An Evening with Kevin Smith

An Evening with Kevin Smith
by J.M. Kenny

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DVD Reviews of An Evening with Kevin Smith

DVD Review: Some Great Stories About The View Askewniverse
Summary: 4 Stars

I enjoyed several of the stories that Kevin tells. In particular, I found his discussion about his experience in the development of the ill-fated "Superman Reborn" project to be very intersting. He spends almost 30 minutes discussing how he got involved with the project (his theory on why he was asked to work on it involves the dialogue that takes place in "Mallrats" about Superman's "prowess"). He explains his meetings with movie execs, particularly Jon Peters (producer of "Rainman), who he convincing portrays as a total goofball. He also explains how his role in the development of the film fell apart when it was decided that Tim Burton would be the director. Kevin leaves no doubt that there is no love lost between himself and Burton.

I also enjoyed his long (again about 30 minutes) discussion about another ill-fated experience as the director of a documentary about the artist now known as Prince. It's a fascinating discussion of what it is like to work with a man who lives in (as described by one of Prince's assistants), "Prince World". Kevin shows how he went from a giddy fan of Prince who was tickled to be asked to do the project to a non-fan who now could care less about Prince.

I do have some quibbles. Although he told the story with good humor, I really didn't care about the minute details of his first "romantic" experience with is wife Jen. I'd say about 20 minutes are dedicated to this that could have been used to descibe his thoughts on one of his movies. I'm not a prude (I've seen and enjoyed his movies, after all), but some things are better left unsaid (or at least left off the DVD).

Obviously since these college stints were Q&A sessions, he can only answer what was asked by the crowd. However, I would have liked to have heard discussion on what it was like to work with Linda Fiorentino on "Dogma", who he has said was so difficult to work with that he will never do it again. If he could rip Prince and Jon Peters in an entertaining fashion, imagine the hatchet job he could have done on her.

I also didn't understand why it was decided to leave in questions asked by students who were obviously not coherent and just babbled without saying anything pertinent. Again, this time could have been spent showing Kevin answer decent questions. I did get a kick out of Kevin's attempt to try to sweet talk an employer of a student to let him get his job back (the student was fired for going to the Smith show instead of working).

Overall, pretty entertaining and a good addition for the Kevin Smith completest.

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