Jersey Girl

[Dan]

I wouldn't be a good Kevin Smith fan if I didn't tell everyone to go see this tomorrow.

 

[Johnney]

 

[Dan]

I may very well spend the entire weekend watching movies! Check it:

Dawn of the Dead - I've heard nothing but great things about this. Surprisingly, lots of 'better than the original' talk. Really wanna see it.

Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind - It's getting great reviews, and the script is one of the greatest pieces of writing I've ever read, without a doubt. Brilliant and nonsensical and touching and beautiful all at once. Apparently, the movie is much the same.

Scooby-Doo 2 - I liked the first one. God help me, I liked the first one!!!

Jersey Girl - We've been over why I have to see this. I've never seen a KS movie opening night, I'd like to go see this one tomorrow, but I don't want to be surrounded by couples and/or geeks screaming "snootchie bootchies!" at the screen every ten seconds.

 

[winston churchi]

Originally posted by Dan
I may very well spend the entire weekend watching movies! Check it:

Dawn of the Dead - I've heard nothing but great things about this. Surprisingly, lots of 'better than the original' talk. Really wanna see it.

Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind - It's getting great reviews, and the script is one of the greatest pieces of writing I've ever read, without a doubt. Brilliant and nonsensical and touching and beautiful all at once. Apparently, the movie is much the same.

Scooby-Doo 2 - I liked the first one. God help me, I liked the first one!!!

Jersey Girl - We've been over why I have to see this. I've never seen a KS movie opening night, I'd like to go see this one tomorrow, but I don't want to be surrounded by couples and/or geeks screaming "snootchie bootchies!" at the screen every ten seconds.

Why - is Jay in this movie? Not as Jay but as some charector? - Wasn't he the fellow that coined that phrase so to speak?

Scooby doo huh? Why? He made some perfectly good cartoons in the seventies....though I admit I haven't seen one.

 

[Moi]

Originally posted by Dan
I may very well spend the entire weekend watching movies! Check it:

Dawn of the Dead - I've heard nothing but great things about this. Surprisingly, lots of 'better than the original' talk. Really wanna see it.

Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind - It's getting great reviews, and the script is one of the greatest pieces of writing I've ever read, without a doubt. Brilliant and nonsensical and touching and beautiful all at once. Apparently, the movie is much the same.

Scooby-Doo 2 - I liked the first one. God help me, I liked the first one!!!

Jersey Girl - We've been over why I have to see this. I've never seen a KS movie opening night, I'd like to go see this one tomorrow, but I don't want to be surrounded by couples and/or geeks screaming "snootchie bootchies!" at the screen every ten seconds.

Must be some life. Haven't seen that many moview (in the theatre) in one year, let alone weekend, since high school.

 

[Dan]

Why - is Jay in this movie? Not as Jay but as some charector? - Wasn't he the fellow that coined that phrase so to speak?

No, Jay's not in the movie at all. And, to be honest, the more cartoonish aspect of Smith's work (pretty much everything in JASBSB and Mallrats) never really appealed to me all that much. Point is, this movie is nothing like any of his others, and I'm sure that many, many people showed up expecting another Jay and Silent Bob movie, and were sorely disappointed. Head over to the VA message board if you want to see what the majority of his fans (at least the more outspoken ones) are like. It's not that bad, now that Kevin's been laying the law down with his ban stick, but for a while there, every other post was basically "DUDE KEV, I LOVE GETTING STONED AND WATCHING JAY NAD SILENT BOB ROKC OUT!!!! SNOOTCHIE BOOTCHIES, BABY!!!!" If that's your thing cool, but I like Kevin's wittier writing, like in Chasing Amy and Clerks (to a lesser degree), than his stoner and dick jokes.

 

[Dan]

Just got back from seeing this and good God, I think Chasing Amy may have been dethroned as my favorite Kevin Smith movie. Affleck was really good, and the girl who plays his daughter was excellent, but the real surprise in this for me was George Carlin. He managed to pull off some really dramatic scenes perfectly. A lot of people have said that it's just too sappy for them, but I didn't see it that way at all. Just because a character cries in a movie, I guess that makes it sappy. You could tell the story was really personal, and it really touched me in a way, honestly, none of KS's other movies have. Also, there's a couple lines and a little note at the end that really change your whole perspective on the movie and make it that much deeper and more touching. All that aside, it's also a hilarious movie, the classic Kevin Smith humor is still there, only with a few less bad words (he managed to slip one F-bomb, and a ton of the "lesser" bad words through, along with an extended conversation about masturbating, and still get a PG-13) and no pot references (okay, maybe one). Most of the time, when a kid is the main character in a movie, I cringe, because I figure it's going to be really cutesy-poo, but this wasn't really like that at all, the kid acts like a normal kid, with some of the more embarassing things a kid can do (Affleck walks in on his daughter having a "you show me mine, I'll show you yours" session with one of her friends; there's a running gag about her forgetting to flush the toilet after she pees, the payoff of which the previews pretty much ruined). All in all, I left this movie feeling kind of sad and somehow uplifted at the same time. Go see this now!

PS: For those keeping track, I think I may have shed more tears during this movie than any other I've ever seen, and all in public no less!

 

[winston churchi]

Jersey girl was basically a flop - but it all has to do with timing. This movie was up against the Passion which has been out a few weeks and is still higher than most new movies....

I have seen many great movies over the year that were considered a box office flop....but only because they had poor timing.

Having said that - I am not into those sort of movies anyway - the emotional sort....where you are suppose to cry but just sit in the theatre waiting for the movie to hurry up and finish....

But aside from that - Jersey girl maybe a great movie but it didn't fare well in the box office....

 

[Dan]

But aside from that - Jersey girl maybe a great movie but it didn't fare well in the box office....

It's only been out for nine days! It's a definite word-of-mouth movie, and also you are right that it wasn't going to do great business its first week. It's up against the Passion, and in addition to that, it opened the same day as Scooby-Doo 2. I think it'll make good money, plus the real money is made on DVD now, anyway.

 

[winston churchi]

From what I understand of the box office, the first weekend is the tell all weekend,,,,the make or break it so to speak. It seems to set the tone for how well the movie will fare.

Overall what it brought it may well have been considered good - but look at who is in it? Ben Affleck, Liv Tyler and some scenes with Jennifer Lopez - those three alone cost the production company millions and millions of dollars.

I realize Ben Affleck has been in KS movies long before anyone knew who BA was or cared....but once you start employing these high profile names, the point is to bring in the dollars to justify what was spend on the film for these actors alone - I dont think this film is going to do that.

Had they employed BA (simply for his KS connections) and unknowns than thats a different story....

However it has another chance when it goes to video...


Also on that line of what is up against theatre wise, this is all anticiapted. Certainly no one expected Passion to remain in the threatre racking up the money but Scooby Doo was a give in....they look at what their film is up against and decide based on the competition if its a sink or swim....

But I am not an actor - nor do I socialize with them. But I did meet Richard Dryfus once if that counts.

 

[Zhukov]

Have any of Kevin's movies done very well? I thought it had been pretty much downhill since Clerks as far as box office returns were concerned.

At any rate, I like all his movies, including Chasing Amy, so if you liked that one and thought this one was better I'd say it's worth taking a look.

 

[Dan]

Have any of Kevin's movies done very well? I thought it had been pretty much downhill since Clerks as far as box office returns were concerned.

Well, not really.

Mallrats did, indeed, bomb at the theaters, but it came out on video just as the laserdisc format hit its peak, and Kevin had the presence of mind to put together a super-duper special edition on laserdisc, and eventually DVD. According to him, Mallrats has made plenty of money on video alone. Chasing Amy only cost $250,000 to make (very low by studio standards), so it made a lot of money back, even though it played mainly in arthouse and indie theaters. And, of course, a special ed. DVD came out and made them tons of cash. Similarly, Dogma and Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back didn't make ridiculous cash at the box-office, but made their money back on DVD. I think if Jersey Girl doesn't find an audience in theaters, it'll definitely do it on DVD.

At any rate, I like all his movies, including Chasing Amy, so if you liked that one and thought this one was better I'd say it's worth taking a look.

Yeah, definitely check it out. It's got some moments that we've seen in movies many times before (the "one guy clapping makes everyone else give a standing ovation" scene), but you get so into it, you forget about that stuff and just enjoy the movie.