The Big Picture: The Fall of Kevin Smith, Part III

[NoeL]

Before that he was the lead antagonist in The Neverending Story 3.

Also, the best thing JB's done was that mock movie Jim, Pam and Andy were watching in The Office where he's in love with an old lady.

Can't remember, but wasn't his episode in the X-files before that? From what I've seen of the Neverending Story 3, Jack Black pretty much hijacks the movie and turns it into a proto-Tenacious D plot. I can't say for certain since I can't find it anywhere which is a shame because even without seeing it, I know it's gotta be better than the 2nd one.

Google says his X-Files episode was 95, The Neverending Story 3 was 94. And yes, it's much better than the second one. You could even argue it does many things better than the first, but overall fails to live up to the whimsy and atmosphere the first movie set. It's more generic.

 

[grigjd3]

Nice wrap up. The thing is, by any reasonable standard, Kevin Smith's non-askeweverse films are no worse than a vast quantity of tripe we see coming our way on a weekly basis. He's never bothered with production values and when he tries for them, it rarely works out well. On the other hand, when he revels in the material that most represents him, his characters have depth and the stories have meaning, if only in a niche way that people largely in their very late twenties or early to mid thirties appreciate today. He's writing characters that represent a part of the life that I have lived. I can't blame him for that nor can I blame him for attempting to step outside of that. The biggest fault I find is that in his recent bluntman and chronic cartoon, he seems to be trying to connect to some set of people that he imagines exists or that he seriously misunderstands. It comes across as fake.

I would like Kevin Smith to keep trying to push his boundaries and experiment. I just hope that he finds a better connection to make this work in the future. At the very least, his films are never expensive so its not like "the powers" are going to stop giving him a second shot.

 

[Darkness665]

Well done, Movie Bob. I enjoyed Jersey Girl and the JL clarification does explain the oddly disconnected feeling it had. Several bits were funny and many well done. One could say that the main character went back to the middle of the road, safe, acceptable Jersey based work ethic versus climbing back on the advertising rat race. Much like Kevin has done since.

Tarantino? Ick. I always wondered what he would do if you was to actually make a real movie and not a montage of bits he really likes from other movies set to music he personally chose. Or in the case of Kill Bill, that he envisioned in a morphine dream. A wasted talent, although I will leave it to you to proclaim whether his base talent was higher or lower than of Kevin Smith.

 

[Mark Spada]

I don't understand why MovieBob insists on referring to Generation X as "his generation". If he was a teenager in 1994, he's not a part of Generation X. I was twenty-one in 1994. Kevin Smith was twenty-four. CLERKS and anything Smith was trying to say with it had to do with people like us who were, legally speaking, adults at that time in history. How would a teenager relate to barely eking out an existence while working at a convenience store? How would a teenager in 1994 relate to STAR WARS fandom, considering that they were still wearing diapers when RETURN OF THE JEDI was in movie theaters? Sorry, but in order to be a child of the eighties, you actually have to retain some substantial memories of interacting with the world during the eighties.

 

[Quoth]

Maybe I just like childish irreverant comedy, but Mallrats and Clerks 2 (and to some extend Dogma and Strikes Back) are amongst my favourite comedies. In particular in Clerks 2 there are 3 scenes that shine. The LoTRO argument, the learning to dance scene and in particular for me the dialogue and use of the camera revolving around Randal and Dante as they argue in the parking lot.

I never really understood what you were disappointed by other than, despite saying you don't hold it against Smith for roosting on his golden egg, your sounding a bit bitter that actually he is.