So it's farewell then, to Kevin Smith's most enduring creations, Jay and Silent Bob. After making cameo appearances in all of his previous films, they take the starring role in this, Smith's fifth film.

While Dogma was a perhaps too ambitious attempt to mix serious comment with Smith's normal quota of dick and fart jokes, Jay & Silent Bob Strike Back is a retreat to pure slapstick. Whether you'll enjoy this film wholly depends on whether you're a fan of Smith's films in general.

The basic plot is, for all intents and purposes, a road movie. The titular stoners discover that a film has been made based on the comic Bluntman & Chronic. If you've seen Chasing Amy you'll know that the characters in the comic are based on Jay & Silent Bob, and when our two heroes discover hoards of fanboys calling them names on the internet, they set off from New Jersey to Hollywood to sabotage the film. On the way they run into a gang of leather clad female jewel thieves, an orang-utan and unwittingly manage to pass themselves off as major international terrorists.

If you are a fan, you'll be like a pig in the proverbial for 104 minutes. Characters from Clerks, Mallrats, and Chasing Amy all show up, with Ben Affleck, Jason Lee (playing two characters), and Joey Lauren Adams all reprising their former roles. In fact, this is possibly one of the most self-referential films ever made - for example two characters walk out of the Bluntman & Chronic film commenting "well, that sucked", "yeah, but it was better than Mallrats". This all adds to the film - the cast and crew obviously had an absolute ball making this, and this transfers well to the viewer.

Even if you're not a fan of Smith's work, there's plenty of fun to be had playing spot the star cameo. Carrie Fisher, James Van Der Beek, Jason Biggs, Buffy alumni Eliza Dusku and Marc Lucas, Shannon Doherty, Wes Craven, Gus Van Sant, Matt Damon, and Mark Hamill (preceded by a rather hilarious "Hey kids, it's Mark Hamill" sign) all make fleeting appearences and send themselves up gloriously ("you mean you actually watch that show?" says Van Der Beek disbelievingly when Jay refers to him as "that Dawson kid"). Top marks go to Ben Affleck though, playing up to his image by having security remove dead hookers from his trailers.

Of course the level of humour is pretty low, and if scatological humour leaves you cold, then don't go and see this. The acting can also be self-consciously hammy, with plenty of furious mugging at the camera. It's a shame, because Chasing Amy proved that Smith can coax absolutely beautiful performances out of his actors when he's laying off the toilet humour.

Finally, a quick word about the ridiculous charges of homophobia levelled against Smith when this film was released in America. Any homophobic comments here come from Jay, who is quite obviously latently batting for the other side - a fact highlighted in all of Smith's previous films. Also, the fact that the character is patently such an idiot would surely stop anyone taking him seriously.

Now that Smith has finally put Jay & Silent Bob to rest, it'll be very interesting to see where he goes next. The word on the grapevine is that his next film Jersey Girl is a move towards the more emotionally involving writing he did so well in Chasing Amy. Hopefully this is true, because Smith's fans know he can do so much more than dick and fart jokes. It's up to him to prove it now.

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