Jay and Silent Bob Reboot (2019) * 1/2

[Ice Cream Jonsey]

The credits to this movie contain better jokes than the actual movie.

I don't understand the directoral decisions made in this. I feel like a jerk because I love Clerks, Mallrats, Chasing Amy, Dogma and Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back. I think I have said it on this BBS before, but I didn't even really "get into" movies until Danzaland took me to see Chasing Amy in a theater in 1997. I don't understand why Smith has characters say literally the exact same thing as they did in J&SBSB throughout. Repeating a joke from 20 years earlier isn't funny, clever or meaningful. Maybe it's because I saw Strike Back way too many times. I remember just leaving work at one point to drive over to the mall in Longmont without telling anyone where I was going to see it. I was a bad employee. But when Ben Affleck says, "Look at these morose motherfuckers right here. Looks like someone shit in your cereal. BUNNNNG." That's from Strike Back. Because Jay said it to Holden in Chasing Amy. Fine the first time, a sarcastic quip the second time but now? It's totally just "Here's this thing you remember, you fucking dickcheese."

I wanted to like this movie. Strike Back is for the most part something that requires seeing like 3 other films but it was original and enjoyable.

And then there's the credits. Brodie Bruce, probably one of my five favorite characters in fiction (I'll go Dave Lister, Marid Audran, Blue Beetle and Rorschach for the others) says pretty much exactly what he's already said in Strike Back, but has a good joke in the credits. The credits stuff isn't even bloopers, they are bits that Kevin Smith cut so he could put people saying literally the same shit they said 20 years ago in. I don't understand the decisions he made with this.

It makes me sad like the Maclunkey thing makes me sad. There are tender and genuinely heartwarming parts in this movie if you've been following along for decades. I just wish he tried to write something original that meant something to him throughout the whole thing.

[Flack]

The whole film comes off as a joke, as if Smith was like, "hey, wouldn't it be funny if we made the same movie again?" and all his friends giggled but forgot he was a millionaire who could really make that happen.