Tonight I’m Gonna Break My One Rule

As a once massive Kevin Smith fan, it’s been pretty testing to see his past few years, the outrage he seems to have felt lay on the reviewers who got to see his film for free only to vocally dislike it (Which is kinda his fault for making Cop Out), and I’ve more than disliked this turn of events, especially his Sundance stuff this year, I blocked him out of my life, I went cold turkey on his films, not seen one since, they use to be comfort films, and tried to ignore the decade of enjoyment that was my love affair with the oevre of Kevin Smith.

Though I felt a twinge of excitement when asked to cover Red State for a website, I wanted to believe that this, his passion project for years, would remind me of the good times I had, albeit in a way of originality more than comedy and dialogue, I doubt this film is particularly funny, but it has the potential to be really tense. I wanted to believe that Smith had grown, matured, and his comments were an over reaction that could be put right with a solid screening.

When told that this screening was cancelled, I was shocked, I knew he didn’t want press screenings, but I never realised he had such pull with the UK distributors to let that happen, but to then go on twitter and find ‘fans’ to see the film instead, I find shocking. I was a fan, I’ve seen all his works, all of his works, more than once apiece, does that not qualify me? Clearly not, because to him we’re all overpaid (I do this as a hobby) snobs (I love Drive Angry) who don’t deserve to have a voice if we see films for free. If this were true, anyone using a Cineworld Unlimited card, after a few visits in a month, can’t speak their mind about films they might have seen, those SeeFilmFirst screenings, designed as a way to put out word on a film, are redundant because those that see a film for free can’t speak about that film.

He believes that someone who pays to see a film can say what they like about a film, fair enough, but I know what it’s like to pay money to see a crap film (I ended up seeing Cop Out in an empty cinema because I still have to see all his films in the cinema), and I know the pain when I think of the places the money I wasted could have gone, the time I wasted too, and I like to make sure people know if there’s a film not worth their time nor money, and that is part of the job of a reviewer, one who looks over the film and reviews it’s value in every way.

Kevin Smith, a man born from the momentum of film critics, survived by the love of reviewers, who did a stint on Ebert and Roeper, thinks film critics are imbeciles. I think he is an arrogant hypocrite. Words are cheap, and I have a billion ready for him.