A year later, Dante is engaged and on his last day of work, ready to move to Florida; however, Dante's boss Becky, played by Rosario Dawson (Rent), and best friend Randall may have other plans for him.

This movie failed by not attempting to look like the original. The material and characters in this obtuse slice-of-life story didn't feel like a 'Clerk' movie. If Smith had shot the picture like the original "Clerks," using locked down camera with characters coming in and out of frame, I think I would have enjoyed it more.

That being said, there were a couple of scenes that were absolutely hilarious. One was three way discussion between Randall and the Lord of the Rings nerds, one of which he worked with, arguing about how bad the Peter Jackson directed trilogy sucked b**ls.

Another great scene was when Randall gets workmate Elias to open up about his non-existent sexual relationship with his girlfriend because of Pillow-Pants. I won't go into it. You'll just have to see it to believe it, but the scene is a freakin' riot.

Trevor Fuhrman played Elias and did one of the best out-of-nonwhere character performances I've seen in a while. The kid has a lot of talent and hit the character on the head without going overboard. Smith's best decisions for this movie was to cast Fuhrman and Rosario Dawson.

Dawson was the only decent performer in this movie playing a natural role. Everyone else was as flat in their acting as the first one. The worst decision Smith made was to cast his wife in a supporting role.

Jennifer Smith played Emma, Dante's betrothed, and she simply sucked. She actually made Brian O'Holloran look like a decent actor because she was so flat; however, she all but showed her boobs in this movie, so that wasn't so bad. However, I must say Mrs. Smith, eat a burger, PLEASE! You're scaring me.

Another thing Smith should have done different was make Dante and Becky's closure more subtle. The way Becky the character was set up, we were given no idea she would respond the way she did for their final scene. She should have simply smiled at Dante, alluding to their future, and that's that; subtle and acceptable enough.

The last thing I could not agree with was the stary musical dance sequence in the middle of the film; however, during that ridiculous unfunny and unnecessary sequence, Smith threw in ME. Yes, Benn Farrell. I was the one j**king off in the Mooby's washroom wearing the black Atlanta Falcons-like No. 07 jersey and jean shorts. I should sue Smith for likeness rights.

I did laugh a few times at this movie, but I do not thing it was very good. Much of the film's humor was contrived. Kevin Smith's decisions to use these intense Speilberg-like rolls ups on certain characters made the film appear to do more than it actually could.

Overall, if you blindly love everything Kevin Smith does, you should like this movie. If you simply liked "Clerks," you may NOT like this movie. If you liked Keenan Ivory Wayans' latest film "Little Man," you will think "Clerks 2" is a freakin' Academy Award® winner. As for me, I'm on the fence.

Benn - Where's the Humanity?

I think that this movie is pretty good, but I don't think it sucked as a sequel. I don't think that when Smith decided to make this sequel, he was going to shoot it the same way, plus as Benn has said, the studio was never going to allow him to do it.

I also agree with Benn that Rosario Dawson was by far the best actor on screen and it was very noticeable how far ahead she was in ability than the others. I also agree that Kevin's wife Jennifer was terrible. She used to be (maybe still is) a writer for USA Today and it is quite clear she has had no training what so ever. But I won't fault Smith for casting her, because that is what he did in the first Clerks movie, so why should that change for the second Clerks movie. If anything, he should be faulted for casting Dawson because she is so good, that she makes everyone else look mediocre or worse.

The first Clerks movie to me was a character study written very smartly by Smith. This movie I feel actually has a decent story which address that age old question, what am I going to be when I grow up? Both Dante and Randall lamented about working at the Quick Stop and Video store and yet 10 years later there they were working until it burned down. They both go to a fast food joint and again begin to lament about moving on yet they never do.

I like this story because it is very real. The question really never seems to go away. When you are in High School, you just assume that you have picked what you want to do and then you go learn how to do it in college, or you get out of high school and immediately get into your profession, and then you go do it. What happens when you get to college or start working on your career, and discover that you don't like it? Or that you are not any good at it? Then what? Well you can't go back to school because chances are you already owe a million dollars for student loans, or if you went into your profession right away, chances are you have a family and tons of bills so you cant just stop and start something else at the bottom without running the risk of losing everything? Smith addresses this subject in the movie and does a nice job of it and for this I like the movie.

Lastly I will say that the first 30 minutes of the movie was painful to watch. It wasn't until we got to the story lines that this movie got interesting. In my review of the first Clerks movie, I said that I felt Smith would get an Oscar one day. After watching Jersey Girl, I was still positive that he would, but after this one I am not so sure. I hope that he has finally put the "Jersey Triangle" stories to bed and hopefully see him move on to something more substantial so we can see some more growth. I think the ability is there. I will own Clerks II, it is pretty good, just not his best.