Clerks II

After misfires ‘Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back’ (too silly) and ‘Jersey Girl’ (too soppy), Kevin Smith returns to the scene of his greatest ‘View Askew’ triumph with a sequel to the 1994 indie gem ‘Clerks’. Mercifully, ‘Clerks II’ is also a return to form for the bearded auteur, who revisits super-slackers Dante and Randal ten years later only to discover that they remain losers in both life and love. This time around, the undynamic duo have gained a few pounds and swapped the mini-mall for a fast-food joint up the road, but little else has changed. Their days still revolve around foul-mouthed arguments concerning the relative merits of the usual Smith suspects (‘Lord of the Rings’, ‘Star Wars’ and, of course, Jesus), while their prospects show no sign of improving.

As with the original, ‘Clerks II’ is driven by a series of outrageously lewd and crude vignettes rather than anything even approaching a plot, while the acting is largely amateurish (though Rosario Dawson does provide sparkle and sex appeal as Dante’s beguiling boss Becky). Yet while the film is rude and raucous throughout, it doesn’t have a bad bone in its body, providing a joyous, celebratory swansong for the beloved characters; if this really is the end of the ‘View Askew’ universe (as Smith claims) then it’s a fitting finale for the indecent ensemble. That said, having visited the characters in their twenties and thirties, it would be a shame if Smith didn’t check up on them in their forties, just to see how the ‘Clerks’ deal with the difficulties of middle age.