Friday, November 06, 2020

Movie review - "Jay and Silent Bob Reboot" (2019) *

 I'd like to think Kevin Smith has one great movie left in him. He's been through a lot in recent years -a heart attack, watching his daughter grow up, seeing his position in Hollywood change after some flops to being more of a talk show host and director of episodic TV and finding out what he did about Weinstein and smoking a lot of weed. Surely there's something to be had there?

This is most effective when it's serious and schmaltzy on the topic of fatherhood - Jay and his daughter. That was great.

The rest is tired and lazy. Really really old pop culture references (Silence of the Lambs), dad jokes about Gen X not knowing about the internet, slow pacing. Some people look old. Good to see Ben Affleck friends with Kevin Smith again, but he looks  little funny. So does Matt Damon and Jason Lee. Elizabeth Shannon has aged nicely. Val Kilmer looks like he's got one foot in the grave.

I like that Holden and Alyssa that's a nice ending (and would have made a better film)... but to have her married to a woman and Elizabeth Shannon felt like repeating the gag twice.

Aparna Brielle is funny. I liked Adam Brophy's cameo and Craig Robinson.

I've got such mixed feelings. I grew up with these people. I used to like Kevin Smith. I wanted this to be funny. Everyone's too old to be madcap. It's lazy the way he got the script to work. I think smoking weed every day for over a decade isn't great for your comic edge. The timing is off.

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