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With no power comes no responsibility. At last, the long awaited
follow-up to Kevin Smith's ultimate ode to slackerdom, Clerks,
has arrived: Clerks II. Ten years later, Dante and
Randall are pretty much right where we left them, until disaster
strikes at the Quick Stop and they are forced to seek alternative
employment. Now they're serving stinging one-liners and bad
attitudes alongside burgers and fries. In his thirties, Dante
looks to mature into adulthood but can he do that and still
remain true to his own hetero life-mate Randall...?
Twelve years ago, Kevin Smith sold his comic book collection
and enlisted his friends to make a $27,000 cinematic ode to
a generation of overqualified, underemployed slackers. An
instant indie hit, Clerks reaped over one hundred times
its budget at the US box office alone.
The
movie followed a day in the life of store clerks Dante and
Randal, suffering the attentions of a string of dumb customers
while engaging in wry, crackling dialogue on every subject
under the sun except work and responsibility.
The
sequel was, in the opinion of this and other reviewers, an
unsuccessful attempt to move the story on ten years. In Clerks
2, we find Dante and Randal now working in a fast food
store after the convenience store burned down. But we sorely
miss the interaction with customers which punctuated and drove
the first movie, while the romance/responsibility plot is
embarrassing, and the denouement crass.
Fortunately, buried in this self-contratulatory fest - Smith's
big-time Hollywood mates make predictable cameo appearances
- there is some scintillating dialogue which recalls the best
exchanges of the first movie, and this full screenplay gives
the reader the opportunity to find these gems amongst the
dross.
Highlights
include Randal's passionate defence of the original Star
Wars trilogy against an equally fanatical Lord of the
Rings customer ('Just three guys walking to a volcano!'),
and some pretty close to the knuckle exchanges on the racist
connotations of "Porch Monkey" (black customer to
outraged wife refusing to take Randal's burger: "Baby,
you can't taste racism").
The
book is well presented, with a 16-page colour centre section
featuring screen shots from the movie and promo posters. All
in all good value for money.
Andy
Thomas
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