Jay and silent Bob strike back

By GRAHAM REID

(Herald rating: * * * )

This is so dumb it's smart, or at least smart in a deliberately dumb way.

The story, such as it is: Stoners Jay and Silent Bob (Mewes and canny writer/director Smith) have lent their likenesses to a comic Bluntman and Chronic and Hollywood is making a movie of it. But internet feedback says Jay and Silent Bob are (enter obscenity here, the film offers plenty of options) who've sold out.

Annoyed they've been confused with their characters they set off from New Jersey to stop the production. Along the way there's a jewel heist, an orang-utang buddy ("research shows people love animals"), and in-jokes about at least a dozen movies which get very obviously parodied.

So far, so dumb. And cheap. The road sequences look like they cost $200 and the rest is shot on Hollywood backlots.

What makes this deliberately dumb movie clever is Smith hooking in famous friends and people who admit on-screen they're there because they owe him a favour. So here are brief cameos by Carrie Fisher and a hideously aged Mark (Luke Skywalker) Hamill from Star Wars, Wes Craven and Shannon Dougherty (in a Scream parody), and comedian Chris Rock who steals the show as the volatile director. Ben Affleck and Matt Damon who were in Smith's Dogma are hilarious in a sequence from the fictional Good Will Hunting II.

Yes, it's trainspotter time as these stars and many others either play against type or in character, which invites the audience into the joke. And, as it keeps reminding, it's just a stoner movie about a couple of stoners. It never misses an opportunity to be obscene, and is deliberately homophobic.

Is it dumb? Yep. Is it smart? Certainly, Smith knows his multiplex mallrat market. Is it any good though? Well, that's another question.

Smith says this is the last Jay and Silent Bob movie. That's smart.

Cast: Jason Mewes, Kevin Smith, Shannon Elizabeth, Ben Affleck

Director: Kevin Smith

Rating: R16 (offensive language, drug use, sexual references)

Running time: 120 mins

Screening: Village, Hoyts, Berkeley cinemas