Jersey Girl

Well I’ve been a fairly big fan of Kevin Smith movies for a long time now – but having just watched Jersey Girl, I can tell you that if you go into this expecting a typical Kevin Smith slapstick and fart jokes comedy, then you’ll be disappointed.

What you will see is a fairly sickly sweet sort of romantic family movie, with a small smattering of laughs even from such comedy stalwarts as George Carlin, Jason Biggs and that weird guy who was fired but forgotten about in Office Space, who’s name I can’t remember.

Featuring cameos from all the usual Kevin Smith suspects such as Jason Lee and Matt Damon, as well as a surprise visit from Will Smith, I was sadly disappointed by the lack of laughs. The drama was slightly better, although with such stars as Ben Affleck, Liv Tyler and Jennifer Lopez, it still felt a bit disappointing and contrived at times.

With all these big names, the movie was redeemed by a great performance from young Racquel Castro as the main character’s daughter, who added a lot of life to an otherwise dreary film.

I’d heard other reviews that said something akin to this, but thought “no, it’s a Kevin Smith movie – sometimes people just don’t get his films. But it was still a fun watch, just fairly mediocre on all fronts, even compared to something like Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back – which although crass and sometimes distasteful, was at least riotously funny in places.

Jersey Girl gets 2.5 out of 5 stars from me – if you want to watch a romantic, moving Kevin Smith film – do yourself a favour and watch Chasing Amy, like I’m about to do right now.