riter-director Kevin Smith became something of an indie film cult hero in '94, when his audaciously grungy debut "Clerks" blew into stuffy movie theatres. It's been 12 years since we left the cash-register commandos at the New Jersey Quick Stop and next-door video store.

With “Clerks II,” Smith brings back the counter clerks of his debut. Brian O’Halloran and Jeff Anderson reprise their roles as Dante Hicks and Randal Graves, respectively, who are now in their mid-’30s and still working in low-level service jobs.

All characters and actors are indeed back, but in full-colour this time. Promising “The new and improved Jay and Silent Bob” in an early subtitle, Smith fuses dick and fart jokes with some of his Jersey Girl’s romantic touches. Our slacker heroes are doing much of the same clowning they did in the first; perhaps illustrating that Smith might be out of anything original to say.

Which is not to say that Clerks II is a complete waste of time; while conversations are still as raunchy and clever as they were in the original, we experience an actual storyline. The boys have now moved on from working at the Quick Stop to Mooby’s, a themed fast-food joint. The shift in working environment is not of their liking – as the film’s opening scene indicates.