Clerks 2 x 2

Today I did something I rarely do. I saw a film for the second time in the cinema. The last time I did this was way back in 1997 and the film was Men in Black.

Clerks 2 was definitely worth it. When I first saw the film on July 21st there were about fifty people in the theater and I missed a couple lines of dialogue because of people laughing - including me. Today there were about fifteen people in my local mall cineplex and I was able to hear all the dialogue. And what dialogue!

Let's face it, people don't go to see Kevin Smith movies because of the world class directing. Kevin Smith would tell you that himself. But the writing is always first class. And the acting is pretty darn good.

Brian O'Halloran is solid, if not great as Dante. Jeff Anderson is surprisingly stong as Randal. Jeff's reactions completely sell the nonsensical dialogue in one of the funniest scenes, when Elias, our heroes' nerdy coworker explains why he still hasn't had sex with his girlfriend.

Let's talk about Elias for a minute. Trevor Fehrman is totally believable as uber-nerd Elias, the 19-year-old "Funployee of the Month" at Mooby's who still kisses his mom goodbye when she drops him off at work. This hapless kid's victimization by Randal is the stuff of legends. Very funny legends.

Rosario Dawson is excellent as Becky, the manager of Mooby's, and the third part of the standard-issue Dante Hicks love triangle.

Again, if you're a Kevin Smith fan, don't wait for this baby on DVD. Go and see it on the big screen now!

RAH Humor Review: Clerks 2

Before the review begins, allow me to embark on a Randal Graves-like rant about the movie going experience circa 2006. I showed up to see Clerks II (yes, there were Roman numerals on the screen, my eyesight's not that far gone) at my local stadium-seating cineplex for the 11:45 AM showing this morning - Friday, July 21st. After 7 minutes of commercials, the "Feature Attaction" card came up, along with all the yada yada about turning off your cell phones and shutting the hell up. I checked my watch and thought two things: 1) 7 minutes isn't bad, and 2) There were no trailers! Turns out I was wrong on both counts. Apparently the good people at Hoyt Cinemas think that the trailers are now part of the "Feature Attraction", and proceeded to run 8 minutes of them. This meant a total of 15 minutes of ads before showing the actual film I had paid to see.

Fortunately Clerks II was worth the wait. In short, this is Kevin Smith's best film to date. I can't remember the last time I've laughed out loud so much in a movie theater. Yes, it's pretty edgy humor, but that's what you expect when you watch a Kevin Smith film.

Sequels have a bad reputation - deservedly so. There have been countless movies which made excellent single films, but when the attempt was made to catch lightning in a bottle again, the failure was painful to watch. Not so with Clerks II, which I feel is the best sequel since The Godfather, Part II. In fact in many ways Clerks II is better than the original Clerks.

I don't want to give away any surprises, but suffice it to say that this movie has the funniest production-style musical dance number I've ever seen in a movie - and I'm not a fan of musical numbers in movies - even full-blown musicals. The best part is the way that Kevin Smith
works the dance number organically into the action of the scene - except at the end when he deliberately - and hilariously - pokes fun at the whole movie dance sequence deal.

All I have to say to Joel Siegel is, "you walked out too soon, dude. And for no reason." Yes, there is "interspecies erotica" in this film, but it's handled no more offensively that the donkey show in Bachelor Party, particularly when you take into account that that was way back in 1984 and this is now.

Don't take your kids to see this film, but for any open-minded adults, you have to see this film! The same goes for any Kevin Smith fans. If you liked any of Kevin Smith's films apart from Chasing Amy you'll love this film. Go and see Dante and Randal grow up, at least a little.

Note to Hollywood executives - keep making films this funny.

Note to movie theater executives - knock off showing commercials in cinemas, the trailers are bad enough. I can live with commercials on "free television" (my cable bill is $110/month, although that does include high speed internet), but I object strongly to being shown commercials when I've paid to be in the theater. This is the first film I've seen in a cinema this year, and I'm in no hurry to go back!