[wakey]

J&SB Strike Back was fairly weak as a stand alone movie, it was really just one big 'in joke' for anyone who had seen the other movies to wrap the whole "Askewverse" up. If you werent a fan of the other movies and thus didnt get the references there just wasnt a great deal to take from the movie, probally because as others have said J&SB arent charachters worthy of being leads. Infact if i recall wasnt the movie done as part of a deal betweeb Jay and Kevin so he would get clean, a deal that Jay quickly broke once the movie was a go.

Jersey Girl I thought got alot of stick that it didnt deserve, it was far from being a masterpeice and was at times over sentimental but as far of movies of that ilk go it was better than 90% of them. The whole "bennifer' affair certainly did it alot of damage, after Gigli the studio got jumpy, the test audiences reacted badly to any scene with JLo and Affleck in (and especially bad when both were in the scene) and it ended up being butchered. The longer cut apparently works alot better and is a significantly better film. The other problem it had was the audience for a Kevin Smith film typically isnt after a film like this. People whom went in likinghis other films were always going to be somewhat dissapointed with this film

Of the first 4 movies I've always found Mallrats to be the weakest. Chasing amy is the best imho and is exactly how a good Rom Com should be, it doesnt get overly sentimental, it doesnt drift into Chick Flick territory and the dialogue is sharpe and entertaining. After Chasing Amy it would probally be Clerks, its not a particularry well produced movie but its so well written you quickly get over the fact its in black and white and has low production value. With Dogma I cant really fault it, its lacking something that Clerks and Chasing Amy have and I'm not sure all the castings are that great (Chris Rock and Linda Fiorentino especially) but it is well written in most parts and has a good message at its heart about faith

Anyway I'm sure Clerks2 will be fab, its going back to what he knows and is best at, isnt trying to build a movie around two wek charachters while hopefully taking some of the 'grown up' elemenst that were present in Jesery Girl to make a little different to the original