Clerks-II

Rated-R

~Delivering another cult classic~

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By Todd Karella
July 21, 2006

   It’s been twelve years since Director Kevin Smith broke through onto the silver screen bringing his cult classic, Clerks, to the big screen and introduced us to the loveable slackers, Dante (Brian Christopher O’halloran) and Randal (Jeff Anderson), and everybody’s favorite drug dealers Jay (Jason Mewes) and Silent Bob (Smith).
   So after several popular films, Smith decides to revisit the original characters that started his cult-like following.
   The original film was a single day snapshot of Dante and Randal working at the Quick Stop where they waste away their lives talking about important issues like Star Wars and how much they hate their customers.

Now they’re in their thirties and still working at the same crappy jobs. But that doesn’t last long since Randal forgot to turn off the coffee pot and it ends up burning down the store. But these slackers take it in stride and decide it’s time for a career change, a downward move so they can flip burgers at Mooby’s.
Obviously, they don’t have a lot of skill and talent, but Dante has found his ticket out of Jersey and out of the crummy burger business. He’s got Emma (Jennifer Schwalbach), his new fiancée who is going to

take him to Florida where he can manage her family’s extremely lucrative carwash business.
Even with his wagon hooked up to this gravy train, Dante is confronted by several issues that arise due to his forthcoming departure. Not only is hit best friend, Randal, feeling abandoned, but he has feelings for his current boss, Becky (Rosario Dawson).
So what does a man do? Does Dante leave for the good life, if you

can call managing a carwash a good life, or does he stay at the burger joint with Randal and Becky?
It’s not going to be an easy choice. Not only does he have the wise-cracking Randal who won’t tell him why he’s so angry at him, but Becky is pushing him away as well. And that’s a terrible combina- tion for someone like Dante who has trouble making decisions on his own to begin with.

Yes, the plot is fairly basic, but as with the original film the strength is through the character interaction. Randal is constantly coming up with a unique interpretation on life and is never shy on giving his opinion. The scene with actress Wanda Sykes playing a customer is one of those incredibly hysterical examples. There’s also a donkey show with a unique twist, a discussion about the Star Wars Trilogy versus The Lord of the Rings Trilogy and even a brief dance number.

Throw in Jay and Silent Bob selling drugs outside the building after having just come out of rehab and it’s just an insane amount of comedy.
While this second film may not be as original or as fresh as the first film, which redefined the way independent filmmaking was done, it’s a worthy sequel that is wraps up the story in a satisfying way.