Faded fandom and 'Jay and Silent Bob Reboot'

By TYLER WILSON

For Coeur Voice

Like many teenage boys in in the late 90s, I could recite too many lines of dialogue from the filmography of Kevin Smith, the writer/director of movies such as “Clerks,” “Dogma” and “Chasing Amy.” I was not only a fan of his work, but I was inspired by Smith’s unlikely breakout in Hollywood. If a comic book nerd from New Jersey could make it in the business, it seemed like anyone could, and that was genuinely important to a film-obsessed kid in North Idaho.

The peak of my Kevin Smith fandom centered on the 2001 release of “Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back,” a profane, celebrity-packed in-joke of a movie that celebrated Smith’s interconnected View Askew Universe (which predated the Marvel Cinematic Universe by several years). It was a stupid, stupid movie, but my friends and I loved it, and we created our own language of catchphrases around the random line readings from the movie (a personal favorite: Ben Affleck’s nuanced reading of, “I wasn’t with a hooker today. Ha HAAA!”).

Years passed, and while Kevin Smith continued making movies, my fandom slowly flickered away. I grew up and my interests changed, basically. As a critic who tries to take an unbiased approach to reviewing movies, I could argue Smith’s movies in recent years just haven’t been as good. Honestly though, I think Kevin Smith and I are just in different places now, and that’s totally okay. I won’t pass judgment on anyone if they like “Tusk” or “Yoga Hosers” as much as I liked Jay and Silent Bob back in the day.

That rusty relationship to the View Askew Universe informs my experience of watching the Fathom Events double-feature of “Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back” and the new “Jay and Silent Bob Reboot,” held last week at the Regal Riverstone 14 in Coeur d’Alene. In “Reboot,” Smith returns to the Quik Stop with a movie that pokes fun at Hollywood’s obsession with creative repetition. It’s a winking sequel to “Strike Back” that also retreads much of the same material from that first movie.

Prior to this screening, I hadn’t seen “Strike Back” in at least a decade. It was surprising to learn how much of the movie I remembered, beat-for-beat. It seemed like I could recite 90 percent of a very-talky script. This from a guy who has forgotten his debit card pin two different times in the last year.

In terms of craft, “Strike Back” isn’t exactly Oscar-caliber work, but the movie still chugs along on the charisma of Jason Mewes as foul-mouthed stoner Jay and the barrage of inspired celebrity cameos (most especially Affleck, a guy who somehow makes Smith’s profane diatribes sound like poetry). The movie is riddled with sexist rants and unnecessary gay panic, as were most R-rated comedies from the time period, though in Smith’s defense, even the crudest elements never cross the line into outright gender hatred or homophobia.

Credit Smith for addressing those dated elements to an extent in “Jay and Silent Bob Reboot,” most notably with the presence of his own daughter, Harley Quinn Smith, playing the estranged grown daughter of Jay. When the movie isn’t goofing around with stoner jokes and references to the first movie, “Reboot” attempts to tell a story of Jay reckoning with his perennial immaturity. The gay jokes are minimal, and the movie goes out of its way to provide a filthy counterpoint to Jay’s constant obsession with sex (usually in the form Harley Quinn Smith’s character’s persistent and hilarious objectifcation of Chris Hemsworth).

If “Jay grows up” sounds to you like strange subject matter for a movie called “Jay and Silent Bob Reboot,” well, you’re right, and Smith’s attempts at sincerity occasionally teeter into mawkishness. Still, much of it lands, especially when the movie touches on ideas of parenthood and legacy, and Mewes manages to do some solid work here as a performer. Smith obviously knows he’s going to be remembered for these dopey stoner characters, and the movie uses the “reboot” concept (or more accurately a “requel” concept) to explore something beyond nonsense catchphrases.

“Strike Back” definitely has more polish and craft than “Reboot,” and the new movie unfortunately lacks consistent laughs in a few stretches. “Reboot” is predictably heavy on references to View Askew, though I often wondered if my lack of devotion to his work post “Clerks 2” was fueling my disconnect to certain sequences. On the other hand, I seemed to be the only person in the theater tickled by an extended “Glengarry Glen Ross” gag. Regardless, “Reboot,” perhaps as a result of budget restraints, just isn’t as tight of a production as “Strike Back.”

Anyway, doing a traditional critical assessment to “Jay and Silent Bob Reboot” seems irrelevant, as the project exists solely as a product to Smith’s still-devoted fan base. As a former Smith fanboy, “Reboot” worked well enough in spots, and I will always enjoy a good Ben Affleck cameo.

With that in mind, it’s no surprise that “Jay and Silent Bob Reboot” will be screened going forward as a roadshow accompanied by a live Q&A session with Smith and Mewes. It will roll through our area on January 15 at Spokane’s Martin Woldson Theater at The Fox. Go to FoxTheaterSpokane.org for tickets and more information.

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Tyler Wilson can be reached at twilson@cdapress.com. He is the co-host of “Old Millennials Remember Movies,” available everywhere you find podcasts.