In a big way it almost feels as though Clerks is the kind of movie that you would think would appeal mostly to stoners and individuals that think Kevin Smith is a directing god. Upon watching the original movie though I can honestly see why he would attempt a second, and then a third movie since there was a lot more to the movie than many people might understand. It’s true that the movie is essentially brainless in some ways and seems to glorify the slacker mentality that some folks really don’t care for, but at the same time it delves into a different sub-culture that might confuse some folks since they can’t turn the corner and really come to grips with why this was a culturally important flick. According to Ryan Scott of MovieWeb though it sounds as though the original script for this movie isn’t something that Kevin Smith felt was worth unleashing upon the audience since it came from a very different point in his life and was far darker than what might be expected.
Russ Burlingame of Comic Book and many others would agree that unless Jeff Anderson is convinced to come back then there might not have been any hope for Clerks 3 since Kevin Smith even admits that without Jeff there just wasn’t a workable movie considering that Dante and Randal just seem to go together no matter what. This is kind of ironic since the two can’t seem to stand each other at certain intervals and the idea is that Randal is, by all accounts, the one force in Dante’s life that is bound to screw things up when Randal feels that he might be cast adrift while Dante moves on with his life. For his own part, Dante is kind of a whiner at times that can’t seem to make up his mind when he really needs to. Yet when Dante DOES make up his mind, there’s Randal to knock him back down again and remind him of the personality flaws that he was attempting to work past and was nearly clear of. In short, Randal and Dante are about as close to being the chaos and order that continually tear at each other yet can’t exist without each other. It’s a confusing mess that Kevin Smith created, but it’s one that a lot of people have clung to for years and have stated is one of the most intriguing movies ever made. This could be due to the fact that a lot of people can relate to Dante and Randal since friendships are a bit difficult to deal with at times and there’s no doubt that a lot of people have had at least one friend in their lives that seem to cling to them for one reason or another since they can’t seem to get their own lives going on account of the fact that they HAVE no life.
There’s not a lot information on what the next movie is going to be about but one can imagine that it’s going to take us back to the Quick Stop. But will the video store still be there? You’ve got to think that as time has gone by that the store might have been forced to change or go under since VHS and even DVD rentals are a thing of the past, even with the Redbox movies that are still prevalent in some areas. Maybe there will be a Redbox outside the store. In any case it would seem that it’s going to depend on just what’s happened in the time since Clerks 2 since at the end of the movie we saw Dante and Becky getting together, and the stores being rebuilt and opened up thanks to the contribution of Jay and Silent Bob. One has to wonder if Dante and Randal are still going to be running the stores and if their friendship is still going to be the same. After all, time does a lot of things to friendships, such as making them stronger or finally making folks realize that it’s time to grow up and move on. You kind of have to wonder if Kevin Smith is going to include anything like this in the movie since quite honestly he’s been through a lot in his life and has changed since his younger days.
With that being said you can imagine that Clerks 3 is going to be the kind of movie that some people might groan and roll their eyes at while others might be interested enough to sit down and enjoy while they think of how it compares to the first movie. Given how the movies started out it seems that it’s going to be easy to predict that Smith will be sticking to the old formula in some ways, but will try to change it up just enough to keep it interesting.
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