Jay and Silent Bob Reboot

Jay and Bob are out to destroy Hollywood again. Only now it's not as much fun as it used to be. Kevin Smith manages a few good jokes and some clever and wry commentary, but fails to return to what made him such an interesting filmmaker all those years ago. The second Jay and Bob feels again very much like a film Smith made for himself, with a lot of the scenes, jokes and ideas mostly he finds amusing. And that he doesn't mind too much. (16.04.2020)

A minefield, which doesn't so much bother me as much as I feel sorry for them due to the amount of mistakes. The most unfortunate thing is the timing, when the realization comes ten years after the main duo started to look somewhat worn out in their traditional costumes, and even the most devout fans of this universe must feel a bit sad when they see a saga that matured thirteen years earlier in Clerks 2 – and now it has nowhere to go. The only truly strong moment comes in the inserted several-minute epilogue of Chasing Amy, and in the rest of the time, it manages in the worst case with stumbling pantomime, and in the better case with Jay's traditional meta and even dadaist humor. In the first film, the fan meeting was the climax, here a similar opportunity is just a breathless craziness, which, with Kevin Smith's double involvement, feels like his next stand-up session or podcast. General knowledge of all the author's major films, as well as his health, life destinies, and changes, is really necessary in this case, otherwise the viewer has no chance of catching even the good things. (30.03.2020)

When Kevin Smith, who has been making increasingly inferior films for the past 20 years, jokes about Kevin Smith making pointless films, he is far from committing an ingenious act of self-reflection by marching out his former collaborators and recalling sequences from his successful films. Rather, the self-reflection here is as toothless and superficial as Smith’s musings about Hollywood, comic-book blockbusters, franchises and reboots, as well as the vulgar humour found here. Paradoxically, the only thing appealing about this class reunion following his heart attack is Smith’s unusually touching thoughts on parenthood and what it has to offer. (13.04.2020)