Kevin Smith: The Passion of the Clerks
 

http://www.cnn.com/2004/SHOWBIZ/Movi....ap/index.html

I want to start my saying that I love Smith and all of his movies. I love what he did with the Clerks cartoon and the comic books. I dont know if i can get behind a sequal. The film and the charactors set by themselves. The comics and cartoon have been filled out the story quit nicely. If Smith fucks this up he will never be able to recover.

I wish him luck with the film. I hope its good.

Hmm...I think a lot of what made Clerks a good movie was the fact that it was low budget and out of the ordinary. I mean the movie was filmed in black & white and it was obviously not for artistic reasons. The writing basically made the movie since there were no special effects or big name actors. I hope the sequel can accomplish a similar feel. Smith has openly admitted that he's a sell out, hopefully this is not going to support that statement. But yes, I will probably shell out the $10 to see this when it comes out. I'll try to keep an open mind but probably won't have high hopes. Nothing better than something exceeding low expectations!

I think it was filmed in color and tranfered in black and white. IMDB said that there are color prints floating around somewhere.

http://www.swanktastic.org/images/fonziejumping.jpg

I don't mean to be a dick. I am a big Kevin Smith fan. But after J&SB Strike Back came out, he said how he had felt he had done all he could with the characters, and wanted to put them away so he could explore other options. (Remember the end of that flick, after the credits, with Alanis closing the View Askew book?)

Jersey Girl sucked. And not because it wasn't a J&SB movie. And not because of J.Lo or Ben, or anything like that. It sucked because it tried to accomplish too much in a two-hour period, and manipulated the audience by trying to tug at heart strings.

So the movie underperformed. And suddenly Kevin's bringing out the old characters. I'm really disappointed. Thesupermikey has it right. If Kevin fucks this up, he's toast. He's messing with a classic. You can't go home again.

(btw, for anybody who's lost as to why I posted that graphic, it's Fonz about to jump the shark.)

Don't mean to get into a flamewar or debate here, but I have read several stories and heard a couple different interviews that Kevin has said it was filmed in B&W because it was cheaper. If there are color copies of Clerks somewhere, I would love to get my hands on one of them.



I'll jump on the "If he fucks this up, he is done" bandwagon though.

Originally, I felt the same way as y'all: figured this was a bad move, why go back to the well, etc.

Having thought about it over the weekend (Yes, I read about it on Friday on Newsaskew, which should tell you how big a Kevin Smith geek I am) I believe this could be a good film. What if it has some humor, but also tells the story of two guys struggling to settle into their lives in their 30's.

I think it can work. I trust Kevin Smith to write a funny and thoughtful script and I trust Brian O'Halloran and Jeff Anderson to portray Dante and Randal. I'll be in line to see it opening day.

Admit it, we've all wondered what happened to those 2 after the movie ended.

Isn't that kind of what Jersey Girl was about, albeit one guy, not two? A guy in his 30s trying to find his place?

I read News Askew also. Although not as often anymore. The problem with being a Kevin Smith-sanctioned site means that you have to be 100% gung-ho about everything the man does. And let's face it...the man does NOT take criticism well.

I hope it works. Listen, I'm confident that Kevin can write new material for J&SB until the cows come home, and it'll be funny most of the time, especially because Kevin's target audience is the dick-and-fart-joke demographic. It's just a matter of whether he wants to escape that. Jersey Girl was his first attempt. So it didn't work. That's okay. But I just can't help but feel that Kevin's running back home with his tail between his legs.

Oh, and BTW, that title is absolutely retarded. It's barely funny now and is going to be even less funny when it comes out in two years. I'm sure it will be changed.

Gotta give kudos to Kevin, though - this announcement, timed just one week before the 3-disc Clerks set comes out - smart move. Way to go Weinsteins!

Clerks is one of my fav movies, please please please please please kevin dont fuck this up

Could rule. Could suck.

We'll have to wait and see I suppose.

[QUOTE=quadro2000]Oh, and BTW, that title is absolutely retarded.

When I first saw the headlines, I was excited about the movie. After reading the title, I just cracked up and now can't wait for the movie to come out. Just keep an open mind.....everyone sells out, it could be a good movie. It won't be near as good as the first though. I don't think there is anyway for that to happen.

Am I the only one who thought that Chasing Amy was a walk in the other direction of dick & fart jokes? I mean c'mon that movie was maybe 20% humor and the rest all had to do with messages and substance. I wouldn't say Jersey Girl was his first attempt at making a serious movie because aside from the few funny moments early on in the film and a little bit later, Chasing Amy was a serious film...I don't know if I would really call it much of a comedy. To the topic at hand....I dunno he did enough "where are they now?" back stories in most of his movies already. Especially J&S-B Strike Back so a sequel to one of them isn't really all that foreign. But I can see where it may look like he's running back to a sure shot but he's a smart guy and he knows people would have been skeptical about seeing a sequel about the movie thus making it not really a "sure" shot ya know? I'll check it out when it comes and if it's good, great I'll buy it..if not..I probably won't care all that much I haven't really been completely dissappointed with him yet (ain't seen Jersey Girl though) so I probably won't completely ignore any further attempts by him to make other films.

Asta!!

Kevin Smith made one decent film: Clerks, three decent films 'Mallrats', 'Chasing Amy' and 'Dogma', one crap movie 'J&SBSB' and one absolute piece of shite 'Jersey Girl'

Jersey Girl was boring, patronising, uninspired, unoriginal, unfunny when it was supposed to be and funny where it wasn't supposed to be.

Affleck and Tyler and everyone else floundered about like fish out of water.

Smith's script was dead in the water, sentimental and labourious without any real originality or evocative aspects in it...

Frankly the man's a mediocre director who depends on witty dialogue to get by, after Clerks this aspect of his films has declined massively...

Ok, I'm going to politely disagree with you here Kostya. I think Kevin's a good writer who's directed his own stuff to make sure it didn't get messed with. While he usually gets labeled a director first, I think he'd call himself a writer first and formost.

This is why I think this sequel will be good. I think he can take the humor from his previous films and create a semi-serious look at these characters in their thirties.

I do think this will be a make or break film for him though. Too much more drubbing like he got on JG and he might not make another movie.

hey the man has a family to feed. and after Jersey Girl how can the man not try and cash in on an old gimmick. Maybe he's not getting enough jobs writing comics.

He should do a series of 3 prequels detailing how Dante and Randal rose to their postions of power. In these 3 movies he should rely heavily on special effects and digital characters and completly ignore the storyline and mythology of the original film.

Can't miss baby, I can see the fan boys forming a line already.

i would be interested in seeing a clerks sequel.

Just thought I'd throw this on here. It's from Newsaskew (Kevin Smith posted it on the View Askew boards) and it makes me feel even better about the movie, as it confirms alot of what I was thinking.

- This isn't gonna be a cameo-heavy affair, a'la "Strike Back." The only returning characters are Dante and Randal, and Jay and Silent Bob.
- This isn't gonna be a star-studded affair. The biggest names in the cast are gonna be Brian O'Halloran, Jeff Anderson, and Jason Mewes.

- This isn't an "I'm not even supposed to be here today... AGAIN!"-heavy, wink-wink affair. We barely refer to the first flick (though I do love Lynch's proposed tagline of "They Still Don't Like You"; considering the tone of the script, an even more appropriate tagline would be "They Like You Even Less").

- Jay and Silent Bob have about as much screen time as they had in "Clerks." This is Dante and Randal's flick all the way.

- The title makes sense. Sure, there's a bit of cheekiness in there, but it's pretty appropriate, based on the material.

- This is the funniest thing I've ever written. It's also really poignant.

- We'll still be making a "Clerks" cartoon movie, separate of this.

- This is not a grab at the green. Saying so is kinda laughable, if you're privy to what I make per film now, vs. what I'll make for this film. Part of the idea about doing "Passion" is to strip away the trappings of success we've been enjoying for the last few years, in an effort to get to the raw and pure. None of us are making our usual salaries on this flick; we're all doing it favored-nations style, with deferments. If the flick does well, we'll get paid our full-freight on the back-end. If not, we did it for the love. But if I was "all about the green", I'd be gearing up for "Hornet" or "Fletch" instead. This one's about the passion; the passion of the "Clerks."

- Some of the key players from the "Clerks" saga who've already read the 143 page first draft: Mos, Jeff, Brian, John Pierson, Bob Hawk. Jay's reading the new, refined 119 page second draft this week. Once they were all on board, any doubt or hesitation I might've felt about monkeying with the original's legacy disappeared completely.

- This isn't about "Jersey Girl." While disappointed that we didn't do double the theatrical business we crawled to, I understand why what happened to that flick happened (considering how poorly "Gigli" did, I consider us kinda lucky that we got to 25m). If this is a reaction to anything, it's more of a reaction to "Green Hornet", and the trajectory my budgets have been taking lately. Before (and if) I direct "Hornet", I wanted to do something small and more me-like. While working on the "Clerks X" dvd, it became clear to me that "Passion" was the way to go.

- We almost did this flick three years ago, instead of "Strike Back." I'm glad we didn't, because I was able to say much more now than I would've then.

- There are gonna be lots of folks expressing disappointment or downright hostility with the idea of this movie. Let 'em vent. If it's all that bad, Xtian will just sweep it off the board. But the last thing I'm interested in is opinions on what I'm doing this early in the process, if at all. The beauty of making that first flick was being able to do it in a vacuum. Granted, I could've kept my mouth shut about it 'til we were done shooting; but with "Clerks X" coming out, it just felt right to share. Regardless - I don't want folks running here with reports of what's being said about the idea of this film at other boards. Don't waste your/my time with the braying of the jackasses. There's not even a movie to bray about yet. Once there is, if you still still feel the need to tell me what some random, knuckle-headed Talk Backer has to say about the finished product, then God bless. But until then, leave it in the locker room.

- Oh, who am I kidding? This flick makes me so happy, I'm not even bothered by the bitching (could still be even happier without it, though). I'm in love with this flick. If other folks aren't, I can't really say I'm concerned. I've read the script; they haven't. I have the benefit of insight into the flick beyond the title and the notion of it; they don't. The reaction is pretty much what I thought it'd be: a ton of positive, and minimal amount of bitching. Even if the equation was reversed, I'd still feel as good as I do now.

- At this point in my life, this flick makes absolute fucking sense.

- I can't wait to shoot it, and I can't wait 'til you all see it.

- That storyline about Dante and Randal shooting a movie about working at the Quick Stop is the plot of the "Clerks" CARTOON movie. It's secure. The plot of "PotC" is something completely different.

- The flick does NOT employ the tone of the "Clerks" cartoon. It's OG "Clerks" all the way.

- The flick's in both black & white and color.

- Having not seen "South Park" since season two (unless you count the movie), I was unaware they did an episode called "The Passion of the Jew." I don't know how (or if) this info will affect our title.

- There will be no "reunions" or "crossovers" in the flick. Again - the only characters returning are Dante, Randal, Jay, and Bob.

Thanks for sharing that, Troublebot. Everybody and their fucking dog seems to think they could make better movies than the people actually doing it. It's good to hear Smith's POV on it.

I have no doubt that he can write reasonably well, and some of the dialogue in Clerks, while a little contrived and poorly acted was undeniably hilarious and still is after multiple viewings...

Nevertheless, the man's direction is I maintain, mediocre. Conventional shot after conventional shot. Nothing about his direction is original or striking. Moreover, the script for Jersey Girl was TERRIBLE. 'I'm just a guy who loves playing with his kid in the dirt', 'You're the only thing I was ever good at'... Sappy, saccharine coated, ridiculous, predictable and patronising...

Thats awesome troublebot...I can't fuckin wait for this movie to come out. They haven't started it yet so I wonder how long till its out when they DO start it? (scratches head) Well Kevin Smith is the fuckin man anyway so God bless him. Gotta wish him luck on this.

Asta!!

YES ANOTHER JAY AND SILENT BOB MOVIE!! I dont care if no one likes J&SB SB It was some what funny. By far though Mall Rats and Dogma win as the best Jay and Silent Bob movies. Oh yeah Clerks was good also.

A lot of movies are 'somewhat' funny...

Kevin Smith should be making VERY funny movies, and the fact that he isn't irritates and dismays me...

I loved J&SBSB. Whenever i am having a crap-slappy day at work, i can go home pop in this dvd watch the first 5 minutes and everything is right with the world again...

No it's not, you just forgot how fucked the world is...

Three things:

1. I don't know why, but this was the funniest thing I've heard in days..
2. I'm glad Kostya isn't a cynic. I'm not saying he doesn't have his points, but come on, every point in Smith's favor, he had to strike down. Hard. With big words, lol.

3. I think it'll do alright. I mean, by the time we actually see it, we'll have forgotten all about this thread, how much we hated (or loved) JG, and we'll all be back to happy-Kevin-Smith-can-do-no-wrong-land. And besides isn't that kind of the point of the Clerks universe? That every once in awhile they have a new adventure? That they meet new crazies all the time and have new stories to tell?

What do mean not a cynic?

Mmm big words, not only am I a cynic, but a pretentious one at that!

yeah i have soured on his movies too

clerks and mallrats were kind of cool, i guess

i just dont think his dialogue is as great as it is supposed to be. although sometimes he sounds as good as tarantino, too often it resembles ass clown. i guess im more critical of him since he isnt (fully) entrenched in the hollywood money making machine.

But we still love you and value your opinions, you pretentious bastard!! :icare:

Damn, your right... now i have to go pop in the movie again! - DB

Did anybody ever catch any of the Clerks cartoon series, downloaded them due to being a brit and not getting them over here.

Quality stuff.

Love Jay and Silent Bob's characters, but I thought we'd seen the end of them. Clerks was great, mallrats was great, dogma was enjoyable and j & sb strike back is the funniest film to watch ever with your mates pissed out yer head.

Bah humbug!

Love, puppies, infants, flowers, candycanes and blue skies I hate them allllllll...

(Not really)

bump...

this film is getting closer to realese...

linky