Clerks is his best. The beauty of it is that it is pointless. The scene where they are talking about whether the subcontractors on the second Death Star were victims or not is all the more funny when you realize that they are convenience store clerks. The movie has killer lines, and is truly an ode to the working man.
It is stupid humor, but done exceptionally well, as opposed to, say, Deuce Bigalow, Male Gigolo.
I agree he’s miles ahead of Rob Schneider or Adam Sandler but he’ best when he just sticks to that slice-of-life, regular guy kind of of humor. I don’t think it works when he tries to go to deep.
I will say that he understands fanboy culture to a tee.
Hey I love the movies. I own Clerks, Clerks cartoon, Mallrats, Dogma, and Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back.
if the OP thinks that, They’re not poignant, funny, or relevant. There is no “redeeming social value” in any of them. I DON’T FUCKING CARE! so don’t watch them. I happen to find almost everything he does funny. I like the comic-geek influence. The Star Wars stuff kills me. Kevin Smith is making a buck and supporting his family making dick and fart joke movies my hats-off to him.
If my opinions make me a socially inept, irrelevant, geek, OH FUCKING WELL!
DocCathode, You are the wind beneath my wings. Your post is one of the best examples of understated humor that I have seen in a while.
Certainly, TERRA is surely entitled to his/her opinion. Still, I for one think his movies are amusing, if not real on some level. Dogma was by far the best written, and takes an honest poke at religion (how in the devil can THAT not be relevant?) Despite the disclaimer, the points were well made (although they were a bit drawn out, I admit).
So, TERRA, when you sit down and write, produce, and star in your own movie, I’ll be right there to tell you just how funny, poignant, and relevant your movie is.
You know what I find funny about Kevin Smith movies? How often I find my friends and myself having conversations JUST LIKE THAT. Hell, my girlfriend and I had a two day running argument about the color of Luke Skywalker’s lightsaber. It’s kinda like a “Friends” for us dorks.
Eh, I like 'em because they’ve got some funny moments, and I think they’re fairly good movies, if not art-house films.
Now the appeal of Kevin Smith, on the other hand, is obvious, at least for me. My fiance looks a bunch like Silent Bob. 
I wasn’t even supposed to be on line today, but since I am, I have to second the opinion that if you don’t like Kevin Smith, then don’t watch his movies. If you spent time watching a half a dozen movies that you didn’t particularly care for just to score points with your boss, well, you might have some self-esteem issues that need to be worked out before the inside jokes and appeal of Smith’s movies can be explained. No one will think any less of you if you don’t like them, no one will shun you for not watching them. People have different tastes; accept it and move on.
I watched Citizen Kane, and failed to see how it was ranked as the greatest American film, when Inherit The Wind and Saving Private Ryan weren’t even nominated. But I don’t dwell on it, and I’ve led a pretty productive life since then. But don’t get me started on Strange Brew. The AMPAS dropped the ball in not giving Moranis and Thomas at least a writing award.
Jeez, say what you think and watch the daggers fly!
I was expecting the flames, of course, cause I get it at work all the time.
Now, I watched the movies, and I didn’t find them relevant, etc. I still don’t understand the appeal of them. Simply put, I thought they weren’t all that good.
I mean, I’ve NEVER had that big a debate over Star Wars continuity.
While I work in a comic book store, I’ve never met ANYONE like Steve-Dave OR Walt.
My boss isn’t like Brodie.
I’ve NEVER had a crisis of faith like Bethany.
I’ll admit to being un-hip sometimes (and I probably just showed it by typing that), but I still don’t understand how KS has generated this devoted and fanatical following.
I mean, it’s good for him that he has his fans, and I’m sure he could give a flying fuck what I think of him. I sincerely wish him, like I wish everyone else, all the success he can get in life. I just don’t understand the appeal.
If someone could explain it to me, that’d be nice.
Hence, a good example of why you don’t find KS amusing. See, I’m a pretty big Star Wars fan, but I’m a complete SW newb compared to some of my friends. I’ve heard entire afternoons pass filled with nothing but debates like that. You are obviously not a huge Star Wars geek, or that scene would have been funny, because you’d heard conversations like that before.
As an aside, I have a question for you…if you work in a comic book shop…how have you NOT heard conversations like that?!?
boggles
Well, you can’t really relate to the storyline/characters if you haven’t had any experince with the situations that occur to them. From your post it is clear your not the type of person who would identify with his type of humor/situations Smith presents, because you don’t know enough about it to fully understand.
Everywhere you go, everywhere you look there will always be people in life who succeed way, way, WAY past any talent, ability or worth that they may have.
You may have noticed this at work. Maybe you have a manager (or two or three) who aren’t even qualified to be a shipping clerk, yet they get to make big decisions and big salaries.
Kevin Smith is like that–only worse. Even Alan Smithee would be ashamed to put his name on one of Smith’s “films”.
The weird part is, his “product” is in broad daylight for all to see and yet he STILL gets money to make new and horrible facsimiles of motion pictures. This may or may not have something to do with him regularly blowing some tall, dark, handsome and rich actor from New England.
Few directors have ever shown less ability to direct actors. The characters in his films seem to be surprised to find themselves involved in a story. And even the ‘witty’ one-liners about dicks and piss and shit and other schoolyard trash can’t help. Even the awfully edited reaction shots of his sidekick’s ‘shocked’ look that seem like they were filmed 4 years and 3 states away from the ‘action’ shot that preceded it can’t help.
No, about the only thing that keeps this charlatan afloat (aside from the dick-licking) is the ‘word-of-mouth’ buzz passed faithfully from one lemming to another-- around and around the buzz goes-- until even sensible people are afraid to admit that Kevin Smith and his attempts at film just flat out suck.
It’s like the Emperors New Clothes-- no one wants to say the dirty secret… but I’ll shout it from the rooftops…
HE SUCKS. HORRIBLY. DON’T EVER, EVER, SUPPORT THIS MORON BY EVEN GLANCING AT A SCREEN SPEWING HIS SHIT!
Cheers to those who aren’t afraid to admit this. May the rest of you either wake up, or be forced to wallow in 2nd grade bathroom humor the rest of your lives.
My son rented Clerks and we laughed our asses off. Completely off! So I rent it again so my friend can see it. She hated every second of it. Found NOTHING redeeming or entertaining about it. Go figure.
I Love Me, you say 2nd grade bathroom humor like it’s a BAD thing!
Besides which, much of it is 6th grade bathroom humor.
I’ll chime in and say that I found Clerks and Mallrats to be some of the worst atrocities committed to celluloid.
The appeal they have, if any, is obviously beyond me.
However, if other people can glean some type of entertainment from those flicks, more power to them.
Well, I like his movies. Most of them, anyway. I love “Clerks” and “Mallrats.” I didn’t like “Chasing Amy” so much because of Ben Affleck, who I can’t see without wanted to smack in the head. I liked “Dogma” better, because Affleck was supposed to be playing a bad guy and, if nothing else, he’s completely believable as an asshole. My son and I watched “Jay and Silent Bob” and thought it was pretty funny and lots of fun…
That said, tastes differ. I myself am a former comics-fan/ geek and that may have something to do with my affection for these films, I don’t know. One of these nights I’m going to rent at least “Clerks” and “Mallrats” and see what my husband thinks. He’s got no geek in him at all, so I’m thinking he won’t like them. We’ll see.
I Love Myself, what is your problem? Why can you not accept that some people enjoy Kevin Smith films? Shit, some people enjoy James Bond flicks and still others think blaxploitation is the best genre ever.
What is so brave' and honest’ about stating an opinion? Here, let me do it a few times:
[ul]
[li]Dubya Bush is a confused muppet who cannot be trusted around snack food.[/li][li]Al Gore is a slimy politician who has the personality of cream cheese.[/li][li]The Communist Party lost touch with reality sometime around its founding.[/li][li]The DMCA is the worst thing to happen to free speech in this country since the Alien and Sedition Acts.[/li][/ul]There. That wasn’t so hard, was it? And my opinions are on things that fucking matter. What were yours on? Oh, yeah, movies.
Need I say more?
TERRA Rising: Good to see you so intelligent. Big improvement over the OP. 
Anyway, have you ever read Sartre’s play No Exit? It’s an existentialist nightmare about hell. Three people are confined to an ugly room forever, without the hope of even blinking. They must endure each other’s inanity and pettiness for all eternity, even as they realize what they’re doing to each other and themselves. It is the origin of Sartre’s famous line “Hell is other people.”
Kevin Smith’s films, especially Clerks, are like that, but less intense and played for laughs. We get to see these dysfunctional relationships in context, and we laugh at them even as we recognize aspects of ourselves in the buffoons Smith is presenting to us. The characters generally realize what situations they’re in and, unlike Sartre’s characters, they do have hope for redemption.
Why are they so reference-heavy? Because we are, as individuals immersed in our commercial culture. Look up Postmodernism if you want more than that.
There’s no moment if life for which a quote from Clerks or Chasing Amy isn’t applicable.
Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back was so bad that I’ve convinced myself Kevin let Jason Mewes write/direct it.
He’s OK, but I think in general he’s overrated. Clerks was pretty good. His other films have contained a few moments that have made me laugh, but overall they lack something.
I tend to agree with Diogenes that KS falters when he tries to be more profound. At least IMHO.
In my opinion, the real allure is that Kevin Smith movies are not Hollywood movies. Let me illustrate my point; last night, I made Jim sit through “Independence Day”, so that he too could experience what is arguably the worst movie ever made, and we would have a common point of reference for what is oh-so-bad about Hollywood movies. Oh, by the way, it was a box office smash.
Hollywood (as an entity, not as a geographical location) makes TERRIBLE movies, but people lap them up like they’re gold-studded cocaine. Kevin Smith doesn’t make the best movies in the history of the world or anything, but they weren’t Hollywood, and I watched them just for that. That said, he kinda is going Hollywood now, and I regret it. I blame Affleck.