Jay And Silent Bob Strike Back

Kevin Smith's Jersey Chronicles come to a conclusion in a blaze of cameos, in-jokes and self-referential humour. The journey that began at Clerks, through Mallrats, Chasing Amy and the controversial Dogma, winds up here in an immature mess that tries to cram all the characters from the previous four films into an hour and a half. Oh, and don't forget the sexy jewel thieves in rubber catsuits thrown in for good measure. It's pure brilliance.

Jay and Silent Bob (Jason Mewes and Kevin Smith) cross America to stop a film being made about them. Their reason? People are saying nasty things on the internet. On the way they fall in love, one with a jewel thief, the other with a monkey. I wasn't aware that films could be this far from being cerebral without the words "Police Academy" in their title.

The direction and acting is competent, which is about all that could be expected from a film that is little more than a string of dick and fart jokes. Will Ferrell, as Willenholly, is the only actor who brings anything extra to just-get-out-there-and-act-dumb. If you want moving emotional performances, this isn't the movie for you. Where Jay And Silent Bob Strikes Back succeeds is in grabbing the audience from the beginning and rushing them through to the end, drenching them in hilarious stupidity every step of the way.

Unless you've seen the other four films in the series, there is a chance that Jay And Silent Bob Strike Back may look amateurish and confusing, with some actors playing two different roles and half the jokes making no sense. For those of us who are devotees of Smith's earlier work, it feels like an old friend treating us to mindless fun. Never has the cliché "great, if you like that sort of thing" been more apt.