Finding the right approach for this review is the most difficult writing tasks I've been faced with for some time. I saw Clerks 2 not more than 20 minutes after taking in a screening of Ali G's riotously hilarious new film Borat – a movie that made me laugh so hard and often that I suspect I may have ruptured a moderately vital internal organ, perhaps one of my kidneys. When a comedy causes you to have blood in your stool, perhaps the MPAA needs to create a new rating of some kind (PB-13) Everyone strongly cautioned this film may cause you to piss blood for 13 days.

The reason for this somewhat distasteful digression is that by the time the opening titles began to appear for Clerks 2, I honestly wasn't sure I was capable of any further laughter that night. In retrospect I might have been better off to have waited, but screw it, I got in free and I really wanted to see it – I was a huge fan of the original and have been a great fan of Kevin Smith. Yes I liked Mallrats (if nothing else it introduced the world to Jason Lee) in fact the only film that he's has made that I didn't particularly care for was Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back. Nevertheless, anyone who doesn't admire Smith's insightful wit, his gift for dialogue and beneath it all his big heart are fools who should, at the very least, have their car towed away to an undisclosed location each time they go to the movies. That way instead of polluting out good breathable air with their inane opinions, they can spend the rest of the night trying to find their car.

Clerks 2 picks up with the cast of characters Smith introduced us to lo these many years ago 10 years later. We pick up the thread several months after The Quick Stop has been destroyed by fire, to find Dante (Brian O'Halloran) and Randal (Jeff Anderson) working at a fast food establishment known as Mooby's. (Being a west coast rapper, I don't know if Mooby's is real or fictitious but it bears a resemblance to McDonald's) the two chief newcomers to the Smith fold are Rosario Dawson as Becky the restaurant's manager, and Trevor Fehrman as Elias a cute and happy-go-loopy nebbish whose virginity, sci-fi-love and mama's boy Christian background make him the perfect foil for Randal's relentless badinage. Both proved to be perfect fits, particularly Dawson who folds into mix without the slightest misstep. Her playfully intimate scenes with O'Halloran, did much to elevate his game. O'Halloran really delivers a nice performance in this film, and one would certainly hope that he might parlay it into the kind of substantial career that many of Smith's disciples have enjoyed.

The same can certainly be said of Jeff Anderson, who virtually vanished from existence after the first Clerks which I always thought was quite odd as he was clearly the star of the film. It seems like I remember reading about Anderson having a falling out with Smith, which may or may not have any basis in truth, but would certainly explain why he didn't appear in any of Smith's subsequent films until his role as the gun salesman in "Dogma." In "2" Anderson hits the ground running as the beloved Randal the rapid fire, voice of brutal candor, and with 10 years of age on his face his resemblance to James Woods is all the more pronounced. He also shares Woods knack for deadpan timing.

I would suppose that this film won't be treated terribly well by the critics, though Smith is known for talky films, there are a few scenes where he tries your patience with excess exposition and at times the film feels at tad lifeless and labored, like it was all taking place in a vacuum, and though these are slightly more than minor quibbles, I'd have to say that the film contains some of Smith's best comic writing. Even though my laffer was sore, I still laughed one hell of a lot. Next to the original I would rank this one as his second funniest film, although the best still belongs to Chasing Amy. Speaking of which Ben Affleck makes a walk-on, walk-off cameo and Jason Lee actually plays a fairly pivotal role as Lance Dodds, a former schoolmate who's made a killing on the internet and likes to come in and rub Dante and Randal's nose in the fact that they're working in fast food in their thirties. Unfortunately Smith only uses Lee as a plot device to bring about Randal's existential panic attack, I would have preferred to see a little more humanity injected into Lee's Lance, but then again he's only on screen for less than two minutes.

Certainly a huge saving grace of "2" is that it offers a lot more Jay and Silent Bob. Mewes makes the most of his screen time, his Buffalo Bill bits are seriously hysterical, and as always Silent Bob gets by with his use off his expressive eyebrows. As for the donkey show, I'd say it neither hurts nor helps the film. There is an unexpected twist that makes it funny enough at times to work, but it also felt like something Smith tacked on to ratchet up the shock-factor. We are certainly getting hard to shock. In the span of 4 hours I saw Borat, Clerks 2 and Descent. Between Borat and Clerks 2 there isn't an identifiable shred of political correctness left, they literally obliterate it in ways that are both inspired and absolutely hilarious. Then comes Descent to finish me off altogether.

To sum up, Clerks 2 isn't a bulletproof film, my biggest gripe has to be the sentimentality that gets mixed in toward the end. It just was all wrong to go from donkey dicks to a bid for tears. Mixing comedy and heart is something Smith proved he could do in Jersey Girl (a film that was unfairly criticized) but to try to add heart into the Clerks mix was a mistake. The original was a straight up raunchy comedy, and it will always remain one of my all time favorite films. True there was a love story of sorts at the heart of "2" but there's nothing I can tell you about it that wouldn't be a spoiler, besides the sentimentality that I found inconsistent with the film's tone had nothing to do with the love story. But that's enough inane knit-picking, I view Smith's films the way I view Beatle albums. Sure there's going to be a few songs that you're not crazy about, but come on – it's a Beatles album.

Adam's Take

Clerks II finds Kevin Smith revisiting his original stomping grounds after taking an unfair beating for the sweet and underrated Jersey Girl. The end result is pretty funny stroll down memory lane.

Clerks II picks up tens years after the original. The Quick Stop has burned to the ground, so life long buddies Dante (Brian O'Halloran) and Randall (Jeff Anderson) make the big career jump to fast food. Mooby's to be precise – a fast food restaurant that you may remember from the hilarious Dogma.

After a year at Mooby's, Dante prepares for a new chapter in his life as he plans on a marrying a gal (played by Jennifer Schwalbach Smith – Kevin Smith's real life wife) that never gave him the time of day in high school. Meanwhile, Randall remains what he's always been - the quintessential devil's advocate smart ass.

Joining the comical adventures this time around are Trevor Fehrman as a nerdy nineteen year old with a Lord of the Rings fetish, and the gorgeous Rosario Dawson as Mooby's manager and Dante's close friend and confidante, Becky.

Kevin Smith has changed a great deal through the years, and that explains his characters' changes. Clerks II has that raunchy, crude sensibility about it, but this gentler Kevin Smith has laced the proceedings with an unexpected sweetness. At the heart of Clerks II, is a genuine romance. While I don't want to go into the who and why of this particular scenario, I will say that it plays surprisingly well, thanks mostly to some fine acting.

Smith also breathes a little non-fiction life into fictional slacker hero Jay (the always amusing Jason Mewes). As Clerks II opens, we learn that Jay has gone to rehab and has been clean and sober for quite sometime. It doesn't stop the long haired jokester from selling dope, but he's certainly a little more sane. He's even found God and goes so far as to call people "sir." It's all pretty amusing. Perhaps the funniest moment in the picture has a concerned Silent Bob (played by Kevin Smith) cheering Jay up when he fears his buddy might relapse. He does so by playing "Goodbye Horses" on his boom box, prompting an eccentric Jay to do the Buffalo Bill dance from "Silence of the Lambs."

Of course, most of the film's biggest jokes fall into the capable hands of Jeff Anderson's Randall. He slings terms like Porch Monkey and delivers a breathtaking re-enactment of the Lord of the Rings trilogy. What's more, Randall shows a little heart this time around, particularly in the film's final cathartic moments.

Trevor Fehrman does an adequate job as a burger flipping teenager named Elias. He's more odd than funny, but he gets extra points for an absolutely hilarious bit involving trolls (with the theme to The Shining playing in the background no less). I won't go any further than that. Rosario Dawson is absolutely radiant as Becky. I just adore her in this film. What's more, she makes everyone around her better. Plus, her character Becky is okay with ass-to-mouth (under the right circumstances) ya gotta love that.

Kevin Smith is still sharp as a writer. He's strongest when he's sticking to pop culture. His Lord of the Rings/Star Wars argument is one for the ages, and there are plenty of other moments in the film that are little too dirty to speak of. In fact, Smith himself was quite stunned when he learned the film got an R rating. He didn't have to cut anything. A big shocker considering this film has the donkey scene to end all donkey scenes. Sadly though, this sequence isn't particularly funny. I give Smith props for referencing one of my favorite 80's comedies – the hilarious Bachelor Party, but the donkey scene in this film felt flat to me. Honestly, it was as if Smith only put it in to up the raunch factor. There's nothing organic about it. Even the more repulsive moments in the original Clerks (i.e. Caitlin Bree screwing a dead guy) felt like they were actually part of the story. I also could have done without the gimmicky, piss-weak cameos. Ben Affleck appears for virtually no reason. Jason Lee fares slightly better, but not by much.

I laughed quite a bit throughout Clerks II although I must admit, that with exception of the troll thing, I was already familiar with most of the terminology in this movie. That's where the first film one up's this one. Most of the things in Clerks that made me laugh, were things I had never heard over (i.e. snowballing). It had freshness on it's side. Since I'm twelve years older now, I've more or less caught up with Smith's mentality. Still, this guy excels at pop culture related dialogue.

As for the sweet parts of the movie, they never really mesh with the dirty parts. The balance isn't quite there. At times, Clerks II plays like Jersey Girl with dick and fart jokes. I suppose Smith would have been well advised to go one way or the other. It is possible for a film to walk both lines simultaneously (hell, The 40 Year Old Virgin did it just last year), but Clerks II doesn't quite pull it off. What's more, there are some truly unnecessary scenes in this film, none more so than a pointless go-cart sequence set to the musical stylings of "Raindrops Keep Falling On My Head." Cheesy and distracting.

Other moments that you'd think wouldn't work come off surprisingly well. Included - a John Hughes inspired musical number and a touching, male bonding moment between Dante and Randall. One made all the more insightful after hearing Randall proclaim that hobbits are nothing more than faggots. I also really loved Smith's use of black and white cinematography. He uses black and white to book end the film to very strong effect.

If you're a fan of Clerks, chances are you'll enjoy Clerks II. The story does come full circle, and where the characters end up does make sense. This isn't as edgy as the first film, but the characters stay true to who they are. Instead of seeing these guys go about a normal work day, you get a sense of who they really are. And the idea that Dante comes to realize that he actually loves everything he thought he hated, is an honest one. There's a kind of truth to Clerks II and even though this honesty offsets the raunchiness a bit, it represents a more mature Kevin Smith. I'll always be a fan of this guy.