Clerks 2

This really won't be much of a review, more of a gush piece really. I am an admitted Kevin Smith junky. Whatever he is selling, I am buying. I still remember watching Clerks for the first time and thinking it was just about the funniest thing on Earth. I then saw pretty much every Smith movie in the theater, and with each new film he remained funny while becoming more and more comfortable as a filmmaker. I waited him out through Jersey Girl, where he seemed to be trying to do more than just dick and fart jokes, and even that movie worked on a certain level. But, whether he likes it or not, Kevin Smith is the king of dick and fart jokes (no offense to the South Park guys who rock the D&F jokes at a high level as well). It looks like with Clerks 2, Smith has decided to take the head first plunge back into the genre that made him a household name, and the results are up to par as always.

The premise is pretty simple, it is 10 years later and both Dante and Randall are still clerks. The Quickstop has burned down because Randall left the coffee machine on, so now they are forced to work at Mooby's, the fictional McDonalds clone from Dogma. Dante is engaged and about to move to Florida. Jay and Silent Bob are still selling weed outside the store, but fresh out of rehab Jay has found god. That is pretty much the set up...simple enough. The movie takes place on Dante's last day before moving to Florida and of course craziness ensues. All the returning actors jump right back into their roles at a high level, including O'Halloran, who has become a much more comfortable actor since the first Clerks. Rosario Dawson has been added to sell a few more movie tickets as the (way to hot to actually be) manager of Mooby's. There is also a really funny Jesus freak/Lord of the Ring's nerd who works the drive through and Randall terrorizes. I had never seen the actor before, but he was quite funny. There are also a handful of cameos from some of Smith's standby actors like Affleck and Jason Lee along with Wanda Sykes who is involved in the funniest scene in the movie where Randall refuses to believe "Porch monkey" is a racial slur. Classic.

If you like Kevin Smith movies, this one is a no brainer. If you don't...slap yourself and watch Clerks and Chasing Amy again. Clerks 2 may not be quite as funny as its predicessor, but because Smith has grown as a filmmaker in the 10 years between Clerks flicks, this is one sequel that is better than the original.

Food For Thought

Great news this week about a judge in Colorado finally putting a stop to those religious right law breakers at Cleanflicks. For those who don't know about this, the cliffs note version is that Cleanflicks is a company that re-edits so called explicit content out of movies without their permission and then sells the new movies to other bible thumpers. This is obviously illegal due to copyright laws and finally a judge has had the balls to stand up to them and put a stop to this obviously illegal practice. This decision was long overdue.

Random Top 10 Lists (Chappelle's Show)

With the last episode of Chappelle's Show coming next week, now seemed the perfect time for my list of the top sketches in the shows history. This is truly a show of comic genius and may very well be the funniest thing TV has seen in years. Chappelle's Show will be missed.


10. Tyrone Biggums On Fear Factor
9. The Time-Haters
8. R. Kelly's "Piss On You" Video
7. The Mad Real World
6. Frontline: How Crack Came To The Streets of L.A.
5. Charlie Murphy's True Hollywood Stories: Prince
4. Wayne Brady
3. The Niggar Family
2. Frontline: Clayton Bigsby, Black White Supremist
1. Charlie Murphy's True Hollywood Stories: Rick James


Just Missed: Samuel Jackson Beer, The Racial Draft, WacArnold's, Kneehigh Park, The Intervention Of Tyrone Biggums.

Superman Returns

Superman returns to theaters in a big way this summer, with possibly the best blockbuster of the summer. I was pretty skeptical of this movie from the get go, even with Brian Singer signed to helm the project it still worried me. For one, I just did not see the reason to make another Superman movie. Also, I hated the idea of an unknown playing the man of steel. I now see that even if no one was really clamoring for another Superman movie, the reason to make it is because special FX have grown leaps and bounds since the last Superman movie, and now anything is truly possible.

The initial genius here is setting Superman Returns directly after Superman 2. In doing this Singer managed to skirt the idea of this being a remake and avoids people comparing this to the earlier, fondly thought of movies. The second piece of genius is casting unknown Brandon Routh as the man of steel. My doubts on casting an unknown were put to rest when I literally saw him seemingly channeling Christopher Reeves. He is so similar to his portrayal of Superman it is almost creepy. I'm not sure if Routh has the chops to go on to bigger and better things like Reeves did (well, maybe not bigger or better, but he had a solid post Superman career) but for this project, Routh and his fresh faced unknown was perfect. Equally perfectly cast was Kevin Spacey as ubervillian Lex Luthor. Spacey seemed the obvious choice from the get go to me as he can play both over the top evil and also funny and sinister. More importantly, he looks cool with a bald head. Spacey managed to play Luthor as over the top evil, without being quite as cartoonish as Hackman's earlier portrayals. My biggest issue with the film is Kate Bosworth as Lois Lane. She is badly miscast here. I actually like Bosworth as an actress most of the time, and she certainly did what she could here, but she is simply too young and too fresh faced to pull off Lois Lane. Kate's Lane just can't pull off being a somewhat grizzled newspaper writer and I just don't buy her as a mother of a 5 year old. I think Rachel McAdams or Jennifer Garner may have been better choices here. James Marsden, Frank Langella, and Parker Posey all do solid supporting work as well.

The plot of the movie is Superman 101. Luther has an evil plan to rule the world and a little bit of Kryptonite. Superman must stop him. Simple enough. The first hour or so plays out like a Superman starter kit, making sure you know enough about the overall story to follow what will come. We find out the man of steel has been gone for 5 years searching in vain for his destroyed home planet. The world and more importantly Lois Lane have moved on in this time, so when Superman returns, it is an uneasy alliance at first. He wins over the rest of the world easy enough, but winning back Lois Lane proves to be a bit harder. That is all I will give you of the plot because I run a spoiler free site and I would hate to accidentally toss one out here. Suffice it to say, Superman has indeed returned, and like Batman last year he has returned in top form. This movie keeps what is great about Superman and adds cool new things to keep the viewer guessing. Singer and his fellow X-Men writers have breathed life into what many thought was a dead franchise. I for one will be waiting in line to see the sequel.

Random Top 10 Lists (Best Remakes)

10. The Italian Job (2003)
9. Heaven Can Wait (1978)
8. A Star Is Born (1954)
7. Invasion of the Body Snatchers (1978)
6. The Ring (2002)
5. Ocean’s Eleven (2001)
4. Cape Fear (1991)
3. The Fly (1986)
2. His Girl Friday (1940)
1. Scarface (1983)


Just Missed: Dawn of the Dead (2004), King Kong (2005), The Manchurian Candidate (2004), The Thomas Crown Affair (1999).