It’s still so good, and since its on Netflix right now you should watch it. If you’re into vulgar dude-comedies. Even if you’re not that into dude-comedies, if you’re ever going to waste your time with one, this should be it. I have corroborated truths (aka opinions) from the esteemed film maker Anthony Zagarella that this is in fact the greatest Kevin Smith movie of all time.

It’s aged well too, unlike some of Smith’s other flicks. The last time I watched Mall Rats (which, in terms of content and maturity is on par with Strike Back) I could barely make my way through it, and frankly there were very few laughs to be had. Not so with my recent re-watch of this excellent all around classic.

The only pit-fall, and this isn’t a pit-fall really, also I hate saying pit-fall it’s total reviewer-speak… Anyway, the movie’s biggest weakness is that a fair number of the jokes are “in-jokes” pertaining to other Kevin Smith movies, some of which, like Mall Rats, haven’t aged that well. So it’s a tough movie to recommend to those not familiar with Mr. Smith’s “oeuvre”.

What holds up especially–nay, prophetically well is the central event of the movie is about a comic book being adapted into a major motion picture. Which you may have noticed, adaptations are about all you can see in the theaters anymore. Jay and Silent Bob, characters who at that point had appeared in minor roles in every one of Kevin Smith’s movies (writer and director Kevin Smith plays Silent Bob) are for the first time the stars of the show.

In a previous Kevin Smith movie, Chasing Amy, two comic book artists made a fictional comic called Bluntman and Chronic. Now, in this movie Strike Back, a Hollywood adaptation is being made based on that comic. The only problem is that Jay and Silent Bob are the “real life” basis for the characters, and they haven’t been consulted about the likeness rights.

They soon discover something about fame in the 200o’s that is still true, if not more true, thirteen years later. If you’re famous, people will talk shit about you on the internet. On a fictional website called moviepoopshoot.com Jay and Silent Bob read numerous trolling comments directed at them (you know us movie nerds can’t stop posting about movies on the internet) which infuriates the duo to no end. This kick starts a dizzying cross country quest to stop the Bluntman and Chronic movie from being made in order to halt their online defamation.

It’s full of famous cameos and good stupid laughs. A staple of dude-comedies is that the schlubby main character ends up with a beautiful and highly competent women, and this movie is no different. In this instance the match up is almost over the top, since Jay (played by Jason Mewes) is perhaps the rudest, stupidest least redeemable dude of any of these 90’s (or early 2000’s in this case) comedies. Even Happy Gilmore looks like a saint compared to Jay. When told that, “Girls don’t like to be called bitches,” Jay scratches his head and tries to come up with an alternative.

“How about Booboo-titty-fuck?” he asks.

Despite his idiocy, I find it hard not to love the guy. He’s really a savant of acting like a dumb ass. Part of his charm is that he’s just absurdly oblivious to ways that normal people behave, but he’s not antagonistically obnoxious like, say, Tom Green. Rather he’s a dude you’d want to hang out with, if only occasionally, since even though he needs to think really hard about whether or not to expose his (and I quote) “trouser snake” to a girl he just met, he’s still decent enough to hold off. If that’s not a heart of gold then I don’t know what is!

If you want to see George Carlin explain the benefits of offering head to truckers, or watch a girl jump acrobatically over laser wires only to fart on the landing, or see Mark Hamill play a villain named Cock Knocker then this is the movie for you. If any of the items mentioned above sound distasteful then you should probably skip it. Beyond the poop humor though, is a film full of late 90’s nostalgia. Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back feels more like a party than anything, and Netflix is inviting you to stop by.