Clerks II

REVIEW
Ten years after his amateurishly shot, expertly written, ultra-low-budget debut Clerks, Kevin Smith delivers a sequel that reveals pretty much the same strengths and weaknesses; like his characters, Smith has found a comfort zone that he's seemingly content with. Still horrible thespians after all these years, Brian O'Halloran and Jeff Anderson portray Dante and Randall, thirtysomething slackers who are now working in Mooby's, a fast food joint run by the impossibly beautiful Rosario Dawson. Dante is engaged to the controlling harpy he pretty much deserves (Smith's wife Jennifer Schwalbach, photographed so unflatteringly that she should hire a new agent and a divorce lawyer). Randall is happy where he is, riffing on the customers and LOTR fans in some drop-dead hilarious sequences. But as unspoken love blossoms between Dawson and Dante, Smith's arrested development comes to the fore, as he bungles the tender moments and steals plot points out of Screenplays 101. Did he learn nothing from Jersey Girl? His penchant for having characters spew out artfully constructed interior dialogue works beautifully for comedy, but sounds forced and ham-handed during dramatic sections. Thankfully the big comic set pieces, including some infamous sexual slapstick involving a donkey, are so well done that it's impossible to dislike the damn thing.