Skip to main content

Movie Review: Jay and Silent Bob Reboot

Jay and Silent Bob Reboot One Sheet
On the off chance Kevin Smith or anyone from his organisation happens to read this review, I want to applaud Kevin for personally taking this movie on the road to theatres. I think that's amazing and more directors should release their films that way but...

For the love of God, can you please find a way to release your films so that people in countries you won't be touring in can get to see them sooner... and I don't mean that BS where one streaming service gets the film exclusively for 3-5 months before the DVD/Blu-ray release and wider distribution to other streaming services.

Jay and Silent Bob Reboot Roadshow kicked off mid October of 2019. At the time of writing this it became available on DVD just a week or so ago. I bought a copy as soon as it became available here in Australia. So, about eight months after it released I can finally see it. I can also finally listen to the Smodcast Commentary track Kevin recorded, which has sat on my playlist for at least two months at this point (or since whenever the movie first debuted on streaming I think).

Streaming services may have replaced the video store but just like video stores they lie by saying you'll be able to access all your favorite movies whenever you want. Well at least for as long as we exist and we still have a licensing deal with the company that makes your favorite movies... and don't forget we randomly remove titles for 'reasons'. I'm not subscribing to a service for one movie.

Personally I like owning physical copies of my favorite movies regardless of the format, just so long as I can store it somewhere where no one can say it's no longer available to me anymore. At the same time I'm not paying DVD/Blu-ray prices for digital copies of movies that don't have any postage or packaging costs (and I don't buy that server space is that expensive when Youtube gives away so much of it for free to shit, four hour live streams)...

Anyway, I guess that's a bit of side track rant. All I'm saying is having to wait so long to see a movie is a real buzz kill because any podcast that was likely to share my enthusiasm for the movie, or at least provide some independent commentary, moved on ages ago (looking at you Weekly Planet - who said you might feature Kevin Smith movies in the lead up to this movie but never did because of the wait just to be able to even see it in Australia). 

So, back to the review. Jay and Silent Bob Reboot is basically the same story as Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back where Jay (Jason Mewes) and Silent Bob (Kevin Smith) travel across the country to try and prevent Hollywood from making a reboot of their movie, Bluntman and Chronic. Basically a reboot about rebooting old  movies.

Is it any good? It's a Kevin Smith movie. How good it is, is relative to how much of fan you are of Kevin Smith. Although I'm sure Kevin does his best to make his films as good as can be what he's really trying to do is make sure you have a good time. If this is your first Kevin Smith movie it may be a little all over the place but you should still have fun.

That's really what I think Jay and Silent Bob Reboot sets out to be... a good time with Kevin and his friends. If you're a Kevin Smith fan, you'll feel included with the nods and winks directly to camera on some of the inside jokes.

Kevin has admitted to editing this movie down to a tight 105 minutes which makes me question if the road trip section of the movie was longer at one point? Although I haven't seen it in a while I'd swear Jay and Silent Bob Strikes back had much more road trip featured as part of the journey.

In Jay and Silent Bob Reboot the road trip section doesn't feel like they did much more than travel across town, and seems over so fast you wonder why Kevin just didn't have them hop on a plane, as the characters intended to do on the outset?

As such the storyline of Jay having a daughter, Milly (Harley Quinn Smith), travelling with him but he can't tell her, seems a little bit rushed, and doesn't quite earn any emotional weight once things unfold. There's very few moments, if any I recall, where Milly starts to suspect Jay may be someone of more significance to her.

Beyond that I did indeed have a good time watching the movie. My favorite scene was in Brodie's (Jason Lee) Comic shop where Brodie expositions the hell out of some important plot points. You know it's all exposition but Jason Lee's delivery sells it so well.

I also got a real kick out of Ben Affleck's scene, returning as Holden McNeil. It doesn't serve a whole lot of purpose in this film but, as I think Kevin Smith has said, it kind of serves as a mini sequel to his earlier film, Chasing Amy. Not that I needed that, it was just great to see Ben having some fun and being reunited with Kevin (crossing my fingers those two will sit down for a long podcast about Ben's career, and especially his turn as Batman - though I'd be happy with just swapping memories from Kevin's early films too).

Another highlight was definitely Chris Hemsworth's cameo. That guy really needs to do more dialogue driven comedy... maybe Kevin can write a buddy movie for him and Jason Lee?

Special mention for Melissa Benoist as Chronic. Even in a ridiculous looking Superhero suit she totally sells how bad ass she can be. Whether you like her Supergirl show or not, it's impressive how she can go from sweet, girl next door, to laser vision, I'll f**k you up if you mess with me, in seconds and be totally convincing.

The biggest laugh for me came right at the very end post credit scene. Such a simple idea but the ramifications of it make it one of the best Easter egg jokes ever in a Kevin Smith movie.

Overall, if you're a Kevin Smith fan, this movie will certainly entertain and is kind of a book end to Kevin's earlier movies. It's not a perfect movie by any stretch but the highlights are memorable and the cameos add to the fun.

To top it off, you get a fun moment between the late Stan Lee and Kevin Smith during the credits. Stan was set to make a cameo in this film, which would have been very fitting given one of his very first cameos was in a Kevin Smith film (Mall Rats). Unfortunately it was not to be but this moment is maybe even better than the cameo would have been.

Comments

Buy Gifts and Apparel featuring art by TET.

Popular posts from this blog

Movie Review: A Complete Unknown (2024) *No Spoilers*

Y ou would think the Bob Dylan story would be 'wind-swept and interesting,' to quote Billy Connelly, however, despite  A Complete Unknown  being quite an engaging film, it feels like it missed the years that really shaped him as a song writer/performer. The film starts in 1961, with a then unknown, 19-year-old Bob Dylan (Timothée Chalamet) arriving in New York City with his guitar.  From there he forges relationships with musical icons on his meteoric rise, culminating in a groundbreaking performance that reverberates around the world. The problem being, according to this film, Dylan arrived in New York, for the most part, fully formed as a folk singer/song writer. In virtually no time he makes a very important connection that puts him on the trajectory of doing the work and becoming a name, before making his world changing performance. While there is some drama behind the scenes with his various relationships, none of it is particularly unique to any number of up and com...

TV Series Review: Humans (2015-2018, 3 Seasons) *No Spoilers*

Colin Morgan, Katherine Parkinson, Ivanno Jeremiah, Gemma Chan, and Emily Berrington in Humans (2015) W hile it may seem late to be reviewing Humans now, nearly seven years after the show wrapped, the only thing that's really aged about it is the opening titles... and even then, not that much. I think I caught the first season on Netflix back in 2015, and then kind of dropped off waiting for a new season to appear. As of writing this, all three seasons are on Amazon Prime. Humans is set in a parallel world that looks much like ours except humanoid robot helpers, that look just like real humans, called 'Synths', are now common place. Season one begins at the point where the first synths go from being subservient machines to gaining consciousness, and explores not only how humanity reacts to that but how the synths react to humanity's perceptions as well. Initially it follows a group of OG synths, already given consciousness by their creator, and just trying to survive i...

I'm Confused About Why People Prefer to Say Discombobulated?

D iscombobulated. Is a word that I think someone rediscovered about three or four years ago (maybe more because the pandemic years have thrown out my sense of time) and now I hear it a lot. It's not a new word by any means, but when I started hearing multiple celebrities using it in everyday sentences, I actively had to look up what it meant. Define it with as many synonyms as you like but essentially it's just another word meaning 'confused'. Seinfeld Quotes: Quotes.net The words are pretty much interchangeable. He was discombobulated by too many choices. He was confused by too many choices.  My confusion is the length of the word. It's unnecessarily long with too many syllables. There are many other words that mean confused, and therefore also mean discombobulated. Most of them are shorter and easier to say. So why not just say 'confused'? Perhaps discombobulated sounds more intelligent, maybe?  Hawaii Five-0 Quotes: Quotes.net I've noticed it gets us...

Australian Federal Election 2025 - World's Most Boring Government Re-elected by Landside - We're Even More Fine!

Anthony Albanese Victory by ChatGPT and TET. W hen I started writing about the 2025 Federal election the polls were suggesting the world's most boring government was crusing to a defeat . As it turns out, boring is good, and Australia wants more of it, handing the current government a landslide win with a majority vote. Anthony Albanese became the first PM since John Howard to win a consecutive term, and the first Labor PM since Bob Hawke to do so. Some of that comes down to the leadership revolving door both major parties had through the mid 2000s. Although Anthony is my preferred PM over Dutton the irony is Dutton sounds more like a leader with a fairly commanding voice and an ability to speak well, without sounding like he's waffling and dodging questions, even if he is. Anthony, on the other hand, does have the ability (and speech writer) to say a lot of inspiring things but it gets lost in the delivery. He doesn't seem to know when to emphasise a point for effect. In h...

China is Leading on Thorium Nuclear Energy, A Source That is More Efficient, More Available, and Produces Less Nuclear Waste Than Uranium

Early thorium-based (MSR) nuclear reactor at Oak Ridge National Laboratory in the 1960s By ORNL " Image courtesy of Oak Ridge National Laboratory " I f there was an energy source more efficient, safer, more available, and produces less nuclear waste with a significantly less decay time before it becomes safe again, you'd think countries would be climbing over themselves to jump on board. Thorium is that source, and it was extensively researched by the USA in the 1960's, ultimately losing out to Uranium because Uranium was cheaper and served a duel role in the nuclear arms race of the time. That leads us to today, where Uranium Nuclear reactors are an entire industry, with strong foot holds in many countries around the globe, and Thorium is still stuck in development hell. Even if the Nuclear industry did decide to pivot, it would be decades before Thorium would actually deliver on the benefits of using it. It's not as simple as swapping fuel in existing reactors. ...

Movie Review: Superman (2025) *No Spoilers*

T he one thing I like about James Gunn as a comic book movie director is that he leans into the comic book nature of the world and the characters.  He's not trying to do a realistic take on any of the characters. He's simply bringing the comics to life. It's still his take on the characters, but he doesn't shy away from their comic book origins. James Gunn's  Superman  is very much a comic book movie in every sense. Nothing is off the table because it's too 'comic-booky' and might look silly in a live action film.  To me that's incredibly liberating. It lets James actually tell a proper Superman story that isn't hamstrung by reality, or tip toeing into the fantastical just enough to allow Superman to exist in the real world. Superman begins in the middle of a battle. Metropolis is under attack by a super powered being known as 'Hammer of Boravia', however everything is not as it seems, and Superman (David Corenswet) must work with other s...

Movie Review: Captain America: Brave New World (2025) *No Spoilers*

I  decided not see Captain America: Brave New World in a cinema because everything I heard about the film pointed to a disjointed mess, from testing poorly, to whole characters being added in during reshoots. The trailers looked okay but, since they featured Red Hulk, quite a bit, it felt like there wasn't much left as a drawcard for seeing the film in a cinema. Having now seen the film on Disney+ I feel it was a good decision. While the big budget effects no doubt would've looked better on a big screen, the story wasn't particularly complex or intriguing enough to make the film stand out. If anything, it's a straight forward action movie with a hero who is just kind of... there. The story revolves around a plot to kill the newly elected US President, former General Thaddeus Ross (Harrison Ford). Captain America (Anthony Mackie) must find who is the real mastermind in order to clear his friend and the original Super Solider, Isaiah Bradley's (Carl Lumbly), name. I...