Clerkin' Harder (Clerks 2 (DVD))

Member Name: triplecthegame

Product:	Clerks 2 (DVD)
Date:	21/03/07 (86 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: As funny as the original, a lot higher production values

Disadvantages: loses some of its grittiness

Kevin Smith - an almost iconic name in the world of film-making, back in 1994 he made his own comedy movie funded totally by his savings, credit cards, loans and whatever cash his friends could spare - this movie was Clerks, it made Kevin Smith the household name he is today and set a precedent by being one of the first movies where the soundtrack rights cost more than the rest of the film.

12 Years and 4 more movies later we come to Clerks 2, a movie that Smith for years has said he’d never do as he didn’t believe in writing sequels, however as a promise to his close friend Jason Mewes, (He offered to write it if Mewes stayed off of drugs) he’s wrote it, re-visiting the characters that made him, embellishing on their story 12 years later and introducing more new characters as well, oh and one more thing - it includes scenes of Inter-species erotica.

The story follows that of Randal and Dante, from the first movie - showing that until it burnt down they’d never left RST Video and Quick Stop since we last saw them, however with the buildings burnt down so they need to get a new job - this leads them to working for Moobys. Throw on top of this that Jay and Silent Bob are still around, Dante’s engaged and leaving Jersey and Randal’s still annoying as many people as possible and you have a cause for hilarity.

Storyline wise I worried about them doing a Clerks 2, just in case it was too similar to the original, or if the characters were just too old for my liking now, but I was wrong, its as funny as if not funnier than the original, the crude jokes are still there but not too crude that you don’t laugh at them and there’s enough of a storyline to the movie that it flows well enough to constantly keep you interested.

One trademark of any Kevin Smith movie is nods back to his previous flicks, be it the mention of a character from one of them, a reference that has been used before or being reminded of something that happened in a previous film, Clerks 2 is no exception, with enough nods at the past to make you think the films head banging at a rock concert.

Acting wise there are 4 main characters from the previous Clerks film, Jason Mewes playing Jay, Kevin Smith playing Silent Bob, Brian O’Halloran playing Dante and Jeff Anderson playing Randal - and they all put in performances as good as they did in the original Clerks, especially Jeff Anderson (Randal), maybe its because I have the same sort of characteristics in real life but the humour especially from his character seems to radiate from the screen.

That’s not to say that the others don’t put in good performances, albeit if Silent Bob stays true to his name almost all the way through the film again, Jay is as rude as he can be and Dante does his best to try to hold everything into place, but there’s also 3 new characters introduced , these characters being Becky (played by Rosario Dawson), Elias (played by Trevor Fehrman) and Emma (played by Jennifer Schwalbach Smith).

Elias is the perfect addition to the Clerks family, a foil to Randal who’s into anything you would class as geeky (an example being getting excited about the Transformers movie because his net-handle is Optimus Prime), he gets on Randal’s nerves and provides the movie with the innocent character that it needed. Emma, is Dante’s fiancé, trying to drag him into a life that if he was honest he doesn’t really want and finally Becky is Dante’s boss and 2nd-best friend only behind Randal who doles out advice to him whilst still trying to maintain a level of control over the maniacal staff in her restaurant.

The main difference between this and the original as you can probably guess is that Smith has money now, this means no more black and white film, a lot better production values, a bigger budget for the soundtrack and a better presentation all-told, of course this does take away some of the character of the film but that’s more than made up for it, its just a decision, do you prefer the grittiness of the first movie or the higher quality production of the sequel.

All-told Clerks 2 is a good movie, its hard to resist comparing it to the original as in essence it is a follow-on, but it is also its own story - if you haven’t seen any of Kevin Smiths previous flicks then some of this might be lost on you, however if you have then you may find it ranks up there with the best of them.

Summary: A suitable sequel to the original without straying too far.