"Christ? Fuck 'im"
- Kevin Smith at Comic-Con 2005
A friend has told me that I'd love the An Evening with Kevin Smith DVD and I've never argued with him, I've just never bothered to go out and rent or buy it. After seeing his short, one hour appearance at Comic-Con, I am now very motivated to get this DVD.
Since Clerks, I've been a Kevin Smith fan. Not everything he does is gold. The second half of Chasing Amy is weak sauce and Jersey Girl just kinda sucks.
Regardless of his ability to maintain a level of quality in his films, he's always shined in interviews. He's a quick wit and though most of his speech is peppered - very heavily peppered... like the amount of pepper I put in my ketchup when I'm eating fries peppered - with dick jokes, blow job jokes and jokes which contain the word "fuck," he seems to be a genuinely smart guy.
Big Brother Kevin dwarfs standing-at-the-podium Kevin
He also seems to be the king of extemporaneous speechifying. Although, you'd be hard pressed to say what he does is a speech. It's off the cuff, somewhat vulgar, informative, and very, very funny.
What sort of sad state of affairs is it when the guy whose movies are chock full of dick jokes and shit monsters is a better speaker than the President?
When he's doing one of these live appearances, Smith's greatest asset is his ability to be strong-willed and opinionated as well as incredibly self-effacing. He's the first to say that he's made some shitty movies and that the ones that are good have a hard time finding an audience unless some nutbag religious group was protesting outside.
He gave credit to all of the people who hate his films without ever seeing them for going public to condemn him and his work. He pointed out that it was impossible to get that kind of coverage, on CNN and other similar outlets, without the controversy that his detractors stir up.
There was a micro example of this as he was talking about the Clerks sequel, Clerks II: The Passion of the Clerks. He was pointing out that his film has no relation to the similarly titled Mel Gibson film about Christ getting his ass kicked, except in its title. It's not a parody. He also mentioned that he didn't really like the Gibson's film because he doesn't need to see two hours of Christ getting a beat down. He'd rather see something about all the good things Christ did and said during his life.
How this is controversial, I don't know, but it prompted some idiot to start yelling to Kevin, "Christ died for our sins!"
Kevin agreed and went on to say that he loved Christ and that's why he didn't appreciate Gibson's film. He said something to the affect of, "I know he died for my sins. I love Christ. In fact, I love Christ more than you do, motherfucker!"
Somehow he managed to express his love for his deity and be completely vulgar in the same sentence but came off as completely sincere. I have no love for organized religion and even less for the kind of dolt who'll yell at a guy like Kevin Smith when he's on stage. I would, however, be completely happy to hear Smith talk about religion for as long as he wants because he deals with it in real terms not, not in catch phrases. Though I think his line, "Christ? Fuck 'im," might actually catch on.
He dropped this line when he was talking about his ability to get free publicity based on all the attention he gets from people who hate his movies without seeing them.
Another fine moment came when a nearly brain dead conventioneer asked Kevin a question about Return of the Jedi. I'm not sure why he asked it, but for some reason he wanted Kevin's take on the look on Hayden Christensen's face in the updated version of ROTJ. If you don't know, Lucas has replaced Sebastian Shaw with Christensen as the Anakin ghost at the end of Jedi. Essentially, the guy's question was, "What's up with that look?"
Kevin seemed confused by the question but responded with, "Well, he's only got like three looks, doesn't he?"
It got a huge laugh and ovation from the crowd. Funny that just a year before, Hayden Christensen got a similar huge ovation from the crowd when he came out on stage during the Episode III panel and announcement of the final chapter's title.
Smith also got into a little bit of work he's been doing on Degrassi. Right before he left the stage he introduced Richard Kelly, writer/director of Donnie Darko and the upcoming
Southland Tales, in which Smith will be featured as a legless Iraq War veteran. They screened this bit of animatic (nsfw) for the audience.
I don't think I have or could do justice to the hour with Kevin Smith. It was one of those "had to be there" moments, but I'm guessing you can get a taste of it on the An Evening with Kevin Smith DVD... which I have yet to rent.
* * *
To get it right from the horse's mouth you can read Kevin's take on his day at Comic-Con at SilentBobSpeaks.com.
...and yes, The D is yet to come.
Since Clerks, I've been a Kevin Smith fan. Not everything he does is gold. The second half of Chasing Amy is weak sauce and Jersey Girl just kinda sucks.
Regardless of his ability to maintain a level of quality in his films, he's always shined in interviews. He's a quick wit and though most of his speech is peppered - very heavily peppered... like the amount of pepper I put in my ketchup when I'm eating fries peppered - with dick jokes, blow job jokes and jokes which contain the word "fuck," he seems to be a genuinely smart guy.
Big Brother Kevin dwarfs standing-at-the-podium Kevin
He also seems to be the king of extemporaneous speechifying. Although, you'd be hard pressed to say what he does is a speech. It's off the cuff, somewhat vulgar, informative, and very, very funny.
What sort of sad state of affairs is it when the guy whose movies are chock full of dick jokes and shit monsters is a better speaker than the President?
When he's doing one of these live appearances, Smith's greatest asset is his ability to be strong-willed and opinionated as well as incredibly self-effacing. He's the first to say that he's made some shitty movies and that the ones that are good have a hard time finding an audience unless some nutbag religious group was protesting outside.
He gave credit to all of the people who hate his films without ever seeing them for going public to condemn him and his work. He pointed out that it was impossible to get that kind of coverage, on CNN and other similar outlets, without the controversy that his detractors stir up.
There was a micro example of this as he was talking about the Clerks sequel, Clerks II: The Passion of the Clerks. He was pointing out that his film has no relation to the similarly titled Mel Gibson film about Christ getting his ass kicked, except in its title. It's not a parody. He also mentioned that he didn't really like the Gibson's film because he doesn't need to see two hours of Christ getting a beat down. He'd rather see something about all the good things Christ did and said during his life.
How this is controversial, I don't know, but it prompted some idiot to start yelling to Kevin, "Christ died for our sins!"
Kevin agreed and went on to say that he loved Christ and that's why he didn't appreciate Gibson's film. He said something to the affect of, "I know he died for my sins. I love Christ. In fact, I love Christ more than you do, motherfucker!"
Somehow he managed to express his love for his deity and be completely vulgar in the same sentence but came off as completely sincere. I have no love for organized religion and even less for the kind of dolt who'll yell at a guy like Kevin Smith when he's on stage. I would, however, be completely happy to hear Smith talk about religion for as long as he wants because he deals with it in real terms not, not in catch phrases. Though I think his line, "Christ? Fuck 'im," might actually catch on.
He dropped this line when he was talking about his ability to get free publicity based on all the attention he gets from people who hate his movies without seeing them.
Another fine moment came when a nearly brain dead conventioneer asked Kevin a question about Return of the Jedi. I'm not sure why he asked it, but for some reason he wanted Kevin's take on the look on Hayden Christensen's face in the updated version of ROTJ. If you don't know, Lucas has replaced Sebastian Shaw with Christensen as the Anakin ghost at the end of Jedi. Essentially, the guy's question was, "What's up with that look?"
Kevin seemed confused by the question but responded with, "Well, he's only got like three looks, doesn't he?"
It got a huge laugh and ovation from the crowd. Funny that just a year before, Hayden Christensen got a similar huge ovation from the crowd when he came out on stage during the Episode III panel and announcement of the final chapter's title.
Smith also got into a little bit of work he's been doing on Degrassi. Right before he left the stage he introduced Richard Kelly, writer/director of Donnie Darko and the upcoming
Southland Tales, in which Smith will be featured as a legless Iraq War veteran. They screened this bit of animatic (nsfw) for the audience.
I don't think I have or could do justice to the hour with Kevin Smith. It was one of those "had to be there" moments, but I'm guessing you can get a taste of it on the An Evening with Kevin Smith DVD... which I have yet to rent.
To get it right from the horse's mouth you can read Kevin's take on his day at Comic-Con at SilentBobSpeaks.com.
...and yes, The D is yet to come.
scribbled by Rob at 11:42 PM - permalink
1 Comments:
Reason enough for me to keep reading:
What sort of sad state of affairs is it when the guy whose movies are chock full of dick jokes and shit monsters is a better speaker than the President?
Go Rob!
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