Kevin Smith was the gatekeeper of a cinematic universe long before Kevin Feige assembled the Avengers on the big screen. The View Askewniverse is mostly unified by the presence of Jay and Silent Bob, but each entry in the franchise has a handful of cool crossovers and references to earlier Smith movies.
In 2019, after a few years of helming non-View Askewniverse horror movies, Smith revisited his shared cinematic universe with Jay and Silent Bob Reboot. In addition to rehashing Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back as a meta riff on reboots, the movie has a bunch of great callbacks to Smith’s previous work.
8 Brodie Bruce
When Jay and Bob first hear that the Bluntman and Chronic movie is getting a reboot, they visit Mallrats protagonist Brodie Bruce in his comic book store to ask him what a reboot is. He explains how they work by pointing out that The Force Awakens is essentially a loose remake of the original Star Wars movie.
The scene takes a meta turn when Jay wonders who’s even still interested in watching a Jay and Silent Bob movie and then gives the finger to the audience watching. Jason Lee hadn’t been in a Kevin Smith movie for years, but he used to be a beloved member of the director’s regular company of actors, so his cameo in the reboot was a delight.
7 Bluntman V Chronic
The Bluntman and Chronic reboot directed by Kevin Smith is called Bluntman v Chronic in a hilarious reference to Batman v Superman. In the tradition of Hollywood reboots making stories more inclusive, Bluntman v Chronic recasts Chronic as a woman.
The rebooted version of Chronic is played by Melissa Benoist, who had previously worked with Smith on a few episodes of Supergirl, while the rebooted version of Bluntman is played by Val Kilmer, who played the real Batman in Batman Forever.
6 Jason Biggs & James Van Der Beek’s Cameo
Jason Biggs and James Van Der Beek cameoed as themselves in Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back, and in keeping with Kevin Smith’s promise that the reboot would be “literally the same f**king movie all over again,” they do the same thing in Jay and Silent Bob Reboot.
They cameo as themselves at a Chronic-Con panel where Biggs feigns an interest in the Bluntman and Chronic reboot and Van Der Beek tells him to give it up because they won’t put him in the movie. At this point, Biggs unloads on Smith for ruining his career with Jersey Girl. (A lot of the movie’s best gags are just Smith using his characters as a mouthpiece for self-deprecation.)
5 Iron Bob
In Mallrats, Silent Bob dons a Batman-esque cowl and uses his trench coat as a cape. He even has a utility belt full of Caped Crusader-esque gadgets that ended up coming in handy in the movie’s climactic sequence.
Jay and Silent Bob Reboot builds on Mallrats’ Bat-Bob gag by putting Bob in a full-on suit of Stark-powered armor and giving him the moniker “Iron Bob.”
4 Kevin Smith As Himself
The revelation that the Bluntman and Chronic reboot is being directed by Kevin Smith leads the movie down a hilarious meta rabbit hole. Including Smith himself in the View Askewniverse created ludicrous levels of self-awareness as he was surrounded by his own creations and also played Silent Bob.
Smith’s daughter’s character criticizes Smith for always putting his daughter in his movies. Smith is possibly the only director who can make a whole movie purely for the enjoyment of his own fans.
3 Loki Returns
One of the many high-profile cameos in Jay and Silent Bob Reboot is Matt Damon reprising his role as fallen angel Loki from Smith’s underappreciated religious satire Dogma.
In his brief but unforgettable appearance, Damon’s Loki jokes about how he’s no longer pop culture’s most well-known Loki in a series of increasingly convoluted puns.
2 The Black-And-White Clerks Panel
One of the most hilarious visual gags at Chronic-Con is the Clerks 25th Anniversary panel, in which many of the movie’s cast members – including Brian O’Halloran, Marilyn Ghigliotti, Ernie O’Donnell, Scott Schiaffo, and John Willyung – appear in black-and-white.
Smith originally shot Clerks in black-and-white because he could barely scrape together a budget for a feature film and black-and-white film stock was cheaper than color. But it ended up feeding into the movie’s bleak Gen. X view of the world.
1 The New Definition Of “Chasing Amy”
While Jay and Bob are chased through Chronic-Con, they bump into Chasing Amy protagonist Holden McNeil, played by a cameoing Ben Affleck. The reboot reveals that Holden has donated sperm so that his old flame Alyssa and her new wife could have a daughter, who he helps to co-parent.
In addition to providing a perfect Chasing Amy sequel in just a couple of scenes, Holden’s heartfelt speech about fatherhood – which seems to reflect Smith’s own feelings as a father – redefines the term “chasing Amy.” In the original movie, “chasing Amy” meant regretting a breakup when it was too late to go back. Now, it means finding purpose as a parent, which ties into Jay’s arc with his estranged daughter Millennium Faulken.
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June 25, 2021
