Archive for February, 2007

Ode to the Easily Outraged
Monday February 26 2007 @ 6:13 pm

So last week, I sat in for Roger Ebert again, and one of the flicks we reviewed for the show was “Black Snake Moan”. Click right here to watch the review in question.

Can you imagine anyone getting upset enough about that review to write an email? Mercifully, you don’t have to imagine it… because someone did write an outraged email.

Date: Mon, 19 Feb 2007 10:39:11 -0800 (PST)
From: bill86862002
Subject: CRAIG BREWER AS FAULKNER!?! You Have Got to Be F***ing Kidding Me!!

Mr. Roeper,

Kevin Smith’s assessment of “Black Snake Moan” writer/director Craig
Brewer as being on par with William Faulkner and other great
southern writers was absolutely astonishing to me. Mr. Smith is
prone to ridiculous, fat-headed statements, but this floored me.
That you would allow him to get away with this kind of shameless
hyperbole really disappointed me. I understand that the standards
for what constitutes a “thumbs up” film on your program have
diminished over the years, but Craig Brewer as Faulkner?! Are you
trying to kill Roger Ebert with this kind of nonsense?

Please issue a retraction on your next program and bar Kevin Smith
from ever appearing as a guest host. It is the least you can do to
make amends to rational film and literature fans across this great
nation (especially the South!).

Regards,

Bill Grant

What a dil-hole, right? But he’s not alone. Over at Cinematical, they posted a story about a Q&A I did at the NY ComiCon this weekend.

Naturally, some mental midget who can’t seem to process humor had to weigh-in with his opinion.

Smith sounds very bitter. Is he still angry that his Superman script was, for whatever reason canned years ago? As a successful screenwriter myself, I find it oddly hilarious that Smith and other “writers” have a hard time writing Superman. With an iconic character like Superman, there is an idea, a story and a theme hidden in every shadow or light if you’re patient and confident enough to stick around. To kill Superman or Spider-Man, in Smith’s words; “that both of the comic icons should be killed off in high style and then left alone so that the “new Citizen Kanes” of the comic world can have a chance to rise to the top. ” is a cop-out of the highest order! Bryan Singer’s :Superman Returns” was not a perfect film, 100% of them usually aren’t. But his longer-than-necessary vision and re-introduction is one of grandeur and spectacle that brought back “Superchrist” in majestic fashion. Where is Kevin Smith’s vision? Where is Kevin Smith’s passion? Where is Kevin Smith? Until those questions are pondered zen-like or not, one can understand why Bryan Singer is doing epic-like stories and Smith is doing “Clerks XI.”

Naturally, I am humbly rebuked, by a “successful screenwriter”.

Christ, people are getting dumber, aren’t they?

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