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Jay & Silent Bob Strike Back is a film that tries, often successfully, to parody all sorts of things, and is sprinkled throughout with some inspired bits of comedy. Taken as a whole, it doesn't entirely pull it off, but the bits that work sure are funny. There's no lack of profanity or off-color humor, although I don't think it ever falls to the depths (or rises to the heights, depending on one's tastes) of gross-out achieved by, say, There's Something About Mary or many Jim Carrey movies. It uses a lot of gay humor--that is, straight boys riffing on "pole smoking" and other like "horrors"--and I haven't quite decided if it's casual reflexive bigotry or a sly parodic jab at something or other.
Anyway, Jay and his sidekick Silent Bob (or vice-versa, I suppose) learn that their likenesses, first captured in a comic book, are going to be the basis of a film by Miramax, and they set off to Hollywood to sabotage the flick. Much goofiness follows. I think the funniest bits are near the end, when they actually get on the studio lot to wreak havoc. Jason Mewes as Jay is an addled mope who is somewhat reminiscent of Sean Penn's Jeff Spicoli; Kevin Smith (doing triple duty as writer, director, and star) as Silent Bob tends to get on my nerves with his exaggerated facial gestures and body language.
There are tons of cameos, and the movie itself is self-referential and "meta" as all get out. Ben Affleck, for instance, plays both Holden (the character from Smith's Chasing Amy--a much superior movie to this one) and himself. In fact, the scene where he and Matt Damon are on the set to film a (fictional) sequal to Good Will Hunting is hilarious. Also nice is the scene at the end where Jay and Silent Bob go around to the houses of all the teenage punks who have been dissing them on the Internet posting boards and beat the crap out of them. In the end, though, this is fluff. Not Smith's best movie (Dogma and Chasing Amy were both better, just for starters), but a nice dose of humor, especially for fans with a taste for the sort of stuff Smith has to offer.
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