Why all the Kevin Smith love here

[Guest C.H.U.D.]

I'm a big Kevin Smith mark as well. Although I disliked Jay & Silent Bob Strike Back the first time I saw it, I have since grown to love it. There are so many "wink, wink" inside jokes that only Smith marks would get. The scene where Affleck shows Jay & Bob the internet is hilarious. Sure, some of the cartoony action comedy it silly, but a lot of it is great.

[Guest bps "The Truth" 21]

Chasing Amy is SOOO the best of all his movies.

 

Dogma is second.

 

Clerks is third.

 

The other 2 fail to rank...but the cartoon is great.

 

Let us never speak of this again.

[Guest J*ingus]

I'm represent a large group of people (me, myself, I, and that Jingus guy being just four of our members) that actually didn't like Chasing Amy, for two reasons: 1.Kevin Smith's worst writing comes when he's trying to be either too serious or too funny, and 2.Joey Lauren Adams is about as attractive to me as a pack of squealing rabid hamsters, and I can't buy any movie where she's the romantic lead.

[Guest bps "The Truth" 21]

I think she's kinda cute.

 

and I thought her and Affleck were really good in the movie.

 

Of course they paled in comparison to the greatness that was Jason Lee.

[Guest J*ingus]

Everybody pales next to Jason Lee, even Tom F'n Cruise couldn't escape the Brodie Effect in Vanilla Sky.

 

As for Adams, maybe if she had a different voice I'd like her more. But that awful, scratchy, raspy, like-Jennifer-Tilly-but-EVEN-WORSE sandtrap which she calls a voicebox just shuts me down like a bucket of icey water poured upon my very loins, after they've been shaved with a piece of broken glass.

[Guest cynicalprofit]

Smith is another fanboy who made it, so he knows what fanboys like. He appeals his humor adn dialouge at some in my age group and cultural intrest, so of course i dig it,...........SUCKA!

 

He writes well, its usualy funny, and he represents your average fan making it. There ya go.

[Guest Slingshot Suplex]

Like all the movies on different levels of like....hated the cartoon.

[Guest Mr. Slim Citrus]

Chasing Amy is SOOO the best of all his movies.

 

Dogma is second.

 

Clerks is third.

 

The other 2 fail to rank...but the cartoon is great.

 

Let us never speak of this again.

I agree with this post.

[Guest Agent of Oblivion]

IMO, Clerks and Dogma are tied for the best. Mallrats made me laugh, but wasn't very good, and Chasing Amy is something I can only watch once in a while. Jay and Silent Bob sucked. I've never seen the cartoon.

[Guest areacode212]

Chasing Amy is my favorite of his too. Affleck & Lee were both really good in it, and I was going through something similar around that time, so I could relate to it. I thought JLA was OK in that movie, but her voice in the parking lot scene was just too painful.

 

I only saw the second episode of the cartoon, and hated it, but I'm told I would've liked it better had I seen the first one.

 

Kevin Smith's appeal to me has diminished recently though. I still think his writing is funny, but his dialogue, witty as it is, is just way too unrealistic and grating. Practically all of his lead characters talk in hyper-articulate, extremely complex sentences. It's cute the first couple of times, but gets very annoying quickly.

 

Fans of his movies should check out his VA comic books. They're funny as hell. I think some of them are collected in a TPB titled Chasing Dogma.

[Guest notJames]

Anyone who can put "Hercule-fucking-Poirot" into a bit of dialogue is a genius to me.

[Guest Steve J. Rogers]

I'll never understand why Ben gets such a bad rap. Sure, he isn't as obnoxiously funny as Lee, but he still gets the job done. He has made several stinkers, but also has made some great flicks as well. Heck, he wrote Good Will Hunting, one of the better movies of the decade. Do people resent that he is a media whore? I would venture a guess that he would love to draw the media's attention away from himself. Personally, I am not Ben's biggest fan, but I sure am not a detractor.

 

Alot of it stems from the type of films he's done, as well as the quanity of such films. Seems like you can't go a few months without some Affleck movie coming out. Wheither its a dopey romantic flick like Bounce, a pyscological thriller like Changing Lanes, a plain old thriller like Reindeer Games and Clear and Present Danger, ect.

 

On the other hand, the guy he is often compared with, Matt Damon choses his roles more wisley and is rarely seen that often, plus he goes for less pop-corn orientatied roles like Talented Mr. Ripley or Legend of Bagger Vance. Sure he has stuff like Oceans 11 to his credits but those kinds of films are few and far between on his resume.

 

Basically Affleck keeps his name in circulation much more than Damon does, therefore there is more of a backlash towards him then Damon.

 

Plus Ben Affleck has a bit of noterity with his alcholoism and his being overtly politcal without any substance to why he choses to back the democratic canadate (also taken into account is his staunch support of the "Rock The Vote" campaign in spite of his not being a regular voter untill he became famous) So Ben tends to get himself more in the public eye than Matt does.

 

As far as this topic as a whole, I think VA films tend to skewer towards the "smark" movie crowd more than any other crowd (I'd also venture that if you go to the VA board the majority of regular posters probably are into pro-wrestling) and I would say that crowd pretty much describes the movie viewing habits of people on this board.

 

Basically into stuff that is not neccessarilly part of the mainstream. Stuff that deals with content over form even if its the comic book/action genre

 

Basically the smarks are the ones who rank them ESB, SW, ATOC, PM and RoJ with PM and RoJ far behind while a mark would probably put RoJ and SW as a top two, ATOC and ESB would be the middle and due to smark-like backlash than afflected the mainstream press PM would rank last (note for the one perspn who doesn't know, those are acronyms for all 5 Star Wars films)

 

Steve

[Guest notJames]

Alot of it stems from the type of films he's done, as well as the quanity of such films. Seems like you can't go a few months without some Affleck movie coming out. Wheither its a dopey romantic flick like Bounce, a pyscological thriller like Changing Lanes, a plain old thriller like Reindeer Games and Clear and Present Danger, ect.

Affleck even mocks his movie choices in Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back during the scene where he and Matt Damon are reprising their Good Will Hunting roles for a sequel. I don't know the exact quote, but he mentions doing the "safe picture", then the art film, then the "payback picture where the director says you owe him".

 

This meta-referencing is also evident in the giant Moonraper billboard Jay and Silent Bob fly past on a red bike, reminiscent of both E.T. and Pee Wee's Big Adventure.

 

Damn, I love Kevin Smith! (In a non-Chuckabilly sort of way... not that there's anything wrong with that...)

 

[Guest Marshall]

Does anyone here post on the View Askew board?