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Enter 1994 and Kevin Smith burst onto the scene with the independent hit Clerks. The film is about a day in the life of Dante and Randal, two 20-something dopes who find themselves working dead-end jobs (Quick Stop Groceries and RST Video respectively) and quickly became an instant classic among Generation X. The film was extremely low budget ($27,000), shot in grainy black and white and starred not only Smith himself in a role but a whole slew of his family and friends. With its success, Smith was able to chug out five more films over the years; some good (Chasing Amy) and some not so good (Mallrats). His last film, Jersey Girl was deemed too mainstream for most peoples’ tastes (J-Lo anyone?) and was by most measures a critical and financial failure.

Twelve years after the original, we are treated to Clerks II. The film opens with Dante heading off to work at the same place we left him. This time, Dante is in for the surprise of his life as he watches his beloved work place get torched. He and Randal soon find themselves working at a fast-food type restaurant called Mooby’s. Dante has grown up a bit, become engaged to a nice gal named Emma (Smith’s actual wife) and is on the verge of moving to Florida to start a new life. Dante is anxious and simply can not wait to leave his petty life behind him. Randal, on the other hand, is the same old Randal. He finds what he is doing just fine (even at his age) and sees no reason to move on.

The original is one of my all-time favorite films, so going into this, my expectations were very high. Would it be an insult to the original, or make for a respectful follow up?

Perhaps it was a bit of both.

Clerks II retains that same sly, quick-witted humor of the original. Jay (Jason Mewes) and Silent Bob (Kevin Smith) are also back in fine form; in fact, Jay’s little Silence of the Lambs imitation had this writer laughing hysterically. There are some scathingly funny debates between Randal and fellow (albeit geeky) co-worker Elias. Elias (Trevor Fehrman) is a huge Lord of the Rings fan and Randal repeatedly busts his chops explaining that Star Wars is the best of both trilogies and LotR is for people who do not get laid. Nice.

Elias’ strange and ridiculous ideas about sex will leave you laughing out loud (this puts the “37” bit from the original to shame and one will never think of the word “pillowpants” in the same light again. Some of the dialogue is surprisingly shocking: There is one exchange between Randal and an angry customer (played by the always funny Wanda Sykes) where he argues that a particular offensive remark is not and should not be considered a racial slur.

On the downside, the cute, romantic angle this film took did not fit with the general atmosphere of the work; it felt way too mushy and (in this writer’s opinion) should have been toned down a bit if not thrown out altogether. A song and dance number featured in the film got a few chuckles out of me, but seemed forced, ridiculous and overly long. The first film is well-known for having numerous, hilarious exchanges between Dante, Randal and the various customers; here, they felt few and far between. Clerks II suffers because of this distinct lack of banter (although if you blink, you might miss Ben Affleck’s cameo as a customer).

In the end, I see this film in two different perspectives. As a stand-alone film, it is an enjoyable way to spend 90 minutes, but as a sequel to Clerks, it fails to meet expectations.

3 .5 of 5

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