Why all the Kevin Smith love here

[Guest Vern Gagne]

Anything Kevin Smith does is praised to high heaven here. IMO...he isn't that great a director and the movies are only ok at best.

[Guest Ravenbomb]

says you. I love his movies, and I loved the Clerks cartoons.

[Guest Vern Gagne]

it's fine if you like him, I was just wondering why?

[Guest converge241]

they are entertaining fanboy yarns, because he is an unabashed fanboy

 

he has a gift for great dialouge too, very tangible and suspends your disbelief

 

i love them and have traversed from mass to NJ to do the askew tour

 

At the same time as much as i love the movies if you wanted to , you could pick them apart and i would never say they are great movies from an objective point of view per se

[Guest Marshall]

Its a cult thing. All the movies reference each other with the same characters spread throughout. His movies may not be the most cinematic movies ever, but even the man himself has admitted he is not that great a director. His strength is in his writing. Chasing Amy was easily his best, and Jersey Girl is going to be in the same vain plus he say says this will be his most cinematic film and completely different from the Jay and Bob movies. I guess it’ll lose him a lot of fans too.

[Guest notJames]

It's a cult thing... though, in a good way. If you've seen all his movies, you're privy to all the little quirks and insider things he throws in there, like recurring characters/actors, homages to specific films like Jaws and Star Wars, etc. Plus the dialogue, if not the writing as a whole, is a lot "smarter" than most films aimed toward the post-teen demographic.

 

And if you're from New Jersey (like myself), Kevin Smith films are practically required viewing if you want to continue living here,

[Guest Banky]

I hate Kevin Smith, his movies are bloody rubbish.

[Guest Marshall]

I hate Kevin Smith, his movies are bloody rubbish.

....in opposite land!

[Guest razazteca]

I hate Kevin Smith, his movies are bloody rubbish

but you have a fanboy name, or are you just a Jason Lee fanboy?

 

Plus the dialogue, if not the writing as a whole, is a lot "smarter" than most films aimed toward the post-teen demographic

the movies are intelligent except for the Jay & Bob movie, which was all about getting paid "And having friends payback favors"

[Guest CoreyLazarus416]

Definitely a humorous quote there, Banky.

 

I think we can all thank Kevin Smith for exposing the talent of Jason Lee.

[Guest Marshall]

I think we can all thank Kevin Smith for exposing the talent of Jason Lee.

And then un-thank him for exposing the talent of Ben Afleck.

[Guest Banky]

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.

 

As far as View Askew goes, I'll admit I am a huge fan. BUT, as I have watched all of the movies a million times, I can see how people may not like them. The VA humor is very snobbish in the fact that they center most of their humor around a select number of topics. As a comic illiterate fan, I just don't follow that aspect of the humor. But on the other hand, I am well equiped with ever single aspect of the Clerks, Mallrats, Chasing Amy, Dogma quadfrecta of flicks, thus all of the inside quips that ellude to each of the movies humors me greatly. J&SBSB was a great movie for someone like me who knows the Askew shows well, but to the average viewer it could come across as pretty lame.

 

As far as my insane Jason Lee-worship, I'd say his Banky character is by leaps and bounds the best VA has ever produced. He is bitterly sarcastic, while being caring about his friends, yet still insecure with himself. Its a well layered character that unfortunatly got ruined at the end of J&SBSB. I found it much more enjoyable to leave that as an open ended question, was he only going to hook up with Holden because he wanted to stay friends? Was he only saying that to get out of the ackward situation, or is he infact a homosexual?

 

I could go on about Lee ad mauseum, but I won't.

[Guest Kotzenjunge]

The sheer number of repulsive emo/hippie/just plain annoying kids who trumpet his greatness have partially poisoned me to all of his work. I can watch and enjoy them, but I avoid bringing it up with pretty much anyone I know(just like I have to avoid bringing up The Matrix), because the moment I say they're wrong in their mountains of praise, I get ganged.

 

Fo sheez,

Kotzenjunge

[Guest Banky]

Ya, I'd lay an honest verbal attack against you for having an opinion!

 

But seriously, I can understand why people would not like VA movies, and especially why they could not like the Matrix

[Guest razazteca]

Matrix was the Bomb yo

 

everybody knows that Matt Damion is the better half

[Guest Youth N Asia]

Mallrats may be my favorite movie of all time...and Clerks is great too.

 

Sure Smith is overrated, but most of his stuff is pretty damn funny. I did however strongly dislike Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back...very unfunny

[Guest Mr. Pink]

I, personally, love all of Kevin Smith's movies with the exception of Chasing Amy. I'm sorry, I just didn't enjoy it. Dogma was much better IMO.

 

 

 

 

and Banky:

 

 

Jason Lee DOES in fact rule. Check out Blind "Video Days" to see old-school Jason Lee....Yeah

 

 

 

[Guest HellSpawn]

Kevin Smith = Benoit on films

[Guest kkktookmybabyaway]

"it's fine if you like him, I was just wondering why?"

 

His movies make me laugh, and he seems like an accessible, down-to-earth guy, at least that's the perception he's giving off in the media -- what do I know? He probably has a room full of Chinese sweat shop workers in his basement...

[Guest LooseCannon]

I can enjoy his movies, but I really don't think they're any good. Even the supposedly great dialogue he's known for comes off unbelievably and annoying fairly often, especially in Chasing Amy. Which is one of the few movies that produces a visceral repulsion from me.

[Guest Karnage]

I like Smith a lot...except JSBSB had that horrible subplot with the diamond thiefs.

[Guest Banky]

I am well aware of Lee's old skateboarding days, as well as his LEGENDARY Skate video "Video Days" which was directed by some guy named Spike Jonze.

 

If given a chance to flourish, Lee could become a solid actor in the same ire as a Tim Robbins - not quite Oscar worthy but one of damn best around.

[Guest Marshall]

"it's fine if you like him, I was just wondering why?"

 

His movies make me laugh, and he seems like an accessible, down-to-earth guy, at least that's the perception he's giving off in the media -- what do I know? He probably has a room full of Chinese sweat shop workers in his basement...

He even posts on his web board. When he's not making a movie that is. What other director does that?

[Guest Kahran Ramsus]

Anything Kevin Smith does is praised to high heaven here. IMO...he isn't that great a director and the movies are only ok at best.

It's because much of the board is a picture perfect example of his target audience. It isn't just this board.

 

I personally hate his movies.

[Guest Hogan Made Wrestling]

I liked Dogma a lot, all of the other ones not so much. I thought Clerks was trash.

[Guest evenflowDDT]

it's fine if you like him, I was just wondering why?

Why does anyone like anything?

[Guest godthedog]

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.

 

As far as View Askew goes, I'll admit I am a huge fan. BUT, as I have watched all of the movies a million times, I can see how people may not like them. The VA humor is very snobbish in the fact that they center most of their humor around a select number of topics. As a comic illiterate fan, I just don't follow that aspect of the humor. But on the other hand, I am well equiped with ever single aspect of the Clerks, Mallrats, Chasing Amy, Dogma quadfrecta of flicks, thus all of the inside quips that ellude to each of the movies humors me greatly. J&SBSB was a great movie for someone like me who knows the Askew shows well, but to the average viewer it could come across as pretty lame.

 

As far as my insane Jason Lee-worship, I'd say his Banky character is by leaps and bounds the best VA has ever produced. He is bitterly sarcastic, while being caring about his friends, yet still insecure with himself. Its a well layered character that unfortunatly got ruined at the end of J&SBSB. I found it much more enjoyable to leave that as an open ended question, was he only going to hook up with Holden because he wanted to stay friends? Was he only saying that to get out of the ackward situation, or is he infact a homosexual?

 

I could go on about Lee ad mauseum, but I won't.

whoa whoa whoa whoa whoa...i thought ben affleck was brilliant in 'chasing amy', and it remains the sole reason to this day that i like him so much, but 'good will hunting' was not anywhere near one of the better movies of the 90s. it did not deserve an oscar, and the 'rags to riches' story of damon & affleck made it seem a lot better than it really was. take away the hype, & you've got a pretty formulaic, cliched movie. a fairly well-done formulaic, cliched movie, with some good monologues, but still a formulaic, cliched movie.

 

and this is a bit of a separate rant, but i laugh in the face of all who tout this as an 'independent film' (and there's a lot of them out there) just because 2 nobodies-at-the-time did it and gus van sant directed it.

[Guest Kahran Ramsus]

Affleck was great in Changing Lanes. Probably the best movie of the year.

[Guest Ravenbomb]

Ok, I'll admit that the movies as a whole aren't great, but I think the writing is. I'd probably give Dogma or Chasing Amy ****(or ***** depending on the scale), but not because they're great movies, but because I love to watch them.

 

 

Oh, and Lee was crazy go nuts in Almost Famous.

[Guest Banky]

Sure, the Ben and Matt story got them to Oscar for Good Will Hunting, but it was still a strong movie. It was an emotionally driven show that shedded light on physical abuse, and what it can do to one's pysche. Also, it proved a very strong point that one doesn't need to go to school to be very intelligent. Our society has a very strong conviction that one needs to go to University or College to be considered intelligent, but the character of Will Hunting was the anit-studant and smarter than most who went to school. In some ways higher education isn't all that it is cracked up to be, and one can be just as intelligent and socially conscious by borrowing books from a library or even reading a newspaper.

 

Also, the story of the physcologist with his own problems isn't really formulaic. It turned out that both Robin Williams (sorry, don't remember his movie name) and Will Hunting needed each other equally. Both were being stubborn which was great effecting their lives.

 

Just like the pushes of Brock Lesnar, Rocky Miavia, and even Randy Orton suffers from the same stigma this flick does. Some people resented the media darlings who were the feel good story of the year. I cannot see how this movie can be bashed, and I am being honest. Instead of hating the Strokes for being critically acclaimed or Brock Lesnar for being the corporate hoss - people should give these people credit for what they are doing - not how they are being pushed. That is how I feel about Good Will Hunting.

 

And yes, Ben Affleck was very good in Changing Lanes. But Frailty was the better movie of the year.