Ok folks, here's STRIPE, who has actually contributed in the past regarding PSYCHO recreation. He liked the film but had some problems with the end. As a result of that complaint I want you to know that he really liked the film, and says he would reccommend it. But ya don't have to read if don't want to spoil the film for yourself.
That said... LISTEN UP you View Askew wwwebboard folks. I love KEVIN SMITH movies, his scripts, everything about him. It's one of the reasons why I fought and continue to fight to get HIS version of SUPERMAN LIVES made. I've never met Kevin, but I know that if we were to meet we would probably end up in a 22 hour straight conversation about all of our mutual loves. (I'm not referring to his girlfriends you idiots, I'm talking about comics, films, television, toys, music, underground comics, etc...) The opinions of these ADVANCE SCREENING REVIEWS ARE NOT MINE! They are... the people that write them. If I were to censor or not publish them then... even though liking Kevin Smith is a good and wonderful thing... well it would be... well technically wrong of me. However, nothing ANYONE SAYS will keep me from seeing this movie. You can bet your bottom dollar on that!
"Stripe" here. Well, I thought I was lucky enough when I got to catch the Psycho screening a few weeks back, so imagine my surprise when I got the opportunity to check out the Dogma screening last night downtown in Philly. And on top of that they asked my girlfriend and I to participate in a discussion group afterwards and payed us $10 bucks a piece. Quite cool!
Well, I read the last two reviews and Kevin's side so I'll try not to repeat too much. The film was quite a loose cut of the final which was actually quite entertaining. Especially when they showed Ben Affleck's big "descending from the sky" flying scene with the big cables attached to his shoulders. Everyone got a pretty good laugh out of that. Most of the cuts were choppy and all of the special effects scenes were rough. But it didn't really interfere with the movie.
I thought the whole movie was a strange combination of silly but funny "Kevin Smith" humor mixed with an epic adventure. I thought the combo worked in most places throughout the film.
Everyone seemed to really like the first third of the movie. It moved at a good pace and the dialogue seemed very tight. The story was introduced well and was really interesting. BTW, I loved George Carlin's role as a catholic priest trying to rejuvenate catholism in the nineties with his Catholicism Wow! campaign. Ben Affleck and Matt Damon played off each other really well, in fact, there were a few times I thought I was watching Good Will Hunting.
Everyone really seemed to like everyone's introduction, especially Jay and Silent Bob's (although I thought he spoke a little too much, not to mention sang later in the movie) and Chris Rock's surprising entrance ( he fell from the sky butt naked onto the pavement with quite a thump).
I thought Jay seemed a little too limited by his "sexual humor" which got kinda boring after constantly hearing about his urge to get into Linda's pants by the end of the film although there's at least one really funny joke towards the end of the movie from it.
Most everyone in the discussion group had a big problem with a strip club scene that appeared towards the early middle of the film. The scene introduced the character of Salma Hayek, who happened to be the stripper in the scene. The scene began with Jay and Silent Bob trying to outbid a bunch of african-american men trying to get the attention of the bikini clad Hayek while "Candygirl" played in the background. Most everyone in the group had a big problem with the racist stereotypes that were portrayed in the scenes. It was obvious that they had to have been overdone on purpose but it came across as quite offensive. Not only were they all gun toting hoods, but they overcame any violent urges thanks to a stupid rendition of "Fat Albert" performed by Jay and Silent Bob themselves. In addition to all this, there was the introduction of this "Shit Monster" character towards the end of the scene which was completely disgusting and was utterly offensive. It kinda reminded me of Chet's demise in weird science only a lot grosser. The whole scene was stupid and completely offensive. My girlfriend, who loved the first part of the film, was ready to leave. And then to top it all off, the shitmonster was defeated by Silent Bob who sprayed with a can of air freshener.
Dumb, dumb, dumb. It's the only scene I really didn't like though and thankfully most of the discussion group agreed. There has to be a better way to introduce Salma instead of as some over objectified stripper. Another scene that most of the group didn't like was the bar scene towards the end of the movie in which the protagonist captures the good guys and divulges most of his plot. It was just too long as was a train sequence that took place earlier.
I was quite surprised by some of the unneccessary gore in the film. I thought it took away from the story.
As for Alanis Morrisette's role as God, the group was kinda mixed. I thought she played the role very well. She didn't have a speaking part as Alan Rickman worked as "the voice of God", but was quite entertaining. She seemed very innocent and peaceful and fit well the part. Overall, almost everyone loved the film except for the length. Hopefully, Kevin will cut out that awful strip bar sequence. But as said earlier, there is a lot of dialogue that seems integral to the story that I can't see being cut. And I'm sure that makes up most of the 2 1/2 hour length of the film. My only concern was that it seemed most everyone in the audience was quite excited about seeing a Kevin Smith film with this many great actors in it. While watching the film though I wondered how many non Kevin Smith fans would enjoy the film. I think to most, the dialogue would seem really excessive and the story would just bog down. The humor is really campy, which I expected, but how will the general public like it? I don't know, maybe I'm completely wrong.
Well our discussion group moderator asked us if we would recommend this film to others and the consensus seemed to be that they would definitely recommend the movie to their 20something friends and definitely not recommend it to their parents.
In my opionion, the film will be great with just a little editing and no shit monster. The dialogue may seem excessive but I think that's what makes Kevin's films great, how somehow there can be that much dialogue and the movie still moves along well. I really loved Jay's non sexual humor and enjoyed the many pop culture references in the film, especially to movies like Star Wars, ( a diatribe by Matt Damon about organized religion and the empire) and Indiana Jones (Silent Bob throws Matt Damon and Ben Affleck out of a moving train and looks at a scared passenger and says, "No ticket.") I'm really looking forward to seeing the film again when it comes out and getting into some good philisophical discussions with my friends. Good Job Kevin!
STRIPE
