Tarantino the Tarantino of The Weinstein Company

<LINK_TEXT text=“http://www.businessinsider.com/kevin-sm … cks-2009-3”>Kevin Smith Ditches Harvey Weinstein for "a Couple of Dicks"</LINK_TEXT>



I thought that was a nice and entertaining article :wink:

The only Kevin Smith movie I’ve ever seen is Clerks, I really liked it at first, but after 3 views the whole thing got pretty boring. I mean who talks sex with highly verbose vocabulary? It just doesn’t happen, if he thinks a studio change will make his films better, he has another thing coming. The guy is a very lazy filmmaker, and he’s more of a comedian than an actual filmmaker. I mean he’s just like Tyler Perry, he uses the same characters over and over, he should really consider exploring other areas of filmmaking instead of the stuff he’s doing.

I thought Clerks was boring the first time I saw it. Kevin Smith is only moderately talented as a filmmaker. The only movies of his I really liked were Dogma and Chasing Amy… The rest were just bearable to watch… Kevin Smith should be thankful any studio is willing to take a chance on him at this stage of his career… I doubt the larger studios would have kept him around as long as the Weinsteins have after disasters like Jersey Girl



Maybe he’ll be more successful as a director if he doesn’t write his own scripts

I really dig Kevin Smith’s work. Clerks II was his best so far. I can watch it over and over and still laugh at parts. I was like that with Clerks when it first came out too. And Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back. I would not call him a poor filmmaker. He’s doing what he wants to do, and entertaining the shit outta me as he does it. I hope to see Red State get made sometime soon.

[quote=“Geoi”]
I really dig Kevin Smith’s work. Clerks II was his best so far. I can watch it over and over and still laugh at parts. I was like that with Clerks when it first came out too. And Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back. I would not call him a poor filmmaker. He’s doing what he wants to do, and entertaining the shit outta me as he does it. I hope to see Red State get made sometime soon.
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Agreed. I enjoyed Clerks 2 the most followed by Jay and Bob and Zack and Miri. I hope he makes Red State too.



I think all of his films are mediocre at best though, ranging from quite entertaining to quite boring. I think his true genius shines in his Evening With… DVDs. The first two of those are two of my favourite DVDs ever. Pure entertainment to be found in those live stand-up shows and I’d take them over any of his features.

I think his writing is funny at times, but his direction is nothing special. I never really understood why he had/has such a large following. His films are extremely shallow and get worse over repeat viewings.

I’m pretty sick of most films of today. They don’t compare to the works of Bette Davis, James Dean, Judy Garland, and the infinite amount of great stars that have passed us by. I think they were the best at what they did becuase they had theatre work as well, only a handful of actresses and actors do theatre in film today, people like Julianne Moore and Frances McDormand among others. I was watching East Of Eden yesterday and I felt a very different and odd sensation in me, I think it was just the power of the story that took over me and I just realized how most filmmakers of today will never reach this kind of greatness. Even a film like Slumdog Millionaire has way too many cuts and is heavily stylized with that Boyle signature, I’m not saying it’s a bad film but if you compare it to something like “Giant” the George Stevens movie, you will see that most great directors will step aside and let the story tell itself in the most simplest of forms by allowing the actors to express themselves without too much intervention, and I think that’s what makes a great director, someone who understands how to maintain the structure of a story without ruining its integrity by directing the actors too much, and I think most of all they really cared about their work and they never got tired, I mean George Stevens made “Giant” in 3 years! It took him three years of work to make it, and the result was a cinematic masterpiece that transcends time.



I don’t expect tevery filmmaker to shit greatness, I guess my point is too many directors take their careers for granted by making crap that no one will really give a shit about in the years to come. There’s really only a handful of filmmakers that can hold a candle to the greats of the past, and we all know who they are. It just seems to me that the kind of classic cinema that there used to be is becoming extinct, no thanks to the money-grubbing studio whores and the young small-scale directors like Zach Snyder who relies too much on cgi to tell a story. They don’t have any true skills, they’re just using visual enhancements to attract all the pimply teenagers who think “300” is one of the greatest films ever made. Fuck modern cinema, I’ll take a great acting performance and the vision of an ambitious director who knows what he’s doing over cgi-saturated films, which is where Hollywood is heading towards.

To be perfectly honest I think film has improved. Of course cinema of old was more focused on telling compelling stories with intelligent and powerful performances, but cinema today takes it a step further creating truly identifiable and encompassing cinematic experiences, stylistic films tend to create a more resonating film as opposed to telling a film straight. Acting itself has definitely improved with the popularity and now standard naturalistic approach to the craft. Of course not every film today can stand up to past classics, but that doesn’t mean some filmmakers today aren’t reaching that standard or in fact, surpassing it.



But yeah… Kevin Smith is a tool.

Kevin Smith is a tool… Makin buttloads of dough and being adored by millions. I wish I was a tool like Kevin Smith.

[quote=“Kinick”]
Agreed. I enjoyed Clerks 2 the most followed by Jay and Bob and Zack and Miri. I hope he makes Red State too.



I think all of his films are mediocre at best though, ranging from quite entertaining to quite boring. I think his true genius shines in his Evening With… DVDs. The first two of those are two of my favourite DVDs ever. Pure entertainment to be found in those live stand-up shows and I’d take them over any of his features.
[/quote]

Evening With… ROCKS! I’ve watched them all and very nearly pissed myself laughing on several occasions! He’s so fucking funny.



(edit: I’m not allowed to delete my own posts anymore… So, sorry for the double post, I meant to modify, and clicked reply instead.)

[quote=“Noir_Fiction”]
To be perfectly honest I think film has improved. Of course cinema of old was more focused on telling compelling stories with intelligent and powerful performances, but cinema today takes it a step further creating truly identifiable and encompassing cinematic experiences, stylistic films tend to create a more resonating film as opposed to telling a film straight. Acting itself has definitely improved with the popularity and now standard naturalistic approach to the craft. Of course not every film today can stand up to past classics, but that doesn’t mean some filmmakers today aren’t reaching that standard or in fact, surpassing it.



But yeah… Kevin Smith is a tool.
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I don't think anyone can surpass it, those films come very rarely. I just think 90% of films that are released today are mediocre and lazy. In horror films for example, lately all of them have been using the same format and there have also been a whole bunch of lousy remakes. I think the best filmmaker of today is PT, because he has more of a classic approach and he lets the actors build their own characters like Daniel-Day did in "There Will Be Blood", the Coens and QT do the same thing as well. I guess I just want to see more of that, we have to wait until November/December to catch them all. It's a pretty sucky proposition that has been enabled of see our crap all year long until winter, where the good films are released. Still, there are a remarkable amount of classic films that I have not seen, so there's a lot of catching up to do.