Kevin explains the problems with this movie in one of his Q&A's (Too Fat for 40, I think). It was released on a terrible weekend first, but that wasn't the real issue. The problem with this movie is that you know the ending within the first 5 minutes. You can probably guess the plot from the title alone. It was predictable. Saying that, I think it has some funny jokes. I love Craig Robinson, I think he's a great comedian. I think Seth and Elizabeth did great jobs as well. But, Kevin Smith has a great explanation for why the movie failed. He really thought this was going to be his 'Apatow' flick, and it wasn't. He was so proud of it, and it bombed. That's devastating, but he reflected on it later and figured out what went wrong. He was trying too hard. He used to make movies that told stories about his life, and that ship has sailed. With this one, he was trying to write a comedy for the sake of comedy. It didn't have the heart that his original films had.
He likened it to a documentary about the Gretzky family he saw, where Wayne's father told him to go where the puck was going to be, not where the puck is. He realized that's what he did wrong with this movie, he went where the puck was, not where it was going. Essentially, he either wrote this movie too late in his career, or he shouldn't have done it at all... I prefer the former, because I still like the movie.
He's stated that he started on a trilogy and he's going out on a trilogy. Unfortunately Cop Out is the first in that trilogy, which he didn't write, he just directed, and I didn't like it. I found it to be a generic buddy cop movie that, again, lacked heart. I just didn't care about the characters, and I'm not a big Tracy Morgan fan. I think he's obnoxious. However, the 2nd in that trilogy is Red State... and I loved it. It's another movie where you either love it or hate it (same as his first movies). It definitely feels like a Kevin Smith movie, for the dialogue, but the way the plot keeps turning, it's so unpredictable, it's excellent. It's one of the best movies I've seen in years, and a great addition to the horror genre which I think is seriously lacking these days. He addressed his reasons behind this film and he wanted to make something that you couldn't predict in the first 10 minutes, like you could with Zack and Miri. And he accomplished that.
His next film (although he stated it'll be 2 films I believe) is something to do with hockey. I'm curious to see what it'll be about, but hopefully, whatever it is, he goes out with a bang. He believes he only has enough in him to one last great movie, and everything after that will be junk. I hope he changes his mind, but I'm still looking forward to whatever his last film(s) will be.
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southpole8700
12 years ago
I just dont understand why Smith would be jealous or feel inferior to someone whos so below him (Apatow). You know, I always hear how "talented" and is "groundbreaking" Apatow and his crew are, theyre really not at all. They improvise their movies like crazy, I mean anyone can be funny after 30 different takes of the same scene, it takes someone who is TRUELY talented (Smith) to write witty and funny diolage that was in the script to begin with and direct the actor to make his words funny. I really dont understand why Smith is so underrated, perhaps its because his movies have big words and have plotlines about things like religion and such, I guess most moronic movie goers just wanna hear an endless list of sex jokes, thats all Apatow really has. Well that and "you look like" jokes, I heard about 20 of those in 40 Year Old Virgin from just Paul Rudd alone. Plus the casting of the Apatow regulars was so unessecary, I mean werent they practically everywhere already by that point? If he wanted to fight back against Apatow, he should have instead hired his usual bunch of unknown and underrated actors to headline his movie, or casted someone whos dropped off the map for a while and gave them another chance to shine, someone like Matthew Lillard or James Roday (from USA's Psych) comes to mind.
Most women dont bring you lasagna at work. They usually just cheat on you.
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