Posted by Shandril at 216.145.218.5 on August 27, 2001 at 12:32:05:
Yes, you read that right. Before this weekend I had only seen Dogma and brief snippets of Clerks. Since I've been wanting to see Chasing Amy for years but my mind always blanks when I'm at the video store, and because I've heard many good things about the rest of the movies, I decided to try to watch all of them before seeing this one. (Admittedly, a third reason was that I had heard I would enjoy it more if I've watched the other films). Three video stores later I settled in to watch them, in order, from Clerks through Dogma.
As I watched [the ones I rented] I saw references to the previous film(s), which greatly enhanced my enjoyment - although I do think each movie could stand on its own (For instance - I wasn't "required" to see Clerks to enjoy Mallrats, but the embolism in a pool story suddenly went from semi-sad to amusing when I realized where I had heard it before).
Thus after a long weekend of amusement I went to see Jay & Silent Bob Strike Back - and loved it! Everywhere I looked I saw references to the previous 4 movies, and yet the plot did not entirely depend on knowing them by heart. I know this because we went with our next door neighbors, who have not seen any Kevin Smith films and just wanted to see it because the trailer looked funny. (Great marketing job in the Midwest, by the way.) Our neighbors enjoyed J&SB as well. They -did- ask me a couple times what they missed, when half of the audience was laughing at a more obscure reference. And once we got back home they asked to borrow all of the other movies. =)
As for myself, next paycheck I am going to go purchase those movies I had to rent - I'm sure there are plenty of things I missed in the first viewing. I'll just have to endure the long wait to own this one.
Thanks Kevin!
Shandril