Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back
Jay and Silent Bob is a pretty piss-poor film, but as I watched it, stone-faced, I couldn't muster much hostility to eviscerate it the way it deserves to be. It would be like coming after a high school play, or critiquing someone's home movies. This film, despite being a Miramax release and earning 30 million at the box office, is basically a guy playing around filming his friends tell dick jokes.
I haven't seen all of Kevin Smith's oeuvre, but I've seen enough to know that he's not really a talent, unless goofing around with famous friends is a talent. He can write some funny and profane dialogue and knows not to take himself seriously, which is perhaps why the urge to hone the critical axe is not in me. I suppose there is a demographic of viewers, probably ninety-nine percent of whom are male, pot-smoking comic-book nerds, who dig this stuff, and more power to 'em. I'm just amazed that there's that many of them.
Jay and Silent Bob were two minor characters from Smith's other films. Jay is played by Jason Mewes, a non-actor who has a certain charisma, though he could only possibly play the one character, a dope-dealer who seems to think only about sex or pot. Silent Bob, played by Smith himself, rarely speaks, though predictably enough, when he does speak it's something incredibly pithy. Amazingly, even though Smith rarely speaks, he reveals himself to be a terrible actor, making faces that would make an acting teacher vomit.
In this film Smith has indulged himself by making these one-joke characters leads in an entire film. There's some silliness about them becoming characters in a Hollywood film, which leads to them being criticized on the Internet (and giving Smith a chance to plug his web site). They set out to stop the film from being made, lest their reputations be sullied. Along the way they run into an all-girl team of jewel thieves, among them Shannon Elizabeth, another bad actor. To be fair to Elizabeth, Meryl Streep herself couldn't be convincing in a part where she has to fall in love with the louche Jay.
The cast is full of well-known actors making cameos. Will Ferrell, Jon Stewart, George Carlin, Chris Rock and Ben Affleck and Matt Damon, who seem to delight in doing Smith endless favors. I thought Rock's turn as a militant director was pretty funny, and Affleck and Damon spoofing themselves was amusing, but most of this was just wasting time. I'm sure these people all had a good time making this film, but that doesn't translate to a good time at the movies.
Smith is a curious filmmaker. It seems he has some idea how to make a good movie, but is too lazy to actually pull it off. All his films have a loose, sloppy style, with a heavy stamp of amateurism. He seems to have no sense of what good acting is, leaving it up to his performers to decide how they want to play things. I think his decision to back out of making a film of The Green Hornet was wise, as he is only equipped to making low-budget extended fart jokes. I guess as long as people want to see them, they have a right to exist.
I haven't seen all of Kevin Smith's oeuvre, but I've seen enough to know that he's not really a talent, unless goofing around with famous friends is a talent. He can write some funny and profane dialogue and knows not to take himself seriously, which is perhaps why the urge to hone the critical axe is not in me. I suppose there is a demographic of viewers, probably ninety-nine percent of whom are male, pot-smoking comic-book nerds, who dig this stuff, and more power to 'em. I'm just amazed that there's that many of them.
Jay and Silent Bob were two minor characters from Smith's other films. Jay is played by Jason Mewes, a non-actor who has a certain charisma, though he could only possibly play the one character, a dope-dealer who seems to think only about sex or pot. Silent Bob, played by Smith himself, rarely speaks, though predictably enough, when he does speak it's something incredibly pithy. Amazingly, even though Smith rarely speaks, he reveals himself to be a terrible actor, making faces that would make an acting teacher vomit.
In this film Smith has indulged himself by making these one-joke characters leads in an entire film. There's some silliness about them becoming characters in a Hollywood film, which leads to them being criticized on the Internet (and giving Smith a chance to plug his web site). They set out to stop the film from being made, lest their reputations be sullied. Along the way they run into an all-girl team of jewel thieves, among them Shannon Elizabeth, another bad actor. To be fair to Elizabeth, Meryl Streep herself couldn't be convincing in a part where she has to fall in love with the louche Jay.
The cast is full of well-known actors making cameos. Will Ferrell, Jon Stewart, George Carlin, Chris Rock and Ben Affleck and Matt Damon, who seem to delight in doing Smith endless favors. I thought Rock's turn as a militant director was pretty funny, and Affleck and Damon spoofing themselves was amusing, but most of this was just wasting time. I'm sure these people all had a good time making this film, but that doesn't translate to a good time at the movies.
Smith is a curious filmmaker. It seems he has some idea how to make a good movie, but is too lazy to actually pull it off. All his films have a loose, sloppy style, with a heavy stamp of amateurism. He seems to have no sense of what good acting is, leaving it up to his performers to decide how they want to play things. I think his decision to back out of making a film of The Green Hornet was wise, as he is only equipped to making low-budget extended fart jokes. I guess as long as people want to see them, they have a right to exist.
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