Irreverence times five: 'Clerks' director wraps up New Jersey chronicles with an oddball road trip

Look closely Besides Jason Mewes (Jay), a number of people make their second, third, fourth and even fifth appearances with Kevin Smith in Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back: Joey Lauren Adams. Gwen Turner in Mallrats. Comic-book artist Alyssa Jones in Chasing Amy and JSBSB. Ben Affleck. Salesman Shannon Hamilton in Mallrats. Comic-book artist Holden McNeil in Chasing Amy and JSBSB. The angel Bartleby in Dogma. Himself in JSBSB. Jeff Anderson. Clerk Randal Graves in Clerks and JSBSB. Gun salesman in Dogma. George Carlin. Cardinal Ignatius Glick in Dogma. A hitchhiker in JSBSB. Matt Damon. Executive in Chasing Amy. The angel Loki in Dogma. Himself and Will Hunting in JSBSB. Shannen Doherty. Jason Lee's girlfriend Rene Mosier in Mallrats. Herself in JSBSB. Dwight Ewell. Hooper X in Chasing Amy and JSBSB. Gang leader Kane in Dogma. Walter Flanagan. The woolen-capped smoker, the egg man, the offended customer and the cat-admiring bitter customer in Clerks. Fan boy Walt Grover in Mallrats, Dogma and JSBSB. A protester in Dogma. Renee Humphrey. Tricia The Dish Jones in Mallrats and JSBSB. Jason Lee. Slacker Brodie Bruce in Mallrats and JSBSB. Comic-book "tracer" Banky Edwards in Chasing Amy and JSBSB. Azrael in Dogma. Alanis Morissette. God in Dogma and JSBSB. Scott Mosier. Willam the idiot man-child, the angry hockey-playing customer and the angry mourner in Clerks. Roddy in Mallrats. A collector in Chasing Amy. The smooching seaman in Dogma. Willam Black and the extras wrangler in JSBSB. Brian O'Halloran. Clerk Dante Hicks in Clerks and JSBSB. Dating-game contestant Gil Hicks in Mallrats. Executive in Chasing Amy. Grant Hicks in Dogma. Chris Rock. Rufus, the 13th apostle, in Dogma. Chaka, the strident director of Bluntman and Chronic, in JSBSB.

By Jack Garner
Democrat and Chronicle

(August 24, 2001) -- Who would have imagined the black-and-white, foul-mouthed, cleverly subversive Clerks could generate four spinoffs?

Heck, even The Godfather barely made it through a trilogy. Yet here we are, faced with Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back.

In it, two previously slight characters find themselves the center of a slapdash road picture, encountering nearly every key character from the previous four films: Clerks, Mallrats, Chasing Amy and Dogma.

Writer-director Kevin Smith, who plays Silent Bob, promises this film will be the final chapter of his New Jersey chronicles.

Amen. But weak as it is, Jay and Silent Bob remains true to Smith's oddball world of Jersey strip malls, video stores, pop culture, sexual obsessions, scatological humor, slackerdom and all-around irreverence. Familiar faces abound.

Smith is a 31-year-old New Jersey native who sold his extensive comic-book collection to finance his first film, Clerks, for $28,000. After the film became a sensation first at the 1994 Sundance Film Festival and then commercially, Smith bought back his comic books.

Comics remain an obsession in all his films, along with hockey, oral sex, casual drugs, Catholicism and the Star Wars films.

To this day, Smith owns the comic-book store Jay and Silent Bob's Secret Stash in Red Bank, N.J. The store can be linked to from Smith's colorful Web site, www.viewaskew.com.

The popular site also provides biographical details on Smith and his stars, Smith's comments on films, links to his projects, articles and online debates about his work.

Here's a breakdown on the five episodes of the New Jersey chronicles:

• Clerks (1994), a foul-mouthed, low-budget saga of life in and around the Quickstop, a Jersey strip-mall convenience store. Folks who've seen it will be forever tainted by a new definition of "snowball." My rating: 8.

• Mallrats (1995), a bland attempt to broaden the Clerks concept into a suburban mall. It was too much like the original to succeed. Jason Lee, Ben Affleck and Joey Lauren Adams make their first appearances for Smith. My rating: 5.

• Chasing Amy (1997), a thoughtful romantic comedy, set in the world of comic-book creators. At its core, it's about a guy (Affleck) who falls in love with a lesbian (Adams). My original rating: 6, though today I'd say 8.

• Dogma (1999), a controversial, scatological comedy that takes on the Roman Catholic Church. Smith says the film came out of a position of faith; his detractors aren't so sure. It's frequently funny and thought-provoking, but uneven and not for the easily offended. My rating: 7.

• Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back, with Jay and Bob en route to Hollywood to disrupt Miramax's plans to film their adventures. My rating: 4.