Kevin Smith shares first look at Clerks III, featuring an homage to Clerks II
The third installment of the Clerks movies is currently underway
Film News Clerks
Cue the “not even supposed to be here today” jokes—a first look at Clerks III is here. Kevin Smith’s spent years talking about making the third part to Clerks. He’s gone through various iterations of the script before ultimately landing on a story that felt right for the lovable slackers’ return. Clerks III is currently filming in Leonardo, New Jersey and the first picture from the movie shows Dante (Brian O’Halloran) and Randal (Jeff Anderson) back at the Quick Stop—that they now own. They are joined by Elias (Trevor Fehrman) and Dante’s wife, Becky (Rosario Dawson), who were first introduced in Clerks II.
Kevin Smith loves to give fans Easter eggs as much as the MCU, so we have to give him points for this first press photo being nearly identical to the one for Clerks II—with the gang swapping their Mooby’s uniforms for Quick Stop ones. And in case anyone was concerned about the absence of Smith and Jason Mewes from the picture, don’t worry. They’re set to reprise their roles as Jay and Silent Bob, too. After all, is it really a View Askewniverse movie if you don’t get to see the duo onscreen?
As for what fans can expect from this sequel, Lionsgate also shared the official logline: “Following a massive heart attack, Randal enlists Dante, Elias, Jay and Silent Bob to make a movie immortalizing his life at the convenience store that started it all.” It’s a very meta take on the movie, as Smith himself experienced a near-fatal heart attack in 2018. The experience prompted the filmmaker to make Jay And Silent Bob Reboot, that features many of his most recognizable characters onscreen, including Brodie from Mallrats, and Holden and Amy from Chasing Amy. “I was hellbent to make Jay and Silent Bob Reboot speak for me as kind of a living gravestone,” he told VICE in 2019. “Suddenly, this movie is no longer just a funny sequel. It’s meant to stand for everything that I ever did over the course of my 25 years in the business.”
129 Comments
I have some hopes for this. Clerks 2 is a weaker movie than Clerks 1 but it still has some quality zingers and it managed to be weirdly poignant about the ennui of passing a certain age.
Excuse me, I was planning on shoplifting?
Thank you for smoking!
Either they photoshopped Rosario Dawson in, or the woman just doesn’t age
She actually (to me) looks younger in the last photo.
Either they photoshopped Rosario Dawson in, or the woman just doesn’t age The lighting and shadows match up, so it’s option B. [I really kinda wanted Cory Booker to be President for awhile. Think of it – the Night Nurse could have been First Lady.]
Random street-level superheroes sneaking into the White House every night to convince the First Lady to stitch up their gunshot wounds.
She definitely looks older but the guys have aged much more noticeably. Probably because they’re basically normal people while she’s an A-list actress who likely dedicates a lot of time, effort, and resources, into looking as young as possible for as long as possible.Honestly looking at it again it’s really just Dante who looks *way* older in the second pic.
Skrull!
She doesn’t. I think she was still getting cast as high-school students into her forties.
Dante looks like a poor man’s Ricky Gervais
He’s turning into a poorman’s Rip Torn too.
Correction: Ricky Gervais is a poor man’s Dante.
yeah, but so does Ricky Gervais
Agreed, I found both of them to hit me emotionally for different reasons.
Agreed, I always thought the Clerks 2 hate was overblown. It’s a solid dumb comedy with a heart, and that’s all I want from Kevin Smith. (I thought Tusk was hilarious though, so what do I know, lol)
I thought Tusk was hilarious though, so what do I know, lol
Tusk was incredible, a can’t-turn-away movies. Definitely one of the most unique movies I’ve ever seen. #WalrusYes
I liked it until Johnny Depp made the whole thing come to a screeching halt
I’m with you! Dare I say it, but I find Clerks II a little more re-watchable than the first Clerks (not BETTER, but just something a little easier to drop into partway through from time to time and watch). And yeah, there was definitely an emotional resonance that struck with me as well with Clerks II…that feeling was punctuated well with a clutch needle-drop of the Smashing Pumpkins’ “1979″ in one of those scenes, as I recall.
I am glad they aren’t ignoring the important plot developments of Clerks II. Any word on a Kinky Kelly cameo? He could still be alive, donkeys can live over 20 years!
Wait, Kelly is usually a girl’s name
I’ve always loved that scene being scored to Samantha Fox’s Naughty Girls Need Love Too.
The soundtrack to that movie was absolutely perfect
There is no universe where Dante deserves Becky.
That’s what I liked about the first one, he blows it with the girl he should’ve stayed with. The second one is fine, but much more typical-movie plot
He blows it once, but she blows it 37 times…
…in a row?
The opening of Clerks III is so easy to write.
Dante: I can’t believe I wasted my entire life working in retail. Look at us, we’re losers. We did nothing in life!
Randal: (Looking at his phone) Eh, it’s never too late. It all depends on how you look at it. Did you know Kanye West has three penises?
Dante: Look at what?! Our pathetic lives?! I should have killed myself!
Randal: Eh, You win some lose some. We can still win.
Dante: Are you delusional? It’s over. I don’t have it in me anymore. I’m weak and tired.
Randal: Our president is almost 80 years old. He never gave up on becoming president. You live long enough your dream eventually come true.
Dante! UGH! (Dante storms away from Randal)
But how am I ever going to retire? Dude, we bought this place twenty years ago – the property value of this lot now exceeds $2 Million dollars.
lol
37???
I thought they bought the Quikstop in the second movie?
Hahaha!
In a row?
Bring back the zany animated series, please.
Is Leonardo Leonardo now a cyborg half man half machine??
Well played, clerks…
“Zany?” That sounds like a robot expression.
I don’t know what you’re talking about. My suite of algorithms calculated it to be a perfectly appropriate word and my database has the latest and greatest update.
I do hope RST stays exactly as it is, despite Netflix. With plenty of jokes about how nobody comes in
RST was never busy to begin with, what with Big Choice Video just across town.
Maybe it ends with Dante and Randal turning their convenience store into an online retail behemoth that rivals Amazon.
Who is monopolizing the market? Bear is monopolizing the market! How can that be?
And then they build a rocket and open a QuikStop on the moon!
And Jay and Silent Bob have replaced the video store with a CBD store, naturally
Being a “90s” kids and a comic nerd means I loved Kevin Smith back in the day but I don’t think I have seen any of this movies since “Jack and Miri make a Porno”. I had no interest in most of his new output but was Jay and Silent Bob Reboot even worth a watch? I heard it was terrible. I remember enjoying Clerks 2 but that was 15 years ago(which was a lifetime ago). My taste may have evolved past his humor
thanks for the update… let us know of any other development…
I’ll go ahead and add you to the family newsletter and Christmas card
You know, for a six pack and a favor I can teach you how to use ellipses properly.
txs, but no txs…
It certainly isn’t worth a watch . Poor Mr Mewes is a croaking wreck and the attempts at humour were painful. I still love the first few movies , Mallrats brought me a lot of joy in the 90s when I was young and easily amused.
Red State, I think is genuinely pretty good if you’re a horror fan. I think he was also a bit ahead of his time with it. Take his name off it, slap an A24 logo on it, release it today and it would fit right in. At the time ppl were expecting it to be a torture-porn movie as was befitting of the current trend, when it wasn’t it was overlooked as a Kevin Smith oddity.Reboot, I enjoyed moreso than Strikes Back, mostly because I’m not a huge fan of Jay and Silent Bob on their own. Reboot’s jokes don’t always land, but it surprisingly has heart and nails some poignant stuff about getting older and family. In a way, it’s an example of Kevin doing what he does best(characters and relationships) and what he’s no longer good at(outdated juvenile humor).
Nah, Red State is both too aggressively bland and too “generic liberal slight at Redneck ‘Murica”.
I think people who panned Reboot were forgetting that Strike Back was an inside joke more than anything. I saw that movie 20 times in the theatre in 2001.
I feel like if Smith took a long break from everything creative for a bit and came back after five years, looking to do new stuff, he’d be a much better creator. But his existing fan base and their perceived expectations keeping him largely in the same mode he started off as a kid does him no favors.
You would have to be a fan, I am, so it was worth a watch for me. With the exception of Cop Out (walked out of that one) I’ve enjoyed all of his movies to some extent. Never saw Yoga Hosers, not for me.
was Jay and Silent Bob Reboot even worth a watch?
Yes.
I heard it was terrible.
Then by all means, don’t make your own decision.
I liked Reboot. It’s a very Gen X film, (I’m very close in age to Smith), and you pretty much have to be a fan of Smith in general, and even then you may not like it. I expected to hate it but ended up finding it a bit endearing. I didn’t see Red State, Yoga Hosers or Tusk, but I did see Cop Out, and that was awful. I dunno, you might like it? I mean, if you liked Clerks II, you’re more likely to like it than the general population, I’d guess, so if it’s streaming on a service you already pay for and are super bored, it’s probably worth giving it a try.
I found it to be ok, but completely forgettable. Stopping at Jack and Miri (which I really enjoyed) is just fine, you’re not missing a whole lot.
It was god awful. Like so bad. I’m 47 myself and loved his movies for a while but the Jay and Bob reboot was so bad. Had like 3 good moments.I may watch this because I loved Clerks 2 so much (and of course Clerks).
It’s for fans only, but if you liked Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back and Clerks 2 then it’s a fun revisit of the characters. Tonally it feels a lot like a less focused version of the Clerks animated series. But much better than the Bluntman and Chronic movie though.
“Reboot” (what I saw of it) was one of the worst films I’ve ever seen….really, really bad, and I loved the first one. I’m not interested in watching any more of Kevin Smith’s therapy films where he works through his heart attack. If he’s not going to get over it, what’s the point of living through it?
“Zack”
I think that was an autocorrect
I sincerely enjoyed Reboot, myself — it’s not a great movie, or even an especially good one, but as an Elder Millennial who grew up on the View Askewniverse, it felt like I was getting to visit with a bunch of old friends I hadn’t seen in over a decade. Not necessarily friends I’d want to start hanging out with again, but I’m still glad I got to see how things turned out with some of them. Not to spoil anything specific, but one scene with a couple of classic characters hit me right in the “things I didn’t know I needed” zone.I mean, I think my taste evolved past Kevin Smith’s humor a while ago as well — when I saw Reboot, it was a double-feature with Strike Back (which has not aged particularly well) — but I still got something out of it and didn’t regret the experience.
Same here. I had no interest in Kevin Smith, horror director. I did enjoy Zack & Miri though (“Eh, they’re on the island, they’re off the island, who can follow that shit?” “I think they’re in Hell!”)
It fucking sucked. But the original Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back is classic. Obviously you should get baked first.“The tenor of tinseltown is one of terror today!”
I just watched the Jay and Silent Bob Reboot a couple weeks ago, aaaaand…I thought it was pretty terrible and unfunny. Tried to watch another recent Kevin Smith movie, Yoga Hosers, and couldn’t make it past the first 20 to 30 minutes or so (a real rarity for me as I’m generally a completist, I’ll plow through and finish a movie even when it’s excruciatingly bad). Yet, against my better judgment perhaps, anything “Clerks” will pull me back in. I liked Clerks II more than most it seems.
My wife reminded me last night that we tried to watch Yoga Hosers and like you gave up within a half hour. That was terrible
I saw it in theater, and no, it is not worth a watch. Imagine all the actors doing a never ending clip show, except they are all older, more bored and can’t believe they are still making this crap.
Reboot had its moments. There’s parts when you could squint and almost go “oh yeah, this is what I’d expect from Kevin Smith in the good ol’ days”.
It also had a lot of heart, kinda like Jersey Girl (which I think is underrated).
But there were some spots in the middle that dragged on and felt like humour deserts.
It’s not a must-watch classic like golden era Smith, but as a “hey it’s on Netflix and there’s a pandemic going on” junk-food watch, I found it perfectly serviceable.
I shut it off after maybe ten minutes. It’s unbearable
Rosario Dawson does not age. She’s got the Paul Rudd gene.
I was gonna say the same thing about Brian O’Halloran. #sarcasm #cheapshot
he looked old in his 20’s!
Damn now I want her and Rudd to hook up and make an ageless super baby that can rule us as our God-Emperor
I think Jaye Davidson retired.
“My subjects! I have a glorious plan for the future of the human race! Please direct your gaze to the screen above for the full details.”*screen plays wheelchair scene from ‘Mac and Me’*
I just can’t imagine wanting to watch a movie about a bunch of 50-year-old guys working retail. It sounds more depressing than Bela Tarr at his gloomiest.
I just can’t imagine wanting to watch a movie about a bunch of 50-year-old guys working retail.
Then don’t watch.
Why are all you guys such snowflakes
Why are all you guys such snowflakes
You could’ve just said nothing. You don’t have to like Kevin Smith. Don’t want to watch it? No problem, don’t watch it. But why come here & brag about how you don’t want to watch it?You’re the asshole at a concert who loudly says “This sucks” instead of just leaving. Fuck you.
You two either need to fight or fuck…maybe both
people be leaving comments in a comments section? get outta here!
Aw, someone doesn’t like something you like. It’ll be okay, baby. You’ll recover and move on from this.
you tell ‘em!
You tell ‘em, STEVE-DAVE!
IMS has a problem with anyone disagreeing with them. Kind of a fascist if you ask me.
God damn. It’s just a fucking opinion. You wretch.
Also an opinion.
Man, that dude’s in the recognitions vortex now! We might never see ‘em again!
Following a massive heart attack, Randal enlists Dante, Elias, Jay and Silent Bob to make a movie immortalizing his life at the convenience store that started it all.” It’s a very meta take on the movie, as Smith himself experienced a near-fatal heart attack in 2018. Randal? I always thought Dante was the Smith surrogate in the film. Smith said he even had plans to play Dante until he realized that would be too much work for him to direct AND star, and went with the much smaller (and much less talky) Silent Bob role.
Both Dante and Randal are Smith (at the time he wrote Clerks). The former’s his emo side, and the latter’s the confident jerk he wished he was.
Wow, it would have been hard for him to play both Dante AND Randal.
Let’s all imagine the original Clerks as a one man show starring Kevin Smith, and be thankful that never happened.
Well, Walt Flanagan played several different characters.
Been years since I’ve seen it, but didn’t even notice. Thought Mosier was weird in it though. I was like: “Why’s that weird hobo in the movie?”
He was actually going to play Randall at first, that’s why he had the best lines.
Smith had planned on playing Randall himself. In reality, when he was working at the QuikStop, Smith was Dante and his buddy Bryan Johnson was Randall.
Doing meta like that is tricky, as we learned with the ending to the Wet Hot American Summer miniseries.
Hard pass.
I loved Clerks, and Clerks 2 was okay, but at some point, it’s just time to let the past go.
Likely, the same trajectory as the Bill & Ted trilogy.I’m glad we borrowed Face the Music from the library.bummer….
I loved Clerks, and Clerks 2 was okay, but at some point, it’s just time to let the past go.
Why? This is his bread & butter. If he can get financing to make another, why shouldn’t he? If people stopped paying to see his movies, he’d stop making them.
Pretty sure no one paid to see is last movie
Geez… Why? But *I’m* the past. I was talking about myself and MY lack of interest.
Hence the part where I started out with the phrase ‘hard pass’ followed by a brief clarification of why I personally have no inclination to watch a 3rd iteration of Clerks.
At no point did I say nor even imply that Smith shouldn’t have made the film, or that ‘no one else should see it.
So you were referring to yourself in the bolded “let the past go?” Because that is not at all clear.
Dismissed.
You’re very sensitive.
Dismissed, twice.
I really hate this stupid timeline, and everything going wrong in the world right now.That Kevin Smith is still rehashing his old shit instead of coming up with something new is the least of the reasons why a muthafucka might be ‘sensitive’ right now.SMH
Like… Neither of the replies you quote are criticizing you. Just expressing a different opinion. Your reaction is very dramatic.
But *I’m* the past. Kevin Smith movies are cinematic fast food for me. I fully recognize it’s not great, but it can be good, and it’s comforting.
How about nah?
The man nearly died from a heart attack. He can put out FIFTY more films and I will probably check them out.
Clerks 2 was awesome, probably Kevin Smith’s last great movie so I’m hopeful, but…Rosario Dawson is a goddess, how and why tf would she be married to Dante??? Like, he’s not funny. And kind of a sad sack. I just don’t get it. (I’m being slightly facetious but only slightly)
You have to remember that Dante is Kevin Smith, so you have to remember that she married a man who can write prose like this “Ten years in and we bone like we’re cheating on each other WITH each other. A decade-plus and her clit/brown/taint-area still pOwns my dick.”
His wife wrote that herself.
It turns out the best way to hang on to the warm nostalgia a lot of us late-90s kids have towards Kevin Smith is to quit watching his stuff. You might have the urge to, in 2021, go back and watch Chasing Amy again. DO NOT DO THAT. However you felt about that movie 20 years ago… keep it that way.
Dante’s looking awfully Goodfellas-y in that pic, maybe he joins the mob in this one and gives Randall an offer he can’t refuse.
It just becomes a thing Jersey guys do in pictures
I hope they’re not going to go with 50+ year old adults working shit minimum wage convenience store jobs because that film sounds like it would end with a suicide pact.
They OWN the property now so they’re definitely not making minimum wage. Can’t say the same for Elias. LOL.
As co-owners of the store are they even technically clerks anymore?
All the Quik Marts in my area are owned by Patels, the Smiths of India.
Let’s see. I fucked up He-Man. How can I fuck up Clerks?
Between this and Mallrats 2, the studios finally realized what I’d been expecting for a few years.If you’re gonna spend a few million to crank out ersatz sequels to things like Cop and a Half, Bulletproof and Benchwarmers, why not give people like Smith that same money to make ACTUAL sequels?Now we wait for the Netflixes to realize that there’s a bunch of filmmakers like Smith who will gladly make things for them at a fraction of the price of what they’re spending on some of these movies, and still bring that name recognition that will get people watching.
If you’re gonna spend a few million to crank out ersatz sequels to things like Cop and a Half, Bulletproof and Benchwarmers, why not give people like Smith that same money to make ACTUAL sequels?
Exactly. How many millions are being wasted on a movie like Top Gun 2? Who was even asking for Top Gun 2? Why not take that budget & split it up between 5-6 ‘lesser’ filmmakers who have fan-beloved movies? Sure, they won’t be giant blockbusters, but you’re selling to an already dedicated fan base who are almost guaranteed to show up. Give us another Dredd movie. Give us Spaceballs 3: The Search for Spaceballs 2. History of the World Part II. Instead of taking all the risk on one giant movie that costs hundreds of millions + almost that much again in marketing, they can make an all-but-guaranteed profit on several ‘smaller’ movies, with only the barest of marketing effort & cost. Is the goal to make giant blockbusters, or to make money? ‘Cause I thought the goal was to make money.
Smith is the perfect example of this. The only thing he has to do to ‘advertise’ is announce his next project on Twitter.
Brian O’Halloran is slowly turning into Tom Savini