The Joke’s on You: Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back (2001) Film Review

This movie is practically begging us to trash it. Given that its entire runtime is a cascade of self-referential jokes about how bad it is and how much it deserves to be ripped apart on the internet, I feel almost obligated to oblige. So, let’s not leave it in the realm of their silly jokes; let’s do some real trashing.

The first casualty is the duo itself. Silent Bob, once a figure of composed nonchalance, has been lobotomized. He’s got no personality here; he just nods, points, shrugs, agrees with his fingers and roll his eyes like a sentient emoji. His counterpart, meanwhile, manages to deliver a performance somehow even worse than his bad one in the genesis of this crisis.

This vacuum of charisma is filled with a torrent of flatulence jokes and oral sex gags. it’s all wrapped in a script so childish and silly (not in a good way) that it feels less like a movie and more like a high-budget home video. How many times can one film deploy the f-word before it loses all meaning? How many times can you whine about Miramax before it just sounds lame?

Worse than the lazy humor is the suffocating ego. The film is stuffed with tons of pats on the back by Smith and Co., a relentless stream of self-congratulation. This peaks with Smith’s attempt to “break the norms.” There’s a “not bad” moment involving a character discussing the actor who plays the actor (Ben Affleck), but it quickly sours. The film breaks the fourth wall not for a clever gag, but to roast its own audience (and by extension, themselves) for how shitty their movies are.

Apparently, they know their films are garbage, but their fans are too steeped in their own ignorant stupidity to notice, so why not capitalize on it? At least they’re too smart to know that their fans are not too smart to know that they’re not too smart. This movie made me sick and very disappointed in Kevin Smith. I can’t imagine he needed the money badly enough to play this elaborate, unfunny joke on his previous fans (thank god I am not one of them).

The tragedy is, even die-hard fans may find the story too thin and the jokes too repetitive. A massive star-power ensemble shows up, but not one of them can save a single bit of this film. It is, frankly, a disgraceful and disgusting display.

Mr. Smith, Next time, try to make a movie not so reliant on references to other movies — especially your own. Get an original idea once in a while! I’ll be happy to help!

The one, single, solitary bright spot? Seeing George Carlin. That is, as always, a true joy. But again, that’s just me, that’s why I am not giving it a hard 1.

Watch this torture device here. #ad