I used to be a huge Kevin Smith fan. Anything with his name on it was good enough for me to spend money on. his movies, comics - when they would come out, even his Evening With...DVD's.
But no more.
He's lost me.
He actually lost me years ago when he decided that his comic book work would take a very obvious backseat to his film work. I can partly understand choosing film over comics. The money in film is greater, but don't slap your comic book fans in the face. He was at the time the celebrity face of comics. He went on the Tonight Show for the sole purpose of promoting a Comic Book. His Spider-man/Black Cat 5 issue mini series that ended up taking him 3-4 years (not sure of the actual date) to finish. the final 2 issues never even hit the comic book stores, it was so late that Marvel just decided to put out the completed Trade. I tink last year EIC of Marvel Joe Quesada admitted that we won't ever see the second issue of the 2-part Daredevil: Target book.
He lost me with his movies as well. Most of his earlier stuff - like his claim to fame Clerks - doesn't really hold up for me anymore. I still like Dogma, Mallrats was ok, same with Chasing Amy and Jay & Silent Bob Strikes Back. Clerks 2 was joke of the worst kind, and so was Jersey girl.
Right around the time of Jersey Girl, Smith was doing the media rounds for the film and he said that with Jay & Silent Bob that was it for his 'Jersey' characters. He was done with them and he was moving on. I give him credit for that, Jersey Girl was Smith's attempt at growing up. Good for him.
The movie flopped.
His response was to write another Clerks movie. Something that he swore he would never do. I lost respect for him right there as well.
With his new movie, Zack & Miri Make a Porno, I have to wonder how many more chances are we going to give him. This was predicted to be his big hit. The movie follows the now familiar Judd Apatow formula for R rated comedy success. The movie opened with less than 10 million in it's opening weekend.
The movie was known more for the 'provocative' title than anything else, when it came down to watchinhg the movie, it wasn't provocative or really all that edgy even. It was an "R" rated comedy that showed some female and male nudity and some simulated sex. But it was really the story of Seth Rogen's character and Elizabeth Banks' characters falling in love after 20 years of friendship. As with most Smith projects, there were some laughs and some funny situations, but that is about it. It wasn't really a great comedy and I think it has something to do with Smith's dialogue. When first getting into Smith's work the dialogue may seem edgy and smart and even in some cases 'real' sounding. But really in my opinion, it's not at all.
The dialogue can seem clunky as characters try and cram so many words into an argument that it zaps all comedy out of it and just sounds silly.
The movie trys to have heart because that is the way with all the new breed of 'raunch' comedies, but Apatow does it much better. In Zack & Miri the finale of the film just seems unrealistic and far fetched. Characters that have known each other and been best friends for 20 years, have been living with each other for years as well only fall in love after they script themselves to have a sex scene in their porno? Doesn't really make sense to me, doesn't really seem like a funny situation either.
I gave this movie a chance because of Seth Rogen. He can't have a hit all the time I guess. I'm officially done with Kevin Smith though.
Tom.
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