Clerks II (Smith, 2006)

Clerks: *1/2
Clerks II: ***

Note: Because I reference the original Clerks several times in my review, I have included my rating for that film as well.

I am not a fan of Kevin Smith -- not of his films or of him personally. I find him to be a bit of prick, if you'll please excuse the term. I think he's cocky and self-indulgent, and his movies are dull, repetitive and childish.

However, he has managed to garner a large group of clingy fans who worship the ground he walks on. I consider myself an antipode to those people … a “hater,” if you will.

After hearing endless praise for Clerks, his first film, I decided to check it out. I found myself questioning the very existence of the film, I hated it so much. I couldn’t grasp the concept of it – it’s a film about two guys talking in a convenience store. Subplots and antics aside, that is the basic gist of the film. And though some may find that charming and quirky, I find it to be pretty uninteresting.

But I digress.

Clerks II picks up a decade after the last one ended, with Dante (Brian O'Halloran) and Randal (Jeff Anderson) still stuck in their dead-end jobs at the Quick-Stop convenience store. But when the Quick-Stop burns down (Randal left the coffee pot on), the two slackers are left to find new minimum-wage jobs. They find themselves working at Mooby’s, a McDonald’s-esque fast food joint (which was featured in Smith’s film Dogma).

Dante’s life is a bit different since we left him. He’s engaged to be married, and is planning on moving to Florida to start his life anew. But when he falls for his manager, Becky (Rosario Dawson), things get a bit complicated.

Clerks II, suffice to say, is a vastly better-made film than the original Clerks; the main difference being that SOMETHING ACTUALLY HAPPENS. There's this thing called a plot happening. With Clerks, we are given two characters that, throughout the course of an entire film, don’t develop at all. Some would call this unique. I call it bad filmmaking. With Clerks II, Dante and Randal actually resolve the conflict that arises. They develop as characters, and aren’t as two-dimensional and dull as they were in Clerks.

Smith’s signature brand of humor (translation: the humor of a 13-year-old boy) is still overwhelmingly present. However, there are a few genuinely funny scenes. In my favorite scene of the film, Randal gets into a heated argument with two geeks over which is the better trilogy, Star Wars or Lord of the Rings. One of the nerds gets so mad that he vomits.

Though the characters do make quite a bit of progress through the film, the ending of the movie is overly anti-climatic. And frankly, it makes this sequel a bit unnecessary. At the end of Clerks II, Dante and Randal are right back where they were ten years ago – the Quick-Stop convenience store. It's a very disappointing way to end a film.

Clerks II isn’t the masterful achievement some claim it is, but it is a better film than the original Clerks, and I’ll admit that I enjoyed it for the most part.