Jay & Silent Bob Strike Back [VHS]

"Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back" is an intentionally slapdash movie that deserves an intentionally slapdash DVD treatment. I'm just not sure that it needed an intentionally slapdash double-DVD treatment.

Disc one features the movie, presented in all its crisp colourful glory. The commentary track that accompanies it, usually a solid staple of all Kevin Smith DVDs, is a real let down. Only Smith, producer Scott Mosier and Jay Mewes show up. And what they deliver could best be described as falling somewhere between a vapid Oscar speech and three drunk guys hanging on too long at the end of the party, well past the point when they were amusing. They basically play a game of "See how many Askewniverse members you can point out that the audience has never heard of." At one point near the end, Smith realizes that they're not doing much more than reading out the closing credits, and wisely says to the audience, "You could do this yourselves." And he's right. The only shining moment on the track is when Mewes excuses himself to go the washroom, and the second he's out the door, Smith and Mosier good-naturedly rag on him. When Mewes returns, they reassure him that they said nothing but niceties while he was gone. That's about the only highlight I can come up with.

Also featured on disc one are a couple plugs promoting other entries in the Dimension Collector's Series.

Disc two is heavy on the extras, most of which are amusing. The rest point only serve to point out the fact that there was a lot of good -- and a lot of puerile -- footage left on the cutting room floor.

The deleted scenes, titled "The Secret Stash" in homage to the comic books store that Smith repeatedly plugs on all his DVDs, function just like the deleted scenes on the "Dogma" DVD: they're useless and pointless. Showing them now only proves why they weren't in the film in the first place. Most deadly are the unfunny Judd Nelson ad-libs, and Ben Affleck's non-sensically riffing on a scene funny enough on the page. However, a lot of hilarious Will Ferrell moments are featured (including a delicious improv scene where he and Jon Stewart throw sexually suggestive puns back and forth) proving that in an alternate universe, this would have been his movie.

The treasures here are the intros that Smith and friends do, specifically, Jay Mewes' sweetly innocent comments. My two favourites: at one point, after Smith discusses the problems he had with G.L.A.A.D. before the movie came out, Jay says, with mock retribution, that he's "not going to send his cheque in this month" to them. Later, Smith self-debates whether Gus Van Sant's name rhymes with 'ant' or 'font', prompting Jay to comment, "Yeah, like do you say tomatoe or potatoe". You've gotta love this stoned-out guy!

There's also an eight-minute long gag reel, which is of the pretty standard, "I can't stop laughing" variety (notable for, once again, Will Ferrell's hilarious straying from the script; this time he's teamed with Jason Lee, who can't keep a straight face). And you get not one but two behind-the-scenes featurettes. It's an exercise in redundancy, if you ask me. The first, produced by Comedy Central, is a rather tame affair. The second, produced specially for this disc, is not. It features the no-holds-barred language that is Smith's bread and butter.

Two features highlight the work of Morris Day and the Time. The first features Smith and Mewes learning the band's relatively simple dance steps, before they are called on stage to end the film. Be warned: the sight of Kevin Smith attempting to dance may scare young children. The second feature is an exhaustive textual history of the band. If you ever have to write a paper on The Time, your research efforts will stop here.

Finally, in the disc's graphical section, you get an on-set photo gallery, what seems like a hundred different possibilities for the film's poster, and comic versions of Jay and Bob. The storyboards section is a dubious inclusion, Smith not being noted for his visual flair. But it does show how wild the Scooby-Doo parody would have been if Smith had had his druthers.

Although I laughed lovingly at the movie, despite its lack of desire to raise itself above the sophomoric, I was slightly disappointed by this DVD. It's a bloated effort, hardly up to the standard Smith and Co. have set by their other issues. Still, for the Smith completist (and who else would see "Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back" but a Smith completist), the disc is a necessary addition to your collection.