When is Kevin Smith going to do something different? (1 Viewer)

[Seth Paxton]

Is it just me, or has seeing Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back made this thread FREAKIN HILARIOUS.
Wes, you might want to check through the peep hole before opening your front door, as Jay and Bob might be paying you a visit.

You guys should just say

Jay and Silent Bob are stupid characters. A couple of stoners who spout dumb-ass catch-phrases like a third rate 'Cheech and Chong' or 'Bill and Ted'. Fuck Jay and Silent Bob. Fuck them up their stupid asses.

If only I could remember Jay's online retort.

Snootch to the Bootch.

 

[Wes Ray]

Kevin Smith evidently thinks that if he makes fun of his own characters, more people will cease to do the same and enjoy them on some level. He's wrong. They suck. The duo from Clerks are a much funnier pair. He should try focusing in on real comedy instead of trying to protect his characters from being laughed AT instead of being laughed with. Just my opinion though.

 

[Timothy Alexander]

Heheh Seth, you're absolutley right.
BTW, has anybody seen this great mini comic written by Kevin about how he met his wife that was posted in the New York Times? Here's the link to it: http://www.nytimes.com/slideshow/200...TYLE-SS_1.html It's very very good.

 

[Ricky f]

Thank you for posting that Link, I really enjoyed it.
Regards,
Ricky
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[TheLongshot]

A few comments about this thread.
First off, I am a big KS fan. It all started when a friend of mine told me about Chasing Amy and I've been hooked since. What I like most about him is his writing. His dialog flows so well, no matter who is delivering it. He also doesn't take himself too seriously. He knows his limitations and sometimes makes fun of them. He's also an entertaining public speaker, if you have ever seen him. He has a good dry wit that I find entertaining.
Someone mentioned that Chevy Chase should be the only Fletch. If you have ever read the books, the Fletch in the movies is a very toned down version of the character in the books. Fletch is a bastard. Only out for himself, but in a way that is likeable to others. Also, I can tell KS is heavily influenced by those books. You can tell. Also, Fletch Won is supposed to take place early in Fletch's career, something Chevy is too old to do nowadays. I could definitly see Jason Lee playing such a role. He's enough of a smartass to pull it off.
Someone else asked why he didn't do more stuff with "Clerks". He did. It was Clerks: TAS, with 6 episodes and is available on DVD, with a possible movie in the future. Personally, those guys don't work as well outside the context of their jobs.
As for J&SBSB, I thought it was a wonderful love letter to all the fans who have followed him all of this time and that have allowed him to make these films. I also thought it was funny as hell. Is it his best film? Not by a longshot, but that isn't what he was going for. It did its job, which was to entertain. Personally, this is definitly the time to move on, when we haven't quite gotten sick of these characters yet. Personally, I wouldn't mind him doing more writing than directing, but he usually feels too close to his stuff to let anyone else direct it.
Jason
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My DVD Collection

 

[SteveMc]

Its interesting to see how many people didn't think much of Dogma. I think this is one my favorite films of his. I just think its ironic that I was raised Catholic...hmmm, thats probably why I enjoyed it more
IMO, the latest Jay & SB entry was a little thin, even for smith. Sometimes Mewes as Jay just gets a little old after the same druggie and sex jokes for 90 minutes. Starts to rub me the wrong way. But I like Silent Bob and the various cameos he had through out the film. But for someone who is not a fan of his movies would probably not get it, even if they get some of the funny parts. If you miss the references and jokes about his other films, you're not "getting" half the movie.
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Crash
"I don't even own a gun, let alone many guns that would necessitate an entire rack."
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[David Oliver]

It's interesting how many people are saying KS is a good wirter, not a very good director. Well then why not let someone else direct what he's written?
I found J&SBSB to be pretty funny, but it seemed to be just a bunch of jokes strung together. I think the sum of the parts is far less than the parts themselves. I'd definitely rank it behind Rat Race for comedies this year.

 

[Michael Reuben]

It's interesting how many people are saying KS is a good wirter, not a very good director. Well then why not let someone else direct what he's written?

People direct their own scripts to ensure that no one else mucks with them. I can't think of a better reason.
Most of the criticism of Smith as a director is because he's not much of a visual stylist. But visual style is only part of what a director does. Working with the actors is at least as important, probably more so. Clint Eastwood, who most people would acknowledge is a fine director, has said that a director's main job is to create a comfortable environment for the actors to do their best work. Smith seems to do a pretty good job on that score, judging by the performances he gets and the people who sign on (often repeatedly) to appear in his films for less than megabucks.
M.

 

[Calvin Watts III]

I thought that Dogma was great,simply because of the topic and how it was presented,that Clerks is still one of the funniest movies that I have ever seen, and I loved J&SBSB.Kevin Smith is THE MAN!!!
Having said that, Mallrats was not that great, and No One is perfect. People just ranting on how bad Smith is,but then in the same sentence say that Tim Burton & John Carpenter get wrongly bashed is unfair. Go and watch Batman & Sleepy Hollow,see how good they are,and then(cringe) watch Mars Attacks! As for Carpenter, Big Trouble in Little China, The Thing, & Escape From New York are wonderful films, while Escape From LA & Vampires are crap.
This point could be made of every popular director. Even Speilberg has had a stinker or 2,IMHO.
People need to stop being so serious
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"Never give up!!! .......... Never surrender!!!!!!!!!."

 

[Chris Beveridge]

Mars Attacks is a great flick. Lots of fun to be had there.
Mallrats continues to get a heap of crap loaded onto it. For those who've hated it, I seriously recommend the Universal CE release of it. I've probably played that thing close to 50 times now while working in my office and have the movie playing with and without the commentary. My appreciation for it has grown quite a bit from my initial disappointment when I first saw it.
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Chris Beveridge
Webmaster, www.animeondvd.com
Animation and stories for those who like to think outside of the Disney box

 

[Richard Kim]

When I saw Clerks for the first time, I loved it, mostly because I could relate to what Dante was going through, dealing with obnoxious customers, problems with his personal life, etc. Plus it was damn funny to boot. After that I saw Chasing Amy, a brutally honest look at relationships, and I thought to myself Kevin Smith is one of the best directors out there.
Then I saw Mallrats, Dogma, and J&SB Strikes Back.
Being that Smith isn't much of a visual director, it's no surprise that his best films are firmly based in reality.
As for his writing skills, true he is very skilled at writing witty and intelligent dialogue, but at times he overmatches himself and writes extremely long lines for his characters that nobody would say in a normal conversation.
A good example of this is in Clerks when Dante gives a long winded monologue of why he wants to break up with Veronica and go out with Caitlin.

 

[MickeS]

That NY Times "comic" is incredibly lame.
I loved "Clerks", thought "Mallrats" was OK, didn't see "Chasing Amy", and thought "Dogma" was pretty crappy. Everything I've read about J&SBSB makes it seem even worse than "Dogma". Count me out.
/Mike

 

[Wes Ray]

Calvin: I am in complete agreement. Every director has stinkers. Kevin Smith has 5.

 

[Michael Reuben]

Every director has stinkers. Kevin Smith has 5.

Wow! That means he's tied with John Carpenter.

(For the record: Ghosts of Mars, Vampires, Escape from L.A., Village of the Damned, and Memoirs of an Invisible Man. I'm a big Carpenter fan, but the last 10 years have been tough going.)
M.

 

[Wes Ray]

"(For the record: Ghosts of Mars, Vampires, Escape from L.A., Village of the Damned, and Memoirs of an Invisible Man. I'm a big Carpenter fan, but the last 10 years have been tough going.)"
I'm telling you guys, Ghosts of Mars ain't that bad. It's a 70's exploitation film wrapped up in the plot of a 1950's B-Movie. What's not to love?
Vampires..come on guys, don't be so hard on this film. It's a damn fun vampire flick with James Woods being tough as they come. It could've been better, but why judge a movie on what it could've been and not what it is?
I admit, as big of an Escape From New York fan as I was at the time, I wasn't immediately sold on Escape From L.A.. Just within the past year, I've come to realize what the movie tried to be and how fun and harmless it is (and it actually has more knock-down, drag-out action scenes than Escape From New York).
I'll fight for Village of the Damned till the day I die. One of Carpenter's best scores (the "March of the Children" theme just rocks) and a very interesting, and surprisingly effective cast. Those kids were pretty tough too. Equal to the original, in my opinion.
I haven't seen Memoirs of an Invisible Man yet, but I don't think it ended up being the movie Carpenter and Chase wanted to make. From all accounts I read, Chase and Carpenter wanted to do a serious movie (probably along the lines of Starman) but the studio wanted more humor out of Chase. You can't fault Carpenter when he's up against odds like that.
Carpenter's not perfect, but come on...he's still doing the kind of movies he wants to make. He's not lost his "creative manhood" and gone soft like Sam Raimi and Wes Craven, at the very least.

 

[GaryEA]

I liked Clerks a lot. At the time, I was still in film school and I appreciated how he went about it, and the final product. Plus, I was really attracted to Veronica.

That was 1994. Since then, I've haven't liked any of his projects for various reasons. When he started to put out Clerks comics, I read though the first issue and it was just like his movies; all talk. Endless talk. To me, Smith does not know when to pare down dialogue, especially when it wanders into self-reference or cultural jokes. It goes on and on. And this is from "Silent Bob".
Now he's a cult legend, especially here in Jersey. He's writing two comic books, took in some cameo action in Scream 3, took a crack at writing a Superman script, action figures, posters, appearances on Dennis Miller Live, animation, and you can't read an issue of Wizard without running head first into a Kevin Smith drool-fest. I honestly cannot go anywhere in my circuit of hobbies and entertainment without hearing about him.
Okay, fine. Honest. So what. I'm not high on his stuff (pardon the pun), but my interests are similar to his (comics, animation, girls who will bring their boyfriends pasta), and I'm going to be hearing about him constantly until the next Kevin Smith comes around, but you know what? I try not to forget that he poured his heart and credit cards into Clerks, and as film school grad, I appreciate him for that.
But then I opened the New York Times Magazine.
Sweet Mother of Pearl. Just in case we didn't know he was a fan boy who loved comics, the New York Times has him done up as a comic drawn fanboy, with his wife catwalking new fashion styles. It was embarrassing to read.
Honestly, it's time that he reinvent himself, at least when it comes to film. I understand that the new film is the last Jersey film, but I can't but cringe at the thought of Smith announcing a Clerks trilogy-plus-two a la Lucas. I really hope he does move in a new direction. I think he could really become so much more as a writer and director if he'd try.
I'll be here, and I'll give whatever he has to offer a shot. Just not left-overs (unless it's from Veronica )
G'Night,
-g
p.s. Thumbs up on Carpenter's Vampires from here.
[Edited last by GaryEA on August 29, 2001 at 02:08 AM]