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Since sneaking through Hollywood's cracked basement window with Clerks, Kevin Smith has weathered bumps (unfilmed comic-book adaptations) and bruises (Jersey Girl) with his integrity intact. Integrity is stretched in his View Askewniverse, which celebrates poop monsters, but it's alive and well in Clerks II. The profane poet clearly adores his McJob characters, and beneath the crass humor — donkey shows, heinie trolls — is the geek-chic dialogue and genuine, if confused, male bonding of the original. Sure, the sequel required a star (Rosario Dawson), and in the extras, Smith (above right, with Jason Mewes) sniffs that ''doing [the movie] at $5 million was so f---ing degrading,'' but he maintains an otherwise healthy perspective. ''Bad words will put food on the table if you do it right,'' he tells a London audience in An Evening With Kevin Smith 2, two crude Q&A sessions targeting the outsider fans who worship Silent Bob, one of whom sings a paean to women's privates. Cracks Smith: ''Woody Allen don't have Q&A's like this.'' Clerks II: B Evening: C+


Posted Nov 24, 2006 | Published in issue #909 Dec 01, 2006 | Order Article Reprints