Twenty-eight years after Kevin Smith made his film debut with the foul-mouthed low-budget comedy "Clerks" and 16 years after the sweet and silly sequel, "Clerks II," the director returns to the Quick Stop to bring the story full circle in "Clerks III." Clerks Dante Hicks (Brian O'Halloran) and Randal Graves (Jeff Anderson) own the convenience store that brought them together, but they aren't sure if they've achieved their dreams or just fallen into their same old routines. Then Randal has a heart attack and realizes life is too short to waste, so he wants to make a movie.

This is Smith at his most deeply personal: Randal's heart attack is clearly based on Smith's own, and the creation of his film at the Quick Stop is a metacommentary on the making of the first "Clerks." Fans in search of the mile-a-minute crass comedy of some of his earlier work, including the...