Jay & Silent Bob Reboot

A disappointingly half-baked Kevin Smith joint, Jay & Silent Bob Reboot follows the titular duo (Jason Mewes’ Jay and Smith’s Silent Bob) as they travel to Hollywood to reclaim their copyrighted names. Filmmaker Smith delivers an exceedingly hit-and-miss narrative that isn’t, at least, too problematic at the outset, as Jay & Silent Bob Reboot boasts a somewhat low-rent yet generally affable opening stretch that benefits from one’s long-standing good will towards the central characters – with the watchable vibe heightened by an ongoing emphasis on fun cameos and appearances. (Jason Lee makes a welcome return as Mallrats‘ Brodie Bruce, for example.) It’s only as the picture segues into its episodic, road-trip midsection that the viewer’s interest begins to wane and flag, as Smith offers up a preponderance of ineffective sequences that, for the most part, are hopelessly flat and suffer from an almost total lack of laughs (and it certainly doesn’t help that Smith stresses the exploits of four dull, annoying teenagers). Ultimately, however, Jay & Silent Bob Reboot‘s most problematic element is Jay himself, as the character, for the first time, comes off as a loud-mouthed and obnoxious figure that grows more and more grating as time progresses. And although the movie picks up slightly with its frenetic and occasionally fun comic-convention-set third act, Jay & Silent Bob Reboot has long-since confirmed its place as a woefully uninvolving and curiously inert comedy that does, on top of everything else, contain an undercurrent of pointed, unsuccessful sentimentality.

*1/2 out of ****