Clerks II

[modage]

-This isn't gonna be a cameo-heavy affair, a'la "Strike Back." The only returning characters are Dante and Randal, and Jay and Silent Bob.

- This isn't gonna be a star-studded affair. The biggest names in the cast are gonna be Brian O'Halloran, Jeff Anderson, and Jason Mewes.

now count the stars/cameos JUST in the trailer. 

http://www.clerks2blog.com/teaser/large.html

[grand theft sparrow]

I have a confession.    I don't hate Kevin Smith (despite Magnolia-gate) and have no real gripes with any of his films except for Jersey Girl; they are what they are. 

But even I think this is going to be bad. 

[modage]

Kevin Smith Vows 'Clerks 2' Language, Content Ups The Ante Of The Original 'A Hundredfold'
No nudity, no graphic violence and 'no way it gets an R' the director says of the sequel to his indie classic.
Source: MTV News

PARK CITY, UTAH — Loyalists swear by the movement he spearheaded with the help of his foot soldiers; others wonder why he still has a job. His common-man persona and disarming grin might be masking a brilliant mind, or he might be as simplistic as his detractors insist. Now, he has returned for a second term that's shaping up as even more controversial than the first.

No, Kevin Smith isn't the president — although the polarizing figures have more in common than one might think. As the famously indie writer/director made the rounds at the Sundance Film Festival to support "Small Town Gay Bar," a documentary he executive produced, Smith admitted with some trepidation that his next mission could go disastrously wrong if he's rushing into a battle that can't be won.

Still, in the form of the upcoming sequel to his breakthrough 1994 comedy he claimed to have substantial weapons of crass production at his disposal.

" 'Clerks 2' came out phenomenally, and I couldn't be happier with it," the bearded, not-so-silent Bob said. "We were really hoping to come to Sundance with it this year, which would have been great because it's the 25th anniversary of Sundance, and it would have been the only sequel to a Sundance film to ever play at Sundance. Then Harvey Weinstein — the chairman of The Weinstein Company, who we produced the movie with — said, 'No, we want to go to Cannes instead.' "

"The movie itself is kind of a look at what happens when the angry young man enters his thirties. The movie is primarily set in a fast-food joint, but it has so little to do with working in a fast-food joint."

"Brian O'Halloran and Jeff Anderson, who played Dante and Randall in 'Clerks,' are back and Jason Mewes and I play Jay and Silent Bob," Smith continued. "Ben Affleck showed up for a day. Jason Lee came in for a day. Wanda Sykes came in for a day. There's a guy named Earthquake, this really funny comedian, and Kevin Wiseman, who plays Marshall on 'Alias,' he came in."

"There's this kid in the movie, Trevor Fehrman, who's really funny," Smith said. "I think he's gonna pop in a really big way off this film. Rosario Dawson's in the movie; she's one of the main characters. My wife, Jennifer Schwalbach, is in the movie," he laughed. "So for a movie that's about two dudes, it's got a really well-rounded cast."

Although some vocal fans and film purists have expressed their displeasure with the revisiting of, arguably, a classic, Smith insists that by moving Dante and Randal to the fast-food industry, he simultaneously moved his own game to the next level.

"It's my favorite of all the movies I've ever done," Smith said of the sequel. "It used to be that 'Chasing Amy' was my favorite, but this has supplanted 'Chasing Amy.' 'Clerks' was what it felt like to be in my twenties, but 'Clerks 2' is what it feels like to be in my thirties. A portrait of that. It's about how people have to struggle to grow out of a role that they've filled for the better part of their adult life. It's really poignant, but it's insanely funny."

As with previous flicks, such as "Clerks," "Dogma" and "Amy," the New Jersey auteur intends to balance the aforementioned seriousness with his bread-and-butter: "di-- and fart jokes."

"We're not even going to rate it — we're going to go out unrated," Smith declared defiantly. "If we put it in front of the ratings board they'd be like, 'You're insane. We have to create a new rating for that.' "
 
Even more noteworthy, however, is that the boundary-busting film is devoid of the nudity or graphic violence that typically pushes the NC-17 envelope. Instead, when these clerks say "I assure you, we're open" this summer, the phrase will likely be peppered with even more four-letter words than the original.

"I've never been a nudity dude," Smith insisted. "We did nudity once, in 'Mallrats,' and it was just such an uncomfortable thing to shoot. Anybody can get somebody to take their clothes off. 'Clerks' was a movie that the MPAA gave an NC-17 for language and content alone. This movie ups the ante by a hundred-fold, and there's just no way it gets an R."

As for everybody's favorite drug-selling, adventure-seeking, bootchie-snoochin' duo, Smith says that they've grown up — so much so, in fact, that they've gone from grade-school humor to something closer to junior high.

"Jay and Silent Bob in 'Clerks 2' have about as much, if not less, screen time than they had in 'Clerks," Smith revealed, "but it's a different Jay and Silent Bob, a slightly more mature Jay and Silent Bob."

"Slightly," he laughed, after a moment. "Ever so slightly."

[Ravi]

"I've never been a nudity dude," Smith insisted. "We did nudity once, in 'Mallrats,' and it was just such an uncomfortable thing to shoot. Anybody can get somebody to take their clothes off.

That's easier than typing curse words into your computer?

[MacGuffin]

'Clerks II': Growth and gross-outs

Director Kevin Smith's sequel to his groundbreaking Clerks is a coming-of-age story for guys in their 30s who never grew up.

The first film, which came out in 1994, was a homemade, grainy, black-and-white chronicle of one slacker's daylong shift of misery at a tiny convenience store that became a cultural touchstone for Generation X and inspired a wave of do-it-yourself filmmakers.

Clerks II, set for release this fall, picks up more than a decade later with the two cashier-jockeys from the 1994 original: sweet-but-stagnated Dante (Brian O'Halloran) and his insult-spewing friend Randal (Jeff Anderson).

A calamity at their shops sends them looking for new horizons - but they ultimately settle at Mooby's, a fictional Disney-McDonald's-style fast-food empire.

Not exactly a promotion.

"I've got nothing to say about fast food," director Smith says during an exclusive USA TODAY visit to the yellow and purple restaurant he's using as a set. "But I've got everything to say about getting past that period of life where you've been one person for 10 or 15 years and suddenly you have to change."

Free from his dead-end job (and lodged in a new one), Dante begins to break free of his rut, planning to move away with his clingy fiance, played by Smith's wife, Jennifer Schwalbach Smith, who used to work for USA TODAY. Dante is ready to leave the horrors of minimum-wage New Jersey behind, but Randal - always the more hostile of the two - starts to become overwhelmed by his own rancor.

"I wanted to see what happened to the characters when they lost their center point," Smith says, sitting on the creaky merry-go-round outside the restaurant building they've co-opted for the shoot. "It opened up a world for Dante. He met somebody, fell in love and got engaged, then he met somebody else (the restaurant manager, played by Rosario Dawson). He reacted well to the outside world, while Randal just got more closed up and scared and angrier.

"The whole flick comes down to whether or not the two of them can reach a compromise of some sort," Smith adds. "It really comes down to the choice a friend makes for another friend."

The writer/director, speaking as a giant fiberglass cartoon cow stares from the restaurant roof, calls it a series of love stories.

But Clerks II is so audaciously raunchy - one scene is sure to challenge the squeamishness of even the most ardent gross-out comedy fan - that Smith says the film may ultimately make its debut unrated, even if that restricts its availability at some theaters. (Clerks initially was rated NC-17 for its frank talk, but on appeal, it got an R.)

Smith's screen alter ego, the trench-coated drug dealer Silent Bob, and his oversexed "hetero life mate" Jay (Jason Mewes) also return for the sequel, still hanging around, but no longer using - a reflection of Mewes' sobriety after fighting drug addiction, and a sign that even Smith's most cartoonish characters grow and change.

"This is talking about the movie in far loftier terms than most people ever will," says Smith, whose script relies heavily on sex and gross-out jokes.

"In terms of the edginess of the humor, I don't think we've ever gone this far before," the director says. "People who are really critical of us and dismiss us for making (dirty-joke) pictures: They're right, they're not wrong. But at the same time, that's not all we do."

[JG]

Did anybody see best week ever? 

one of the guys on the show made a short film and took it to sundance and showed it to people. he showed it to kevin smith and kevin smith said something like this, "now if you showed me this three years ago i would have said this sucked.  but then i made jersey girl, so i'm in no position to criticize."  kinda funny. i love how while he was making the movie he talked about how proud he was and now he's completely taking it all back.  kinda like with mallrats.

[©brad]

i think deep down he's still proud of it. he's just kind of making fun of himself to a fan base that hated him for that flick.

[modage]

http://www.clerks2.com/trailer/index.html

[mogwai]

looks like basic instinct 2 is set to have tough competition in the next years razzies.

[Garam]

I don't even see how Kevin Smith fans can possibly think this looks good.

[Pubrick]

I don't even see how Kevin Smith fans can possibly think this looks good.

it's about them.

[mogwai]

all two of them.

[cron]

[sickfins]

that guy's face got so weird

that's all i can think about when i see this

does anybody else know what the hell i'm talking about?  his face is so goddamned weird now and i can't put my finger on it

[grand theft sparrow]

that guy's face got so weird

that's all i can think about when i see this

does anybody else know what the hell i'm talking about?  his face is so goddamned weird now and i can't put my finger on it

Are you talking about the one who looks like Mickey Rourke or that Jay looks 50 years old now?