Jay and Silent Bob Get Old: Pt. 1 is a one-night-only DirecTV exclusive showcasing seventy-five minutes of the four hour "Jay and Silent Bob Get Old: Teabagging in the UK" DVD special due out on August 14, 2012. The flimsy release exclusively on a satellite company isn't really justifiable, but the treat isn't discouraged at all. This is a short and lively little taste of what will most likely come out on that DVD.
Longtime filmmaker Kevin Smith and his other half, Jason Mewes, take the stage in the United Kingdom, reminding themselves and us that fans of theirs are not restricted to the United States, but are scattered all over the world. Mewes and Smith perform in front of a sold out audience in a luxurious theater, giving us their usual schtick, composed of grotesque jokes, highly descriptive retellings of past events, and basically anything as far away from the term "luxurious" as possible.
Their banter begins with them reminiscing about past sexual encounters in England, which quickly transcends into an entertaining fifteen minutes of Smith describing the film Bedknobs and Broomsticks to Mewes, while the two put their own graphic spin on it. This will eventually evolve into an enlightening commentary on the Jason Mewes method of having sex, which quickly turns sentimental at the end only to go into a raunchy game the two play on stage where they call on random audience members to perform in acts of sheer depravity. To write them down and describe them in this review will commit so many sins that "confessions" would then become a daily thing for not only myself but you, the reader.
It is no question that there is fun to be had here. The question is how much fun? The answer is slightly less than what we're used to. With Smith breathlessly doing one man shows across the country and releasing many of his lengthy Q&A specials on DVD (his most recent one was the EPIX exclusive, Kevin Smith: Burn in Hell; another informative and highly engaging show I awarded three and a half stars to earlier this year), we are so used to him providing us with a plethora of wit and insight as to what it means to be a "free bird" type filmmaker in 2012. He is known for going into the productions of his films in great detail, leaving no stone unturned, and giving us meticulous little details that will inevitably allow him to give us another story right in the middle of the one currently being told. It is this reason, among dozens of others, that he is my favorite filmmaker in the business today.
Jay and Silent Bob Get Old does not deliver that familiar style of schtick, but something along the lines of what Smith and Mewes' podcast (or self-proclaimed "SModcast") of the same name would dive into. The talking, like usual, is disorganized and totally on-the-spot material, but instead of detailing past events on the set, both men spend the time cracking sex joke after sex joke, with Mewes providing us with the pleasure of watching these events mimed by himself. The acts and conversations are fun and energetic, but not on-par with the informative stuff we are used to seeing.
As a further exploration on these two open men, Jay and Silent Bob Get Old: Pt. 1 is a bit underdeveloped and shaky on its feet. As a little special that shows these men just doing what they do best, it does a worthy and notable job. Seventy-five minutes is also the perfect running time for something like this. Even as a worthy fan of both parties, four hours of enduring their sexual banter would be the equivalent of hopping from orgy party to orgy party one late night downtown; tiring and emptying on all levels.
Starring: Jason Mewes and Kevin Smith. Directed by: J.C. Reifenberg.
Longtime filmmaker Kevin Smith and his other half, Jason Mewes, take the stage in the United Kingdom, reminding themselves and us that fans of theirs are not restricted to the United States, but are scattered all over the world. Mewes and Smith perform in front of a sold out audience in a luxurious theater, giving us their usual schtick, composed of grotesque jokes, highly descriptive retellings of past events, and basically anything as far away from the term "luxurious" as possible.
Their banter begins with them reminiscing about past sexual encounters in England, which quickly transcends into an entertaining fifteen minutes of Smith describing the film Bedknobs and Broomsticks to Mewes, while the two put their own graphic spin on it. This will eventually evolve into an enlightening commentary on the Jason Mewes method of having sex, which quickly turns sentimental at the end only to go into a raunchy game the two play on stage where they call on random audience members to perform in acts of sheer depravity. To write them down and describe them in this review will commit so many sins that "confessions" would then become a daily thing for not only myself but you, the reader.
It is no question that there is fun to be had here. The question is how much fun? The answer is slightly less than what we're used to. With Smith breathlessly doing one man shows across the country and releasing many of his lengthy Q&A specials on DVD (his most recent one was the EPIX exclusive, Kevin Smith: Burn in Hell; another informative and highly engaging show I awarded three and a half stars to earlier this year), we are so used to him providing us with a plethora of wit and insight as to what it means to be a "free bird" type filmmaker in 2012. He is known for going into the productions of his films in great detail, leaving no stone unturned, and giving us meticulous little details that will inevitably allow him to give us another story right in the middle of the one currently being told. It is this reason, among dozens of others, that he is my favorite filmmaker in the business today.
Jay and Silent Bob Get Old does not deliver that familiar style of schtick, but something along the lines of what Smith and Mewes' podcast (or self-proclaimed "SModcast") of the same name would dive into. The talking, like usual, is disorganized and totally on-the-spot material, but instead of detailing past events on the set, both men spend the time cracking sex joke after sex joke, with Mewes providing us with the pleasure of watching these events mimed by himself. The acts and conversations are fun and energetic, but not on-par with the informative stuff we are used to seeing.
As a further exploration on these two open men, Jay and Silent Bob Get Old: Pt. 1 is a bit underdeveloped and shaky on its feet. As a little special that shows these men just doing what they do best, it does a worthy and notable job. Seventy-five minutes is also the perfect running time for something like this. Even as a worthy fan of both parties, four hours of enduring their sexual banter would be the equivalent of hopping from orgy party to orgy party one late night downtown; tiring and emptying on all levels.
Starring: Jason Mewes and Kevin Smith. Directed by: J.C. Reifenberg.
