Jay and Silent Bob Reboot proved one thing to me. I had grown beyond what I loved about the View Askewniverse, as much as I had not. When you watch a retrospective film about a beloved film series, it’s hard not to draw lines between your viewership and what you’re observing. I remember where I was when I first saw Mallrats. Hell, I remember telling Kevin Smith at the Lexington Film Festival about how hard it was to find a theater showing Chasing Amy during initial release.
But, does that matter? Not really. Recently, a quote by George Lucas has been making its way through the film nerd portions of social media. Basically, the director calls out people who read too much into his work. At the end of the day, it’s a piece of disposable fun that’s meant to entertain for said duration. Anything else is what you bring to the table.
The way that certain portions of the Internet treats Kevin Smith has always annoyed me. Especially since there is no end of better targets asking for mockery. All Kevin Smith did was make a film for his daughter to headline with Johnny Depp’s kid. If any of your dads loved you, they would’ve done the same thing. Hell, some of you would probably just settle for meeting your dads.
Anyways, we’re into a weird space when we should be talking about the slight retread of Jay and Silent Bob Strikes Back. But, it’s not a retread. More than anything, it’s a crowd-funded direct riff on how utterly soulless the process of film making has become. Anything can happen, just as long as it leaves you Thor. This is where I was going to have a screenshot of the young ladies fantasizing about blowing Chris Hemsworth, but I decided to settle for the shot below.
Jay and Silent Bob Reboot is about older guys coming to terms with their changing space in the world. But, it’s also a biting satire that happens to exist in spite of itself. By making a shameless cash-in, Kevin Smith ended up making a perfect clone of all the genre revisits of the studio system. Inane cameos don’t really go nowhere, contemporary political hot button villains, empowered drug use, empowered young women and men taking a back seat to women being in charge.
Well, that is unless you count the Iron Silent Bob scene. That just exists because a man-child can’t help but play Marvel dress-up one last time. All easy jokes aside, the film works. Sure, it’s indicative of a man moving into a world where Clerks, Mallrats and others are bleached heavily in modern light. But, it’s a world well worth checking out.
The Blu-ray comes with cast interviews, Kevin and Jay interviewing the cast and crew, bloopers and a hair reel. Why a hair reel? Well, it takes effort to make aging actors look youthful. Plus, not everyone is rocking the hockey hair they had back when NHL ’95 was burning up the Sega Channel. The A/V Quality is typical for Kevin Smith movies in HD. I’d recommend a purchase to fans.
