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It'd help if you watched Kevin Smith's first four films before you see Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back, just to familiarize yourself with some of the characters. But if you don't, you'll still be rolling on the floor. Heck, even if you've never seen any of them, Back offers more laughs per minute than anything you'll see this year. Here's a refreshing idea - the film blows through most of the gags we've already seen a dozen times in the trailer within about 15 minutes, leaving nothing but fresh laughs for the remainder of this comedic gem.
Although Back contains very little of the rapid-fire dialogue many expect from Smith (Dogma), it's still the most relentlessly funny movie since South Park: BLU. Smith takes self-deprecation to a new, sub-Woody Allen level (but unlike Woody, Kevin never, ever saves the good lines for himself) as he rips on himself, his films, his stars and their films, his studio and their films, other directors and their films, and even his own audience (but not nearly as inanely as they did in America's Sweethearts).
The film begins with a '70s flashback that shows something every comic book fan craves - the origin of the main characters, Jay (Jason Mewes) and Silent Bob (Smith). Then Back re-introduces several of the characters from Smith's previous films in a way that will leave your head spinning and your sides splitting - you know, folks like Dante Hicks, Randal Graves, Brodie Bruce and Holden McNeil (Brian O'Halloran even gets to say his big line over and over again).
The story here is completely inconsequential, as Smith is going all out to get you to bust your gut as he closes the book on his View Askew-niverse. Jay and Silent Bob learn that a film is being made that features characters based on their own lives (Holden, it seems, has sold the rights to the "Bluntman and Chronic" comic to former partner Banky Edwards). Pissed that they're being cut out of the action (and even more pissed that people are writing mean shit about them on an Ain't-It-Cool News spoof site called The Poop Shoot), the boys decide to hitchhike to Hollywood to put a stop to the film's production, but instead end up in a conspiracy involving four vinyl-clad hotties, an orangutan, Daredevil, Steve Kmetko, Morris Day, and their old friends Fanboy Walt and Steve Dave (to divulge more would be criminal).
This ain't rocket science - Smith fans will think Back is the greatest thing ever, and the uptight pricks who hate his stuff will hate this, too. Smith parodies everything from Winnie the Pooh to The Fugitive (he even works one in for a movie that just came out, and one that won't be out until next summer) and does it with a bevy of WB stars (Eliza Dushku, James Van Der Beek, Marc Blucas), Chris Rock doing his best Spike Lee impression, and a load of appearances from characters a lot of people may have completely forgotten about, like Clark (Scott William Winters) from Good Will Hunting.
Where else can you see two Academy Award winners (Ben Affleck and Matt Damon) ripping on the movie that won them an Oscar? Where else can you see Jason Lee play two different parts in the same film? Where else can you see Luke and Leia in the same movie? Where else can you see a director cast his wife, ex-girlfriend and infant son? It can all be found right here - just be sure to stick around for the closing credits for Smith's "apology" for riling up the gay community, and for yet another surprise cameo when the credits are finished.
1:39 - R for nonstop crude and sexual humor, pervasive strong language, and drug content
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