ve morphed from charismatic slackers into unbelievably pathetic losers still cracking fart jokes. I simply didn’t sympathise them and it’s telling that the characters not involved in the first film come out of this the best. Dante (played by Brian O Halloran….who can’t act to save his life) is most at fault, a decade on this character still hasn’t discovered a personality and is just used to prop Randals delinquent wise cracks (yet the plot centers around him and the two beautiful women pursuing him!). The painfully over sentimental ending tries to alter the tone and give the film some sort of purpose but it just doesn’t fit and anyhow by then I was a long way from caring. To get the most from this film I’d recommend low expectations and paying zero attention to the barley there plot and enjoy the few sketches that are funny (Porch monkey, donkey show and the Lord of the Rings impression were priceless), that or just watch the first one.

Just saw it at the cinema and it is brilliant

I will not reveal the storyline (yes there is one) but for Kevin Smith Fans and for good movie fans this film really is a must. Yes there is cameos from all his friends and original clerks film cast members and yes there is a few jokes that pay homage to KS's original film but aside from that it is hilarous. Slow to start but after that I was choking on my popcorn in the cinema. I can't remember laughing so much recently.

[Highly rated reviewer]

Clerks 2

Dante (O'Halloran) and Randall (Anderson) are pretty much where we left them 12 years ago; stuck behind the counter serving crap to arseholes who treat them like trash, the only difference is that now that Quick Stop has burned down they're doing it at Mooby's.

It's Dante's last day before he and his fiancé (Schwallbach) move to Florida to get married. Before that though there's the complex relationship with the boss (Dawson) to be worked out and the small matter of Randall's going away party for Dante.

Clerks II was, for me, an experience much like Before Sunset. Each film sequelised one I loved and yet never thought needed following up and each proved a happy surprise, providing a welcome reunion with old friends after rather too long.

That, though, is where the similarities end. Clerks II, though Smith's most mature, and in many ways, most emotional film retains everything the fans want from Smith. The wisecracks are present and correct, Jay and Silent Bob return, the pop culture dissections are back and there's an industrial strength helping of dick jokes.

Brian O'Halloran and Jeff Anderson slip seamlessly back into character as Dante and Randall and it's easy to believe that there has been 10 plus years of off screen interplay between them because the chemistry works and the dialogue between them flows easily. The quality hasn't dipped either, the jokes are often side splitting, with Randall's impassioned defense of various racial slurs being a particular gut buster. Randall has new foil in this film in the form of 19 year old uber-geek Elias (Fehrman), it would have been easy just to make him the butt of Randall's jokes but Fehrman is excellent, working up audience sympathy and getting one of the biggest laughs in the movie (Pillowpants).

Rosario Dawson is a ray of sunshine and threatens to steal the whole movie with her charming and funny turn (I defy you not to fall a bit in love with her as she dances to ABC) but she's not afraid to speak some deeply filthy dialogue for laughs either.

It's great to see Jay and Silent Bob back too, with a newly sober Jason Mewes on great form, particularly in one moment that is at once one of the film's most amusing moments and one of the most disturbing things I've seen at a cinema.

There is a downside though. The feeling of familiarity was nice for the most part but the problem with it is that Dante's dilemma is exactly the same as it was in Clerks, he has to choose between to girls and his fiancé (played by Smith's wife, Jennifer Scwallbach) is so obviously wrong for him that it undermines the choice. Why couldn't she have been just a nice girl that he just doesn't love as much as he thinks he does rather than a shrew who speaks for him and sports a Mrs Hicks t-shirt? It's also unfortunate that while Mrs Smith is good-looking and probably very nice whatever else she is she's not an actress. She's flatter than a piece of paper that has just been run over by a steamroller.

That said Clerks had patchy acting too and it never really detracts from the film that much. This is a film for those already converted, it's a fans movie and on that level it's a triumph, no classic perhaps but still an enjoyable time with old friends.

What are you on about! You porch monkey.

Mr A Customer was sOOOOOOO! Wrong.This film is a great sequal to the original.Of course the the leads look older & fatter (it has been 15 yrs approx since the original)This film goes to show the problems with being stuck in a rut.Kevin Smiths directing/writing/editing are top notch as usual.Dante & Randal are just as Sad/funny/inciteful as ever.Jay and Silent Bob are just as stoned and mad as ever.The New cast do great too. A great cameo from Jason Lee . A fantastic film if you Love all Kevin Smith movies....Take with a pinch of salt.

Disappointed

I watched Clerks when it was first released and thought it was such a great film... Observant and witty with some great dialogue, some fantastic moments, great references to other films very fresh - it had me laughing all the way through...

Clerks 2? Seemed like an excuse to wheel out the best characters from all his films into a lame plot and make a load of nob jokes and see how many times we can get them to say f*ck... I did love the Lord of the Rings re-enactment, but overall nowhere near as good as the first.. It was more insult/insult/good gag/insult rather than the first which was the total opposite...

Hate to say it as i loved the first one, but this was cr*p...

Shame on you Mr Smith...

The boys are back in town

Kevin Smith stated that Clerks 2 is for 30 somethings what the original was to 20 somethings and that's absolutely true. While the potty humour is still more than evident Clerks 2 shows a great deal more heart than the other films in his Askewniverse and the relationship between Dante and Randal actually reaches touching at times. That said there's still enough of the usual Smith vulgarity to keep the old fans choking on their popcorn.

The old cast (including a very healthy looking Jason Mewes) really look like they're having a good time while newcomers to Smith's world Rosario Dawson and Trevor Fehrman fit in perfectly.

So sit back and enjoy Mewes's Buffalo Bill dancing, the arguments about Star Wars and the er...cross_species erotica.

One too many!

Kevin Smith is an aquired taste. You will either love or hate his movies, there is no inbetween. Each one, although a new premise, has the same characters running through them and all can be linked in some way. They are also generally self absorbant, full of little 'in-jokes' and popular culture references, especially Star Wars and comic books characters. I love them, usually. From the original Clerks through Mallrats, Chasing Amy, Dogma and even Jay and Silent Bob he has always been fresh and original with his ideas and most importantly his scripts, even with the same characters. The original Clerks was filmed on a shoe string budget, in black and white, with actor friends in most of the roles and revolved around a day spent in an American convinience store - the script had to be good! With this sequel he fails miserably! There are few stand out funny moments, and the whole affair feels rushed and un-loved in a strange way. It almost feels like he was doing it for someone else, the great thing about Smith is his personal touch and how he draws you into his world, even if you wouldn't normally reside in such a place. This movie has none of that appeal and it is it's biggset failing. Time to move on to pastures new Kev!

[Highly rated reviewer]

A scaborous and worthy follow up.

The real irony about Clerks 2 is that the film main charters Dante ( Brian O,Halloran) and Randal ( Jeff Anderson) are both aware of their life’s being stuck in a rut , that the passing of the years (Its been nigh on fifteen years since the original movie) has found them exactly where they were before. So it is with film maker Kevin Smith who too hasn’t really moved on , otherwise why would he be making another Clerks movie?

The movie opens with Dante opening the convenience store to find it on fire. “Terrorists “? enquires Randal. Their livelihoods up in smoke the duo go to work at “Moobys” , a fast food outlet run by the vivacious and beautiful Becky( Rosario Dawson) .It’s quickly clear that Dante and Becky have an unrequited thing going on which is patently ridiculous given her beauty and intelligence and well.. he’s Dante. Dante is now engaged to Emma ( Jennifer Schwalback Smith -Smiths real life wife) and they are on the verge of moving to Florida which means Randal is conflicted or as near as he can get to it. He doesn’t want to be left behind in New Jersey but is still happy for his mate , so much so he arranges for a special going away present that takes the verbose profane remit of the comedy right to the limit’s He takes his frustration out on the outlets whipping boy Elias( Trevor Ferhman) a naive Christian , Lord Of The Rings fan and general geek.

Meanwhile Silent Bob (Kevin Smith ) and Jay(Jason Mewes) have moved with the duo and are still hanging around outside .They have little to do , but their homage to a scene out of “Silence Of The Lambs” is superbly funny and while their part in the films eventual resolution seems hopelessly contrived the film wouldn’t be the same without them.

Smith takes the film into unexpected schmaltzy territory with the outcome and the love triangle and it doesn’t quite sit with the movies general tone but is handled deftly enough though a musical interlude is a bad misjudgement . Where it really triumphs is the exchanges between the characters which are as good as anything in the first movie. Randal gets the best lines again . His dissing of the Lord Of The Rings movie is priceless. “Three movies of people walking to a f***ing volcano” adding “Even the trees walked in that movie” and his diatribes against the term “Porch Monkey being racist and against Dante’s leaving him behind are incredible pieces of acting.

For all the cod-philosophising about moving on in life -exacerbated by a memorable cameo from Jason Lee as a former school mate of Dante and Randal’s who has become a millioniare-I,m glad Smith made this movie. It’s sharp as a whippet in a maze, funny , gloriously un -pc and the DVD is absolutely loaded with extras( perhaps too much actually-though that inherent geekiness is in keeping with part of the films ethos)It’s a return to the comfort zone for him but the characters here deserved a follow up .The film works but I feel it’s best to leave them be now .It really is time to move on.

[Highly rated reviewer]

satisfaction

For me this was my star wars and it delivered. Its been a long time since I've laughed out loud at a film- this film delivered, worth buying just for the ass to mouth dialogue, and wait until the donkey sex show. If you are remotley aware of Kevin Smith's work and if you enjoyed the juvenille humour of Dogma I assure you will enjoy this 5 star movie.

Get over it!

The original Clerks was an edgy, genuinely funny and 'independent' look at a couple of guys working in a shop.

The sequel is terrible. Peppered with cameos from Clerks (1) and now in colour, it's a laboured love story of a man who wants to grow up but just can't. There is a dance routine half way through for padding but otherwise, just don't watch it.