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An embarrassment for Kevin Smith.
So originally, Jay & Silent Bob Strike Back was supposed to be the ViewAskew Universe's final film. Closing Smith's history with these characters and moving on to something else. So we ended up getting Jersey Girl, which was ripped apart by critics and did not do well financially. Distraught by his first attempt at something other than his usual stoner jokes, he went back to the well and decided to try and close the chapters where it all started, with Clerks II. That film was a success and it really was a nice ending for those characters and that "universe".
So Smith was confident enough to end it there and branch out. Zach and Miri Make a Porno could have very well been a film in his Askew Universe. It was funny enough but controversy in advertising meant few people knew about it and it flopped. So Smith thought he'd try his hand at directing someone else's script for the first time and we received Cop Out. We all know how well that one went. Then Smith did something bold, something that other recent people who've had success in comedies have done and he reached out to the horror genre. His next slew of films were extremely weird and out there. Red State was his take on Fargo, Tusk was an ad he saw and thought it'd be funny to turn that into a movie, Yoga Hosers....the jury is still out on what the hell that was. He even did a short segment for the holiday horror film titled...Holidays.
At this point I felt like Smith was confused by his fanbase. So many people yelling at him for doing the same old stuff and to try something new, then he does and people cry that he should stick to doing what he knows best. Mixed messages from the crowd. Well, one heart attack later and Smith knew he had to film something so that Yoga Hosers wasn't the last film credit of his career.
So we go back to that profitable well. Jay and Silent Bob Reboot. It was around Red State where Smith was getting sick of the Hollywood game and he auctioned off the distribution rights of the film to the highest bidder. He bid one dollar and sold it to himself. What he did next was take the film on a road show tour, where you get a Q&A with him after the movie, this is where I saw the film and his Q&A was longer than the movie. He's done the same thing with Jay & Silent Bob, so don't be alarmed if you thought you missed it in theatres.
This movie is hard to watch. Smith thinks that if he calls himself out on his BS, that it is okay to subject people to it. This film is literally the exact same as Strikes Back. Our two stoner characters discover a movie is being made about them in Hollwood, they take a road trip to get there and stop it from being made. He literally uses the SAME JOKES from the first film and does he expect us to laugh because...nostalgia? Why waste your time with this movie when you can just watch the original and get the same content? Everyone are in their 50's now, seeing them act like they did in the early 90's is sad.
The film is a whose who of celeb cameos. Even his old friend Ben Affleck shows up in what is the best scene in the film. Smith actually shows some intelligent and emotional insight on what it's like being a father and it is an honest and genuine moment in a film that lacks many. Am I simply maturing out of Smith's crude sense of humour? No, I love Dogma and will still watch the hell out of Strikes Back. I find those movies hilarious. His attempt with Reboot is not. I do not think I had one real laugh the entire time. I might have chuckled, but if I did it was accompanied by some gas and was probably an accident.
His daughter "acts" in the movie. Again, Smith calls himself out with nepotism, but that doesn't stop the fact that she cannot act. She stalls the movie in every scene she is in and is extremely uncomfortable to hear her say some of the things she says while he dad is right there. She's been in a few of his last movies and I hope she has the acting bug out of her system. She is a distraction and nothing more. The film takes a weird left turn in the climax involving secret spies and Russia...I guess that's when the kitchen sink wasn't an option.
Is this only a film for loyal fans? Maybe. There are a lot of callbacks to his other films, the entire movie is actually a call back to his other films. But it feels like a safe and cheap cash grab aimed at the people that gave him a career in the first place. He takes aim at reboots in Hollywood and one would expect he would have something interesting to say about it, but he maybe dedicates one scene to this and then the film itself suffers from the issues he pointed out earlier. It's a Cop Out....haha.
Kevin Smith is a gifted storyteller, I could listen to any one of his numerous Hollywood stories and I have a few of his books, but this movie is pure laziness. Should he abandon Clerks 3 and Mallrats 2? Maybe, if the effort he puts forth is anything like this. Should he continue on with his weird and crazy filmography like Tusk and Yoga Hosers? Maybe. I don't have the answer, but I do know that I don't ever want to see a film like this again. It's almost insulting.
Jay & Silent Bob Reboot
"No offense to How High, but this is now the greatest movie ever made."
"No offense to How High, but this is now the greatest movie ever made."
An embarrassment for Kevin Smith.
So originally, Jay & Silent Bob Strike Back was supposed to be the ViewAskew Universe's final film. Closing Smith's history with these characters and moving on to something else. So we ended up getting Jersey Girl, which was ripped apart by critics and did not do well financially. Distraught by his first attempt at something other than his usual stoner jokes, he went back to the well and decided to try and close the chapters where it all started, with Clerks II. That film was a success and it really was a nice ending for those characters and that "universe".
So Smith was confident enough to end it there and branch out. Zach and Miri Make a Porno could have very well been a film in his Askew Universe. It was funny enough but controversy in advertising meant few people knew about it and it flopped. So Smith thought he'd try his hand at directing someone else's script for the first time and we received Cop Out. We all know how well that one went. Then Smith did something bold, something that other recent people who've had success in comedies have done and he reached out to the horror genre. His next slew of films were extremely weird and out there. Red State was his take on Fargo, Tusk was an ad he saw and thought it'd be funny to turn that into a movie, Yoga Hosers....the jury is still out on what the hell that was. He even did a short segment for the holiday horror film titled...Holidays.
At this point I felt like Smith was confused by his fanbase. So many people yelling at him for doing the same old stuff and to try something new, then he does and people cry that he should stick to doing what he knows best. Mixed messages from the crowd. Well, one heart attack later and Smith knew he had to film something so that Yoga Hosers wasn't the last film credit of his career.
So we go back to that profitable well. Jay and Silent Bob Reboot. It was around Red State where Smith was getting sick of the Hollywood game and he auctioned off the distribution rights of the film to the highest bidder. He bid one dollar and sold it to himself. What he did next was take the film on a road show tour, where you get a Q&A with him after the movie, this is where I saw the film and his Q&A was longer than the movie. He's done the same thing with Jay & Silent Bob, so don't be alarmed if you thought you missed it in theatres.
This movie is hard to watch. Smith thinks that if he calls himself out on his BS, that it is okay to subject people to it. This film is literally the exact same as Strikes Back. Our two stoner characters discover a movie is being made about them in Hollwood, they take a road trip to get there and stop it from being made. He literally uses the SAME JOKES from the first film and does he expect us to laugh because...nostalgia? Why waste your time with this movie when you can just watch the original and get the same content? Everyone are in their 50's now, seeing them act like they did in the early 90's is sad.
The film is a whose who of celeb cameos. Even his old friend Ben Affleck shows up in what is the best scene in the film. Smith actually shows some intelligent and emotional insight on what it's like being a father and it is an honest and genuine moment in a film that lacks many. Am I simply maturing out of Smith's crude sense of humour? No, I love Dogma and will still watch the hell out of Strikes Back. I find those movies hilarious. His attempt with Reboot is not. I do not think I had one real laugh the entire time. I might have chuckled, but if I did it was accompanied by some gas and was probably an accident.
His daughter "acts" in the movie. Again, Smith calls himself out with nepotism, but that doesn't stop the fact that she cannot act. She stalls the movie in every scene she is in and is extremely uncomfortable to hear her say some of the things she says while he dad is right there. She's been in a few of his last movies and I hope she has the acting bug out of her system. She is a distraction and nothing more. The film takes a weird left turn in the climax involving secret spies and Russia...I guess that's when the kitchen sink wasn't an option.
Is this only a film for loyal fans? Maybe. There are a lot of callbacks to his other films, the entire movie is actually a call back to his other films. But it feels like a safe and cheap cash grab aimed at the people that gave him a career in the first place. He takes aim at reboots in Hollywood and one would expect he would have something interesting to say about it, but he maybe dedicates one scene to this and then the film itself suffers from the issues he pointed out earlier. It's a Cop Out....haha.
Kevin Smith is a gifted storyteller, I could listen to any one of his numerous Hollywood stories and I have a few of his books, but this movie is pure laziness. Should he abandon Clerks 3 and Mallrats 2? Maybe, if the effort he puts forth is anything like this. Should he continue on with his weird and crazy filmography like Tusk and Yoga Hosers? Maybe. I don't have the answer, but I do know that I don't ever want to see a film like this again. It's almost insulting.