- The Austin Chronicle ran a very nice little story on Kevin, Jersey Girl, and Green Hornet. They’ve got it as part of their coverage of the SXSW festival, where Jersey Girl will make its big festival debut. Click the thumbnail above to give it a read. Jersey Girl screens there today.
- The Hollywood Reporter has a nifty little blurb on the amazing Jersey Girl premiere that we ran our own piece about late last week. Click above for a peek.
- Did you miss the big Kevin/Ben Dateline appearance on Friday night? Shame on you, we’ve been telling you about it for weeks! That being said, we’ve got an alternative for you. MSNBC has placed the entire transcript online. And yes, there’s some video there for ya, too. Even if you watched, it’s worth a read, since they’ve thrown some nice commentary in there between the Q&A. Recommended.
- How do we know that Kev’s becoming more widely known all the time? Well, here’s a great example: Best Buy is featuring all of his films in their circular this week, with sale prices AND a big, bold print ad for Jersey Girl’s release date. Groovy. Click above to see the ad in living color!
- George Carlin was recently interviewed by the NJ Star-Ledger. In the piece, Carlin praises Kev and also weighs in on the phenomenon that is “Bennifer” (though we prefer “benyonce”).
- UK fans: Are you Renee-less, like so many other Clerks inaction collectors? You may want to check out your local comic book store for the inactions, as we hear Forbidden Planet (in London) has Renee and lots more at very reasonable prices. Sure beats the eBay price hikes!
- The call for entries for the 2004 Red Bank Film Festival has begun! If you’re an aspiring filmmaker, and would like to, like Kevin, say you got your start in the Red Bank area, why not get your film in the running? You’ll find some basic information at their site, or just below:
The Fourth Annual Red Bank International Film Festival
Count Basie Theatre
Red Bank, New Jersey
October 8-10, 2004
CALL FOR ENTRIES: FILM/ VIDEO/ DIGITAL
$25 Shorts / $45 Features
Go to www.rbiff.org for submission form and guidelines
Deadline June 1st 2004
- And finally today, while we wish we could run every Jersey Girl review we’re sent (we can’t, we’d never sleep), we wanted to share this one with you that came from a Milwaukee reader who caught a pre-screening. Their opinion: The film needs MORE J-Lo! Read on:
Before I can truly review the movie’s good points, I have to address the one major flaw with it. This is something I never thought I’d say about a movie; it needs more Jennifer Lopez (Gertie Trinke). Yes, you heard me right. I understand why Kevin cut what he did, I know why we barely see her for 10 minutes, but I think it reverberates throughout the film. Ollie and Gertie meet, fall in love, get married, have a kid and she dies in child birth. This is seriously within the first 10 minutes! The rest of the movie deals with Ollie Trinke (Ben Affleck) dealing with the loss of his wife. How can we relate/empathize with his loss if we never get to understand why he feels the way he does? There’s a scene where Ollie is talking to his daughter in her crib where he’s crying about missing Gertie and it just feels forced because we have! no “why.” Having seen the unofficial trailer way back where it shows how these two characters meet, just made me miss the back story even more. Jen and Ben have chemistry onscreen and I am saddened we have to miss that because of Gigli and the very public relationship of Jen and Ben. My plea to Kevin for the future dvd release, please note that movie goers can keep the “real” world and the movie world separate and let us see these characters’ full story on video!!!!
Having said that…this is Kevin’s best movie to date. Kevin grows as a writer/director every time he brings something new to the screen. I loved that this movie had emotion, humor and heart. It’s got romance and emotion for the ladies, and it has the trademark Kevin humor that keeps the guys interested.
Ben Affleck does a good job as Ollie. I miss seeing Ben have a part he can sink his teeth into and act the hell out of it (has he been challenged like that since Chasing Amy? I doubt it). George Carlin was amazing as Pop, I would nominate him for a best support nod, he was that fucking good. Raquel Castro is truly an amazing child actor, and I wouldn’t be surprised to see more of her in the future. And the lovely Liv Tyler; she just lights up the screen and makes her character so fun and loveable. Great movie, great cast.
I think some Kevin fans are going to be disappointed, and call him a sell out, which is too bad. Just as an actor can do comedy, drama or action, I hope the fans realize that a director can do the same thing and be good at all of them, just in different ways. If this is the road Kevin is headed down, I will follow him wherever he leads us. I can’t wait to see what he does with the Green Hornet and Fletch Won! Don’t miss this movie March 26th!
See you again soon. As always, we appreciate you stopping by News Askew!
Got Something To Say?
You must be logged in to post a comment.