I Assure You, We're Open!

Caught the 1:40 showing of Clerks 2 in Danville, and it was excellent.

The movie succeeds in bringing the View Askewniverse full circle, and it achieves a certain sentimentality that makes it all the more endearing. Yes, it's raunchy, and how it got an R rating with no edits is beyond me, but behind all the vulgarities is a lot of heart. Dante and Randal are stuck in the same rut that we last saw them in during the previous Clerks (albeit with a change of scenery), but the way they individually deal with it is what makes the characters engaging and able to be related to.

The cast is entertaining, which is helped by Kevin Smith's hilarious-as-usual script (though that musical number is oddly out of place). Smith's direction is also top notch, and when it's all said and done, it's my belief that Clerks 2 is a wonderful note for these characters to go out on. So to make a long story short, Clerks 2 gets a much-earned four stars from yours truly.

And on a personal note, Clerks 2 was quite satisfying because I actually got to see my name up on the screen among the MySpace friends listed at the end of the movie's credits. I almost missed it, since it had almost scrolled up to the top of the screen by the time I caught it. But no foolin', it's right there. I wish I had some kind of screen capture device to snag it once the DVD comes out, but alas, I'll have to survive. In any regard, my name is listed in the credits of a real Hollywood movie, so if I died today, I would go to my grave satisfied.