Siamey
12-24-2006, 11:47 PM
Hey all, I just thought I'd post some observations I had about Kevin Smith, as of late, see if anyone agrees with me.
Now... I don't intend to start a flame war at all. Let me just say that I've thoroughly enjoyed many of his movies, and I would probably still count myself as a big fan, but heres my beef.
A little while ago I rented "An evening with Kevin Smith 2: Evening Harder" and I found it to be a lot more rough around the edges, and decernably less funny than the original ("An Evening with Kevin Smith", which I loved)
For starters, he didnt really have any amazing stories to tell this time. He talked a bit about affleck, and the movie industry and took questions like normal, but seemed to go off on tangents a lot.
Another thing is, every 3rd word out of his mouth is either fuck or shit. Now, I don't mind swearing, in fact when comedians use it, or when its used in every day conversation, it can make things a lot funnier. I don't want to get into where else it can enhance speech, but let me just say that I agree with many of the points in that "Usage of the word fuck" skit.
The thing is, is that it needs to be used with tact, or else it loses its impact. I mean, swearing a lot in a performance is great sometimes, but when it shines through that its damn near a language for you, then its not powerful or funny anything, infact it makes me kinda sad, and/or sick.
Thats what happened with Kevin Smith. Don't take me the wrong way, I like swearing just as much as the next guy, but it can get boring and well.. flat out annoying if you lay it on too thick.
But I digress, "Evening Harder" was just the start of what I see as Kevin Smith going downhill (and by downhill I don't mean out of the business or something like that. I dont mean that I presume to think that he is on his way out, I just kinda lost hope in him, thats all).
The second, and more pertenent thing which made me disapointed in Kevin Smith was Clerks 2. This post isn't about reviewing the movie really, except to say that I didn't feel it captured much of the original theme of clerks, though parts were still funny and all.
The main point of this post is to get peoples oppinion on the whole LotR bashing aspect of clerks.
Again, let me just clear up one issue by saying that I love star wars and I love lord of the rings, I think that they are both great stories, and both were made into very good movies, some of the best in my oppinion.
The very fact that they are each trilogies isn't really important, and trying to compare them to each other to say which is better, is kinda childish, if you ask me. I think its dumb to be like "oh, there can be only one REAL trilogy!" "its starwars!" "not its lotr" "no its starwars" "arrarr!!" etc etc..
You can't ever really say which way or the other. Thats like this kid I used to go to school, we'll call him Dane. So Dane would come up to me and be like "who do you think would win in a fight? Sephiroth or Rab" Rab being this other kid in class who had been taking Wing Tsun for several years and would show us moves and shit sometimes, and it was pretty sweet.
Usually I'd laugh it off, but after a while I got scared when I realized that Dane actually thought that it was a question that had like one specific answer.
Moving on, theres a scene in Clerks 2 where this geeky guy is like "One ring to rule them all" and the customer perks up and is like "One ring to find them!" and then Randal is like "oh my god.." or something, and procedes to rage on them and then tell them that cocksucking scene that should have ended the 3rd movie, and then the customer gets all mad and is defending the movie and then pukes on the counter.
It's a pretty funny scene I guess, and I would have laughed out loud at some parts, if I hadn't seen "Evening Harder" like 2 nights before, and witnessed Kevin Smith take up a good portion of time regurgitating that scene, almost line for line, and not mentioning that its from Clerks 2, to an audience in London.
That kinda sums up the whole attitude towards LotR in the movie, which is fine, if he doesn't like it, then by all means express it.
My deal with Kevin Smith, is that in Clerks 1, the 2 main characters talk about starwars in several scenes, and read into it to a degree that most people would have called geeky. For example the question about whether the empire had hired in outside contractors to rebuild the deathstar in "Return of the Jedi" and therefor innocent lives were claimed when the rebels destroyed it at the end of the movie.
Personally, I think thats a great part of the movie, and I find it entertaining to think about it, it made the movie better because that line. If I made a movie, I'd have starwards stuff in it like that too, cause I think they are great movies.
Also, in many other ways, too numerous to list, Kevin Smith has given a very clear picture that he is a fan of the star wars movies. Again, no problem with this, I'm a big fan too.
My problem is (I know I've said that like 45 times, bare with me here) that if you're going to root for the underdog, so to speak, and make the people with someone geekish qualities the heros of your movie, guys who talk about starwars and comics and are big enthusiasts on those subjects... If you are gonna make those guys the main characters of your movie, and then make another movie in the same storyline, and in this movie, (and in public appearences, such as "Evening Harder") you bash the shit out of another fantasy story, and REALLY play the geek character card, and portray him as a dumbass, who is wasting his life by reading deeply into his respective fantasy(in this case LotR), well then....
I just think its really hypocritical.
Please excuse my run-on sentances and my many typos and grammar mistakes, but I just had to get my point accross, and I'm late for an Xmas party.
Anyways, if i didn't explain myself well, I'll try harder when i get back. Anyone who thinks they got my point and maybe agrees with it, if you could maybe translate my chicken scratch into something better, I'd appreciate it.
thanks
Now... I don't intend to start a flame war at all. Let me just say that I've thoroughly enjoyed many of his movies, and I would probably still count myself as a big fan, but heres my beef.
A little while ago I rented "An evening with Kevin Smith 2: Evening Harder" and I found it to be a lot more rough around the edges, and decernably less funny than the original ("An Evening with Kevin Smith", which I loved)
For starters, he didnt really have any amazing stories to tell this time. He talked a bit about affleck, and the movie industry and took questions like normal, but seemed to go off on tangents a lot.
Another thing is, every 3rd word out of his mouth is either fuck or shit. Now, I don't mind swearing, in fact when comedians use it, or when its used in every day conversation, it can make things a lot funnier. I don't want to get into where else it can enhance speech, but let me just say that I agree with many of the points in that "Usage of the word fuck" skit.
The thing is, is that it needs to be used with tact, or else it loses its impact. I mean, swearing a lot in a performance is great sometimes, but when it shines through that its damn near a language for you, then its not powerful or funny anything, infact it makes me kinda sad, and/or sick.
Thats what happened with Kevin Smith. Don't take me the wrong way, I like swearing just as much as the next guy, but it can get boring and well.. flat out annoying if you lay it on too thick.
But I digress, "Evening Harder" was just the start of what I see as Kevin Smith going downhill (and by downhill I don't mean out of the business or something like that. I dont mean that I presume to think that he is on his way out, I just kinda lost hope in him, thats all).
The second, and more pertenent thing which made me disapointed in Kevin Smith was Clerks 2. This post isn't about reviewing the movie really, except to say that I didn't feel it captured much of the original theme of clerks, though parts were still funny and all.
The main point of this post is to get peoples oppinion on the whole LotR bashing aspect of clerks.
Again, let me just clear up one issue by saying that I love star wars and I love lord of the rings, I think that they are both great stories, and both were made into very good movies, some of the best in my oppinion.
The very fact that they are each trilogies isn't really important, and trying to compare them to each other to say which is better, is kinda childish, if you ask me. I think its dumb to be like "oh, there can be only one REAL trilogy!" "its starwars!" "not its lotr" "no its starwars" "arrarr!!" etc etc..
You can't ever really say which way or the other. Thats like this kid I used to go to school, we'll call him Dane. So Dane would come up to me and be like "who do you think would win in a fight? Sephiroth or Rab" Rab being this other kid in class who had been taking Wing Tsun for several years and would show us moves and shit sometimes, and it was pretty sweet.
Usually I'd laugh it off, but after a while I got scared when I realized that Dane actually thought that it was a question that had like one specific answer.
Moving on, theres a scene in Clerks 2 where this geeky guy is like "One ring to rule them all" and the customer perks up and is like "One ring to find them!" and then Randal is like "oh my god.." or something, and procedes to rage on them and then tell them that cocksucking scene that should have ended the 3rd movie, and then the customer gets all mad and is defending the movie and then pukes on the counter.
It's a pretty funny scene I guess, and I would have laughed out loud at some parts, if I hadn't seen "Evening Harder" like 2 nights before, and witnessed Kevin Smith take up a good portion of time regurgitating that scene, almost line for line, and not mentioning that its from Clerks 2, to an audience in London.
That kinda sums up the whole attitude towards LotR in the movie, which is fine, if he doesn't like it, then by all means express it.
My deal with Kevin Smith, is that in Clerks 1, the 2 main characters talk about starwars in several scenes, and read into it to a degree that most people would have called geeky. For example the question about whether the empire had hired in outside contractors to rebuild the deathstar in "Return of the Jedi" and therefor innocent lives were claimed when the rebels destroyed it at the end of the movie.
Personally, I think thats a great part of the movie, and I find it entertaining to think about it, it made the movie better because that line. If I made a movie, I'd have starwards stuff in it like that too, cause I think they are great movies.
Also, in many other ways, too numerous to list, Kevin Smith has given a very clear picture that he is a fan of the star wars movies. Again, no problem with this, I'm a big fan too.
My problem is (I know I've said that like 45 times, bare with me here) that if you're going to root for the underdog, so to speak, and make the people with someone geekish qualities the heros of your movie, guys who talk about starwars and comics and are big enthusiasts on those subjects... If you are gonna make those guys the main characters of your movie, and then make another movie in the same storyline, and in this movie, (and in public appearences, such as "Evening Harder") you bash the shit out of another fantasy story, and REALLY play the geek character card, and portray him as a dumbass, who is wasting his life by reading deeply into his respective fantasy(in this case LotR), well then....
I just think its really hypocritical.
Please excuse my run-on sentances and my many typos and grammar mistakes, but I just had to get my point accross, and I'm late for an Xmas party.
Anyways, if i didn't explain myself well, I'll try harder when i get back. Anyone who thinks they got my point and maybe agrees with it, if you could maybe translate my chicken scratch into something better, I'd appreciate it.
thanks