July 22nd, 2006
Kevin Smith and “Brutal” or “BRUtal”?
What ever happened to Kevin Smith? Now, I haven’t seen Clerks 2, but I have to admit I’m not optimistic about it. I loved the first Clerks, Mallrats and even Chasing Amy (tolerable mostly thanks to Jason Lee) had its moments, but Dogma was a disaster and Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back was joke-free and cringy.
This week, a high profile American critic walked out of a press screening after 40 minutes. Good Morning America’s film critic Joel Siegel shouted “Time to go! First movie I’ve walked out of in 30 fucking years” before storming out in a huff. Kevin Smith (understandably) was none too happy, deeming Siegel’s behaviour rude. Xan Brooks on the Guardian’s Culture Vulture blog wonders if Smith might “damn the critic with his own words” by sticking the offending quote on promotional posters. It would certainly reinforce the adage that there’s no such thing as bad publicity.
If Smith did so, it would recontextualise the remark, which reminds me of a story a film reviewer friend told me. A few years back, an Irish film (he thinks it was The Courier) received a less than favourable review by an Irish publication. On the promotional poster a one word quote appeared, which was “brutal”. Construed in the Hollywood sense, people might have thought they were going to see something powerful and gritty. In fact the word was used in its Dublin sense, i.e. to mean ‘total rubbish’, pronounced with emphasis on the first syllable; “BRU-tal”.
At least Salon likes it and it has, for the moment, a 66% ‘fresh’ rating on rottentomatoes.com.
Clerks 2 is release in the UK and Ireland on August 18th.
July 22nd, 2006 at 12:46 pm
I quite liked Dogma, though it wasn’t a great film by any stretch of the imagination.
July 22nd, 2006 at 2:13 pm
Yeah, and Ben Affleck tends to ruin any film he appears in.
God, I can’t believe I didn’t mention Smith’s worst one (another Affleck one), Jersey Girl, with J-Lo in it.
Truly awful stuff.
July 22nd, 2006 at 3:53 pm
Smith & the critic (Joel Siegel) went at it on the radio the other day. MP3 at his blog here: http://www.silentbobspeaks.com/
I like Smith but Siegel apologised so he should let it go… he’s milking it now. Which is what the marketers would want since he’s promoting a new movie…
His movies are starting to suck but his Stand-up/Q&A things are funny…
July 22nd, 2006 at 5:37 pm
I quite liked Dogma, though it wasn’t a great film by any stretch of the imagination.
The problem with Dogma (well, one of them at any rate) was that the disastrous female lead was imposed on Smith by the studio. I agree that Clerks II doesn’t seem like a good idea - the stars are getting a little long in the tooth to be doing this kind of stuff now.
July 26th, 2006 at 12:04 pm
Ah, c’mon, Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back had some great bits. Or maybe I was just very drunk when I watched it… Either way, the bit with Jay rapping to “Tha muthafuckin’ Time” still makes me giggle.
I believe a hardcore anti-Ben Affleck campaign should be launched. I really don’t understand how he gets work, what with being one of the worst actors of all time and having no charm, charisma or any of the other things which surely need to be in place before someone becomes a Hollywood Soopastar. All it would take is a stray moped, dropped from, say, twenty stories up.
The Moped Sniper Strikes Again!
October 17th, 2006 at 3:09 am
What is it with Affleck? I like many of his movies, but I don’t like the guy. He’s kinda of a joke, in my opinion, and I can’t put my finger on why.