"Clerks II" (2006) - Movie Review

There are some really uproarious funny scenes in “Clerks II” and really boring scenes too. The latter did not compliment to make it an even nice film but twists and splatter into a known clichéd flick we have seen many times as in many romantic comedy failures. In 1994, Kevin Smith came out with “Clerks” which was so raw, corky with no compromise whatsoever in terms of commerciality. Here there are significant scenes which bore the creative tampering Smith himself created, because we see the best of him too in various other scenes.

Dante (Brian O’ Halloran) and Randal (Jeff Anderson) are working at Mooby’s fast food since “Quick Stop Groceries” met with disaster fire incident by Randal leaving the coffee pot on. Dante is leaving New Jersey for good with his fiancée Emma (Jennifer Schwalbach Smith) to Florida. The manager of Mooby’s is Becky (Rosario Dawson) and this is that day where everything happens for Clerks. Randal is still the foul mouthed attitude loser while Dante is still the loser getting manipulated and sabotaged by him easily. Clearly their friendship should take a peak of its anger and then settle down, expected but in Smith’s way. And it is disappointing for having it commercialized, cheesy and totally ritualistic.

The best part is the war between Randal, the fanatic of Star Wars Trilogy versus his Lord of the Rings geek co-worker Elias (Trevor Fehrman) along the Hobbit obsessed customer (Kevin Wiseman). The flow in which the scene eases itself into bouncing profanity with intelligent comedy tells why we expect more from Smith and why we expect more from this film. There is some pumping moments like this which cracks us up wisely but the dull boring scenes just make everything come down uncooked. The first part had its originality because Dante and Randal stayed Dante and Randal till the end. In “Clerks II”, they appear to be maturing for their age but not because of themselves. It turns out to be a cheeky shot of pairing the friends forever than staying true to the characters.

Jay (Jason Mewes) and Silent Bob (Kevin Smith) does not add any pep either. They have one or two chances for their customary stature in the film and never get through in accelerating or aiding the story. Every thing is set up. Nothing is surprising. The set up thing has its surprise humour very rarely and the only other disgusting surprise is the “inter species erotica”. It starts with good laugh and it unnecessarily reeks out as the joke gets rotten and disgusting to the point that it just seem to shock us than humour us. In that note, the part when Randal says “Any minute now” about a hot babe coming out is very hilarious but instead of stopping it out there, taking it yards forward nullified a good obscene comedy.

When Dante and Randal have their clashes of truth in their life at the jail station, the points they make are true. The scene is totally perfect, for a film which in its first part and the first half hour of it has something else to offer and has successfully done too. The scene is good but the film and the characters which say those in a tone unrealistic and out of place for Clerks.

Smith of course is a talented director. His “Clerks”, “Dogma”, “Chasing Amy” and even the cheesy “Jersey Girl” are all good cinema handled by a man who knows what exactly he is doing and remaining uncompromised for its characters. We see him now and then in this movie but never establish him as he did along with the characters in the movies mentioned above. “Mallrats” may be the worst of his movies. And it had the people who remained as bad as they were always. There was maturity which came in ridiculous manner to irritate us. So I was able to vehemently come on mercilessly towards it without any issue. “Clerks II” has scenes which shows how good it is when Smith is at his best and how bad it is when the fall Smith took is unjustifiable. I have the hearts for the film at many places and the hate too in various instances. And hate just won.