Writer-director Kevin Smith's film career, regardless of its growing popularity, has always been rather hit-or-miss.

His 1994 debut film, "Clerks," garnered the auteur a strong cult following. Then came "Mallrats," which was bad. Then "Chasing Amy" - good. Then "Dogma" - bad.

But there is more to Smith's films than this oversimplified run-down. Namely, with these four films, Smith has managed to develop his own distinctive voice with his memorable characters (Jay, Silent Bob, Brodie, Holden McNeil, Dante Hicks, and on and on) and controversial plot lines (remember Finger Cuffs? remember sleeping with the dead guy in the Quik-Stop bathroom?).

All in all, Smith has cultivated a rabidly devoted following who dig on all his catchphrases and recurring cast of characters, who catch all the in-the-know references to prior Smith films that the director invariably includes in each successive project. But Smith wants to move on to something new. He feels he's exhausted Jay and Silent Bob material - how many dick-and-fart jokes can one man write, after all? But before he goes, he wants to give his fans one last great comedy, one that takes no prisoners with its abundant references to all his other films, one that brings back nearly every famous person Smith has worked with up to this point, one that doesn't worry about anything but making people laugh. That film is "Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back," and it's hilarious.

The premise of this film is typical Smith - the loud and offensive Jay (Jason Mewes) and his "hetero-life-mate" Silent Bob (Kevin Smith) discover that Miramax is making a film based on the comic book that was based on them. At first, they feel that they're entitled to some money for likeness rights, but once Holden (Ben Affleck) shows them an Internet site bashing the film, our unlikely heroes put down their blunts, leave the Quik-Stop behind and trek to Hollywood to stop the film before it goes into production so as to shut up all those anonymous posts.

What results is just too damn funny to give away in a review but it does involve a jewel heist, a stolen ape, a scene on the set of "Good Will Hunting 2: Hunting Season" and a whole lot of crude sexual remarks. "Jay and Silent Bob" wastes no time with character development - why would it? Audiences have seen these characters before. Instead, it offers increasingly outrageous scenarios across a tightly paced 90 minutes where no actor and no film are safe from a not-so-gentle ribbing.

Smith send-ups "Charlie's Angels," "Animal House," "Star Wars," "The Fugitive" and most memorably "Planet of the Apes," as well as many others, including his own films. He skewers Hollywood and its bad filmmaking. He even takes shots at his actors - "Affleck was da bomb in 'Phantoms.'" Smith's and his actors' willingness to make fun of themselves is what makes this film so much fun to watch - it's a comedy that doesn't take itself seriously. And the audience feels like it's in on one big in-joke.

The film does get offensive but with a cameo list a mile long - including Shannon Elizabeth, George Carlin, Shannen Doherty, Seann William Scott, Jason Biggs, James Van Der Beek, Carrie Fisher, Mark Hamill, Wes Craven, and on and on - this film is a welcome break from the unfunny, gross-out comedies of late.