Jay and Silent Bob may be two of the most popular slackers ever to appear on the silver screen, but is that enough to fill a nearly two-hour film?

Well, if you answered yes to this question, then Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back is just for you! If you answered no, then you should still see Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back for pure laughs, but don't expect the same caliber of filmmaking as Kevin Smith has done in the past.

Smith continues in the tradition of his past films by bringing back the aforementioned Jay (Jason Mewes) and Silent Bob (Smith) along with an array of other characters who any Smith fan will welcome again.

However, this outing is different from past ones in that this plot revolves nearly exclusively on the exploits of Jay and Silent Bob, and sometimes this just doesn't cut it. Sure, there are plenty of well-earned laughs as they travel across the country and skewer Hollywood clichés, and lots of fun celebrity cameos, but as a whole the film seems to be lacking the interesting plots and characters of past Smith films.

Fans will recognize Smith alums Jason Lee, Ben Affleck, Matt Damon, Joey Lauren Adams, Jeff Anderson and Brian O'Halloran revisiting their old characters, along with Shannen Doherty, George Carlin and Chris Rock. Unfortunately none of them seems to stay on camera long enough to do more than reference old roles or make a few great one liners. New additions include Carrie Fisher, Mark Hamill, Shannon Elizabeth, Eliza Dushku, Tracy Morgan, Will Ferrell, Judd Nelson, Jamie Kennedy and many others.

The story this time around is as follows: Jay and Silent Bob find out about a movie being made based on their comic book counterparts, Bluntman and Chronic. They decide to leave their Jersey town and venture to Hollywood to prevent this movie from being made.

As they hitchhike their way there, they get distracted by Justice (Elizabeth) and her friends, who ask the slackers to help free animals from a testing lab. However, things don't go quite as the boys planned, which gets them on the national news for being leaders of a radical cult and brings an orangutan on as their newest pal. Next, hilarious federal wildlife marshal Wilenholly (Ferrell) becomes involved as he tries to take on the case, which eventually leads to a showdown on a Hollywood soundstage that includes an oversized hand attached to a character known as the Cock-Knocker.

Yes, it is quite a frenzied road trip! Perhaps it is just too much action in too little time that prevents the audience from being able to sit back and enjoy the ride.

Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back does have its moments. Some of the funniest came from celebrities mocking themselves, including Affleck and Damon comparing some of their least favorite parts of their film repertoires while on the set of a sequel to Good Will Hunting.

Gus Van Sant and Wes Craven mock modern Hollywood directors, and Smith blatantly mocks himself, the whole film and anyone who would go to see it.

Some of the best cameos also include those by Jason Biggs, James Van Der Beek, Seann William Scott, Jon Stewart and Diedrich Bader, known for the Drew Carey Show, as a Miramax Studios security guard.

While the movie truly does get the laughs, viewers are left thinking that all scenes and dialogue were just sort of hastily thrown together to produce a montage of past movie references, from such films as E.T., Planet of the Apes, The Fugitive and of course all past Kevin Smith films. Unfortunately there is nothing cohesive enough to pull the whole film together. Also, the ending seems tacked on, as if Smith ran out of money and decided to throw a party with what they had left of the supposed $20 million budget.

This leads to another concern. Perhaps Smith relied too much on this budget for the flashy visual aspects and fun cameos and didn't pay quite as much attention to the plot or dialogue as in the past.

Clerks, which was made with a fraction of the money, managed to entertain audiences with fun performances and great dialogue, while Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back relies more on how many pop references can be fit into two hours utilizing $20 million. Maybe Smith needs to review the fundamental aspects of how a good movie is made. This isn't to say that the movie is not worth seeing; it most definitely is. It just doesn't compare to Smith's past films. It relies too much on slapstick and stupidity and less on intelligent humor and fun characters.

However, if you find this sort of thing amusing and don't mind a lack of plot, or if you're a huge Smith fan, then you will love this film.