Clerks III - A Friday Feature On A Thursday - by Dave Christy

How about a "Bonus Friday Feature" on a Thursday?
 
Today Dave has a spoiler free look at the new
​ Clerks III movie.

​As always we would love to hear what YOU think!

Dave - Dave Christy loves horror, music, documentaries and more.  He is also the co-runner of several fan based groups including Morningstars (THE Lucifer fan group also run by Melanie), and now is a member of the VIPers Spotlight Lounge team for Melanie's Muses.  Other than "In The Spotlight" Features -check out his "31 Days Of Halloween Movies"

A Friday Feature on a Thursday? I'm not even supposed to be here today!

28 years ago, young filmmaker Kevin Smith set his career in motion with the low budget cult classic "Clerks". Who would have thought that those characters would grace the screen again? Especially when you consider the original ending that Kevin cut. If you saw the original and the 2006 sequel, you know what to expect from this outing. Or at least you may think you do. The movie you make when you and your characters are in their 20's and the movie you make when everyone is around 50 years is quite different. Or least it should be.

"Clerks III" is a Fathom Events limited screening experience like no other. First off, it doesn't have 25 minutes of trailers before the movie starts. And that's definitely a good thing. I don't mind a couple trailers showing me what's new and coming out but I don't need 25 minutes of them. Here, we didn't have any but we did have a brief intro from Kevin Smith himself talking about how the film came to be. Turns out, his previous movie, "Jay and Silent Bob Reboot" sold enough DVDs and Blu Rays, that the fine people at Lionsgate told him that if any more cheap movies like this to bring it to them and they'd do it. Lucky for us, he did and thus the seed for "Clerks III" started to get watered.

From the opening recognizable piano keys, I knew I'd be in for something special. I just didn't know how special yet. The song playing over the title and opening scene was "Welcome to the Black Parade" by My Chemical Romance, natives of New Jersey, just like Kevin. Dante and Randal are closing the store to play hockey on the roof. This is just the first of many callbacks to the original. In some ways, you could call it a reboot like "Jay and Silent Bob Reboot" since it focuses on events in "Clerks" and "Clerks 2" referencing and outright copying the lines and scenes. Smith takes from his own life for inspiration. From the trailer you learn that Randal having a heart attack leads to crisis in his life and wanting to leave his mark. Of course, that's not how it happened for Smith. His heart attack came much later. But with the new scenes accompanying the callbacks, now we have recreations of classic "Clerks" scenes as we see Randal making his movie about working in Quick Stop and RST Video. But as I said, a 52 year old isn't going to make the same movie as a 22 year old. This movie took me to places I didn't expect. The level of dramatic performance was something I never thought I'd see in a Jay and Silent Bob movie. One could argue that the fight scene and ensuing conversation turned to the dramatic in "Clerks" but that's nothing compared to where this flick goes.

All your favorite "Clerks" characters make a return to the screen and one role is taken over by Kevin's daughter, Harley Quinn Smith. Closing out the trilogy as the credits go by, the house lights didn't come back on yet. This isn't a Marvel movie. Is there an end credits scene? No, but there a little more to come. Kevin was talking a little over the credits, thanking us for coming out to see his cheap movie instead of a massive budget action movie and then a surprise comes on. A 20 minute behind the scenes featurette with interviews with the cast. I'm sure it will find its way to the Blu Ray and streaming services but its nice it to see it in the theater. That never happens. It was a nice way to close out a unique movie experience.

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