Kevin Smith Sucks

[Hey Man]

I will admit that I loved Clerks and got caught up in the whole Kevin Smith fever with Mallrats and Chasing Amy, but I finally woke from my slumber and he truly does suck. Granted, he started out with promise - but those days are over and he has only confirmed that he is someone with very little talent who lucked out.

It also doesn't help that he whores himself out even more than Gene Simmons does and is constantly ranting about bullshit. Like when he ranted to critics because they gave Cop Out a bad review.

It would have been nice if Kevin Smith was actually a nice guy who done good, but I just see an asshole with very limited ability, who doesn't deserve even half of the worship that he gets from film geeks.

[R&ROVER]

Chasing Amy remains his best work and beyond merely watchable to me. It's the perfect balance of his humor, a romantic tenderness, and it indulges my comic book geekness all at the same time. It hasn't aged a bit in my eyes. Clerks is hardly brilliant, but it's perfectly good low-brow/low-budget humor to me...and I quite enjoy it still. The likes of Mall Rats, Jay & Silent Bob, Zack & Miri, etc. have never done it for me. I'm so-so on Dogma. Has its moments.

The thing is, Smith's movies rarely pretend to be more than they are (or that he himself is better than he actually is), so the only ones not in on it are the people taking it all too seriously to begin with. Valid criticisms, but it's dick and fart humor on its best day. He makes shit films and says as much. They're often enjoyable and watchable shit films to me...though sometimes more often than other times. Depends on the film.

[Hey Man]

Sept 27, 2011 10:16:26 GMT -5 @landsenddrums said:

Even Clerks on a filmmaking level is a horrible trainwreck piece of shit. On paper it's good but it's shot horribly, it has worse acting than most porn films and it's pacing is terrible. Hack.

It's a great movie for a guy who never really intented on being a director and put a film together with very limited resources that Harvey Weinstein wanted to buy. Trust me, as someone who works in the film industry and who sees a lot of independent films - I see a lot of wannabe filmmakers who could learn something from Clerks.

I think you kind of missed the point with Clerks and the story behind how it was made. I think you are comparing Kevin Smith with Quentin Tarantino for example with his first film. To his credit, even Kevin Smith will tell you that he is not a very good director.

I trust as a film enthusiast you can appreciate amateur films, if they happen to be good or great and Clerks is that in addition to being an important film in the independent 90's.

I will add that Kevin Smith inspired other hopeful filmmakers to just pick up a camera and shoot your movie for very little money with your buddies. I can respect that.

[R&ROVER]

My brother teaches at the university in Reno, NV and does courses on both history and American Culture. After it was released he showed Clerks as required viewing in his AC class. I agree with Hey Man that it's a nice bit of camcorder-type low budget filmmaking. I don't get people who make more out of it than is there and by that I mean the critics who take it too seriously....not the people who think it's a fun little film. Smith is the first person to disparage his own work and vocally wonders how people give him tens of millions to make stupid little films, so he agrees with you LED.

[lugnut]

The already-mentioned fact that he's the first to slag his own work is kinda what lets him slide in my book. He seems fully aware that he's not much of a filmmaker, and I think became even more aware of it when he tried to break off from the "Askewniverse" films and failed almost universally.

If anything has turned him bitter, it's probably that - he found out that he really isn't able to do much of anything else. (Though I was surprised how personally he seemed to take Cop Out's failure, since he didn't even write the thing.)

I still wish the Clerks animated series had been given more of a chance (or hell, any chance at all really considering ABC only even aired two episodes). To me that was the funniest thing he'd done in ages, and I'd have loved to see where it would have gone beyond the six episodes that do exist.

[R&ROVER]

I think he's self deprecating. I'm sure he likes his films and knows they have an audience.

Better question, why does Uwe Boll and that ilk make films?

[Deleted]

I enjoy Kevin Smith flicks for what they are (movies for folks that smoke too much pot) I don't think they are great films, but most of them have made me laugh.