DVD Review: An Evening with Kevin Smith - Evening Harder

Beer, coffee, and sleep not enough to make this fun.



*Okay, well, seeing how I have not published anything in almost 4 months and there has been NO comments or contact from ANY readers on where I have been, let me try to get this thing going again on a more consistent basis. *



Well, last night my friend Brian came over to watch a movie as my wife's cousins were over and we had just finished watching Diehard. Brian has wanted to watch this Kevin Smith thing for a while with us as he claimed how funny it was. Helen's cousins said put it on for five minutes and then they would decide if they want to watch any of it. They began laughing about 4 minutes and 57 seconds into it. Okay, so now we are watching this question and answer video I expected to be like 45 minutes. We watched the London disc as one of the cousins is over from England.



I laughed probably once every 45 minutes, maybe 4 laughs total. I tell you, I instantly became turned off from this DVD as Kevin Smith had this air about him that was like he thought he was some super director who was very cynical and smart. He is smart, and I like some, SOME of his movies. It soon turned into an infomercial for his movies as he was saying what stuff means. Then he totally lost me when he was talking about his young daughter watching Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back with the volume turned down. Smith then went into the dreaded direction most hackey comedians go into, talking about his daughter. He went on to brag about his daughter and how sexy his wife is and her playboy shoot.



As I watched this 2 hour self praise DVD, I thought about Howard Stern's radio show. I was trying to compare Howard's way of talking about his life to Smith's way. I love the Stern Show and I was trying to figure out what the difference was between his five hour show and this Kevin Smith Appreciation DVD. Aside from guests, Howard and the rest of the crew are not trying to exagerate their stories or make a joke out of it. If something is funny then it is just naturally funny. If you know people have a general interest in you to begin with to be there, why make corny jokes and go for the cheap laughs and act like you are holier than many of the people in the crowd and in show business. Oh yeah and Jay Mewes came out and contributed NOTHING but my wife and her cousins swooning over how good he looked and laughing at how Jay forgets a lot of things from the past few years (due to heavy drug use). Also, I am all for vulgarity and being as crude as possible - as long as it makes sense. Jay would just say the most vulgar thing, sometimes it made sense, other times it came across to me as him just trying to get the laugh.



As the show went on, and on...and on...and on...I began to think about the format of this show. I have been to Question and Answer sessions for different celebrities who represented unique views. The best one was Mick Foley's appearance at the College of New Jersey. He gave advice, insight, and his secrets and made it an enjoyable night. Donald Trump did the same. However, there is major difference between these two and Kevin Smith's Q&A - I have never seen a DVD for sale for these other sessions. People will buy anything. Yes, I can see fans of his interested in this point of view, but why charge people for it? In this age of the internet and infinite numbers of magazines to have an outlet in, why do you have to make your Toronto and London sessions available only together as a dual DVD? I am honestly puzzled by a guy who thinks he is so smart and giving something to his fans but is charging them to hear something that we could also read on the internet or in an article. What made the DVD special? His fans asked him questions on their own, some were insulted, some made jokes, some made asses of themselves. I guess that is the selling point.



Maybe I just was not interested in what Kevin Smith has to say. Again, I enjoyed SOME of his movies, but I do not think he is some revolutionary director. In fact I am not really interested in directors in general, but I can assoicate certain directors with an expected quality of film. Michael bay will make visual feasts. Spielberg makes mega classics. The Farrelly brothers make comedies. That is as far as my knowledge goes and I want it to go. I don't know. I love Will Ferrel, but I do not need to know his reasoning behind every expression or phrase he says. My only interest on inside information is probably from the point of view of professional wrestlers. I guess I am starting to contradict myself, so now I need to cover my ass and come up with some unique grading system.



Content: B - In retrospect, it was a good look for fans, very detailed (to the point of boredom for me as 15 minutes to answer a question is too long). If you think there is more behind the man Kevin Smith than sometimes funny movies, then this is for you.



Interest: C- - I lost interest severely with his self indulgence and praising himself like he is revolutionizing film or something.



Entertainment: D - The only reason I did not fail it is because I laughed four times. However, if I was to base a review on the reactions of others, I would give it an A++.



So there you have it. I think the final grade is an X+ or something like that.



__________________________________________________________________

(That's the bottom line symbol)

Bottom Line: I think that if you like only Kevin Smith movies, this is not for you. If you like Kevin Smith the director, it is a must own and you have to live with the decision of watching the original Kevin Smith Q&A or the Toronto or London DVD.