Following his near-death heart attack, Kevin Smith self-finances a film that redefines self-indulgence. A film in which he casts his friends and family, and not only allows you to catch up with characters from his previous films, but is impenetrable to anyone without a working knowledge of them.
Having learned that Hollywood is planning a reboot of "Bluntman and Chronic" a failed superhero franchise from a decade past. Jay (Jason Mewes) and Silent Bob (Kevin Smith) must again cross the country from New Jersey to California to stop the movie, based on themselves, from being made. A chance encounter has Jay reunite with Justice (Shannon Elizabeth) who informs him that he has a daughter, Millennium (Harley Quinn Smith).
If, by any chance, you're planning on watching this movie having not previously watched the films that make up Smith's view-askew-niverse, just don't. 'Impenetrable' really is the right word, character's come and go without explanation, many lines are call backs to something that happened, or was said in one of the previous movies and without that back knowledge I'm not sure that the film would even make sense to you. This is not to say that with that prior knowledge, the film is brilliant, or good, or even passable. The flaws are apparent, even to those of us that do have it. The performances are generally poor, the story is weak (even if you accept the meta-commentary aspect of the film rebooting "strike back") and most of the jokes don't land. It is a tick box exercise in seeing a character, or actor again, with everything else hung around that. I'm so happy that Jason Mewes is still alive to be in the film that this seems like a churlish comment, but his dentures bend his lips into such an odd pout I kept thinking that it was someone else and it was a constant distraction.
However. As it came to an end - I found I couldn't bring myself to actually hate it. There was just enough in the moments with Ben Affleck, Chris Hemsworth, Stan Lee, Millie's interactions with Jay and the stuff at Chronic-con to drag the score up a little and make me look forward to, when hopefully shorn of quite as much indulgence, "Clerks 3" and "Mallrats 2" see the light of day.
