Film Illiterate, wherein the proprietor records movies seen, and sporadic progress through assorted lists of the "best". Originally started after regretfully renting something forgettable for the third time. I've forgotten what, but never again! A tedious endeavour since 2005. Hello. 🙂
This was only the second Kevin Smith film I ever saw and I had no idea what was going on; now that I've seen most of them it feels even weirder. Having inspired the marijuana-themed comic book Bluntman and Chronic in Chasing Amy, Jay (Jason Mewes) and Silent Bob (Kevin Smith) find that it's being turned into a movie -- and they haven't gotten paid. So they head to Hollywood, becoming entangled on the way in a plot to steal a chimpanzee.
It's a buddy-comedy road movie about zany adventures (think Planes, Trains), part Cheech and Chong and part genre-parody movies (think Airplane), but it mostly feels like an excuse to cram in celebrity cameos and references to every other film in Smith's career to date. These cameos are the best part: the absolute highlight is a sequence with Ben Affleck and Matt Damon on the set of Good Will Hunting 2: Hunting Season, including Gus Van Sant and so many pitch-perfect details it rewards multiple viewings. Other scenes have less to offer.
Charitably, it feels like a fun excuse for a writer/director to make a stupid movie with his friends; less charitably, it feels like a writer/director so far up his own arse that he thinks references to his earlier movies are all a script needs. The good parts are great. Watch those on YouTube.