Clerks 2

Red = Spoilers 

Clerks 2 is the inevitable sequel to Kevin Smith’s first movie that shepherded his rise to fame. It’s not as good as the first one is, but what sequel is? Either way, this movie has a good story, some great characters, a lot of great dialogue, and a donkey. The donkey’s not really a selling point, I’m just throwing it in there so that you know about it for later. 

What’s it about? So, Dante comes into work at the Quick Stop and opens the shutter doors to find the place on fire. He quickly calls the fire department and they come to put out the flames when Randall admits that he left the coffee pot on again last night, probably causing the shop to burn down. Cut to a year later and the guys are working at the fictional restaurant “Mooby’s”. Enter Dante’s fiancé Emma, whose parents are set to give them a house and give Dante a car wash to run in Florida. This is making Randall upset because he feels like Dante is leaving him behind. In comes Elias, an ultra-religious teenage employee at Mooby’s that Randall likes to antagonize who is obsessed with nerdish culture like the Transformers and Lord of the Rings. Soon, Becky shows up to work, the store manager. It turns out later on that her and Dante had a drunken fling in the kitchen one night and Becky got pregnant. Emma discovers this at the climax of a donkey show while Dante and Becky are kissing and throws not only the engagement ring, but a cake that she baked for Dante, in his face. The cops show up and arrest everyone for the donkey show and Jay and Silent Bob agree to lend Randall and Dante money to buy the Quick Stop so they can renovate it and reopen it themselves.  

What’s good? It’s a very good sequel, all things considered. The acting is done well. It’s got a good script. A lot of funny segments that were probably a lot funnier on paper than when they were shot on film. I think the idea of a Clerks sequel leaves it open to all kinds of ideas and they just kind of picked up on one that left it open to have the most people in it.  

What’s bad? I think a lot of the segments seemed funnier in the script than they probably were when they shot them. Like the whole dance segment. That was a really pointless scene. I can see where Kevin Smith was going with that. I can see what he was trying to do. It just didn’t work the way he wanted it to. And this is also about the time when Jay and Silent Bob start getting annoying. This is probably Kevin Smith’s 4^th or 5^th movie already, so they’re already pretty popular characters and becoming essentially caricatures of themselves on screen. And in my opinion, it makes them more annoying than anything else. 

The effects? I don’t think there’s any effects in the movie. Practical or otherwise. I guess the Quick Stop burning down in the beginning is CGI. That’s about it.  

The acting? The acting is good from everybody. Elias is an especially fun character because he’s so awkward and weird and he’s always making these goofy facial expressions. 

The plot? It’s a good story. Of all the ways they could’ve gone with a sequel to the original movie, this one seems like a good fit. Forcing them to make change. Forcing them to move from the stagnant job of the Quick Stop to another stagnant job flipping burgers. Clerks somewhere to clerks somewhere else. It’s following a central theme. 

Burning down the Quick Stop. It was a good idea to burn down the Quick Stop so they had a good reason to leave. It forced them to make a change and go somewhere else and not sit around waiting for the same old thing. It gave them a reason to come up with a new location and a new setting. 

The donkey show. This is just a bizarre turn in the movie. I’d never heard of a “donkey show” before I had seen Clerks 2, but here we are. And Elias facial expression when Randall describes it to him is just fantastic. 

Elias. Elias is just a fantastic character in the movie. He’s so awkward and weird, and the Pillow Pants story about his girlfriend is extra creepy because you know he believes it with the intense look in his eyes. It’s a good bit of acting on his part.  

A lot of cameos. A couple of people make cameos in the movie. Ben Affleck, Jason Lee, Wanda Sykes, Earthquake, Ethan Suplee. A bunch of people from the View-Askewneverse. 

The dance sequence. Like I said, I can see what they were trying to do. I’ll bet it was a lot funnier when they wrote it than it was after they shot it. But when you spend that much time and money shooting something, you don’t want to just waste it, so why not keep it in. But I don’t think it was really that great of a scene to really keep in the movie. It really didn’t add anything and wouldn’t have been missed if you took it out.  

So, yeah. Go and see Clerks 2. It’s a good sequel as far as sequels go. Not only that, it’s a good standalone comedy all on its own. You can watch it without seeing the first one and it’s still funny enough. And as always, keep on watching, with a smile on your face…