Did You Know?
Originally Matt Damon was supposed to play the role of Lance Dowds. However, Damon was also filming The Good Shepherd at the same time and couldn't make it. So Jason Lee took over the role during a day off from his show My Name Is Earl.
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Had Rosario Dawson turned down the role of Becky, Kevin Smith's wife, Jennifer Schwalbach Smith would've played the part.
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Kevin Smith, being a big fan of Arrested Development, wanted David Cross to play the role of the Hobbit Lover. Cross showed interest, but had to decline due to scheduling conflicts. Based on a suggestion from producer Scott Mosier's wife, Smith and Mosier offered Kevin Weisman the role and he accepted.
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Alec Baldwin, who voiced the character of Leonardo Leonardo in the Clerks animated series, was approached to make a cameo as Randal's father in the film's beginning.
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Dante paints Becky's toe nails. In Clerks. Dante paint the finger nails of his then-girlfriend Veronica.
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There are 16 uses of the term "ass to mouth". The first 14 alone are in the sequence that begins with Randal saying the 17-year-old girls like the practice.
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Kevin Smith auctioned off a walk on role on the film for funds to go to the Red Cross for aid to Hurricane Katrina victims. The final bid was $16,000 which Smith matched to give to the Red Cross.
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Although most Kevin Smith films have been interlocked with recurring characters, locations and themes, as well as many references to each other, this is the first real "sequel" made to any of the films.
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One of the things that most prompted Kevin Smith to make the film was a promise he made to friend Jason Mewes. If Mewes managed to stay off drugs he would be able to play the character of "Jay" one more time. Smith kept his promise.
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Screened out of competition at the 2006 Cannes Film Festival and received an eight-minute standing ovation from the midnight crowd.
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Kevin Smith's daughter Harley Quinn Smith is the little girl that Dante waves to in the window of the restaurant.
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The song "1979" by Smashing Pumpkins is featured in the movie. The music video for "1979" was filmed in the same convenience store used in Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back.
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The character of Lance Dowds was based on a character named Hal that Kevin Smith created for a sitcom pilot titled "Hating Hal".
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When Dante picks up Randal in the beginning of the film, the house Randal comes out of was Kevin Smith's childhood home on 21 Jackson St.
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During the planning on the original incarnation of this movie back in 1999, was to feature a love stricken Randal, who instead of Dante, was going to be learning to dance/falling in love atop a roof at the Seaside Heights boardwalk, with all those dancers treading the boards below. The dance partner/love interest Kevin Smith had in mind for him was Alanis Morissette as the original Becky.
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This is the sixth film in Kevin Smith's intricately interconnected View Askewniverse series (the others being Clerks., Mallrats, Chasing Amy, Dogma and Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back). The movies are all linked by characters, themes and events and each contains numerous references to the others.
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Prior to the release of the film, Kevin Smith had mentioned releasing an MP3 file commentary to be downloaded and listened to in movie theaters via iPod. Ultimately, theater owners and exhibitors objected, and the plan was scrapped. The commentary - which also features producer Scott Mosier and actor Jeff Anderson - was released on the DVD, unchanged, and containing references to the listener being in a theater, including the best time to take a bathroom break.
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Various elements from this movie came from a script Kevin Smith wrote in 1994 which was never produced, called "Busing" for Hollywood Pictures. It was described as "Clerks in a restaurant" and was very similar to Clerks. and Mallrats.
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Clerks. and Clerks II both end with songs by Soul Asylum. "Can't Even Tell" in Clerks and "Misery" in Clerks II.
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The letters in the Clerks II logo all come from various fast food logos/products. The C from Carl Jr.'s, L from McDonald's Large fries, E from Burger King's Whopper, R from Burger King, K from KFC, and S from Popeye's.
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Shannon Larratt and Rachel Larratt (owners of bmezine.com) make a cameo appearance as "Ear Guy" and "Counter Girl with Ear Guy" at the counter as customers.
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In the original Clerks., no cigarette brands are ever named, although many packs are sold throughout the film. At the end of this movie, the Quick Stop only carries "Nails" cigarettes, a fictional brand shown in some of Kevin Smith's previous movies.
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The idea to have Jason Mewes do his The Silence of the Lambs dance to "Goodbye Horses" came straight from Mewes who apparently does this on a regular basis to the director.
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The character "Elias" in the film is a reference to Kevin Smith's favorite hockey player Patrick Elias, who played for the New Jersey Devils.
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During the first day of shooting, Jeff Anderson (Randal) was supposed to deliver a line about the office smelling like nail polish, but accidentally said "What smells like shoe polish?"
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Several actresses were considered for the role of Becky. Among them were Sarah Silverman (who didn't want to play a love interest, but noting that she would have played Randal in a heartbeat), Rachel Weisz (who the filmmakers considered too difficult to get hold of), Bryce Dallas Howard (who was already, albeit secretly, attached to Lady in the Water), Liv Tyler (who did not feel comfortable saying much of the dialog), and Ellen Pompeo (who could not do the movie because of her commitment to Grey's Anatomy). Rosario Dawson, considered a long shot, finally agreed to do the movie, mainly to see the filming of the donkey show.
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Randal's rant against the "Lord of the Rings" trilogy was taken almost verbatim from Kevin Smith's diatribe against the movies in the London section of his An Evening with Kevin Smith 2: Evening Harder. Many of Randal's lines are taken directly from what Smith said in the Q&A (including the line "and just before the credits roll, Sam bricks in Frodo's mouth").
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The playground in front of Mooby's is in the shape of a penis and testicles. It is visible during the scene where Emma gives Becky the invitation to the wedding and when Randal is telling Dante to go and find Becky after the ordeal between the two of them.
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Art Imitates Life - In his book "Silent Bob Speaks," Kevin Smith mentions that his wife Jennifer Schwalbach Smith hates New Jersey with a vengeance. In the movie, Dante's fiancé Emma (played by Jennifer Schwalbach Smith) has nothing nice to say about NJ and cannot wait to leave the state. She even goes so far as to make a cake that says "Florida Forever, NJ Never" written on it, with the circled and crossed out "NJ" abbreviation.
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The film opens and closes in black and white, an homage to the original Clerks. in which the entire film was shot in black and white.
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Kevin Smith has repeatedly stated himself as a "closet black metal fan". Hence, the song that plays when Jay and Silent Bob first appear is Kim B. Petersen's (King Diamond) "Welcome Home". Another one of his songs, "The Invisible Guests", as well as "Welcome Home", is sung partially by Randal and Jay. It was also the first time he ever authorized a movie to use his music.
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In both Mallrats and Dogma, Ben Affleck's characters complain about being gawked at. In this film, Affleck's character is credited as "Gawking Guy".
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The Go-Kart track used in the film was the SpeedZone raceway, located in Industry, California. The California desert terrain can be noticeably seen in the background
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The address on the wedding invitation is actually the physical address of the company that runs the "Jay and Silent Bob" website in Clermont, FL.
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The Quik Stop is an actual functioning convenience store and was burned down with special effects only. The shop remains in Leonardo, NJ. It is only 4 miles from the Atlantic Ocean off of Rt 36.
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The hair on the back of Randal's head wasn't Jeff Anderson's real hair. It was fake hair that was glued to his hat.
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Much like the character Caitlin Bree in the original Clerks. was named after a character on Degrassi High, in this film, Dante's fiance Emma is named after a character from Degrassi: The Next Generation.
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Kevin Smith's original idea for the film had Randal and Dante working at New Jersey's famous Seaside Heights Boardwalk. Smith changed it to a fast food restaurant when filming at the boardwalk proved to be too expensive.
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Ben Affleck's character was originally supposed to just roll his eyes and walk away when Dante and Emma started making out on the counter. The character's one line, "That's not very sanitary," was ad-libbed by Affleck.
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The police officer who responds to the alleged fire at the Mooby's and takes offense to Randal's "Porch Monkey" jacket is played by Kevin Michael Richardson. Richardson was a frequent voice actor on Clerks
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Director Trademark
Kevin Smith:
[37]
The movie lasts one hour and thirty-seven minutes, and there is a firetruck seen with the number 37 written on it.
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Kevin Smith:
[star wars]
Randall champions the cause of the "Star Wars" films against two "Lord of the Rings" fans.
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Kevin Smith:
[hockey]
A hockey goal and KOHO goalie stick can be seen when Randall leaves the house when Dante picks him up. Also, Randall wears a New Jersey Devils hat throughout the film.
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Kevin Smith:
[comic book]
Emma's line to Dante, "Face it tiger. You just hit the jackpot", is a Spider-Man reference. This is the first line spoken by Mary Jane in #42 (November 1966) of the original comic book. This line was also re-used when Mary Jane was introduced in the popular Spider-Man cartoon show. One of the movie's many taglines ('With no power comes no responsibility'), is a play on Spider-Man's mantra 'with great power comes great responsibility'.
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Spoilers
Joel Siegel, film critic for Good Morning America, walked out 40 minutes into a screening of the film. In his own words: "First movie I've walked out of in thirty fucking years!". The straw that broke the camel's back was the scene where two of the characters discuss hiring a woman to perform sex acts with a donkey.
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The last shot in the movie was the last shot of filming and had been planned even before Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back. Grace Smith just happened to be in town when it was shot so she had a cameo of her role of the Milk Maid.
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The last line of the movie "Today is the first day of the rest of our lives." is a paraphrase from the famous Abbie Hoffman quote: "Today is the first day of the rest of your life - make the most of it."
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Before Kevin Smith started writing the script, the only things he knew he wanted in the movie were a scene at the beginning where the Quick Stop burnt down, the use of the Talking Heads song "(Nothing But) Flowers" during the opening credits sequence, the fact that by the end of the film, Dante and Randal would wind up owning the Quick Stop and that the song "Misery" by Soul Asylum would play over the closing credits.
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