Clerks II (2006)

US 97m, Colour
Director: Kevin Smith; Cast: Brian O’Halloran, Jeff Anderson, Rosario Dawson, Trevor Fehrman, Jennifer Schwalbach Smith, Jason Mewes, Kevin Smith

Picking up a dozen years after Clerks (1994), Clerks II is the highly entertaining sequel to Kevin Smith’s initial foray into the View Askewniverse, where we find Dante and Randal working at Mooby’s after their beloved Quick Stop burns down. Likewise, we learn that Dante is also finalizing wedding plans that will finally get him out of New Jersey and his lowly existence in the service industry. Clerks II remains faithful to the characters, style and plot of Clerks, while adding a level of surprisingly realistic sensitivity to the story – which Smith originally displayed a talent for in Chasing Amy (1997). As always, Smith’s dialogue and gags, including the infamous donkey show were no less outrageous than in any other View Askew production, providing a large number of laughs and ultimately a mature and fitting conclusion for the Quick Stop characters, whose fate turns full circle (Klaus Ming April 2011).