Jay and Silent Bob Reboot

The first piece of Kevin Smith merchandise I ever bought was a Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back t-shirt. It was several months before the movie was slated to come out in 2001 my Kevin Smith fandom was at an all-time high as I was in the midst of plotting a filmmaking career and devouring his films, documentaries, and commentaries like they were the gospel.

That fever pitch fandom began to dwindle after Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back came out, but it had a few other spikes with Jersey Girl and Clerks II. Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back was The Avengers of Kevin Smith films, and it was something unique, fun, and ground breaking at the time. All of the major players from the previous View Askew films came together in a single film that highlighted the one constant throughout the series: Jay and Silent Bob.

In the years since Strike Back was released, Kevin Smith’s filmmaking has been all over the place. He’s embraced pot as the cure all for everything, he’s gone through a strange horror phase, and has announced more projects that have not been made than anyone I’ve ever heard of. Needless to say, by the time Jay and Silent Bob Reboot was announced, I didn’t expect it would ever be made, but I hoped for the best.

Two days ago, I finally sat down and watched Jay and Silent Bob Reboot. All I can say is wow, that was not very good.

It was nice to see all the cameos by my favorite characters, and some came off quite well (Holden from Chasing Amy for example) and some did not (Brodie from Mallrats). Kevin Smith’s meta writing doesn’t hold up well in a world where Rick and Morty exists. The overall story isn’t very good, but then again, neither was Strike Back, but at least Strike Back was entertaining.

The one thing I really noticed while watching Reboot was everyone has aged so much. Everyone is slower and the comedic timing is off. A lot of the cast members who are in Reboot don’t work very often anymore and it shows. Then again, maybe it’s just the writing. It doesn’t flow like it used to and the whole film just feels like a low budget knock off instead of a proper reboot. Maybe it has something to do with Reboot’s budget being 10 million vs. Strike Back’s 22 million.

I think what really killed Reboot for me was Jason Mewes. Years of living hard has aged him. What was once cute and quirky, now just comes off as cringe worthy and creepy. No one wants to watch a 45 year old man, who looks like he’s pushing 60 sucking on his fingers and dry humping a fast food counter. And having said character as the main in your film made this film hard to enjoy.

With a reboot, I really expected something fresh and edgy. I thought Kevin Smith might update his humor, timing, and bring Jay and Silent Bob up to-date, the way most reboots do. Instead, it’s almost as if he’s regressed and lost touch with his audience. He spent years embracing the View Askew universe, then turning his back on it, and now he’s coming back to it to find that’s it’s just not the same anymore. I’ve said this several times over the past few years, but all the hard pot smoking has killed Kevin’s comedy. He smoke so much pot now, he has no clue that the jokes he writes aren’t funny to us that aren’t stoned and that’s a damn shame, because Kevin was always the everyman nerd, way before that was something cool.

If this was the last I’ve seen of Jay and Silent Bob then I’m okay with that. It’s probably for the best. As much as it pains me to say this, Jay and Silent Bob are something that are better left in the 90’s.

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