Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back

In many ways Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back feels like Kevin Smith throwing all his toys out of the box, then telling them to make up whatever story they want with all of it. We get characters returning, plenty of jokes coming back and there’s even some cameos thrown in on top of everything else. Most of the time though the whole thing is just an excuse for putting Jay and Silent Bob through one ridiculous scenario after another. You’re going to be able to enjoy most of this movie if you know what the hell the View Askewniverse is because it really does feel like a reward system for knowing who everyone is and what their stories mean. You’d miss a lot of the joy if you walked in here thinking this was your first Kevin Smith film because it’ll pretty much all seem like nonsense at some point. The fact that Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back feels so aggressively early 2000s might come as a surprise for people who watch a lot of stuff today. A few of the jokes age really well compared to others but I guess that’s just what you can expect when watching it now. Just the whole vibe of the film definitely screams of that era of comedy with its lack of desire to be anything other than completely non tasteful at every possible moment.

This isn’t high art or anything. It’s a road trip through Kevin Smith’s universe where two morons called Jay and Silent Bob cause as much havoc as possible. I still chuckle over it from time to time. Obviously not all jokes work these days (and I’m definitely not trying to pretend this was a masterpiece) but sometimes you just need a film where you know what you’re going to get when you start watching. If you were born before the 2000s theres a good chance youll find this movie hilarious. If not though you will probably just find this offensive. I wouldnt start with this movie if youre new to the Askewverse, check out other kevin smith films like clerks or dogma before jumping into this one otherwise this might come across a bit slapstick and cringeworthy at times