Jay and Silent Bob Reboot (2019) directed by Kevin Smith

Synopsis: (From IMDB) Jay and Silent Bob return to Hollywood to stop a reboot of ‘Bluntman and Chronic’ movie from getting made.

Sounds familiar, right? Wait, is this a remake? No? No. It’s a reboot. There’s a difference. They’re going back to Hollywood to stop reboot of Bluntman and Chronic, people. Do try to keep up.

Hot Take: I’m sure that synopsis made it sound like I was mocking the film. And I was, but in the nicest possible way. I actually 100% fucking loved this movie. It had all the nostalgia that I could have possibly hoped for, but it was also thoroughly modern, and it was really, really sweet.

In the intro that played before the movie (Shawn and I hit the Fathom Events-sponsored double feature at our local theater, so we actually saw Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back as well – if you’ve never gone to any of their events, I highly recommend. I’ve seen some truly great stuff put on by them), Kevin Smith warned the audience that the movie might give them some feelings, and he was right. I caught the feels pretty hard there at the end.

There were also some moments during the movie where I laughed so hard that I cried a little. There was one moment, right at the beginning of the movie where a past gag was revisited by Jay that had me nearly dead, right there at the start. Also, it’s really great to see both Jay and Kevin looking so, so healthy, for obvious reasons. I want them to stick around and keep being magical together for as long as they’re willing to do so.

For a movie that by it’s nature is all about taking something that already existed and altering it just enough to make us pay for it again (I’m paraphrasing a bit from the movie here), this one actually felt more like a sequel. It’s kind of like a spiritual sequel or something. Although as Brodie Bruce (Jason Lee if you’re keeping track) argues, “Hollywood doesn’t make sequels anymore. Shit, don’t even make squeakquels, yo.” (Side note: the strange scream-laughing lady who was sitting one seat over from me, who kept trying to recite dialogue along with this movie she had CLEARLY NEVER SEEN BEFORE BECAUSE IT JUST CAME OUT AND WE’RE ALL SEEING IT FOR THE FIRST TIME BUT BLESS HER LITTLE HEART SHE JUST KEPT TRYING nearly lost her fucking mind when he said “squeakquels” I thought she was going to pass out from all the scream-laughing.)

I don’t want to tell anymore about the movie really, because I don’t want to spoil it. If you have good feelings about any of the Clerks-iverse, you should really go see this. The Roadshow is going to be starting soon (but not coming through PDX, sad face), and you should go to that! Go see those dudes live, and tell them that they are wonderful human beings, and that they’ve made your life a little better just by making silly, beautiful movies that randomly freak your feels out. Or just tell them that for me, since I can’t.

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