Kevin Smith is My Hero.
Peter Wells | December 23, 2008I few days ago the lovely Chris Bright took apart Kevin Smith’s latest film, Zack and Miri make a Porno. I really enjoyed the film, so i felt the need to defend it.
Zack and Miri is great fun. I hate writing, more of a talking man, so fuck it, thats all you’re getting til the podcast comes out.
What make Kevin Smith my hero though is his openness, and his ability to engage with his fans. He runs a forum, which these days is not too groundbreaking for tv shows, but is still pretty rare for big time film makers.
Rather than just use the forum to drive traffic and hock shit, the guy actually joins the conversations. He posts Lolcats in the lolcats thread, defends Macs in the Mac vs PC thread, and is generally just another user of the site. More importantly, in the recent Zack and Miri threads he hasnt been delete posts that say the film was crap, or the marketing was terrible, he’s responded to them.
But it’s his podcasts that really are fantastic.
In episode 68 of Smodcast, Kevin Smith and his producer Scott Moiser sit down and try and work out why Zack and Miri made far less money than it should have. Its a frank and heartbreakingly funny discussion, something so rare in an industry of bullshit press releases. They never really get to the answer, but they didn’t really need to. The Halloween release date ensured the target demographic for the film were out all weekend getting shit-faced, the word “Porno” did the rest.
Its a damn shame, because this is probably one of Kevin’s best films. When the film finally gets released in bloody February here, i urge everyone to see it at the cinema, and give Kevin the kind of opening weekend box office he deserved. I will, and I’ve already seen the film 3 times.
Oh, and the guy is even on twitter:
I haven't seen Zack and Miri yet — @squozen and
crumpet | December 23, 2008I haven’t seen Zack and Miri yet — @squozen and I have definite plans to see it in the cinema when it finally starts showing here. I laughed so hard in Clerks II that, at one point, I literally almost fell off the seat in the cinema.
@Crumpet, you'll really enjoy it. It's got all the crass
Peter Wells | December 23, 2008@Crumpet, you’ll really enjoy it. It’s got all the crass humour you’d expect, but its still wonderfully grown-up for a Kevin Smith film
Kevin Smith is a fucking champion. Like you said, in
Anthony Agius | December 23, 2008Kevin Smith is a fucking champion. Like you said, in an industry full of cunts and arseholes, he is just a dude who loves movies and loves to make them. It helps he makes a damn fine movie too, but still, it’s beyond refreshing to listen to someone so accomplished as Kevin just shoot the shit about it all.
Hey, don't get me wrong, I love Kevin Smith as
Chris Bright | December 24, 2008Hey, don’t get me wrong, I love Kevin Smith as much as the next guy, I just thought the film was crap.
I’ll admit that I was probably a little harsh in my review but I guess that’s just because I was expecting more from a Smith/Rogen collaboration.
After reading your review Chris, I decided I had to
Daniel Jackson | December 28, 2008After reading your review Chris, I decided I had to check out the film, to see what I thought.
I’m in a ’special situation’, not really having seen a whole lot of Kevin Smiths classics, so I had no expectation of what I wanted the film to live up to.
I think my opinion falls somewhere between Chris’s and Pete’s.
I thought there were quite a few gags in the first third of the movie that for me, bombed, but at end of the thing I was left feeling all happily gooey (in a non in-my-pants way) – my feminine side couldn’t but help get sucked into that romance, but I was also left confused; despite some jokes miss-firing at the start, there were plenty of “lol’s”, and I was taken off guard by the romance thing – that was the one thing I wasn’t quite expecting. So I’m not sure how much I did or didn’t like it!
Two and a half stars? Probably have to watch it again after some mind clearing meditation.
[...] by Kevin Smith. I’ve already shown I’m a fanboy,
Fulltime Casual - An Australian Film and TV Podcast » Best DVD Commentary Tracks | January 9, 2009[...] by Kevin Smith. I’ve already shown I’m a fanboy, so take this as you will, but Kevin can talk some shit. Highlights include the Special/Collectors [...]