Miramax
Home Video | Review by Dan Taylor
If
you're a fan of Kevin Smith's previous flicks
(the heralded CLERKS, the underrated MALLRATS,
the charming CHASING
AMY, and the theological DOGMA) then
you've probably already seen this flick.
And nothing I say is going to sway you one
way or the other.
You think it was either the
greatest road picture since PEE-WEE'S BIG
ADVENTURE or the most self-indulgent, back-slapping
vanity project since HARLEM NIGHTS. Heck,
some of you more emotionally challenged
readers might think it's a bit of both.
And that's okay.
If you're unfamiliar with
Smith's work, you just might've had your
curiosity piqued by the flood of TV ads
Miramax shelled out mad cash for, or one
of the director's many, many appearances
in support of the flick. To you I say, "Hold
on bucko."
How do you possibly explain
to the uninitiated that yes, that's Ben
Affleck playing Ben Affleck in the scene
spoofing the making of GOOD WILL HUNTING
2: HUNTING SEASON (which may be the flick's
funniest, most acid-tongued jab at the Hollywood
machine), but the Affleck seen earlier in
the film is not Affleck but Holden McNeil,
the idealistic comic book creator from CHASING
AMY?
Or that the character played
by Jason Lee in the first part of the flick
(MALLRATS' wondrous Brody) is not the same
person as the character he plays during
the film's coda (AMY's Benkie, the sexually-confused
"tracer" and co-creator of 'Bluntman
and Chronic').
This doesn't even touch on
the fact that Shannen Doherty played one
of the female leads in MALLRATS yet shows
up here as herself in a jab at the SCREAM
series, or that Chris Rock (Rufus, the 13th
apostle from DOGMA) is a white-hating director
helming the BLUNTMAN AND CHRONIC picture
starring James Van Der Beek and Jason Biggs.
Whew. It's all very confusing,
unless of course, you're a Smith fan. Then
it all makes a sweet sorta sense.
