Jay And Silent Bob Strike Back | 2001
- Locations |
- Los Angeles, California;
- New Jersey
- DIRECTOR |
- Kevin Smith
- CAST |
- Kevin Smith,
- Jason Mewes,
- Brian O’Halloran,
- Jeff Anderson,
- Ben Affleck,
- Shannon Elizabeth,
- Eliza Dushku,
- Ali Larter,
- Will Ferrell,
- Jason Lee,
- Judd Nelson,
- George Carlin,
- Carrie Fisher,
- Seann William Scott,
- Jon Stewart,
- Tracy Morgan,
- Gus Van Sant,
- Chris Rock,
- Jamie Kennedy,
- Wes Craven,
- Shannen Doherty,
- Mark Hamill,
- Matt Damon,
- Alanis Morissette
Now, is this the indie movie version of Tom Stoppard’s Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead? Perhaps, as two vital but minor characters from the Viewaskewniverse move centre screen to protect the heritage of Bluntman and Chronic from being exploited by Hollywood.
Or is it, at $20 million, the most expensive in-joke ever.
The film opens, inevitably, at Quick Stop Groceries, 58 Leonard Avenue, Leonardo, in New Jersey, where Kevin Smith’s directing career began with Clerks.
‘Brodie’s Secret Stash’ is, of course, Jay and Silent Bob’s Secret Stash, Smith’s own (geek-free) comic store at 35 Broad Street, Red Bank in New Jersey.
But the rest of the movie is California, largely around and just north of Los Angeles.
The ‘Provasik’ testing lab, where Jay (Jason Mewes) and Silent Bob (Kevin Smith) believe they're on a mission to rescue lab animals, is a property management company at 27220 Turnberry Lane, in a commercial estate west of Valencia, just north of Santa Clarita.
The ‘Arena Diner’, where the pair are surrounded by Marshall Willenholly (Will Ferrell) and the Sheriff (Judd Nelson), was built at that old screen favourite, Vasquez Rocks Natural Area Park, 10700 West Escondido Canyon Road, near Agua Dulce Springs, north of LA. The violently upended rocks have been featured in countless productions, including Alpha Dog, Apache, Army Of Darkness, Bill And Ted's Bogus Journey and Austin Powers: International Man Of Mystery), The Flintstones, pop videos, photoshoots, episodes of the Star Trek TV series and – more recently – in JJ Abrams’ 2009 big-screen revamp of Star Trek.
The Planet Of The Apes homage was filmed on Westward Beach, ‘almost’ the same beach in Malibu as the original.
The dam, in The Fugitive pastiche, is largely computer generated, but its top is Pyramid Dam at the artificial reservoir Pyramid Lake on Piru Creek, I-5 in Los Padres National Forest, again north of LA.
Sorry to ruin the illusion, but when J & SB arrive in Hollywood, there really is no ‘Miramax’ studio gate. Miramax is a production company but doesn’t have its own studio.
The gate is that of the CBS Radford Studio, 4024 Radford Avenue, Studio City in the San Fernando Valley, which was conveniently where most of the movie was shot.
The premiere of Bluntman and Chronic is at the El Rey, 5515 Wilshire Boulevard, Midtown Los Angeles. It’s real enough but, since 1994, it’s not been a cinema but a live music venue.
