I’m out (spoilers)


This film really just serves as an unflattering look into Smith’s weed-raped psyche. It’s honestly sad to see this man’s mind decay in front of us.

Just… what was this? It’s like Smith has totally lost touch with the characters and forgotten their prior emotional journeys. His legendary insightful wit and edgy comedy? Nowhere to be seen.

I think he harbours resentment over losing his talent, and his response is to murder his own characters. Becky fucking dies immediately after the events of Clerks II killing Dante’s kid at the same time?? Then, after Randal has a heart attack and survives, Dante fucking dies too..??

I know Smith wants to write from the heart and make something about his near death experience but he really should have made a new project instead of aiming his Death Star at the Clerks boys. Seriously, this is The Grim Reaper, guest starring the Clerks cast.

Clerks is raucous edgy comedy with a dose of drama, this was a fucking massacre. What about all the life lessons Dante and Randall learned along the way? What happened to Clerks reflecting the real lives of working class Americans? Suddenly it’s - Wife? Dead. Kid? Dead. You? Dead.

At the end of Clerks II Randal was all ‘you’re my best friend and I love you’, now he sacks off Dante in the hospital like he’s nothing, only changing his mind when he learns Dante gave up his Quick Stop shares to fund Randal’s movie? Randal only realises that Dante is his true friend because… money?? Smith turned Randal into a complete asshole, to say nothing of the fact that Randal yelling at Dante is what triggers Dante’s heart attack. Randal kills Dante 🤦🏻‍♂️

Ghost-Becky keeps telling Dante to be grateful for being alive and embrace life… then Smith gives him a fatal heart attack! Smith has made a career out of crying in public, and he wants you to cry too… but for what reason? There’s no meaning to these deaths beyond emotion porn.

He was always inspired by Richard Linklater, whose masterpiece is the Before Trilogy. The first two are great and the third one takes a nasty turn and rapes the characters. Smith was clearly taking notes because he goes one step further and full-on slaughters his babies here.

Are there any laughs among the bloodbath? A few. The odd quip here and there but while Smith is happy to butcher his characters, he’s actually become quite prudish and woke in his older age. Vulgar dick/gay jokes, donkey fucking, and spicy humour like ‘nigger knife’ are conspicuously absent, instead the humour feels tame, goofy, meta. You won’t be quoting Clerks III for years to come, let’s put it that way.

I will say the acting is excellent from the main duo. When the film stops fucking around and lets the characters monologise - which was what Clerks was all about - it has real power, and the exchange between Randal and Schwalbach at the end recaptured the hilarious sparring we’d come to expect from those two. Flickers of genius like those only serve to remind how Smith’s flame is dying.

All these years I blamed Jeff Anderson for stopping Clerks III from existing, his feud with Smith over money for Clerks II prevented it from moving forward. Now I blame him for giving the Clerks III script the ‘OK’.

I’m actually intrigued to read the original script now. Apparently it was too much of a downer and Smith rewrote it into something more positive after his heart attack. How in the hell it could have been more morbid than what we got is beyond my imagination.

Jay & Silent Bob Reboot was a mixed bag, He-Man was a disaster. I really thought Smith would bring things back on track with Clerks III but instead he drove it off a cliff. I never thought I’d say this, I’ve been a Smith fan for decades, but I’m off the Smith-train now. He cannot be trusted to deliver anything but disappointment.

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Completely agree with your review, and you said it better than I could've. It's refreshing after seeing so many people praise this movie. I have liked every View Askew movie until this one including the Jay and Silent Bob-led movies (I actually think the first was the weaker one though). In fact, I own every single one on DVD.

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If you want a really thorough analysis check out this excellent video: https://youtu.be/hhdFOCqBxXE

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I'm glad I didn't see this. I'm starting to connect the dots though. It's interesting that the films and characters the X gen grew up with are the ones being resurrected and s**t upon.

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There’s a nasty trend of killing off beloved straight white male heroes - James Bond, John Connor, Tony Stark, Wolverine. We know Smith jumped on that bandwagon when he killed off He-Man. Could slaughtering Dante and throwing him on the ever-growing pyre of dead white male heroes be an act of devotion to the woke cult?

It certainly ties in with Smith’s move from edgy comedy to safe gags that won’t get him cancelled.

Also, the film is getting mainstream media approval and endless blowjobs on Reddit despite obviously being a bag of shit - that’s usually a sign that he has appeased the wokists and is being rewarded with artificial praise.

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The woke cult is a part of the glo*balists. This has all been calculated. Even the fighting that we see in chat here. Erase the past, demoralize and divide. They actually hate the ethnic people they are pushing to the forefront. And we are paying these movie studios to produce their propaganda flops with our tax dollars. I gave up on Hollyweird several years ago and it feels really good.

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Wokism has killed Hollywood for the most part, and it looks like Clerks III is another casualty, but all is not lost. They’re still releasing pre-woke classics on 4K disc - looking better than ever before - and of course non-woke films like Top Gun: Maverick are proving that quality non-woke entertainment makes far more money. Studios cannot ignore this if they’re going to survive.

Plus, parallel economies are emerging. The Daily Wire has started producing only non-woke films and it’s proving a successful business model. So yeah, the Globalists’ plot re Hollywood is gradually falling apart.

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I hope you are right. I still support the independent film makers and it's good there are films like Top Gun that are going against the establishment. We have to stop the MSM's endless tax payer money supply. Then they'll have no choice but to start entertaining again or just go away.

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I'm with you. Been trying to remain a fan for many years now, but the guy has lost his mojo. He should enjoy the $15.50 he got out of me for this let-down, there won't be any more.

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Here’s what I don’t get - Smith has always cared about what audiences think of him, that’s why he keeps returning to the View Askewniverse - to reenergise his fanbase and get showered with love and attention. So why in the hell is he icing beloved Clerks characters?

He’s getting a lot of love from bot farms, dodgy mainstream reviewers and Reddit - was he promised a shower of artificial praise if he murdered one of his straight white male heroes, as with He-Man? Who knows, but there’s something very weird about all this…

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Word on the street is that he's also trying to do another Mallrats. I guess he's out to ruin that, too. Pitiful.

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I was really excited about Mallrats II, but after the mediocre J&SB Reboot and godawful Clerks III (and given that he went fully woke with his ghastly He-Man project)… I’m now dreading a Mallrats sequel. He’s now actively harming his own properties and must be stopped.

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If you have seen Yoga Hosers you should have seen this coming.

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I never saw that, looked like it was aiming at pre-teens and then the reviews came in so… no interest. That was a new project and so there were no expectations.

He-Man was an example of him destroying someone else’s property.

Reboot was OK, a big step down from the original but had its moments and didn’t crap on what came before.

Clerks III is a whole new level of bad. That film is a crime against his own legacy, as well as a very ropey film in itself. It has no soul - it’s just overblown meta indulgence and casually murders beloved characters. I cannot fathom why a filmmaker who thrives on referencing his earlier work is now actively destroying it. After decades of supporting Smith, listening to his podcasts, introducing people to his filmography… I have to turn my back on him.

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I don't get the hate for Reboot (yes, I know you said you just thought it was ok, but a lot of people seem to hate it)..maybe it's because I didn't think Strike Back was that good either. I never liked the parts with Will Ferrell and/or the jewel thieves.

I'd take either over the travesty that is Clerks 3.

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Ferrell was OK, I did like his ‘butt-fucking Brady Bunch’ and ‘Fuckbeans! That was them wasn’t it?’ lines, and the jewel thieves were nice eye candy.

Thinking back, the scene on the dam with Ferrell which parodies The Fugitive had pretty good special effects for a stoner comedy, Reboot didn’t have anywhere near the budget of its predecessor.

I hate what Smith has become but I also kinda pity the guy for never getting mainstream recognition. Zack and Miri should have done well - it came out when Rogen was red hot, but Americans didn’t want to go see him ‘make a porno’.

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I think you're reading too much into it.
Its a comedy film about a convenience store.

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A ‘comedy’ in which the main character’s fiancée and unborn child are killed immediately after the engagement, resulting in him living in a personal hell of grief for 15 years before prematurely dying of a heart attack, caused by his best friend (who also had a heart attack in the same week 🤦🏻‍♂️)

Even if the jokes were amazing they’d struggle to surmount a torrent of misery like that, but they’re not amazing, they’re not even amusing - Smith’s once edgy, taboo-busting, candid humour is now replaced with safe, bland, throwaway ‘jokes’. His once endlessly quotable hilarious dialogue is now entirely forgettable.

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It's been throwaway jokes since mallrats. It's worked in some of the movies but lately it's been a drag.

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His films up to and including Dogma were great, with endlessly quotable dialogue. Even Clerks II was great, but after that it’s been downhill fast (coinciding with his weed addiction).

And with Clerks III he’s gone completely off the deep end.

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but why must every movie be compared to previous?
also I'm sure he's been smoking the whole time


His films up to and including Dogma were great.
so now every film has to be >= ?

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If there’s a sudden decline in quality after becoming a weed addict then, yes, he needs to reconsider his drug habit - but this thread is about the crime that is Clerks III and why he’s now cannibalising his earlier, better work, and slaughtering and torturing his most beloved characters in a supposed ‘comedy’.

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There wasn't much comedy in this compared to the first two. That's a big reason why it was a let-down.

Not that I have a problem with Smith being serious..I liked the "serious" scenes in the first two, but this one just went too far. The first two dealt with relatable themes of not knowing what to do with your life or how to improve it. I'm a decade younger than the characters, but I've been there. This one could have continued to expand on those ideas with Dante and Randal pushing 50, but instead Smith just decided to be edgy and kill off/endanger beloved characters.

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Ive actually seen it now :)

I thought it was a nice end piece / bookend / full circle / retrospective / nostalgia type thing
Dante and Randall are over, ie too old - there wernt going to be any more movies with those characters , so it was a nicde retirement. Bit of a shocj with Dante actually dying though .

A bit light on laughs , yes , but some good drama with Dante letting rip

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I feel like if they wanted to do an end piece/bookend/full circle/restrospective/nostalgia type thing, the plot could have been that Dante and Randal are closing the Quick Stop and it's the last day it'll be open. Clerks took place in one day. Clerks 2 was mostly just one day albeit with opening and closing scenes taking place earlier/later.

Killing off Becky, Dante, and their child was too dark for these movies. It felt like fan fiction and not a true Clerks 3. As for fewer laughs than the first two, maybe I was expecting too much. The third movie in a trilogy is almost never the best and that's especially true in a COMEDY trilogy. It's just that half the jokes were rehashed from the first Clerks. They weren't even reworded like they had been in Jay and Silent Bob Reboot (repeating jokes from Strike Back).

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I HAVE BEEN A SMITH FAN SINCE 1994...CLERKS ALWAYS REMAINING HIS CENTERPIECE...CLERKS II WAS A WORTHY SEQUEL AND CLERKS 3 IS ALSO A WORTHY SEQUEL...EXCELLENT TRILOGY.

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Whatever….I’m a sucker for nostalgia and brotherly relationships….I loved it.

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I didn’t mind it either. A lot of people are completely flipping out over this movie. It’s Clerks III…what the hell do some of these people expect? Haha.

I wasn’t expecting much, and didn’t take it too seriously. It was an entertaining dose of nostalgia. I laughed more than a few times.

One thing I didn’t like was how they rehashed everything from the first movie for Randall’s movie, which was pretty lazy, but it’s what we’ve come to expect from these nostalgia sequels.

I definitely wasn’t expecting so much heartbreaking drama, but I guess you have to close the series out somehow. I thought Brian O'Halloran did an awesome job in this film! He really gave his all, and put in a great performance.

So…I liked it. Not too bad.

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This video goes some way to explaining why Clerks III is such a miserable mess, Smith was psychologically imploding at the time.

Now that he’s off the weed and getting regular treatment, let’s hope is art can return to the standard it was at before he went into meltdown.

This is probably the best thing he’s made since Chasing Amy…

https://youtu.be/JBvc7Ny4iUk

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