" Empire had a better ending. I mean, Luke gets his hand cut off, finds out Vaders his father, Han gets frozen, taken away by Boba Fett. It ends on such a down note. I mean, that is what life is, a series of down notes. All Jedi had was a bunch of muppets."
Ahh, Kevin Smith. Aside from unintentionally starting a war about which is the better movie, I decided to start this article with that quote. Why? Because that quote really sums up Kevin Smith and his talent.
When I first started working in the service industry in High School, trying to save up money to insure a car I bought, one of the cooks at the resturant I worked at kept quoting a movie. The lines from it were funny as hell, and eventually he brought me the movie to borrow. That was Clerks. Black and white, and non-stop funny. We follow the unfortunate adventures of a man named Dante as he lives the worst and best day of his life working at a convience store. From finding how many blowjobs that she had given in her life ( "37?"), to his ex girlfriend having accidental intercourse with a dead guy in the bathroom, it is probably my second favorite movie of all times.
After that, it was blue skies. Mallrats was released to indie theaters and I grabbed a crap load of people to see it. This movie takes place in a mall in New Jersey, and follows two men, T.S. ( Jeremy London) and Brodie Bruce ( Jason Lee) as they spend the day at the mall, with TS trying to get over his recent breakup from his girlfriend, the talented Claire Forlani. Brodie, on the other hand, pines after his girlfriend Rene Mosier ( Played by pre-Charmed Shannon Dohery.) " Hell hath no girl scorned for Sega"
After finding out that Brandy's day sets up a dating game inthe mall, and uses Claire Forlani's charater Brandy for the female people are trying to win over, they enlist the help of Jay and Silent Bob ( Jason Mewes and Kevin Smith himself) to stop it from happening. It all ends with hilarious results. It is also funny how the same characters from Clerks show up.
The next in the New Jersey Trilogy is Chasing Amy. This is a somewhat serious look at relationships. This time, Gwen from Mallrats ( Joey Lauren Adams, you know her. The cute cousin that Bud Bundy hooked up with in the last season of Married...With Children) is a lesbian that meets Holden McNiel, played by Ben Affleck. Affleck also had a part in Mallrats as the honing in Assman (see the movie). He is a artist, along with his best friend Banky ( Played by Jason Lee.) Gwen is also a comic book creator, and they meet at a convention.
Banky gets jealous of Holden and Gwen, she has issues with men, and in hte end, it all gets solved? watch it and find out!
The fourth movie in the series is caleld Dogma. Now, Kevin Smith came under a lot of fire for this one, due to his take on the bible. The simple story is two fallen angles find a way to get back to earth. These angels, respectively, are Ben Affleck and Matt Damon. It is up to the last relation of Christ, Bethany.( Played by Linda Fiorentio.)
She is met up by Jay and Silent Bob and a black, 13th deciple named Rufus played by Chris Rock. They are racing to a church in New Jersey to stop the two angles from using the planentary indulgence clause to get back to Heaven, but if they do, all life will disappear. " You can't go against god!"
A demon in Hell, Azreal (played by Jason Lee) kidnaps God and helps Ben and Matt get to new Jersey. There is a epic battle at the end and God is revealed to be Alans Morrisette.
Finally, Jay and Silent Bob Strike back. This is the final New Jersey movie, and it brings back almost every character from all the other movies, in one form or another. With the success of Banky and Holden's comic book characters based on Jay and Silent Bob, Bluntman and Chronic, a movie is being made. Jay and Bob read that off the internet that they movie will blow, and thatpeople are saying bad things about Jay and Bob. " That is what the internet is for. To anonomously critize people and trade porn"
So, they head off to holiwood to stop it. The funniest, and hardest to explain, it pulls so many things from the other movies, yet can still be watched on it's own. Look for walk on characters like Jason Biggs (American Pie), George Carlin, and many others, including Mark Hamell. The perfect end to his series.
Kevin Smith has a nack of writing uber funny. He is bright and intelligent, and should be forgiven for Jersey Girl. If you like a lot of lower brow humor, and have some time, pick up all five movies and get a bunch of friends together."