Clerks II

When “Clerks" opened at Cannes in 1994, it instantly took the festival by storm and presented people with a new brand of humor that was so outrageously comical that it almost received an NC-17 rating from the MPAA. It’s now twelve years later and writer/director Kevin Smith is back to where it all began in hopes of regaining the edge that made him one of the top independent filmmakers of the 90’s.

For someone who has never been the biggest fan of Kevin Smith, I walked into “Clerks II" with a deeply open mind and immediately wondered whether or not it could possibly be as freshly funny as the original. From the minute the film started, I realized that Smith has without a doubt returned to form and that his sense of humor is as keen as ever.

Like its predecessor, it follows the lives of everyone’s favorite slackers Dante Hicks and Randal Graves as they attempt to find meaning in life while spending their days working endlessly in a convenient store. Early one morning, Dante arrives to find that his beloved Quick Stop is completely up in flames due to Randal’s blunder with the coffee pot and will not be reopening anytime soon.

With few options in front of them, they eventually find jobs working at a fast food restaurant called Mooby’s and get right back to their same old uneventful lifestyle. I find it hard to believe that Brian O’Halloran and Jeff Anderson aren’t in more movies, because they are extremely funny and it’s hard to imagine anyone else in their roles. Their offbeat conversations and inappropriate humor are a key element to the success of this film and they should be thanking Kevin Smith for writing such brilliant comedic dialogue.

One of Smith’s greatest talents is finding humor in everyday situations and making his characters believable in the eyes of the audience. I think a lot of that comes from the fact that he once worked in a convenient store himself and has a very accurate sense of what guys really talk about.

His best move here was the addition of the lovely Rosario Dawson ( “Rent", “Sin City") to the cast, which makes for an interesting subplot involving her romance with Dante. In another great role, Dawson plays Becky, the manager of Mooby’s with such zeal and enthusiasm that she appears to be having a great time on-screen. As the day goes on, Dante spends more time in the office with Becky than actually working and Randal continues to relentlessly harass customers, but somehow food still gets served.

Among the many cameo appearances, Jason Lee manages to provide the most laughs during his time on camera and shows why he is a great comedic talent. His character’s appearance causes such a stir, that Randal has to leave work for an hour so he can ride the go-karts to relax. And where would any Kevin Smith film be without an appearance from the dynamic duo known as Jay and Silent Bob? They’re here as always and are responsible for many of the laughs throughout the film including a hysterical, yet disturbing scene in which Jay pays tribute to “Buffalo Bill" from “The Silence of the Lambs."

As if that wasn’t disturbing enough, a scene in which Randal’s gift to Dante gets out of control will definitely have people fully disgusted. During the last third of the film, Smith gets a little soft in his subject matter and tries to show people that he does have a delicate side to his personality. Each of his characters apparently wants to grow up and start making something of their life, which allows the film to end exactly how it began more than a decade ago.

Overall, “Clerks II" is a very humorous film full of enough racial slurs and scatological references that it is certainly not for those who are easily offended. It works, because its stars aren’t afraid to deal with shocking material in hopes of getting a laugh. Regardless of how boring or monotonous their life may be, for Dante and Randal, it’s just another day on the job.

- *** out of 4