[Animal Boything]

The real genius of Clerks was its satirical message about all the unsung customer service workers that are taken for granted every day. Everybody I know who's actually worked as a clerk loves that movie because it dares to speak the truth. (it can be argued that it spawned a generation of imitators from "Office Space" down to "Waiting.) I think Kevin Smith has tried similar things in a lot of his other movies without really succeeding, because the poop jokes always took center stage, and the question here is: can he do it again? Can he make another movie that has actual significance hiding under its crude humor? From what little I know, it looks like this sequel deals with faceless corporate chain stores, wheras the previous one was about "shitty" mom-and-pop shops. That gives me hope because there is fertile ground for satire there without retreading what came before. Whether he can still find the right angle to make it work remains to be seen, but I'll definitely check it out.