CHASING AMY – Written by: Kevin Smith

Arguably one of Kevin Smith’s best movies (though maybe not his wittiest, which would go to Clerks), Chasing Amy is a story about a lesbian and the man in love with her. Whether you are straight, gay, or bi, you can’t deny that Chasing Amy has heart. And its script is really well done, at that. My personal favorite scene would be when Jason Lee is trying to explain to Ben Affleck why the relationship can’t work, using examples with Santa Clause, the Easter Bunny, and the Man-Hating Dyke. It’s just classic Smith dialogue.

Character: Silent Bob
Films: Clerks, Mallrats, Chasing Amy, Dogma, Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back, Clerks II
Years Released: 1994, 1995, 1997, 1999, 2001, 2006
Chief traits: Silent, Not Silent
Trademark line: ” “
Additional comments: Probably not since the days of silent films has one man said so much by saying so little. Pairing with his hopped-up sidekick Jay (or is Bob the sidekick?), Silent Bob went from a quirky minor character in Kevin Smith’s debut Clerks to the co-star of his own film, along the way spawning a franchise for Smith and Bob alike, including comic books, cartoons, and guest spots on crappy TV shows (Yes, Dear).

Moving more recently, how was working with Kevin Smith? He seems to be a very big fan of your work?

Working with Kevin was very nice. He did seem to appreciate my previous work and he did seem to like what I wrote for him for Mallrats.

I’ve read an interview when you seemed to really appreciate that level of detail Kevin went in to regarding your work. Do you find that most directors don’t have that level of respect or understanding for the scoring process?

Most directors don’t know their ass from a hole in the ground about music. If they’re regular guys and somewhat modest people who are interested in having a fruitful relationship with the composer, they don’t puff themselves up and they speak frankly with their composer, who is almost always ready to bend over backwards to help them get what they want and need… just like an intelligent homeowner who wants to get a great paint job and listens to the expert painter that he hires.

We’re sure that Marilyn and Jeremy would love to meet some of their View Askew fans and sign some stuff for you. Jason Mewes was scheduled for this at one point, but unfortunately had to cancel. We also heard rumblings of a possible Brian O’Halloran appearance, but that’s still up in the air. For a fan of the Askewniverse though, this is certainly a great chance to meet two icons from the first two flicks, and a spectacular chance to get that DVD or poster signed.

Speaking of Marilyn, her new horror film “Dead and Gone” is going through the contract stage, and set to hit video sometime in 2008. We’ll let you know when it’s available.

“I wish I could have made his version,” Smith said. “The parameters that we had in our version of ‘Green Hornet’ – he’s not suffering from the same parameters At the time they were like ‘We want to make a big straight-forward action movie” – the wrong approach for the character, Smith insisted.

“You can’t really compete with Spiderman and Batman and stuff like that with Green Hornet,” the director contended. “So it’s best to take a different approach to it all-together.”

Which, according to Smith, is what Rogen is finally getting a real chance to do.

“He’s Seth Rogan, the man of the moment. He can do anything he wants with that project,” Smith said. “It’s not a comedy what he’s doing, but he gets to do his with a better sense of humor than we would have been allowed to. He’s in a great free place to do something fresh with that material.”

Q: With its fascist interior design, we never think of the Death Star as having restaurants, happy hours, luxury flats and recreation areas.

A: We start from the point that not everyone on board was a villain. As Kevin Smith pointed out in Clerks, someone had to be the plumber. That’s where we’re coming from. There’s got to be bars, places to eat.

The book, which focuses on the life as an everyday worker on the space station, sounds like a fun read.

Jason Reitman, the 30-year-old director of “Juno,” added that the youth brigade was something of an old story. “I feel like I am just following in the footsteps of Quentin Tarantino, Robert Rodriguez, Kevin Smith, Wes Anderson, the list goes on,” he said.

Kevin Smith’s uber-grungy Clerks captured the low-key, agreeable vibe of smartass go-nowhere buddies hanging out and talking shit. It was cinematic democracy in action, a triumph of proletariat ingenuity over technical wizards with film-school degrees and elaborate storyboards.

Mos was at a Steelers game all day, and I was out Christmas shopping with Jen, so no new SMod tonight. Earliest you can have it is tomorrow night (we’re scouting all morning).

Sorry.

‘Tis that time of the year, and we can relate. We’ll of course keep an eye on SModcast, and let you know if an episode does drop this week. If not, we’re pretty certain the guys will have things set up for next Monday (with two full weeks of great stuff to chat up). Stay tuned.

9. Clerks

Sure, the clients here are shopping for snacks, gum and cancer sticks, but still shopping nevertheless. And if you have really crappy parents, they just might go to the Quick Stop to fill your stockings.

6. Mallrats

Kevin Smith clearly has a thing for shopping as he graces our list for a second time with this cultish little mall-based movie from the mid-90’s. Jason Lee and Jason London troll the malls discussing everything from relationships to comic books and even new and exciting uses for chocolate covered pretzels.

3. Clerks

Sure, it’s been done before. It’s been done well before. But it was done as a cartoon that existed as it’s own beast for the most part. A sitcom that begins more faithful to the source material could easily score big with fans of Kevin Smith’s flick as well as VH1-ers whose lives actually are complaining about their jobs and making snarky remarks about what’s happening in pop culture(which is not to say that there isn’t a helluva lot of overlap there). With this one, I’d especially want to start with a new cast and encourage everyone involved to really make it their own the way that the American version of The Office started being almost too faithful to its source material and then expanded itself to become so much more.

3. Clerks

I’d also like to see a show based on our favorite convenience store clerks, but unlike Ben I have no desire to see the roles recast. In fact, I’d like to See Brian O’Halloran and Jeff Anderson reprise Dante and Randal and pick up the story after Clerks 2, with them running the Quik Stop. I’d want Elias in the show too, because he rules, and of course numerous cameos from Jay and Silent Bob. You’d need new characters as well, since Dante and Randal won’t want to spend all their time at the stores, and Randal deserves a love interest damnit! The one problem is Dante is married with a kid and there’s no way Rosario Dawson would do a TV show (I imagine), so we’d need to recast.

See ya soon – We’re hoping for a new SModcast tomorrow! Get that podcast downloading software ready…

Kevin Smith became a cult hero to minimum wage slaves everywhere when he turned $27,000 into a glorified student movie with a dirty mouth and one hilarious scene after the next. It is ‘Clerks’ that truly schooled many a teen in the birds, bees, necrophilia, hermaphroditic porn and the significance of number 37.

“Clerks” (1994)


Writer-director Kevin Smith didn’t know how to end his low-budget comedy, so he had a gunman enter the convenience store and shoot the main character, Dante (Brian O’Halloran), during a robbery. Then, a man (played by Smith) enters the store and steals cigarettes. The ending made it through only one public screening before Smith was persuaded to give the film a more upbeat ending, which no doubt helped it become a smash hit but prevented “Clerks II” from being a zombie movie.

“But in the age of iPods, there’s really no reason why audio commentary has to be relegated to DVD. That’s why Ryan Reynolds and I recorded one last week for The Nines which is now yours to download. (47MB, right-click to save to disk)


This isn’t an original idea, by the way. Kevin Smith recorded an in-theater commentary for Clerks II, though I can’t find confirmation he released it into the wild. (Someone in the comments section will know.)”