Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back

Kevin Smith takes the title and logo of his film straight from The Empire Strikes Back, then carries the joke into the casting; Mark Hamill plays himself and a costumed villain and voices Scooby-Doo, while Carrie Fisher turns up as a nun. Doubling is almost a rule here. Ben Affleck appears as himself, as Holden McNeil from Chasing Amy and as Chuckie Sullivan from Good Will Hunting, and Matt Damon plays both himself and Will Hunting. Three weeks before release, GLAAD objected to the film’s jokes made at the expense of gay men. Its media director, Scott Seomin, asked Smith for a 10,000 dollar donation to the Matthew Shepard Foundation and for a reference to the group’s cause and its phone number in the end credits; Smith agreed to both. It opened in third place with 11 million dollars, behind American Pie 2 and Rush Hour 2, and finished on 33.8 million dollars worldwide against a budget of 22 million. A good fit if you do not mind gags that lean on Smith’s earlier films and the Hollywood gossip of that moment, which is to say homework. Not for viewers bothered by a steady run of jokes at the expense of gay men; that objection was raised at release and the director met it by paying up.