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Clerks IIScott BowlesKevin Smith has grown up, even if his films haven't. That might explain why Clerks II can't quite decide how old it wants to act. This sequel to the 1994 original has some inspired moments of the gross-out humor that made the original a cult smash. But amid those moments, Smith also displays the tendencies of a slick, sometimes formulaic Hollywood director. The shift can be jarring. One moment we're in the middle of a sentimental flashback. The next, someone is having sex with a donkey. The movie begins as the original did, with Dante (Brian O'Halloran, looking an awful lot like Ricky Gervais) opening the Qwik-Stop for yet another tedious day of selling cigarettes to minors and quarreling with customers. But when the store goes up in flames, he and Randal (Jeff Anderson) decide that it's time to move up in the world - to Mooby's fast food. The premise has promise, particularly with early cameos from customers Ben Affleck and Jason Lee. But instead of skewering the monotony of everyday life in blue-collar New Jersey as he did in the original, Smith overstuffs his characters with crises and emotional complexity. Dante is getting married, moving to Florida and uncertain about love. Randal is fretting that he has done nothing with his life. Mooby's store manager, Rosario Dawson, is grappling with her uncle's cancer. Even Jay and Silent Bob (Jason Mewes and Smith), who spent nearly all of the first film high and leaning against a wall, have found religion, peddling sermons along with their weed. There are still simple pleasures to be found. Mewes remains the combustible engine that powers Smith's comedies, and his imitation of the serial killer from Silence of the Lambs is a gem. Smith cannily captures the feud between fans of Star Wars and The Lord of the Rings. And Dawson is a pure joy to watch. She turns what could have been a wince-inducing dance number into a sweet clich??. It's the crude humor that trips up the movie.
Clerks wants to be two films in one, and neither quite works. At some point, Smith will have to decide how mature he wants his characters - and movies - to be.
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