Is Kevin Smith's career over?
07-23-10, 07:45 AM
#76
DVD Talk Hall of Fame
Re: Is Kevin Smith's career over?
I never cared for the show Yes, Dear, but my wife watches the re-runs on TBS and there was an episode in which Kevin Smith appeared as himself. Anyway, the krux of the episode is that Jimmy the security guard (a redneck lucky to make it through high school) runs into Smith at the premiere of the film in a bathroom, unaware who the guy is, and just blasts the movie for sucking.
Jimmy had attended in the stead of his brother-in-law, an executive at the studio, who took heat for the bashing from his boss. In the end of the episode, Smith comes in and reconciles, saying that he'd been surrounded by a bunch of "yes" people the whole time and really needed some honesty to show him that what he'd made was crap.
It sounds to me like this episode is playing out in real life right now, but in fairness I haven't seen Cop Out so I don't know if I would think it was crap or not. I just know that a great many people failed to respond to it, from professional critics to Internet fanboys and movie-goers in between. One thing that struck me as very unusual for someone as prolific as Smith is that I never saw or heard his name touted in any of the trailers or TV spots I saw for the film. I thought that was odd, and wondered if he'd requested not to be too publicly linked with the film...or if the studio didn't care to link the film to him.
Jimmy had attended in the stead of his brother-in-law, an executive at the studio, who took heat for the bashing from his boss. In the end of the episode, Smith comes in and reconciles, saying that he'd been surrounded by a bunch of "yes" people the whole time and really needed some honesty to show him that what he'd made was crap.
It sounds to me like this episode is playing out in real life right now, but in fairness I haven't seen Cop Out so I don't know if I would think it was crap or not. I just know that a great many people failed to respond to it, from professional critics to Internet fanboys and movie-goers in between. One thing that struck me as very unusual for someone as prolific as Smith is that I never saw or heard his name touted in any of the trailers or TV spots I saw for the film. I thought that was odd, and wondered if he'd requested not to be too publicly linked with the film...or if the studio didn't care to link the film to him.
07-23-10, 04:19 PM
#77
DVD Talk Legend
Re: Is Kevin Smith's career over?
Hes dropping F bombs left and right in CCI panels, and ruffling some comic fans. At least he admits to his lack of talent. How dare fans be passionate about characters they support.
http://www.comicbookresources.com/?p...ticle&id=27376
"Honoring the character takes a degree of talent that I only [have] in drips and drabs," Smith continued. He also brought up how people complain about Batman being lost in time.
"Batman's not real, mother fucker. Batman isn't really friends with Superman," he said. "For me, when people start saying that 'Bruce is lost in space, how dare they?' He'll be back. He broke his back and came back. People are bitching to me about the Wonder Woman costume change. I had nothing to do with it. It's fucking comics; give it two minutes and she'll be back in the bathing suit."
..."He's got to have stubble next time," he said. The writer joked that he might give Batman a ZZ Top beard, with the cover featuring the chest symbol obscured by the hair. Smith did admit that he actually didn't encounter that many restrictions when writing and he felt that the few restrictions they did have allowed him to think more creatively. "It forces you to try and do something creative within the constraints. But to be fair, they didn't give us a lot of constraints."
"I'm not going to hand in a script where Bruce and Tim are on a rooftop and the signal goes off and Tim starts sucking Batman's cock," he joked. "Once you play in the rules, it's kind of easy."
"Batman's not real, mother fucker. Batman isn't really friends with Superman," he said. "For me, when people start saying that 'Bruce is lost in space, how dare they?' He'll be back. He broke his back and came back. People are bitching to me about the Wonder Woman costume change. I had nothing to do with it. It's fucking comics; give it two minutes and she'll be back in the bathing suit."
..."He's got to have stubble next time," he said. The writer joked that he might give Batman a ZZ Top beard, with the cover featuring the chest symbol obscured by the hair. Smith did admit that he actually didn't encounter that many restrictions when writing and he felt that the few restrictions they did have allowed him to think more creatively. "It forces you to try and do something creative within the constraints. But to be fair, they didn't give us a lot of constraints."
"I'm not going to hand in a script where Bruce and Tim are on a rooftop and the signal goes off and Tim starts sucking Batman's cock," he joked. "Once you play in the rules, it's kind of easy."
Last edited by stingermck; 07-23-10 at 04:21 PM.
07-23-10, 04:42 PM
#78
DVD Talk Platinum Edition
Re: Is Kevin Smith's career over?
You keep posting about the same thing over and over. If our interest in why Smith has such a rabid following bothers you so much, stop reading the thread.
07-23-10, 09:52 PM
#81
DVD Talk Reviewer
Thread Starter
Re: Is Kevin Smith's career over?
Hes dropping F bombs left and right in CCI panels, and ruffling some comic fans. At least he admits to his lack of talent. How dare fans be passionate about characters they support.
http://www.comicbookresources.com/?p...ticle&id=27376
http://www.comicbookresources.com/?p...ticle&id=27376
07-23-10, 10:47 PM
#82
DVD Talk Godfather
Re: Is Kevin Smith's career over?
Two posts in 90 is over and over? Riiight. And no it doesn't bother me. I just find it funny(hence the smiley in one of those two posts) that people have so much hatred for a dude they've never met. Smith has small budgets and his films make money. His career isn't over, love, hate or otherwise.
07-23-10, 10:57 PM
#83
DVD Talk Hall of Fame
Re: Is Kevin Smith's career over?
And before anyone bothers to call me out for participating in the very kind of thread I'm saying we could do without, 1) I only mentioned an episode of a TV series in which Kevin Smith was confronted by criticism, and 2) I may well be guilty of hypocrisy here and if so, I plead guilty rather than compound my sins. I still think we could do without these kinds of pointless speculations about where someone's career is headed.
07-24-10, 12:20 AM
#86
DVD Talk Platinum Edition
Re: Is Kevin Smith's career over?
Two posts in 90 is over and over? Riiight. And no it doesn't bother me. I just find it funny(hence the smiley in one of those two posts) that people have so much hatred for a dude they've never met. Smith has small budgets and his films make money. His career isn't over, love, hate or otherwise.
I just find it interesting when people complain about others have an opinion. As for people having hatred for someone they never met, welcome to the human race. That's something that we do quite well.
07-24-10, 12:59 AM
#87
Re: Is Kevin Smith's career over?
Jersey Girl and Zach and Miri, while being far from great movies, were not all that bad. I actually liked the Jersey Girl as a movie by itself. No, it wasn't Clerks or Mallrats, nor was it trying to be. Zach and Miri was decent, but I really felt it was Kevin Smith trying to be Judd Apatow.
I am never going to give Cop Out a spin in my Blu-Ray player. You can't get me to watch that movie for free...I have heard enough bad things about it to know it stinks.
So while I think his last great movie was Dogma (and I can't say I particularly cared all that much for Clerks II...it was OK but overrated) I would hate to rule him out yet because of one turd in the punch bowl. His strong point has always been dialogue driven movies. I think I'd actually like to see him do a movie adaptation of Kyle Baker's "Why I Hate Saturn" book for a movie. That's such an awesome book and had needed to be made into a movie for more than 20 years now, and it's so rich in dialogue and driven in dialogue I think Kevin would be the man to make it into a movie.
Maybe if he just tried to focus on making smaller movies and stopped trying to make the next Clerks he would be OK. I can't see an idea like "Why I Hate Saturn" being the next Clerks, but I bet it would make for a good indie film.
I am never going to give Cop Out a spin in my Blu-Ray player. You can't get me to watch that movie for free...I have heard enough bad things about it to know it stinks.
So while I think his last great movie was Dogma (and I can't say I particularly cared all that much for Clerks II...it was OK but overrated) I would hate to rule him out yet because of one turd in the punch bowl. His strong point has always been dialogue driven movies. I think I'd actually like to see him do a movie adaptation of Kyle Baker's "Why I Hate Saturn" book for a movie. That's such an awesome book and had needed to be made into a movie for more than 20 years now, and it's so rich in dialogue and driven in dialogue I think Kevin would be the man to make it into a movie.
Maybe if he just tried to focus on making smaller movies and stopped trying to make the next Clerks he would be OK. I can't see an idea like "Why I Hate Saturn" being the next Clerks, but I bet it would make for a good indie film.
07-24-10, 08:28 AM
#89
Senior Member
Join Date: Nov 2002
Location: Illinois
Posts: 783
Likes: 0
Received 0 Likes
on
0 Posts
Re: Is Kevin Smith's career over?
If you listen to Smodcast, all he wants to do anymore is get stoned and screw his fleshlight. Not sure he has much desire to do movies since that would interfere with those two things. It's sad because I really enjoy his early stuff, and even listening to Smodcast makes me laugh from time to time. The guy has the art of telling good and funny stories. If only he could channel that back into movies.
07-24-10, 09:08 AM
#90
Re: Is Kevin Smith's career over?
If you listen to Smodcast, all he wants to do anymore is get stoned and screw his fleshlight. Not sure he has much desire to do movies since that would interfere with those two things. It's sad because I really enjoy his early stuff, and even listening to Smodcast makes me laugh from time to time. The guy has the art of telling good and funny stories. If only he could channel that back into movies.
07-24-10, 10:33 AM
#91
07-24-10, 10:50 AM
#92
DVD Talk Hall of Fame
Re: Is Kevin Smith's career over?
If you want to know if his career is over or not, why don't you come down to the Comic Con tonight and see for yourself? There will probably be 7,000 people there to see him...
07-24-10, 11:42 AM
#93
Re: Is Kevin Smith's career over?
That's why I think he needs to focus on dialogue driven movies. He really needs to try to do something along the lines of a movie like My Dinner With Andre. Not a remake, but something along those lines.
07-24-10, 12:17 PM
#94
DVD Talk Hero
07-24-10, 12:59 PM
#95
DVD Talk Gold Edition
Join Date: Jul 2007
Posts: 2,134
Likes: 0
Received 0 Likes
on
0 Posts
Re: Is Kevin Smith's career over?
Agreed. He may have the fan passion for comic books and stuff, but he simply does not have the directorial talent needed to pull off a large scale action film. I enjoy his movies for the dialogue, in terms of camerawork and staging, well, there isn't really anything to say.
07-24-10, 01:11 PM
#96
DVD Talk Godfather
07-24-10, 03:30 PM
#98
DVD Talk Limited Edition
Join Date: Apr 2000
Location: NJ, the place where smiles go to die
Posts: 7,393
Likes: 0
Received 1 Like
on
1 Post
Re: Is Kevin Smith's career over?
Really? Have you read through this thread or done a search on him here? There are people defending him endlessly & he is one of the most popular directors here, look how many people actually bought Cop Out.
07-25-10, 02:27 AM
#100