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Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back: (James L. Venable) This asinine production,
advertised as the final film of director Kevin Smith's acclaimed New Jersey chronicles (a series
of cult driven urban flicks which included
Clerks,
Mall Rats, and
Chasing
Amy), is a spin-off of some of the concepts in that series, with the popular characters of
Jay and Silent Bob deciding to get even with the world. Upon learning that a "Bluntman and
Chronic" film is going to be made about them (but without providing them with any royalties),
they set out on a journey across the country to Hollywood, where they are determined to destroy
the film. The clumsy and often drugged pair live out all their fantasies along their way,
including appearances by God,
Star Wars idols, famous Hollywood stars, and countless
beautiful women who all look like casting rejects from
Charlie's Angels. Then, of course,
there's the orangutan, but we won't go into that. Having already collaborated with Smith, the
relatively unknown composer James L. Venable, who had spent most of his career writing for
television, was called upon to write a farce. While even
Clerks had a
Venable score previously, nothing had warranted the recording of music of this magnitude in the
series until this point. The fantasy nature of the film opened many musical doors for Venable,
who did a decent job of exploring each of them just enough to qualify the score as a farce. He
would make something of a career out of such music, causing film music collectors to release a
collective groan when seeing his name attached to a project. The music for
Jay and Silent Bob
Strike Back, though, stops a few steps short of being the kind of full-blown parody effort
that could elevate compete at a level like John Powell's just previous
Evolution. Perhaps
the best example of a top notch, silly parody score of that era was
Muppets from Space by
Jamshied Sharifi, who incorporated a perfect blend of snazzy lounge pieces with overwhelming
orchestral sequences of harmonic bliss. Venable's score concentrates on the urban acoustics that
you would expect for the title characters, with lengthy sequences of the score devoted to hip
performances of rock band elements and their associated sounds from the 1970's and 1980's.
It is often said that the key to a successful parody score is to treat the film
as if it were completely serious. Venable doesn't accomplish that style, instead allowing the
tone of the score to degenerate more often than not into the realms of sleazy or outwardly
comedic. Electric organs, keyboards, and countless looped rhythms punctuate several scenes of the
more sensuous kind, with the girl fight at the end tearing into a full electronica statement of
synthetic ruckus. Since the film also inspired a explicit-lyric song album release, the mass of
movie-goers who actually went to see this film in the theatres are probably going to be more
interested that song compilation, coupled with the pop rhythms on the score album. Left out of
the mix during much of the score product is Venable's orchestral material. Generally speaking,
the orchestral portion of
Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back is leagues behind Sharifi's
Muppets from Space, and levels out at about the lower end of John Debney's auto-pilot
parody work. It may have been a worthy accomplishment in Venerable's resume at the time, but
similar music has existed in better form for countless other productions. As far as statements of
popular themes are concerned, Venable does snag a few measures from
Star Wars action cues
in "Bluntman vs. Cocknocker," but other than that, he doesn't quote enough thematic material
from pop culture to make this score stand out. The orchestral title theme is an abbreviated cross
between the themes of Jerry Goldsmith's
The Shadow and Hans Zimmer's
The
Peacemaker, but it never fully expands into a lengthy enough orchestral performance to be
satisfying. Unlike David Newman's
Bill and Ted parody music, Venable's chorus never really
takes flight either, employed in only slight, fifteen-second bursts of angelic sound. The only
reflective and substantial orchestral cue on the entire album is "Are You Guys Alright?,"
providing a surprisingly enjoyable keyboard performance for the characters' more sensitive side.
In the end, though, there simply isn't enough notable stand-alone music from
Jay and Silent
Bob Strike Back to make many people excited about this out-of-print album (which,
incidentally, had a not-so-funny release date). Unless you really need a token souvenir from the
Kevin Smith films in orchestral form, you're far more likely to be interested in the song album
representing this production.
**
The insert includes a list of performers, but no extra information
about the score or film.
