Clerks III (2022) Review

 "No more watching movies.  I'm gonna make a movie!"
-Randal Graves



After surviving a heart attack, Randal Graves (Jeff Anderson) determines that he hasn't done enough with his life.  He decides to make a movie about his life and to set it entirely at the Quick Stop.  He enlists everyone he can to help relive their lives through a movie.


What Works:

Clerks III is at its best, not when it's a comedy, but when it's a drama.  There are darker moments in the film that deal with death.  The emotional at those moments is very mature and well-handled.  I didn't care for this movie as a whole, but there was a moment that had me tear up.  The scenes with Rosario Dawson's  character are especially good.

This is a comedy and some of that comedy works.  Justin Long has a quick cameo appearance and is the funniest part of the film.  He's absolutely hysterical.

Finally, the 3rd act of the movie is very good.  At it's core, this series has really been about the friendship between Randal and Dante (Brian O'Halloran) and the movie really focuses on that as it ends.  It hits hard emotionally at a very dark moment, but it's extremely effective and the best part of the movie.


What Sucks:

More often than not, the comedy in this movie falls flat.  I'm not 100% sure what it is that doesn't click.  Maybe Kevin Smith has lost a step.  I don't know, but I wasn't laughing all that often.

The movie relies too much on references.  These films have always had a lot of pop culture references, which is still true, but the references are tired at this point and aren't very funny.  Too make matters worse, we also spend a ton of time referencing the original movie.  It makes sense with the story they are trying to tell, but it gets obnoxious.  Clerks III spends too much time talking about how great the original movie was when it should have been focused on being a good movie itself.

Kevin Smith directed, wrote, and edited this film.  If you're going to do that, you have to be willing to kill your babies.  Sometimes it's hard for people who do all three roles to cut things out of the movie to make the movie better.  That's absolutely true with Clerks III.  There are scenes the are dragged out for far too long.  Smith needed to edit down theses scenes significantly.  Someone else should have been the editor to be honest.  Someone with less emotional attachment so they can focus on making the film the best it can be.


Verdict:

When Clerks III focuses on the dramatic elements, it works.  There are some dark, but well-acted moments that pull on the heartstrings.  Plus there were a couple of solid cameos.  It's just that the movie isn't very funny, focuses too much on references, and needed to be trimmed down quite a bit.  Easily the weakest of the Clerks films and it isn't close.

 4/10: Bad 


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