9. Clerks II (2006)
Appearing a full 12 years after the original Clerks, Smith's first film, Clerks II is an intriguing oddity. It received fairly good reviews upon it's 2006 release, even making a few critics' Top Ten lists for the year, and it performed reasonably well at the box office, especially considering it was a sequel to a micro-budgeted cult film from over a decade previous. Reappraising the film, however, reveals a comedy that all too often falls flat and relies far too much on audience affection for the first film. The most glaring failure of the film is that it exposed the weaknesses of the two leads, Brian O'Halloran's Dante and Jeff Anderson's Randal. Both stars CV's extend very little beyond Kevin Smith projects, and even though O'Halloran is mostly a stage actor these days, it is hard to shake the feeling that while they were perfectly suited for a low budget independent movie, when they were thrust into the centre of Clerks II alongside an experienced actress like Rosario Dawson, they struggled to match her performance. Most of the fun of Clerks II comes from seeing Jay and Silent Bob again, as well as other cameos from Smith regulars like Ben Affleck and Jason Lee. However, it was definitely a step backwards in Smith's growth as a filmmaker and doesn't bear up to many repeat viewings.