The View Askewniverse

I think Dogma is the only one that I'm not even a little bit embarrassed to rewatch these days. Others work as an artifact of the times, but I don't think they hold up particularly well.

What do you mean? Chasing Amy is super woke.

Actually there's a lot of things in that movie that remind me of Seinfeld.

Dogma is probably the only objectively good movie.

But I was consuming anything that would get me wrecked because I was 17ish, so Mallrats > Clerks > Dogma > Chasing what?

Dogma is the best film.

Jay & Silent Bob was a foundational movie for that period of time in my youth. I refuse to watch it twenty years or so after that time.

Clerks 2 has Rosario Dawson dancing in a roof, so.....

But Clerks is better than Mallrats for me. Mallrats is too slapstick and broad, Clerks just feels indie and like it fits with the cinema movent of the time.

I remember seeing a screening of Clerks in '95 at one of the independent cinemas in London (can't for the life of me remember which one) and absolutely loved it. It was new and raw and clever for its time, but I don't think any of his other films have ever really managed to bottle that lightning again. I watched (and still enjoyed) everything up to and including Dogma, but gave up after that point.

Going by the trailers those Jay and Silent Bob films look fucking atrocious.

Dogma is objectively the best one. It feels like Alan Rickman brought the best out of everyone in that movie, cast and crew.
Clerks is great and an amazing achievement... but arguably a little overrated in hindsight. Plenty of better stuff doesn't get a fraction of the recognition this did.
Mallrats meanwhile is a little underrated if you ask me. It's a low budget teen movie and that's all it's trying to be. It's like after Clerks people thought they'd get Citizen Kane for some reason. (Don't get me wrong Clerks is the better film though).
Strike Back and Clerks 2 are good if you turn your brain off.
I wasn't impressed with Reboot.

Yeah, I can see why Clerks might be subjectively better - some people's choice - but Mallrats is the one I personally like best. That's probably due to the places and people I saw it with, though.

I never really clicked with Dogma.

My defence/surprise enjoyment of J&SB Reboot is that its basically just pure fan service and a love letter to the series.

Its almost like a post-therapy thing, revisiting all your old friends and seeing that life has turned out good for them despite in-character and in-real-life struggles for a lot of them. Its certainly the most wholesome of them all.

That said it does open with pretty much the worst scene in the film.

It very much was that. Kevin Smith had a heart attack on stage, so post-surgery he started writing the film, and called in a few favors from his old friends to pop in and, for him, try to do more heartwarming story about a father and daughter connecting.

Weirdly, the only two I've not seen are J&SB Strike Back and Reboot. I'd like to re-watch the whole "series", but that would require buying them all on Blu-ray, it seems. Which I'm not sure I wanna do.

I find it odd that there's so much love for Dogma, as that's the only one that - even when I first saw it - I felt was a bit weak. It was the kind of dodgy, exposition-heavy, pleased-with-itself type of writing that I myself was doing at that time. I'd be interested to see how well it's aged.

In fact, I'd be interested to see how well any of them have aged. I adored Kevin Smith in the 90s, and I loved all his movies. When he started making quirky little weirdo indie things (even "indie" by his own standards) I found it harder to track them down, so I've not seen the likes of Tusk or Yoga Hosers. My favourite back then was Chasing Amy, which I found the most sincere and romantic, and with the most interesting ending. I think its whole central premise is bonkers, mind. I knew fewer lesbians when I was fifteen...

Anyway, with the huge caveat that I've not seen any of these films in over a decade, and without including the J&SB films I've not seen at all, my ranking would probably be:

Chasing Amy > Clerks > Clerks 2 > Mallrats > Dogma

I quite like that as a way of wrapping things up. Although odd to do that and Reboot when both fit a similar headspace.

I loved all of them at the time.
I honestly don't know if I'd like them these days, but probably

While I wouldn't say it was one of the best, I enjoyed J&SB Strike Back, mainly just for all the in-jokes. It was immensely dumb though

But Clerks, Mallrats, Chasing Amy and Dogma were all my faves at the time. I don't think I could rank them now as they've all blurred a bit into one.

I honestly can't remember if I've seen Clerks 2. I don't think so, but it might be one of those movies that I start watching and then realize I've already seen it.
The only one post Jersey Girl that I've seen is the one about making a Porno, which was a bit rubbish.