Author Archive

“Kevin Smith Gets All Up in Yo Face”…

April 6th @ 9:41 pm | No Comments » | Scooped by Brad & Chris

  • Patrick Norton will chat with Kevin on tomorrow night’s edition of Tech TV’s popular series “The Screensavers”, as we mentioned
    yesterday. Here’s more details on what to expect tomorrow, as well as a link to a video clip
    from the interview, which premieres tomorrow:
‘Jersey Girl’ director and no-budget filmmaking hero chats with Patrick Norton.

By Tim Moynihan

In the “what have you done for me lately?” world of entertainment, you’re only as popular as your latest project.

Some filmmakers are criticized for making movies that are far different from anything they’ve done before, while others are dubbed a one-trick pony if they keep churning out similar fare.

With his latest film, “Jersey Girl,” director Kevin Smith has polarized fans and critics by doing a little bit of both. In exploring the bond between a father, his daughter, and his friends and family, “Jersey Girl” is a far cry from anything Smith’s directed before.

But many critics have complained that while “Jersey Girl” may be something new for Smith, it’s nothing new for a Hollywood movie. Fans of “Clerks,” “Dogma,” and “Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back,” may be stunned that this movie was made by the same director.

On tonight’s episode of “The Screen Savers,” Patrick Norton talks to Smith about the hubbub surrounding “Jersey Girl,” the challenges in making a film that’s so different from any of his previous works, and why “Jersey Girl” is basically the same movie as “Chasing Amy,” except — as Smith puts it — “with a 7 year old instead of a lesbian.”

What’s in it for you

By watching tonight’s show or clicking the video link to the right, you’ll also learn about the following items at no extra charge.

– The best CG effects should be unnoticeable, which means Smith has done a great job with them in his last two films. Learn about the computer-generated effects he used in “Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back” and “Jersey Girl.”

– Learn why Smith isn’t a card-carrying member of the digital-video revolution, even though he gets good use out of digital-editing equipment.

– Who’s the bigger computer geek — Kevin Smith or Ben Affleck? Find out who Smith gives the nod to in the interview.

– Smith is a self-proclaimed “Mac whore.” Wait ’til he tells you how many rooms in his house are wired.

– Smith’s next project is an on-screen adaptation of the “Green Hornet” comic books. Find out whether Smith is intimidated by bringing these classic comics to life and why a niche audience can be harder to please than a mainstream audience.

– Learn why Smith describes making “Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back” as an exercise in anger-management therapy.

– Find out which goodies are in store for the DVD version of “Jersey Girl” and why the DVD probably won’t be part of the Criterion Collection series.

View Askew NewsBites™

April 6th @ 9:39 pm | No Comments » | Scooped by WFdonHawk, Ty Nelson, Alonso Duralde, Christian, Lyssa, RGreene, Chantalco

  • The Kentucky Theater in Lexington, Kentucky will be showing “Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back” at midnight this Friday and Saturday.
    The theater is located on Main Street. If this one sells out, perhaps they’ll host more View Askew films on the big screen, so if you’re in the area, stop
    out and see a really fun flick with a midnight crowd full of crazy fans.
  • Don’t forget to CAST YOUR VOTE for your favorite film in this Tribeca Film Festival
    poll. Clerks is up as a choice! Vote for your favorite celluloid guilty pleasure and then come down to the Tribeca Drive-In at Hudson River Park’s Pier
    25 to share your guilt with 3,000 like-minded movie buffs. The winning film will screen on Friday, May 7, at 8:30 p.m., check back for ticket information.
  • Alright, so it’s another gag, but another clever gag by the sneaky and clever Christian. If there WAS a Jersey Girl soundtrack, we
    imagine that Best Buy would have a page that looked something like THIS.

  • We kept missing this one in the shuffle, but “Jay & Silent Bob” made the cover of a recent Entertainment Weekly, on one of Bart Simpson’s
    hands. Check out a scan right here.
  • Twilight Invasion gives Jersey Girl some mad props, saying it “…may, in fact, be Kevin
    Smith’s finest work to date.” Read their full review HERE.
  • Frank’s Reel Reviews also has a bit on Jersey Girl, taken from Kev’s press tour a
    couple weeks back.
  • And last, but certainly not least today, a huge congrats to Jason Mewes, for celebrating a year of total sobriety today. In the AP story, Kevin confirms his plans to use
    Mewes for a role in “Green Hornet”. Congrats again, Jay. Well done.

Kevin On “The Screensavers” This Wednesday Night!

April 5th @ 10:53 pm | No Comments » | Scooped by Greg, David Stinner

  • Kevin will be making an appearance on Tech TV’s “The Screensavers” this Wednesday night. He’s scheduled to discuss technology in films, as well as View Askew’s presence on the web. Hey, what a PERFECT opportunity to tell the world about the new look of News Askew, ‘eh? We shall see! The show airs Wednesday night at 7 p.m. and Thursday at 12 a.m. and 8 a.m. All times eastern. We’ll have a wrapup of the appearance for you right here as well.

View Askew NewsBites™

April 5th @ 10:51 pm | No Comments » | Scooped by Jordan Bross, Alonso Duralde

  • Salon.com talked to George Carlin recently, and the piece, “Dirty Old Man”, is a result of that chat. Here’s a snippet:
Bart is a guy who could have been easily played as the lovable old codger. You’ve kept some nice rough edges on him.

First of all, when Kevin told me he wrote this in my voice, I knew that this fellow inhabited me somewhere. I would have loved to have been a trained actor from, say, mid-adolescence — learn the craft, learn the traditions, work in stock, work all the classics, work with well-trained actors and really develop. Lacking that, I find that I have, in my observational life — because I am smart, and I do retain well — a lot of colors in my paint box. I know something about Eastern, blue-collar men who hang around, more or less neighborhood guys. I mean, I know from them just absorbing them. From the initial stuff about looking at the character, I write a little back story so that I know he has a history of things that has made him the way he is now.

Short one today, folks! Seems strange, doesn’t it? Gives us more time to squash some minor redesign bugs, which is a good thing. See ya again soon!

Commentary…

April 4th @ 10:25 pm | No Comments » | Scooped by Brad & Chris

  • Howdy, folks…Haven’t done one of these in a while, so we figured we’d just check in before the new work week begins, with an update and a few words about what’s going on lately. I’m back from a busy weekend at the Liz Phair concert in Philly (who has to be one of the few performers I’ve seen who can get a ton of applause just for stretching), and extra theatre time seeing Jersey Girl again this weekend, THEN Hellboy (an entertaining flick, though nothing overly groundbreaking). Now, it’s time to catch up on the latest happenings in the Asknewniverse and see how our new design’s holding up.

The weekend seemed to be much better concerning speeds here at the site. There’s a few speedup fixes going in tonight, and we’re hoping that they can help make things smoother for the upcoming week. It’s interesting how when folks are at work and supposed to be WORKING that site traffic goes way up, isn’t it? Very interesting indeed. Anyway, hopefully you’re reading this update and didn’t have to wait a half an hour to get it to show up. We’re continuing to monitor the site, and won’t stop tweaking things until we’re happy with the site’s ability to handle heavy traffic.

We’ve already been entered into the internet’s RSS databases, and our new RSS feed is getting a ton of use. We’ve been made aware of an excellent method to make use of News Askew’s RSS, as well. If you use My Yahoo as a homepage (or you frequently visit it), this new feature will enable you to add the “newsaskew” channel to your My Yahoo page, anywhere you want. It works amazingly well, and is simple to set up. Thanks to Jeff for the great find!

In television news, with the season wrapping up, network TV’s going to get very busy again, but a lot of the best stuff is on cable right now. The Sopranos is off to a good start for HBO, and if you’re NOT watching the new series, “Deadwood”, clear your schedule at 10 PM tonight. The show, loosely based on true events in this town, is nothing short of specutacular. Alias and 24 continue to be two of the best network shows out there — You’re missing out if you’re skipping those. Angel sadly doesn’t seem to be getting any salvation after the cancellation was announced, despite one of the biggest rescue campaigns ever undertaken, and the excellent new “Wonderfalls” has also been dumped by FOX after just 4 episodes. What a shame.

Reality TV’s kind of drying up these days. Is anyone else now bored by this all-star Survivor? Just seems like the show’s jumped the shark with that move. The Apprentice is fun from time to time, but also generally a dry hour for a lot of its running time. Audiences seem to continue to eat up reality TV though, which is a shame as it’s eating into programming time for original network shows to air. However, Big Brother will be back in a few months, along with The Amazing Race, two guilty pleasures that are a blast to take in every summer.

And then, theatrically, there’s Kill Bill 2 in a couple of weeks, which these two webmasters absolutely can’t wait for. If the rumblings we’re hearing are true, this one may even surpass the already amazing KB 1. Looking forward to it.

Alright, now that we’re caught up on general stuff, let’s get on with this today, shall we?

Weekend Jersey Girl Reviews!

April 4th @ 10:24 pm | No Comments » | Scooped by Mouseglove, Elaine Micklo, Chantal

  • The late bloomers are still trickling in with some more Jersey Girl reviews. If you haven’t seen the film yet, or want to see it again, you’ve still got time. It’s not very often that there’s a View Askew flick on the big screen, so take advantage. Go see JG again this week or during the long holiday weekend that’s coming up!
THE BATTALION – “On the big screen: ‘Jersey Girl’”

“…While “Jersey Girl” may leave some of Smith’s core audience feeling left out, it is a great step forward for Smith’s career. While the story features an abundance of warmth and heart, don’t expect too much of a downgrading of Smith’s dialogue. While there is a notable lack of the f-Bomb, his finely-tuned dialogue features a frankness that may cause many parents to feel uncomfortable with their children watching. “Jersey Girl” is a great indicator of Smith’s potential and an excellent begnning to the next stage of his career.”

[FULL REVIEW]


PROF J – Jersey Girl Review (A)

“…Kevin Smith is a writer I’ve enjoyed for many years. I enjoy him as a person (as much as I’ve seen in his television appearances and the Evening with Kevin Smith DVD) and I enjoy his writing. When I graduated with my Master’s degree, my graduation present to myself was an autographed copy of Mallrats. I got to see a sneak preview of Jay and Silent Bob Strikes Back and can’t remember when I’ve laughed so hard. But this is, arguably, the most stirring and emotional film he’s made yet, or at least tied with Chasing Amy. It’s a radical departure from his other offerings, and I think it shows both great courage to go against the filmic grain as well as great integrity to say ‘I want to do something different, I want to try something new, I want to grow and expand my horizons.’ That’s not an easy thing to do at any point in your life, but especially in one as public and confessional as Smith’s has been. Bravo, Mr. Smith. Bravo.”

[FULL REVIEW]


CRAZEWIRE – “Kevin Smith Finds His Beautiful Reward in ‘Jersey Girl’”

“…Kevin Smith did not make this film because he wanted to make a blockbuster. He did not cast Ben Affleck because he thought he would bring in box office bank. He made “Jersey Girl” from his inner soul because he needed to. This is what artists do. “Jersey Girl” is a love letter to his daughter, Harley, and what a love letter it is. I love each and every inch of this film. To those people who criticize it for being riddled with cliché’s, I feel sorry for them. They obviously cannot see the unique vision Smith has and maybe they are uncomfortable when someone wears their feelings on their sleeve, because it’s a risk they would never take, put their love out there for people to see. I doubt I’ll ever be able to write a love letter as personal as this one to my child or to one of my friend’s children. But that’s OK because when they’re old enough, I have something better than a love letter. I’ll sit down with them and show them “Jersey Girl”.

[FULL REVIEW]


411 MANIA – Review (9/10)

“…Indeed, Smith’s greatest gift as a writer and a filmmaker is his ability to capture the essential truth in any situation. His earliest works did this, honestly portraying the lives of the 20-something men in the awkward man-child phase. The years most college-age men go through where they struggle to achieve manhood while avoiding turning into a grown-up. “Clerks” was practically a documentary of this phenomena as well as a message film. “Clerks” was ultimately a man stuck in a rut because it was more comfortable to lie in the gutter and than to try reach for the stars.

And if “Clerks” taught us about the need to try for something better in our lives, then “Mallrats” was about how to fight for what we have. “Chasing Amy”, in contrast, shows the dangers of questioning the good that comes your way and looking gift horses in the mouth. “Dogma” teaches the importance of general faith and how . Even “Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back” had a message of sorts, though the message was more about why Jay is not a role-model

What then is the message of Jersey Girl? To quote Robert Burns, “The best-laid plans of mice and men often go awry.” Jersey Girl’s message is that in spite of things not going the way we want them to, sometimes things turn out better than we plan.”

[FULL REVIEW]

Maryland Q&A Photos & Small Details

April 4th @ 10:20 pm | No Comments » | Scooped by Harelquin, Goob

  • Kevin spent over 5 hours taking tons of questions in Maryland on Friday, and yet again wowed all who were in attendance. The elusive Jason Mewes himself brought the crowd to their feet when he made a brief appearance at the show. Walt Flanagan and Bryan Johnson also made a late arrival, so it was a star-studdent event for View Askew fans who were lucky enough to be in attendance.

If you were at the show and wanna talk about your night, feel free to toss it into the TalkBacks!

View Askew NewsBites™

April 4th @ 10:17 pm | No Comments » | Scooped by Tom Kaczmarczyk, Kevin, Angelviewfrmatop, John Brodigan, Paul Trampe, Scott Levy, Bigshow, Russ, Chase Garrett, Daniel Scholer, Andy Adams, Chrisopher Myers, Chad Silverstein, Schulz, Kevin Whaley

  • Small story, TONS of scoopers on this one. We’re not sure which sect would rule the world should the majority take over: The religious right giving their $$ to The Passion, or the wrestling fans in this country. Anyway, around 30 or 40 folks wrote us in the span of hours to tell us that this website reporting that a WWE hottie is a fan of Jason Mewes:
Each week The Finisher asks a handful of WWE personalities to finish a statement. This week’s was “My celebrity crush is…” Former WWE Women’s Champion Molly Holly answered, “… Jason Mewes, who plays Jay from “Jay & Silent Bob.” He’s just the right combination of crude, obnoxious, sweet and funny.”

If the rumors we’re heard about Jay lately are true, we bet his people will be calling her people very, very soon.

  • Another article discussing Kevin’s recent Q&A appearance at Berkeley is available HERE from the Daily Californian Online.
  • A new Jason Mewes fansite, the Jason Mewes Zone, has opened for business.
  • The I-Skew test is now out in print in the latest Wizard, issue #150. You can also view a recreation over at the News Askew Forums.
  • Liv Tyler is scheduled to be interviewed on a show tomorrow called Great Day SA, on channel KENS 5 in San Antonio, Texas, at 9 AM central. She’ll be promoting Jersey Girl, of course.

  • And finally today, Jersey Girl: Coming to a theater near you, in KOREA, soon!

Kevin In Maryland: TONIGHT!

April 2nd @ 4:57 pm | No Comments » | Scooped by Brad & Chris

  • Don’t forget to catch Kevin at the UNIVERSITY OF MARYLAND for a Q&A tonight — Word has it the big guy’s headed into town a little early to catch Jersey Girl at a theater close to the Q&A locale — So if you’re in that nearby area, you may wanna buy yourself a ticket to the show. Our apologies for the late reminder on this, with the site upgrades, it’s been a busy day. Hopefully a lot of you will make it to the show, and set up your plans a long while back.

Site Updates, Speed, Etc…

April 2nd @ 4:56 pm | No Comments » | Scooped by Brad & Chris

  • We’d first like to say thanks for all the wonderful praise on the new site. It’s great to see that from you after all the time we put into the new design. Now, that being said, let us say this: Yes, we KNOW the site is really, really slow now, because of these updates. So slow, in fact, we can’t even get in to post our own news. If the site disappears at times, with a “we’ll be back” message, that’s just because we HAVE to take it down in order to work on it. With all the users hitting the forums and talkbacks at once, our little server just can’t seem to handle the abuse.

The problem is either being caused by the forums, the talkbacks, or just general heavy traffic. We’re looking into the issue and hope to install some code cleanup this weekend to eliminate some of this. We’re also looking into adding some memory or completely upgrading to a faster server system for News Askew, if possible. So, rest assured, the site IS slow now, but we will NOT let it stay this way. Please bear with us through the bumps as we get things adjusted. We tested all we could on our own, but the true test doesn’t happen until you open the floodgates. In this case, we got buried. But we’re working on it.

Thanks again for your support, and we’ll be in touch with more soon.