If there was ever one movie to champion the cause of the slacker service-industry employee, it was Kevin Smith’s “Clerks.”

A classic little black-and-white gem, Smith’s 1994 film still resonates today as a crowning achievement of independent film, an anthem for Generation X, and marked the start of one Hollywood’s most original talents. The question inevitably rises, for Buddy Christ’s sake, why a sequel?

“Clerks II” opens Aug. 18 to the simultaneous delight and dismay of fans. The story checks in on Dante and Randall 10 years later.

The Quick Stop has burned to the ground and the two are forced to take jobs at Mooby’s Restaurant — a franchise well known by Smith fans.

While the trailers contain Smith’s trademark pop culture wit, sorely missed in his last big screen flop “Jersey Girl,” one has to wonder how the Generation X cynicism of Dante and Randall will fair with the iPod generation.

This skepticism is comically shared by Smith himself. He has been releasing chapters, via the Internet, of his making-of video journal disparagingly titled “Train Wreck.”

Still, Smith seems enthusiastic reuniting View Askew vets Ben Affleck; Jason Lee, who is disappointingly not playing the familiar characters Brodie or Banky; Jason Mewes and Ethan Suplee, who hopefully saw that sailboat by now.

For better or worse, it’s time to revisit Jersey and weave another chapter into the View Askew universe as only Kevin Smith knows how to do. After all, Randall has three new “Star Wars” movies to discuss.

> Comments