New Jersey films

The New Jersey films are five motion pictures, written and directed by Kevin Smith with his "View Askew" production company, and partially or completely set in New Jersey. They were originally known as the "Jersey Trilogy", a nickname used even as the fourth film in the so-called trilogy came out.

• Clerks
• Mallrats
• Chasing Amy
• Dogma
• Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back

The films are characterized by crude, politically incorrect sexual humor; a character in Clerks, for example, inadvertently has sex with a corpse.

There is limited continuity among the films. Clerks and Mallrats occur within a day or so of each other, though with unrelated stories. Chasing Amy takes place several years later. All three movies refer to certain unfortunate anecdotes. Dogma happens shortly after Chasing Amy, with a comic book series following Jay and Silent Bob's trek from New Jersey to Illinois connecting the two. The collective world of the New Jersey films is sometimes referred to as the "Askewniverse."

Common characters and actors

The films share actors and characters:

• Jay and Silent Bob are in all of the films. Jay is played by Jason Mewes, who talks incessantly; Silent Bob is played by Kevin Smith, who usually has barely enough lines to qualify as a speaking part.
• Brian O'Halloran and Jeff Anderson, who played Dante and Randal (resp.) in Clerks, have bit parts in many of the movies in addition to their cameos in Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back
• Jason Lee and Ben Affleck appear in several films as various characters.
• Joey Lauren Adams had a minor part in Mallrats and starred in Chasing Amy.
• Dwight Ewell played an important role in Chasing Amy and a minor one in Dogma.
• Matt Damon had a minor part in Chasing Amy, starred in Dogma and appeared as himself in Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back.
• Most repeat performers had at least a cameo in Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back, often making ironic observations about the films.

Sixth film planned

Though he originally stated that there would not be a sixth film in the series, Smith has announced that a sequel to Clerks will be filmed and released in 2005. The tentative title is Clerks 2: The Passion of the Clerks; it will be set ten years after the story of the first film.

See also

• List of movies set in New Jersey
• Jay and Silent Bob
• Jersey Girl