Back to Home > News > Thursday, Jul 20, 2006 Local Posted on Thu, Jul. 20, 2006 email this print ... 'Clerks II' return

You'll be shocked to learn that Dante and Randal are still doing the exact same thing: standing around all day at their menial jobs, finding ways to avoid work, and talking. And talking and talking. They're just doing it in color instead of black and white.

But in revisiting the characters who made him an indie darling and a cult favorite, writer-director Smith finds himself back at the top of his game, especially after his most recent offerings, the self-indulgent "Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back" (2001) and the soft-hearted "Jersey Girl" (2004).

The sequel begins where the 1994 original left off: in grainy black-and-white at the suburban New Jersey Quick Stop where Dante (Brian O'Halloran) and Randal (Jeff Anderson) have toiled away mindlessly all these years. Only the place is on fire - causing "Clerks II" to shift cleverly into color and forcing the duo to find jobs they hate somewhere else.

They end up at Mooby's, a sort of evil, Disneyfied fast-food chain where Rosario Dawson plays the impossibly cool, sexy manager, Becky, with whom Dante shares an unlikely chemistry. Dawson is effortlessly lovely, as always, and yet fits comfortably into Smith's twisted universe.

Also joining the crew is virginal Elias (the endearingly jumpy Trevor Fehrman), a co-worker who's freakish even among Smith's usual misfits and comic-book geeks. Elias finds himself drawn into some of the most protracted, heated discussions with Randal the instigator - such as, which is better? "Star Wars" or "Lord of the Rings"?

There's a plot, too, such as it is. "Clerks II" unfolds during Dante's final day on the job before heading to Florida with his fiancee, the perky, blonde, controlling Emma (Jennifer Schwalbach, Smith's real-life wife). Randal doubts that his best friend is truly happy with this woman; at the same time, Becky also hopes he'll stay for her own secret reasons.

"Clerks II," an MGM and Weinstein Co. release, is rated R for pervasive sexual and crude content including aberrant sexuality, strong language and some drug material. Running time: 98 minutes. Two and a half stars out of four.

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