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Showing posts with the label kevin smith

TUSK - VLOG REVIEW

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I review Kevin Smith's body horror weirdfest Tusk .

COMIC BOOK MEN: SEASON 2 - REVIEW

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After the first season of Comic Book Men opened the doors of the Secret Stash comic-book store to television for all to see, AMC soon went ahead with a second season with Kevin Smith, Walt Flanagan, Mike Zapcic, Ming Chen and Bryan Johnson all returning. This time, the show would be spread out over 16 episodes instead of just 6, each of them half the length of what they were in the last season. And although this meant a more rushed pace and less time with the Stash gang, Season 2 did well to manage this new format by not over-crowding and overloading the episodes. In terms of guest appearances, there are thankfully not too many with Jason Mewes popping up in a couple of episodes and the season ending with Walt meeting some veteran Jersey Devils hockey players. The highlight guests-wise has to be Stan Lee who shows up at the Stash for a photo-shoot and answers some of the cast's geekiest questions. It's a fun tribute to Lee and comic-book fans should really enjoy the few t

COMIC BOOK MEN: SEASON 1 - REVIEW

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Led by Kevin Smith, Comic Book Men was AMC's geekier version of a Pawn Stars -style reality show with Red Bank, New Jersey comic-book store Jay & Silent Bob's Secret Stash as the central setting. Cleverly using a podcast recording as a framing device, the show would include goofy comics-themed conversations, transactions with customers selling or purchasing all kinds of items and a mini-storyline involving the main cast. A sort-of spin-off from popular Smodco podcasts Tell 'Em Steve-Dave and I Sell Comics , the cast in question was a mix of both with Walt Flanagan and Bryan Johnson joining Ming Chen and Mike Zapcic behind the Stash's counter. Season 1 is a short one in that it only has 6 episodes but each of them is about 45 minutes long, a running-time that would be reduced by half soon enough. And this is why this first season remains the best of the bunch: by giving us more time with the cast and having more space to develop the main stories, the show allo

YOGA HOSERS - REVIEW

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Review now available on the new website .

VULGAR - VIDEO REVIEW

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Here's the video version of my Vulgar review.

TUSK - VIDEO REVIEW

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Here's the video version of my Tusk review.

THE DEATH OF SUPERMAN LIVES: WHAT HAPPENED? - REVIEW

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One of the most fascinating unmade Hollywood movies has to be Superman Lives , a 90's Superman movie which would have starred Nicolas Cage as the DC hero and would have been directed by Tim Burton of all people. The Death Of Superman Lives is a crowdfunded documentary which finally gives us a better idea of what that film would have been like. This is, of course, not the first time a documentary has spilled the beans on a film that never was: very recently we had Jodorowsky's Dune and, a while back, Lost In La Mancha which focused on the making of Terry Gilliam's Don Quixote . With interviews from the likes of Kevin Smith, Tim Burton and eccentric producer Jon Peters, director/interviewer Jon Schnepp, through valid questions, nifty animated visuals, previously unseen test footage and artwork, translates a project which was often dismissed as a silly idea and a deserved failure into a comic-book movie epic like no other. After the underwhelming Superman Returns and th

DAREDEVIL - REVIEW

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As we celebrate the release of Netflix's second season of the Daredevil series, I look back at the Marvel character's first and only movie outing to date: the 2003 film starring Ben Affleck and Jennifer Garner. The film did well at the box-office upon its release but audiences and critics alike weren't too thrilled about it. Not that it was universally hated or anything, it just failed to bring the same level of excitement as the X-Men or Spider-Man movies of the time and was destined to a Hulk -style mass shunning. Daredevil did receive something of a cult following on DVD, especially after the release of the superior Director's Cut which wisely expanded the actual story thereby giving the film a more balanced pace and emphasising the mostly silly action sequences a little less. Ben Affleck pulls off that red leather costume more than people give him credit for and it's a bit unfair of those who make fun of it to also praise the new series since I would ar

CHASING AMY STAR WARS RANT

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The mighty Hooper X talks Star Wars.

CLERKS TALKING STAR WARS

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Dante and Randal on the building of the second Death Star. Randal and Elias argue over Star Wars vs The Lord Of The Rings .

TUSK - REVIEW

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Born out of an episode of Kevin Smith's Smodcast podcast, Tusk was a story inspired by a fake ad on Gumtree in which a man was looking for someone to come and spend time with him while acting like and being dressed up as a walrus. The ad would turn out to be a prank but a truly insane/genius horror movie idea was born, an idea you can hear in the episode of Smodcast entitled "The Walrus And The Carpenter" . The film, which was released a year ago today, was not a big hit at the box-office but it helped give birth to Smith's promising Canada-set horror comedy trilogy which will include the upcoming Yoga Hosers and Moose Jaws , along with the belated sequel to Mallrats around the same time. Plus the idea that some goofy joke conversation two friends one day have in a podcast can turn into a proper movie is inspiring. The film's cast would include Justin Long, Michael Parks, Haley Joel Osment, Genesis Rodriguez and a surprise appearance by Johnny Depp, whose p

VULGAR - REVIEW

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From Bryan Johnson comes a black comedy with more than just a little edge to it. Vulgar sees a pathetic, down-and-out clown, played by Clerks ' Brian O'Halloran, respond to an ad which would require him to perform a joke at a bachelor's party only to find that a psychotic father and his two sons are planning to rape him. Now that's a synopsis! Must have been a shoo-in pitch at Lionsgate Entertainment. Who would have thought that Shakes The Clown and I Spit On Your Grave would combine their plots to create a whole new movie? The depiction of Will "Flappy" Carson's (O'Halloran) unpleasant day-to-day life is handled with a sarcastic sense of humour at first with his mother being so over-the-top vile and his job not exactly working out the way he was hoping it would. Bryan Johnson himself also pops up here and there as Will's best friend to cheer him up or shoot the shit. Then the film takes such a dark detour that, right there and the

CLERKS II - REVIEW

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Every saga has a middle age and this is what happens when Jay and Silent Bob get old... The follow-up to Kevin Smith's classic low-budget cult classic Clerks may not have been greeted with an overwhelming amount of positive outcries since half of the View Askew fans weren't sure how Smith could possibly make another Clerks movie successfully. Were those fans proven wrong? Well... yes and no. Clerks II 's goal wasn't to imitate the first film or try to live up to it, instead, it wanted to continue these characters' story and expand their universe a little. Case and point: the film opens with the iconic Quick Stop burning down before the film transitions from black-and-white to colour thereby telling us from the offset that this isn't the same movie and that Dante (Brian O'Halloran) and Randall's (Jeff Anderson) lives are about to change radically. It's a really good scene and one of the strongest images in any Kevin Smith movie to date. Th

CHASING AMY - REVIEW

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After Mallrats failed to impress at the box office, Kevin Smith and his View Askew universe enjoyed a little more success with Chasing Amy , a film following the doomed relationship between a jealous straight guy and a gay woman. The film opens on a lighter note with Ben Affleck's Holden, a comic book artist, living with his pal Banky (played by View Askew regular Jason Lee) and dying to get together with Joey Lauren Adams' Alyssa until he learns that she is not, in fact, into guys. Still hoping for something to eventually happen between them, Holden forms a friendship with Alyssa and the inevitable happens: his true feelings for her finally come out into the open. The film then goes in an unexpected direction and ultimately ends on a bittersweet note. For many, this is the best Kevin Smith film out there and it's easy to see why: it tackles a relationship you've never seen develop quite like that in a movie before and it dares to be somewhat more intense and seri

COP OUT - REVIEW

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That Cop Out was so poorly received upon its release and became more well known for Kevin Smith's falling out with Bruce Willis than anything else is, frankly, a bit of a shame. Originally titled "A Couple Of Dicks" , Cop Out was meant to be a throwback buddy cop comedy in the vein of the Lethal Weapon series. Bruce Willis being the tough cop and Tracy Morgan being the goofy sidekick. The two cops are suspended after one of their cases goes stupidly wrong and this puts Jimmy (Willis) in a bind since he was planning to pay for his daughter's wedding instead of her irritating stepdad (played by Jason Lee). They find themselves getting back on the case since it coincides with Jimmy' lost pricy baseball card. Sean-William Scott pops up in what would have been the Jason Mewes role as a mouthy petty thief and he very nearly steals the show. Kevin Pollak does a good job as one of the rival cops from the station and Guillermo Diaz makes an intimidating villain, as

JAY AND SILENT BOB STRIKE BACK - REVIEW

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The spin-off to end all spin-offs, Jay and Silent Bob finally got their own film to play with after effortlessly stealing the show in pretty much every movie they were in and with the likes of Will Ferrell, Mark Hamill and an all-star View Askew cast supporting everyone's favourite stoners, this was set to be one truly goofy and entertaining little adventure. And, indeed, it was! After finding out that their name is being used in Hollywood without their permission and that people are bad-mouthing them online, Jay and Silent Bob set off on an epic road trip which will take them all the way from the almighty Quik Stop to L.A.. On the way, they meet colourful characters to say the least, including a hitch-hiking George Carlin, an orangutan, a dorky Sean William Scott, and hundreds of cameos, some of which a tad confusing with both Jason Lee and Ben Affleck playing dual roles. Oh, they also party with Scooby-Doo, Shaggy and the rest of the Mystery Machine gang, as you do.