"Clerks," the scruffy, $27,000, black-and-white indie wonder that launched the career of writer-director-actor-editor Kevin Smith, would seem like the last film to which he would want to make a sequel. For one thing, most of his subsequent films -- set in his native New Jersey and featuring characters obsessed with sex, the Internet and pop culture -- feel like sequels. Surprisingly, though, Smith is able to revert to his low-budget origins and strike a genuine sequel.

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