Alas, its declining-in-quality sequels sucked a good idea dry. As filmmaker Kevin Smith (Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back), who runs a comic-book emporium in Red Bank, N.J., says, ”Batman & Robin, the fourth film, was the death of the comic-book movie. It was too hokey. But X-Men suddenly opened the floodgates again.”

I’ve been wanting to see “Vulgar” for a couple years. (I kept missing Vulgarthon. Maybe one year it will take place during the week.) So I’ve hearing about it for the past couple of weeks on Howard Stern made me want to see it more. I bought tickets on line for the 7:45 show and headed down to the theatre about 6:45. I remember thinking that I was happy I didn’t live in L.A. because Kevin was going to be there and I figured it would be a mad house.

While sitting with a friend I noticed Brian O’Halloran speaking to some people wearing “VULGAR” hats. These people turned out to be Bryan Johnson’s parents. As it turns out Bryan was in fact at the theatre as well as Walt Flanagan, Scott Mosier and Amy Noble. I’m sure that there were other View Askew people there but I didn’t recognize them. I think that Ming was there but I wasn’t sure. (If I missed anybody don’t tell me because I’ll feel bad. They were all with about 20 people total.)

Anyway, I happened to have my video camera with me and I got to get all of them on tape as well talk to them off camera. Needless to say I was a little nervous. I would have thought up smarter questions and prepared a little better… like bringing a light for my camera so the video would have come out a little better. DOH!

I didn’t get to talk to Brian but I spoke to everyone else and got them on camera. (I did tape Brian talking to other people though.)

I spoke to Bryan Johnson and his Mom. Bryan talked about the MPAA and how he isn’t a fan among other things.

I also spoke to Amy Noble. She was so cool. She is one of the lucky few that has read the Jersey Girl Script.

I spent the most time talking to Walt and his friend (a 3rd Brian). Really cool people. They were so funny.

At one point an unsuspecting TV crew from Japan asked Walt and Brian what they wanted to see this summer. The first movie that came out of there mouths was Vulgar. (See the video to see what else they want to see.)

As they were about to leave I spotted Scott Mosier and he was gracious enough to talk with me. This guy is great. He said that his acting role in “Amy” was his favorite.

And of course everyone talked about “VULGAR” and Bryan.

So here is the pay off…

I have a local TV show in Manhattan called “Ranting And Raving Reviews” It airs on Channel 56 in Manhattan Friday night at Midnight (early Saturday).

You can go to RantingAndRavingReviews.com and see some video from Friday. It’ll air on Friday the 3rd of May. I will air a show with nearly 30 minutes of footage. In the meantime you can see some of the video on the site. (it’s a little dark on the net but on TV it looks a lot better.)

Consider getting the boot from the Beverly Center at the last minute and being moved into the Regent Showcase a theater a blessing. Why? Well besides playing in a much larger theater with a seat capacity of 786, check out that outside marquee as well and the poster cases showcasing the film’s “Nosferatu”-like 1-sheet.

As promised, Kevin arrived for the 7:15 show, did the usual meet n’ greet thing with the fans just before taking the stage to intro the film. In opening, Kevin took the time to bring with him reviews for the film, which he read aloud to the crowd. Now mind you, if you’ve read any of the reviews for ‘VULGAR’ you know how widely panned the film is getting, but even I have to say that most of the reviews are so wrought with potshots and phrases of distaste for the film, that for the most part those who might have not went out to see ‘Vulgar’ this past weekend either showed up as a fan of Kevin Smith and his films, or simply out of curiousity. Add to the fact that the film left even the most unnerved Howard Stern well, er, “disturbed”, is publicity onto itself.

So after reading several reviews for the film, Kevin took the time to open it up for a little quick Q&A before beginning the film. Questions ranged from comics to ‘Jersey Girl’ to ‘Vulgar’ itself. Here are some quick highlights:

Kevin is indeed moving forward with ‘Jersey Girl’, now stated to begin lensing in August. No location has been set just yet. The casting process is currently underway with scripts going out to talent next week. And you can add another talent to the roster – Kevin’s lovely wife, Jennifer, who’ll be cast in a “small part” in the film says Kevin.

Kevin also made mention that if and when a west coast Vulgarthon were to happen, that the Regent Showcase would be “THE” theater where he’d want it held. Once finishing the Q&A, the film began and for the 7:15 show I sat in with the crowd and watched the film a second time since having first screened it at last January’s Vulgarthon, curious to gage the audience reaction. For the most part, reaction was as favorable as one could expect among the crowd, with only one notable walkout which occured about 10 minutes past the inital “controversial” clown rape scene.

Cheers came from seeing such familiar faces as Walt Flanagan, Kevin, Mosier – and the biggest, coming from Mewes’ making appearances in the film. Not to mention some scattered applause for a few noteable inside references from past View Askew films which pop up for those quick enough to catch ‘em. The 9:45 show proved to be the most crowded. A line-up formed outside just before the show, surprisingly sporting a handful of couples who were either uneducated in the film’s content or just plain kinky and into that sort of thing. With such a mixed crowd, I’d be afraid to second guess ‘em. Kevin again, took stage, read reviews, and answered more questions. But when asked a technical question (something he admits to not being very good at answering) regarding the film’s budget and 35mm blow-up costs and at which lab the process was done, Kevin looked into the crowd hoping to get an assist from the film’s very own DP, Dave Klein, who sat in attendance.

Mini-posters and postcards were also handed out at the door, giving fans something for Kevin to sign, now making their ‘VULGAR’ souveniers precious keepsakes. As if the emotional scarring left from seeing the film wasn’t a keepsake enough.

AS: One of the things that kept me hooked into the movie, and I don’t know if this was intentional or not, but you seemed to be playing a lot with the conventions of other film genres as you were shooting it. You know, you’d do the little Michael Bay 360 degree sweeps and that sort of thing just out of the blue, in a scene that had nothing to do with the action genre.

BJ: I think that comes from not going to film school, and being heavily influenced by everybody else’s work, and just picking out things that I liked from other movies. Plus, not wanting the film to be pigeon-holed into one particular genre. You can’t say, “This is a comedy, this is a drama.” I just wanted to get it all over the place and not really nail it down.

AS: So this being your first feature, and not having gone to film school, what were some of those influences, some of the films and filmmakers you learned things from?

BJ: I would say primarily David Lynch. I’m a huge fan of Lynch. And it’s not hard to see some of that influence- the father character comes from Frank in Blue Velvet, for instance. The Coen brothers, and their quirky, weird kind of humor. I find if I go to a Coen brothers movie in the theater, a lot of people don’t laugh at the same stuff I laugh at.

Drawing Flies and A Better Place

Drawing Flies is the tale of a young man who with the help of his unsuspecting roomates, hikes through the Canadian wilderness in search of Sasquatch. In A Better Place, two high school outcasts from an obsessive friendship that spirals out of control and ends in murder. Both films were produced by Kevin Smith, the acclaimed director of Clerks, Mallrats, Chasing Amy, Dogma, and Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back.

VULGAR

Clown comedy is no laughing matter.

Running time: 92 minutes. Not rated (rape, violence, profanity). At the Angelika, Houston and Mercer streets.

TO say that “Vulgar” is not for all tastes might be the understatement of the year. For starters, this black comedy has a male rape scene that makes the one in “Deliverance” seem mild by comparison.

“Vulgar” is the first of several micro-budgeted features from Kevin Smith’s View Askew production company to reach the market, and writer-director Bryan Johnson has a much darker taste in humor than his patron.

Brian O’Halloran, best known as a hangdog convenience-store habitué in Smith’s “Clerks,” gives an extraordinarily brave and moving performance as Flappy, whose work as a clown at children’s parties in central New Jersey doesn’t quite cover the bills at his monstrous mother’s nursing home.

So Flappy invents the alter-ego of Vulgar and places an advertisement offering to appear at bachelor parties in a different kind of clown drag – complete with bustier and fishnet stockings.

But Vulgar’s first gig ends with him being sexually assaulted at knifepoint and gunpoint by a leering redneck (the truly frightening Jerry Lewkowitz) and his two twisted sons (Matthew Maher and Ethan Suplee).

A traumatized Flappy makes it back to the kiddie circuit, only to become a media celebrity when he bravely intervenes in a hostage-taking at a party.

A TV producer (a very funny Smith in a very un-Silent Bob-like turn) signs him up for a TV show, and the ratings soon soar. But then Flappy starts getting blackmail demands from his assailants, who threaten to release a videotape of the gang rape.

Thematically similar to the recent “Death to Smoochy,” “Vulgar” is a more interesting, if less polished, movie.

Johnson, who also appears as Flappy’s confidant, is a veteran video-store clerk who packs his film with references to little-known films – Flappy’s bathtub scene after the assault is an homage to “Something Wild” (1961), a groundbreaking rape drama that starred Carroll Baker.

“Vulgar” prompted a mass walkout when it premiered at the Toronto Film Festival a year and a half ago. But for those willing to risk being made very uncomfortable, this instant cult classic announces the arrival of a distinctive new talent behind the camera.

Don’t Go ‘Changing’

Ben Affleck’s Changing Lanes enjoyed a box office bump in Lexinton, KY., on April 16, thanks to the star’s friend and Dogma director, Kevin Smith. Speaking to a large crowd at the University of Kentucky the night before, Smith offered to pick up the tab for a matinee the next day. “Three hundred people showed up,” says the auteur. “Me and my big f- – -ing mouth.” Especially since the theater wouldn’t let him put the $1,000 bill on plastic. (He was allowed to FedEx a check to them the following day.) “‘Twas like a bad Visa CheckCard commercial,” says Smith, who recently shot a cameo as a loose-lipped forensics assistant in Affleck’s now-lensing superhero flick Daredevil. Can starving students expect similar generosity when Smith speaks at their school? “Only if there’s a new Ben Affleck movie opening that week.” Now, that’s what friends are for. -Jeff Jensen