Movie Review: Jay and Silent Bob Reboot

On the off chance Kevin Smith or anyone from his organisation happens to read this review, I want to applaud Kevin for personally taking this movie on the road to theatres. I think that's amazing and more directors should release their films that way but...

For the love of God, can you please find a way to release your films so that people in countries you won't be touring in can get to see them sooner... and I don't mean that BS where one streaming service gets the film exclusively for 3-5 months before the DVD/Blu-ray release and wider distribution to other streaming services.

Jay and Silent Bob Reboot Roadshow kicked off mid October of 2019. At the time of writing this it became available on DVD just a week or so ago. I bought a copy as soon as it became available here in Australia. So, about eight months after it released I can finally see it. I can also finally listen to the Smodcast Commentary track Kevin recorded, which has sat on my playlist for at least two months at this point (or since whenever the movie first debuted on streaming I think).

Streaming services may have replaced the video store but just like video stores they lie by saying you'll be able to access all your favorite movies whenever you want. Well at least for as long as we exist and we still have a licensing deal with the company that makes your favorite movies... and don't forget we randomly remove titles for 'reasons'. I'm not subscribing to a service for one movie.

Personally I like owning physical copies of my favorite movies regardless of the format, just so long as I can store it somewhere where no one can say it's no longer available to me anymore. At the same time I'm not paying DVD/Blu-ray prices for digital copies of movies that don't have any postage or packaging costs (and I don't buy that server space is that expensive when Youtube gives away so much of it for free to shit, four hour live streams)...

Anyway, I guess that's a bit of side track rant. All I'm saying is having to wait so long to see a movie is a real buzz kill because any podcast that was likely to share my enthusiasm for the movie, or at least provide some independent commentary, moved on ages ago (looking at you Weekly Planet - who said you might feature Kevin Smith movies in the lead up to this movie but never did because of the wait just to be able to even see it in Australia).

So, back to the review. Jay and Silent Bob Reboot is basically the same story as Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back where Jay (Jason Mewes) and Silent Bob (Kevin Smith) travel across the country to try and prevent Hollywood from making a reboot of their movie, Bluntman and Chronic. Basically a reboot about rebooting old movies.

Is it any good? It's a Kevin Smith movie. How good it is, is relative to how much of fan you are of Kevin Smith. Although I'm sure Kevin does his best to make his films as good as can be what he's really trying to do is make sure you have a good time. If this is your first Kevin Smith movie it may be a little all over the place but you should still have fun.

That's really what I think Jay and Silent Bob Reboot sets out to be... a good time with Kevin and his friends. If you're a Kevin Smith fan, you'll feel included with the nods and winks directly to camera on some of the inside jokes.

Kevin has admitted to editing this movie down to a tight 105 minutes which makes me question if the road trip section of the movie was longer at one point? Although I haven't seen it in a while I'd swear Jay and Silent Bob Strikes back had much more road trip featured as part of the journey.

In Jay and Silent Bob Reboot the road trip section doesn't feel like they did much more than travel across town, and seems over so fast you wonder why Kevin just didn't have them hop on a plane, as the characters intended to do on the outset?

As such the storyline of Jay having a daughter, Milly (Harley Quinn Smith), travelling with him but he can't tell her, seems a little bit rushed, and doesn't quite earn any emotional weight once things unfold. There's very few moments, if any I recall, where Milly starts to suspect Jay may be someone of more significance to her.

Beyond that I did indeed have a good time watching the movie. My favorite scene was in Brodie's (Jason Lee) Comic shop where Brodie expositions the hell out of some important plot points. You know it's all exposition but Jason Lee's delivery sells it so well.

I also got a real kick out of Ben Affleck's scene, returning as Holden McNeil. It doesn't serve a whole lot of purpose in this film but, as I think Kevin Smith has said, it kind of serves as a mini sequel to his earlier film, Chasing Amy. Not that I needed that, it was just great to see Ben having some fun and being reunited with Kevin (crossing my fingers those two will sit down for a long podcast about Ben's career, and especially his turn as Batman - though I'd be happy with just swapping memories from Kevin's early films too).

Another highlight was definitely Chris Hemsworth's cameo. That guy really needs to do more dialogue driven comedy... maybe Kevin can write a buddy movie for him and Jason Lee?

Special mention for Melissa Benoist as Chronic. Even in a ridiculous looking Superhero suit she totally sells how bad ass she can be. Whether you like her Supergirl show or not, it's impressive how she can go from sweet, girl next door, to laser vision, I'll f**k you up if you mess with me, in seconds and be totally convincing.

The biggest laugh for me came right at the very end post credit scene. Such a simple idea but the ramifications of it make it one of the best Easter egg jokes ever in a Kevin Smith movie.

Overall, if you're a Kevin Smith fan, this movie will certainly entertain and is kind of a book end to Kevin's earlier movies. It's not a perfect movie by any stretch but the highlights are memorable and the cameos add to the fun.

To top it off, you get a fun moment between the late Stan Lee and Kevin Smith during the credits. Stan was set to make a cameo in this film, which would have been very fitting given one of his very first cameos was in a Kevin Smith film (Mall Rats). Unfortunately it was not to be but this moment is maybe even better than the cameo would have been.

Comments

TV Series Review: Skeleton Crew (2024) (Disney+) No Spoilers

I f you saw the trailer for Skeleton Crew and decided the show looked too much like Star Wars for little kids, and didn't watch, you missed out on a real treat. While I will say this show was definitely targeted at bringing in younger fans to the Star Wars universe, it is very much more like family viewing than kids only TV. Not to mention, characters are literally gunned down or murdered on this show, but without the really graphic violence you might see on a more adult orientated show. It's actually no more kid only orientated than the first series of Stranger Things (2016), or even the original Star Wars (1977) movie. In fact the whole show is a not so subtle homage to original Star Wars (1977), Treasure Island (1950), and eighties movies like The Goonies (1985), ET (1982), Explorers (1985) and others. The plot is very straight forward. A group of children, living in the Star Wars equivalent of the suburbs, find an aband...

I'm Confused About Why People Prefer to Say Discombobulated?

D iscombobulated. Is a word that I think someone rediscovered about three or four years ago (maybe more because the pandemic years have thrown out my sense of time) and now I hear it a lot. It's not a new word by any means, but when I started hearing multiple celebrities using it in everyday sentences, I actively had to look up what it meant. Define it with as many synonyms as you like but essentially it's just another word meaning 'confused'. Seinfeld Quotes: Quotes.net The words are pretty much interchangeable. He was discombobulated by too many choices. He was confused by too many choices. My confusion is the length of the word. It's unnecessarily long with too many syllables. There are many other words that mean confused, and therefore also mean discombobulated. Most of them are shorter and easier to say. So why not just say 'confused'? Perhaps discombobulated sounds more intelligent, maybe? Hawaii Five-0 Quotes: Quotes.net I've noticed it gets us...

TV Series Review: Creature Commandos (2024) No Spoilers

O fficially, Creature Commandos is the first show of James Gunn's kind of reboot of the DCU. Technically though, it starts with James Gunn's, The Suicide Squad , and includes his series, Peacemaker , as the events of both are either referenced or felt within the show. Potentially that means Margot Robbie is Harley Quinn in the DCU, but I'd be surprised if she would even want another crack at it, let alone that James didn't recast the role. However that's a whole other rabbit hole for a character that may not appear again for at least a few more years. Creature Commandos is Suicide Squad but with monsters, and no real threat of Suicide - well, having your head blown off if you stray from the mission at least. Though I don't recall that being a thing in Gunn's Suicide Squad movie since the team was renamed 'Task Force X'? Amanda Waller (Viola Davis) somehow still has a job, but is no longer allowed to use humans on her team, so she assembles a team of...

Introducing the Second Sunday Skateboard Sessions - Doing Less to Skateboard More

This was my second heelflip attempt of the day. I was pleased I at least got the full rotation even if I didn't land it. I am determined to keep skating for as long as possible, though, since my last post in May 2024, about reigniting my kickflip battle at age 54 , I've probably been skateboarding less than I had hoped. Still haven't landed that elusive kickflip either. Strangely I've been wanting to film myself skateboarding again but have been reluctant to do so because it can be a bit of a hassle trying to create interesting content, not to mention a lot of editing, if you want to capture the full journey of learning a trick. I really hate editing. Looking at my camera equipment the other day I was thinking what is the most minimal setup that I can put together that would make it easy to film skate videos anywhere? I landed on using my Samsung A13, Android phone, mounted on a GoPro selfie stick that has a tripod base in the handle, and a wireless mic I bought some t...

Meanwhile, In Australia... The World's Most Boring Government Is Fine... We're All Fine.

That's um... What's his name? T o be honest, I stopped following politics in Australia years ago. The only time I check in is usually around election time just to see which set of woke lefty independents, I'm going to vote for, ahead of my fallbacks of the Greens, and then Labor. Despite my sister trying to categorise me as more of a 'left brained' person I definitely lean 'right brained' more at home with my cry baby, woke, alphabet, lefty people. (For the record, if this is the first musing of mine you've ever read, I'm a straight white male who identifies as an artist... Male artist - just in case you were thinking artist is some new kind of gender you hadn't heard of). This year is an election year for our Federal Government, potentially the world's most boring government, for no other reason than during its entire term, if you asked me who was our Prime Minister I'd actually have to stop and think for a moment. Maybe our 31st PM shou...

The Path to Becoming a Successful Visual Artist Selling Work for Thousands, or Even Millions of Dollars

I'm calling this, 'Stand Up Comedian'. Image by Leonardo.ai and TET. I consider myself to be a successful working artist. I use the term 'working' quite loosely but basically what I mean is I work for myself, I earn money from my art or knowledge, and most of my time I can create art that interests me. I've never been motivated to be a 'career' artist. By that I mean, an artist whose work is displayed in all the top galleries, and that the super rich buy as more of an investment for wealth, than a love of art. Which is not to say these investors don't love art but when you're buying a single artwork for thousands, or even millions, of dollars, you're generally looking for a return on that investment too. That said, I'm not opposed to artists who want that kind of recognition. Certainly, if you're prepared to do the work, in countries like Australia, you can earn a nice passive income off the secondary market. Which means each time yo...

Squeezing the Toothpaste: A Metaphor

I remember when toothpaste was sold in a metal tube. Back then, as a child, you'd cop it from Mum or Dad if you squeezed the tube anywhere but from the bottom. You could even buy special keys that would wind the toothpaste tube up from the bottom so you could get every last bit of paste - no wastage. Then along came the plastic tubes. Finally you could squeeze anywhere and the tube would retain its shape - or so they said in the sales pitch. For the most part this was true. It wasn't as much of a problem squeezing the new plastic tube from the top. Squeezing toothpaste from the tube was now easy - or so you thought. The thing about squeezing the tube from the top (or even the middle) is that it leaves some of the paste at the bottom. Eventually you do have to spend extra time pushing the paste from the bottom up into the top of the tube. Not like the old days when squeezing from the bottom meant you got just the right amount of paste and the tube was always ready for the next p...

TET.Life (The Extraordinary Tourist Life)

Search This Blog