My opinion is simple: Clerks I was the better of the two, but only because it was a instant cult classic.
I liked Clerks II because it *didn’t *suck, as most comedy sequels do, IMO.
I’ve always thought one of the best parts of Clerks II was the different ways Dante and Randall handled their blue collar existences. Both were worried but they were looking in different directions. Dante still hoped that he could escape to something better and was worried about missing his chance to move up and out. Randall, on the other hand, had come to accept his life - he knew he was never going to be more than what he was. What he was worried about was losing what little he had.
This played into the relationship between Randall and Dante. Dante is Randall’s best friend so he wants him to succeed. But at the same time he knows how much he will lose if Dante leaves. Watch the changes in the way Randall talks to Elias during the movie - he’s growing in the awareness that after Dante leaves, Elias will become the guy he hangs out with.
“My love for you is ticking clock BERSERKER…
Would you like to suck my cock BERSERKER!!”
Would you like some making fuck BERSERKER!
Clerks changed my life. A friend showed it to me when I was maybe 15 or 16. Don’t think I knew independent cinema existed before that.
Clerks 2 was good, but, just timing-wise, it couldn’t have hit me the way the first one did.
Plus she goes ass to mouth :eek:
‘Did he just say “making fuck”?!’
Seen both, voted in favor of Clerks, just because it seemed to fresh at the time*. Clerks II was a worthy successor, though.
- I was about 20 when I first saw it.
I voted for Clerks 2.
I love all of Smith’s movies and own them all signed by Smith. Clerks 2 is my favorite of them all. Clerks was awesome but in 2 we get to see the characters coming to terms with being adults and when the movie came out I was going through the same. Actually I still am going through it even though I am 31. It’s just hard to believe I am actually a grown up and I can’t just fuck off to the go-carts anymore.
There were many memorable scenes.
-The two guys trying to buy weed from Jay even though he is clean now and Jay telling the story of being in rehab. Which I thought was cool as it referenced all the shit Jay went through. “There’s lots of weird shit in the bible. Like did you know Jesus was a jew?”
-“Eat Pussy” spray painted on the wall and Jay saying, “Oh we do.”
-Elias explaining to Randall how the transformers were not blasphemous.
-Porch monkey. “It’s ok I’m taking it back.”
-“Hey twelve-step!” and Jay looking up confused “Lord?”
-The ABC dance number.
-Kinky Kelley and the stud and Elias jerking it while apologizing to Jesus.
-“I miss my donkey.” And Jay offering up to loan the money to Dante and Randall for the Quick Stop refencing all the money they made off the movie rights from JaSBSB.
The only thing I did not like is Jennifer. I know Kevin thinks she is sexy but to me she is way too skinny and I don’t think she can act very well.
Maybe this is part of the reason why I preferred Clerks II. I wasn’t 15 or 20 when I saw Clerks - it came out when I was 33. I saw it and my general impression was “another guy trying to get some indie street cred by making a cheap looking black and white movie”. In other words, another She’s Gotta Have It or Stranger Than Paradise or The Last Picture Show or Night of the Living Dead or Dementia 13 or Who’s That Knocking On My Door or Carnival of Souls or Multiple Maniacs or Eraserhead or a dozen others. And it didn’t help that his second movies was Mallrats, which I felt confirmed my first impression that Smith was okay but nothing special. It wasn’t until Chasing Amy and Dogma that I realized Smith had some genuine talent.
I gotta say I liked She’s Gotta Have It, Carnival of Souls and Chasing Amy too, and Dogma was just funny. But Clerks really had this feel of late adolescence that was genuine, fun, angry and introspective at the same time and it did connect with me at the time (as did She’s Gotta Have It).
“Thought both were good but Clerks is better.”
Though the rooftop scene with Rosario Dawson is pretty sweet.
I didn’t like Jason Lee’s character so much since he was already set up as a protagonist in Mallrats, he could have been Brodie. Plus he had that Earl Mustache, if I recall. That thing is pretty awesome on Earl, but should not be seen anywhere else.