Having created his own lovable suburban slacker universe in the "New Jersey trilogy" of Clerks, Mallrats and Chasing Amy, writer/director Kevin Smith seemed to have got it out of his system. But the cameo presence of his two recurring characters - dope-smoking, jive-talking Jay (Jason Mewes) and Silent Bob (Smith himself) - in religious road movie Dogma hinted otherwise. And now they have their own vehicle: an indulgent, dim-witted odyssey from Jersey to Hollywood where the two scatological scuzzballs plan to sabotage a movie based on comic-book alter egos Bluntman and Chronic. Unfortunately for an audience unfamiliar with Smith's oeuvre, the in-jokes come so fast that a detailed knowledge is required. Otherwise, it's a fair-to-middling gross-out comedy elevated to high-satire status by Ben Affleck, Matt Damon, Mark Hamill and many others sending themselves up relentlessly.

When Jay and Silent Bob learn that their comic-book alter egos, Bluntman and Chronic, have been sold to Hollywood as part of a big-screen movie that leaves them out of any royalties, the pair travels to Tinseltown to sabotage the production.