Jay and Silent Bob return to Hollywood to stop a reboot of the ‘Bluntman and Chronic’ movie from getting made.
Director Kevin Smith is an acquired taste. You either love his movies or you hate them, there is very little middle ground. I didn’t care for most of his films but I did have fun with “Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back.” The premise for “Jay and Silent Bob Reboot” is pretty straightforward: in “Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back,” our hapless pot-head heroes Jay (Jason Mewes) and his muted friend Silent Bob (Kevin Smith), had a comic book written about them using their likenesses called ‘Bluntman and Chronic,’ which was then turned into a big-screen adaptation by Miramax Films. The duo headed out to Hollywood to try and prevent their images from being tarnished and demanded royalties from the movie and hilarious hijinks ensued. In “Jay and Silent Bob Reboot,” life imitates art, or, art imitates art when Hollywood decides to remake “Bluntman and Chronic” almost 20 years later and once again, our clueless, now middle-aged pot-heads, head out to “Chronic-Con” in Hollywood, a yearly celebration of everything Bluntman and Chronic, to prevent the reboot from being made.
In a nutshell, that is the plot for “Jay and Silent Bob Reboot.” Of course, with Jay and Silent Bob, nothing can ever be that straightforward and instead of making their way directly out to Tinseltown, they get caught up in all sorts of subplots and side stories. Eventually, they arrive in Hollywood and by the film’s end, everything is wrapped up nice and neatly. At least for a Kevin Smith movie.
The issue I encountered with “Jay and Silent Bob Reboot” is that it’s basically a remake of “Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back.” Naturally, the title very clearly tells you this but if Kevin Smith was going to return to these two dorky but lovable characters, I would have much rather he did so with an original story. While “Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back” had its fair share of laugh-out-loud moments, there were also many jokes that fell flat but here, in the reboot, most of the jokes and visual gags fall flat with very few hitting their mark.
Many of the Hollywood stars that appeared in Smith’s earlier films, including “Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back,” reappear and while it is fun to see them taking on their big-screen personas again, their appearances are nothing more than glorified cameos. Matt Damon, Ben Affleck, Chris Hemsworth, Melissa Benoist, Rosario Dawson, Val Kilmer, Jason Lee, and the list goes on but even their manifestations aren’t enough to save the movie. Everything about this iteration feels tired and lethargic, there is absolutely nothing new in it whatsoever but maybe that’s the point, Smith’s way of poking fun at the neverending reboots and remakes that Hollywood churns out on an almost weekly basis. I would have preferred that he created an original work of art, giving the cast and crew something to be proud of, especially since word of mouth is Smith is finished with these two characters, but as it stands, it will probably go down as one of Smith’s most insipid and divisive films. What a shame.
Available on Blu-ray™ (plus Digital), DVD, Digital, and On-Demand January 21st from Lionsgate
