Kevin Smith Page 3

Turns out Doogal (Daniel Tay) is actually a dog. His best friend is Florence (Kylie Minogue), as well as a cow (Whoopi Goldberg), a train (Chevy Chase), and a flatulent moose (Kevin Smith). Their adventure, and you'll need to hang in there for this, involves magic diamonds that can freeze the sun. There's of course a bad guy with a plan to do just that: He's a kind of alien with a spring for the lower half of his body (voiced by an audibly bored Jon Stewart). Their adventure to stop her takes them across the countryside and, er, into, like, a magic land, or, something, I think.

Continue reading: Doogal Review

Scary Movie 3 sticks with the program: mind-bogglingly dumb characters hustle their way through spoofs of the industry's most popular recent films. It's no mistake that the roasted movies -- in this case: Signs, The Ring, and 8 Mile -- all pull in huge money and attract a young audience.

Continue reading: Scary Movie 3 Review

Though it wasn't pre-planned, Smith's film also puts the final nail in the "Bennifer" coffin then begins the resurrection process on Ben Affleck's floundering, Gigli-ravaged career. For the first time in a long while Affleck carries a decent picture, making a stronger connection to Smith's casual dialogue than he does with any of his co-stars.

Continue reading: Jersey Girl Review

On his very first assignment, "Vulgar," as he goes by after hours, finds himself beaten and gang raped by a group of horny guys. Oops. No sooner has Vulgar/Flappy recovered than he saves a young girl from her murderous father, lands on the talk show circuit, and soon is offered his own kids' TV show. Soon enough, the hillbilly types catch up with him and attempt to blackmail him for the inevitable videotape of the night. Pulp Fiction-style revenge ensues.

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Swan gets a camera crew to tail him to Hollywood -- where Commander Courage, a supposed WWII era patriotic hero -- has been reinvented as Codename Courage, a ninja-like fighter of terrorism everywhere. But quickly he's on to the San Diego Comic-Con convention, where the bulk of the film takes place. It's hard to tell where the staged stuff for the movie ends and the fanboy ga-ga stuff begins: Among the countless shots of scantily clad fanbabes, costumed kids, and hugs with random convention exhibitors and fans there's a semblance of a story. Basically that involves Swan trying to convince everyone he meets that the old Commander Courage is better than the new Codename Courage (including a scene with Hamill and Stan Lee on a panel at the convention. Just don't think about it too much or you'll start to ask yourself just why Swan would be sent to this convention in the first place. It works only in the sense of putting the characters into oddball situations, but it's got little to do with anythig in the plot.

Continue reading: Comic Book: The Movie Review

Hey everybody, wanna watch a movie in which a guy dressed as a children's party clown gets violently gang-raped? I didn't think so. But here's the bigger question: Why would Kevin Smith protégé Bryan Johnson want to write and direct such a movie?

"Vulgar" is a product of View Askew, the production company that makes all Smith's joyously juvenile and sometimes insightful comedies, like "Clerks," "Chasing Amy," "Dogma" and "Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back." Johnson is a friend of Smith's and a frequent bit player in his movies (fans know him as Steve-Dave Pulasti). To watch his debut as a writer-director is to get the distinct impression that Smith owed him a favor.

Brian O'Halloran (the convenience store clerk from "Clerks," et al) stars in this unpleasantly dark comedy-drama as a down-on-his-luck professional clown who hits on the idea of jumping out of cakes in full Bozo regalia at bachelor parties as a joke before the "real" entertainment arrives. His first gig at a run-down motel goes badly -- he's sexually assaulted by a violent middle-aged drunk (Jerry Lewkowitz) and his halfwit hillbilly sons (Ethan Suplee and Matthew Maher).

Continue reading: Vulgar Review

Thanks to all the is-it-or-isn't-it-blasphemy controversy surrounding "Dogma," writer-director Kevin Smith has added a tongue-in-cheek disclaimer to the opening of this renegade ribbing of the Catholic church that is so amusing ("...God has a sense of humor, just look at the platypus") it will have audiences in stitches even before the first line of dialogue.

Whether or not you'll think the movie stays this funny will depend on how sensitive you are about your position on the religious yardstick, your threshold for soapbox pontification and what it takes to gross you out.

Smith, the maverick Generation X satirist responsible for ragtag underground hits "Clerks" and "Chasing Amy," makes no bones about testing the limits of irreverence and good taste in this ironically snappy and smart-mouthed theological deliberation.

Continue reading: Dogma Review