It’s kinda weird that Kevin Smith created one of the earliest modern cinematic universes. Yes, the Raimi Spider-Man films & the first couple of X-Men movies were popular around the time this film came out. But those were still just regular film franchises. Kevin Smith had movies that on the surface weren’t connected to each other. But a lot of the actors would pop up and reprise their roles from different films, maybe play multiple different characters in the same movie. His movies would reference events from those other movies as well, establishing it’s the same world. And of course, you got the two characters that back in the day showed up in all of those films – Jay & Silent Bob. It was only natural to give them their own movie.

Let me put it like this. Any movie that has a line where the woman yells “Call me Boo-Boo Kitty Fuck, bitch!” during a fight scene is doing something right. This actually might be my favorite film Kevin Smith has ever made. I always loved the characters he and Jason Mewes play and the dynamic that’s displayed on screen. I also like how their motivation is to stop a movie being made about comic characters based on them so that people online will stop insulting them and ruining their names. It’s surprisingly grounded. But make no mistake – there are scenes and interactions that could only have been produced by Hollywood back in the 2000s. Overall, the movie has a grounded approach. But it will also do some ridiculous goofy and far out stuff to get a good laugh. And it typically works.

There are a couple of jokes that have surprisingly gotten a little more relevant. Early on in the movie, the internet is described as a place where people can complain about movies and share pornography. The latter half is always relevant, but the internet has also kind of leaned into the former in recent years. The first trailer for the 2020 Sonic movie had a very different design for it’s title character. And people complained so much that the studio delayed the film so they could have time to fix the CGI for Sonic. That joke from this 2001 film feels all too true today. There is a scene later on where Jay thinks about pulling his thing out for the love interest of the movie. But the angel character that pops up makes a solid and surprisingly relevant argument about why he shouldn’t. Which is ironic because this movie was released by Miramax and Harvey Weinstein was a producer for some of Kevin Smith’s earlier films.

A lot of the jokes in this film go back and forth between being genuinely smart to being enjoyably stupid. But they all ultimately work, if to varying degrees. There are also a bunch of small & quick jokes you might not catch right away. There’s a scene where the Wildlife Marshall – played by Will Ferrel – makes a very quick joke about how he is only a man on the outside. It’s never addressed again and the context of when that pops up makes it so random and bizarre that you just have to laugh. This film is maybe the perfect example of how people should make a film that is simply a comedy. Doesn’t have to be a satire, doesn’t have to be really insightful and talk about hot topic issues. But it’s still smart and entertaining.

And the people in this movie! You got the Smith regulars like Ben Affleck, Jason Lee, Matt Damon & Chris Rock. But you also have George Carlin, Carrie Fischer, James Van Der Beek, Jason Briggs, Tracy Morgan & Mark Hamill. They all do a great job, regardless of how long or short their screen time is. Also, there is a shot of when Silent Bob uses his mind to pull a lightsaber to his hand and the way it is shot and played out, I swear that JJ Abrams copied it for “The Force Awakens”. We know from the opening of “The Disaster Artist” that he watches films like “The Room”, don’t tell me that’s impossible!

If I have to point out anything that could be considered a major flaw…I guess we should address the gay jokes. To be fair, a number of these gay jokes are used in a way that do end up being clever. And none of the jokes are meant to make fun of the LGBT+ community or are hateful in nature. It’s just another trait of it being a comedy from the 2000s, for better or worse. There is one scene though where Jay & Silent Bob try and escape the police and the Wildlife Marshall by pretending to be a gay couple and dressing an orangutan as their child. Will Ferrel’s character then freaks out because he doesn’t want them to bad mouth him to the “liberal media” as he puts it and lets them go. I feel like that could be used to describe a lot of dumb decisions that the government makes in order to get out of some bad publicity.

This movie is still one of my favorite comedies of all time. The performances are great, a lot of jokes that still hold up well, and scenes that are always entertaining. I would classify this as a must-watch film for everyone.