My Big Fat Kevin Smith Appreciation Week
Hello faithful readers! Yes, all three of you.
This Saturday should be awesome. Why, you ask? Well Kansas City’s only comic book convention worth noting is this Saturday and should be reasonably entertaining (I think last year had more guests that I was excited to see, but still it will probably be fun). But the big news, for myself at least, is writer/director Kevin Smith is coming to town and doing his Evening with Kevin Smith type routine. For those of you not familiar with the “Evening” series of DVDs, essentially Kevin Smith gained a fair amount of popularity doing college lectures to the point where he realized he had an audience that would pay money to hear him talk. So he stands up, talks, answers questions, etc. And he’s really funny… or at least if you find his particular brand of toilet humor funny in his films you would probably be amused here.
And I got third row seats the day they went on sale… because I’m that big of a nerd.
So in celebration, I have decided to bust out some of my old DVDs and take a look back at some of his films.
First up is Mallrats.
I know what you’re thinking, “But Jason, Mallrats is the second film Kevin Smith did! Why not start at the beginning, with Clerks, the low-budget film that pushed Smith to become a name in geek popular media?” And to which I would reply, “How dare you tell me how to run my blog!”
In all seriousness I don’t have a solid reason for skipping Clerks, I just didn’t feel like watching it last night. Why? I suppose partially because I hadn’t seen Mallrats in years, perhaps even the better part of a decade. It was one of the first DVDs I bought and I watched it quite a bit when it came out, but it’s not one I returned back to very often.
So here’s the story summary: Two college aged slackers (played by Jason Lee & Jeremy London) get dumped by their respective significant others (Shannen Doherty & Claire Forlani) and decide to go to the mall to get their mind off their girls problems only to find out that Doherty in a matter of hours from her breakup has hooked up with a slimeball proprietor of a men’s clothing store (played by Ben Affleck) and Forlani’s father has chosen her to be a part of his new dating game show and said show is of course being held at the mall (nothing like a noisy, open environment for a TV show, not like you would be inviting yourself to be interrupted by crying kids or heckling spectators) . And of course hijinks ensue.
This film has not aged well. Ok, maybe I should clarify, the film didn’t get stellar reviews when it came out, but upon reflection, it hasn’t aged as well for me. As someone who thought it was hilarious when it came out, I would hesitate to say it was bad, but I will say it’s not very good.
The intention here was to do a modern day teen-sex comedy in the vein of Porky’s. And in that regards I think it failed. Yes there are naked breasts, and somewhat frank discussions of characters sex lives… but it all feels rather tame, even childlike at times. Lee’s character of Brodie is obsessed with superheroes and so when he runs into Marvel creator Stan Lee, Brodie asks about various superhero sex organs. …Yeeaaah. There’s less wit here then I recall in Clerks, lines like “Why buy the cow when you can have the sex for free” tend to fall flat for me now. And the script has several references that only Smith and his friends (or those who loyally follow his work like myself) would get, like a reference to a security guard being faster than “Walt Flanagan’s dog.” Who’s Walt Flanagan? Why Kevin Smith’s friend of course! After all, it is not like references to people 99% of the audience won’t know is distracting or anything, or at least that’s what Colonel Sprocks always says.
There’s also a bit of a problem with the acting. I love Jason Lee, but this was one of his earliest roles and it shows. He still has a natural charisma that helps gets him through, but his timing seems off just a hair and his reading a bit forced. Similarly, Jeremy London, while I think at this point had a bit more acting experience then Lee, seemed more interested in saying his lines as quickly as possible rather than making his dialogue seem natural. I suspect this is because Smith tried to replicate the rapid-fire patter between Dante & Randall in Clerks and that didn’t quite work. It’s not horrible, but it is noticeable. Forlani’s fake American accent also seems to be a bit more noticeable as well, though really she’s otherwise fine. And actually Ben Affleck is pretty good as a rather menacing slimeball (make your own jokes here). Doherty is actually one of the best actresses in the film, which I don’t think I ever really paid much attention to in the past. I blame my 90210 prejudices.
The direction is… similarly quite weak. Smith I don’t think will ever be remembered as a great cinematographer but the guy in his more recent works has grown somewhat. But those early growing pains are really obvious here, perhaps even more so with Clerks, where its black & white low-budget feel makes the stiff camera work feel not so out of place, but here Smith tries to do a little bit of action and it ends up just highlighting the weaknesses here. It feels oddly like a low budget cartoon. The action bits are clearly silly, over-the-top, but the stiffness robs it.
And yet… despite all these problems I can’t hate the film, nor even say it was bad. Smith’s energy is a bit infectious here, and while not all the jokes work there’s enough and they are delivered fast enough that I got a few chuckles here and there. Plus despite the raw edge of many of them, you can see why Smith stuck with actors like Lee, Affleck, and Joey Lauren Adams. And despite it being very low-brow, if you turn off the artsy-fartsy part of your brain, well it still won’t be great, but it might just be good enough to get some laughs.
So would I recommend it? Honestly no, I can’t suggest someone just go out and see it unless they are already a fan of Smith’s films and want to explore his past stories. But, if you do see it, try to view as an artist who’s still finding his legs and it is an intriguing experiment, and perhaps its failure both in the box office and with critics lead to him making his next film, Chasing Amy, which was a huge success and possibly one of my favorite films he’s done.
Until next time!
This Saturday should be awesome. Why, you ask? Well Kansas City’s only comic book convention worth noting is this Saturday and should be reasonably entertaining (I think last year had more guests that I was excited to see, but still it will probably be fun). But the big news, for myself at least, is writer/director Kevin Smith is coming to town and doing his Evening with Kevin Smith type routine. For those of you not familiar with the “Evening” series of DVDs, essentially Kevin Smith gained a fair amount of popularity doing college lectures to the point where he realized he had an audience that would pay money to hear him talk. So he stands up, talks, answers questions, etc. And he’s really funny… or at least if you find his particular brand of toilet humor funny in his films you would probably be amused here.
And I got third row seats the day they went on sale… because I’m that big of a nerd.
So in celebration, I have decided to bust out some of my old DVDs and take a look back at some of his films.
First up is Mallrats.
I know what you’re thinking, “But Jason, Mallrats is the second film Kevin Smith did! Why not start at the beginning, with Clerks, the low-budget film that pushed Smith to become a name in geek popular media?” And to which I would reply, “How dare you tell me how to run my blog!”
In all seriousness I don’t have a solid reason for skipping Clerks, I just didn’t feel like watching it last night. Why? I suppose partially because I hadn’t seen Mallrats in years, perhaps even the better part of a decade. It was one of the first DVDs I bought and I watched it quite a bit when it came out, but it’s not one I returned back to very often.
So here’s the story summary: Two college aged slackers (played by Jason Lee & Jeremy London) get dumped by their respective significant others (Shannen Doherty & Claire Forlani) and decide to go to the mall to get their mind off their girls problems only to find out that Doherty in a matter of hours from her breakup has hooked up with a slimeball proprietor of a men’s clothing store (played by Ben Affleck) and Forlani’s father has chosen her to be a part of his new dating game show and said show is of course being held at the mall (nothing like a noisy, open environment for a TV show, not like you would be inviting yourself to be interrupted by crying kids or heckling spectators) . And of course hijinks ensue.
This film has not aged well. Ok, maybe I should clarify, the film didn’t get stellar reviews when it came out, but upon reflection, it hasn’t aged as well for me. As someone who thought it was hilarious when it came out, I would hesitate to say it was bad, but I will say it’s not very good.
The intention here was to do a modern day teen-sex comedy in the vein of Porky’s. And in that regards I think it failed. Yes there are naked breasts, and somewhat frank discussions of characters sex lives… but it all feels rather tame, even childlike at times. Lee’s character of Brodie is obsessed with superheroes and so when he runs into Marvel creator Stan Lee, Brodie asks about various superhero sex organs. …Yeeaaah. There’s less wit here then I recall in Clerks, lines like “Why buy the cow when you can have the sex for free” tend to fall flat for me now. And the script has several references that only Smith and his friends (or those who loyally follow his work like myself) would get, like a reference to a security guard being faster than “Walt Flanagan’s dog.” Who’s Walt Flanagan? Why Kevin Smith’s friend of course! After all, it is not like references to people 99% of the audience won’t know is distracting or anything, or at least that’s what Colonel Sprocks always says.
There’s also a bit of a problem with the acting. I love Jason Lee, but this was one of his earliest roles and it shows. He still has a natural charisma that helps gets him through, but his timing seems off just a hair and his reading a bit forced. Similarly, Jeremy London, while I think at this point had a bit more acting experience then Lee, seemed more interested in saying his lines as quickly as possible rather than making his dialogue seem natural. I suspect this is because Smith tried to replicate the rapid-fire patter between Dante & Randall in Clerks and that didn’t quite work. It’s not horrible, but it is noticeable. Forlani’s fake American accent also seems to be a bit more noticeable as well, though really she’s otherwise fine. And actually Ben Affleck is pretty good as a rather menacing slimeball (make your own jokes here). Doherty is actually one of the best actresses in the film, which I don’t think I ever really paid much attention to in the past. I blame my 90210 prejudices.
The direction is… similarly quite weak. Smith I don’t think will ever be remembered as a great cinematographer but the guy in his more recent works has grown somewhat. But those early growing pains are really obvious here, perhaps even more so with Clerks, where its black & white low-budget feel makes the stiff camera work feel not so out of place, but here Smith tries to do a little bit of action and it ends up just highlighting the weaknesses here. It feels oddly like a low budget cartoon. The action bits are clearly silly, over-the-top, but the stiffness robs it.
And yet… despite all these problems I can’t hate the film, nor even say it was bad. Smith’s energy is a bit infectious here, and while not all the jokes work there’s enough and they are delivered fast enough that I got a few chuckles here and there. Plus despite the raw edge of many of them, you can see why Smith stuck with actors like Lee, Affleck, and Joey Lauren Adams. And despite it being very low-brow, if you turn off the artsy-fartsy part of your brain, well it still won’t be great, but it might just be good enough to get some laughs.
So would I recommend it? Honestly no, I can’t suggest someone just go out and see it unless they are already a fan of Smith’s films and want to explore his past stories. But, if you do see it, try to view as an artist who’s still finding his legs and it is an intriguing experiment, and perhaps its failure both in the box office and with critics lead to him making his next film, Chasing Amy, which was a huge success and possibly one of my favorite films he’s done.
Until next time!