Review By Kevin Smith

Too Verbose -- That's your's truly.

So we had a test screening last night, and overall I was ecstatic with the audience reaction. Everyone seemed to be with it, and the scores - while not record-breaking - were cool to me. We made a challenging little film, and only 4% didn't like it (put into perspective, that's the lowest percentage for 'Poor' we've ever had on one of our flicks).

But the overall consensus was that it was too long.

So back into the editing room we go, for some further judicious cutting (which means an even longer DVD supplemental section down the road).

My thoughts on last night: it was nice to finally hear strangers reacting to something I wrote oh so long ago. Five years is a long time to wait for a reaction, and I was happy as hell with what I heard. Listening to the audience, I got to find out what was working and what wasn't, and using that info, Scooter and I will be able to pull out some more stuff, and craft a better flick for the world to see.

The focus group was, as per usual, eye-opening. For those who don't know, the 'scores' are cards that're filled out by all in attendance (357), and then twenty cats are kept behind for what they call a 'focus group', wherein the person on charge asks a slew of questions about what people liked, didn't like, what they thought about the actors, the story the length, the pacing, etc.

Everyone in the focus group thought it was original and dug the story. Of the actors, Ben and Mewes scored the highest, closely followed by Linda and Rock (I was lumped into the 'Jay' character, as we are - more or less - one guy, apparently). More cats thought the pacing was dead-on perfect, than not paced well. Mercifully, only one gent seemed confused by the plot. Some girl thought Silent Bob was too 'bright' (from my 'rosey cheeks' to my coat). Of the twenty, twenty thought it was excellent or very good.

But when it came to length, only six or eight folks thought it was perfect in length. The rest thought it needed to be 'trimmed', not cut to shreds, thankfully. So trim we will, I guess.

Overall, no surprises, really. We knew going in that there were cuts to be made still, and now we know what those cuts are.

But now I can't wait for this puppy to hit theatres. If what we heard and read in the scores is any indication, it's going to do some business and hit with audiences.