Manic Expression

Part 1

Ok, let’s get this over with.

Dogma (1999)

This is a convoluted movie. We actually get to go through a lot of points of views through this movie, let’s start from the beginning. A familiar Cardinal (George Carlin, I swear to fuck it’s George Carlin playing a member of the clergy, it’s kind of like a sick joke, but it’s a funny sick joke), in an attempt to approach more people to the catholic church (the name of the whole thing is Catholicism WOW!), tries to modernize it, by promoting a day where, if you pass beneath a specific church arc, all your sins are forgiven, instantaneously. Then, we go to two fallen angels: Loki (played by Matt Damon) and Bartleby (played by Ben Affleck) that want to go back to heaven even though they sinned against God by disobeying his orders (which was killing a lot of people, Loki didn’t kill a lot of people, was banished to Wisconsin). By passing through the arc, they would be forgiven of their sins, so they just had to be killed by someone else to go back to heaven. However, it’s later explained in the movie that if someone disobeys the law of God, the whole universe collapses, so if they go back, bye-bye universe. Who they decide to be the savior? Bethany Sloane (Linda Fiorentino), a girl that works in an abortion clinic. The seraphim Metatron (Alan fucking Rickman, of all people) warns Bethany that she must stop the two angels from getting into the church in said day, but before she has to meet two prophets. Who are these two prophets? Jay & Silent Bob. In this movie, you can see that Kevin Smith tried for a different character he always portrayed, showing underneath it all that Silent Bob is catholic, as is Kevin Smith. They also meet Rufus, the 13th apostle (Chris Rock), and Serendipity, a muse (Salma Hayek). Overall, it’s a really good movie that I really enjoyed. It’s constantly a jab to the Catholic Church, but in a way I enjoy: making the way to improve it instead of discrediting it. It is also a good comedy adventure movie, with some touching moments. Definitely a must watch.

Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back (2001)

Here everything collapses upon itself. Every single character of Clerks, Mallrats and Chasing Amy do an appearance, because it’s the one movie everyone was waiting for: Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back! After being forbidden of selling drugs outside the quick stop of the movie Clerks, they meet with Brodie Bruce (the nerd from Mallrats, played by Jason Lee, now with his own comic store) that says that they shouldn’t complain because, with the release of Bluntman and Chronic movie, they should be swimming in the money. Not aware of this, they go meet with Holden McNeil (the comic co-writer from Chasing Amy, played by Ben Affleck, still broken hearted) to get the money, however, he gave all the rights to do the movie to his partner Banky Edwards (the co-writer from Chasing Amy, played by Jason Lee, behind the movie). Before going after Banky for the money, Holden McNeil shows to the duo the internet, in where people are complaining that any movie based on Jay & Silent Bob would be complete shit and shouldn’t be done (fourth wall jokes always gets me laughing). So, they decide to go to Hollywood to stop the movie, so that they won’t get people’s shit, but doing this they will lose any money that they would’ve got, so for the first time, we see the duo as the brainless duo they are. Through the road trip they get messed up with diamond thieves and animal protection groups and even the always unfunny Will Ferrell… tries really hard to be funny. Kind of isn’t, but you can get some chuckles out of the incompetent ass he always play. It’s a really funny and brainless movie, where you see the whole saga that was build kind of working in the movie’s favor, and it gives a sense of accomplishment. Just be prepared for a lot of pot jokes and surprise cameos (Mark Hamill and Carrie Fisher, of all people). Of all the movies, I thought this one to be the funniest, but in the matter of most interesting, that would be Dogma. These two movies are definitely the icing in the universe Kevin Smith created.

Clerks II (2006)

This movie starts really broken, when someday in the life of Dante Hicks he opens up the Quick Stop and it’s on fire. It doesn’t show how much time it passed, but he and Randal Graves start working on a fast-food joint. And as Clerks I, that’s basically the plot. It works now a lot better in my opinion because the jokes are a little more light hearted. It makes fun of Star Wars and Lord of the Rings, so I was hooked from moment one. The issue on this one is how Dante Hicks refuse to move on to logical points and make decisions of his own, with Dante Hicks helping this time around. Dante is getting married, moving to somewhere else, getting a house paid by his fiancée’s dad, getting a job on his fiancée’s dad’s workplace… and while he is conflicted between his fiancée (Jennifer Schwalbach Smith, Kevin Smith’s Wife) and the manager of the fast food joint (Rosario Dawson that is unexpectedly hot). Of course Jay & Silent Bob moved to selling drugs outside the fast-food joint, because… well, they like to loiter. And they still sell drugs, although they both went through rehab and found the word of Christ… They do nothing in this movie beside helping everyone out in the end of the movie and resolving everything. Although there is clearly a lack of content on this movie, the movie is packed with clever dialogue, fucked up situations (bestiality being one of them) and remarks to clever movies (Jay does a shot by shot scene of Buffalo Bill’s “Would you fuck me?” in Silence of the Lambs that is worth the entire movie). It’s definitely a good movie and it doesn’t rely at all on the first one, so it’s also a movie that is worth checking out.

So, this was my opinion of all six movies with Jay & Silent Bob. In the end, you really get into the characters presented and I wish Kevin Smith does more of these. It has been six years, but I’m really hoping for another of these movies, since I really liked the characters created. There will be a mixed animation life action movie called Jay & Silent Bob’s Super Groovy Cartoon Movie, but I would get my hopes up…

This is JotaKa, signing off.

For more of my work, go to http://jotakapf.wordpress.com