20 years ago, 'Clerks' hit the big screen

I am a showman by profession... and all the gilding shall make nothing else of me.

- P.T. Barnum

Phineas Taylor Barnum was many things, but at heart he was a showman and he aspired to entertain others. So too, Kevin Smith is many things, but he always remains a showman at...

If I were to say AMC to you, there's a pretty good chance that you'll mention The Walking Dead or Mad Men. The network that revolutionized how we watch TV is turning its sights to films.

Earlier this year, AMC debuted its YEAH! streaming service, but instead of just giving you...

Because we are food for worms, lads. Because, believe it or not, each and every one of us in this room is one day going to stop breathing, turn cold, and die.

Now I would like you to step forward over here and peruse some of the faces from the past...

Kevin Smith turns 44 on Saturday and he "retired" a few years ago, but the man who is quickly becoming one of the most endearing entertainers of our time is busier than ever. As fans of his work since the early Clerks days, this is music to our ears.

The self-proclaimed...

Workplace comedies almost always work -- no pun intended. There's just something about the office setting and boss/employee dynamic that makes it perfect for laughs. Office Space, 9 to 5, The Office, Empire Records, Working Girl, Clerks, High Fidelity, and In Good Company are all hits within this micro genre.

You...

I admit it, I'm a huge Kevin Smith fan. If you've been around this site for any bit of time, this hardly comes as a shock to you, but I think I've even outdid myself on this one.

As you may know, Kev and company are currently on site in Charlotte...

"Never marry someone who doesn't love the movies you love. Sooner or later, that person will not love you." - Roger Ebert

Today marks the two year anniversary of marital bliss to my loving and very patient wife Julie. As I was struggling to come up with the perfect gift to...

Whether you love him or hate him one thing can't be denied, Kevin Smith knows how to market his biggest asset, namely, himself.

This week, Kevin revealed tour dates for Jay & Silent Bob's Super Groovy Cartoon Movie!, an animated film centering on their secret identities Bluntman & Chronic. The tour...

Holiday shopping was in full swing this weekend and the megaplexes took a big hit. Of course, that doesn't mean that everyone was out in the cold (or heat) trying to survive the hustle and bustle.

In case you missed it, friend of the site Kevin Smith announced that he is...

When it rains, it pours.

That's what it feels like this week with all of the Kevin Smith news popping up out of nowhere. I really did try keep it all in one story, but sometimes news is just so big, it deserves its own article.

I think you'd agree that this...

With the staggering success of The Avengers at the box office, yesterday's news that Warner Bros. has hired Gangster Squad writer Will Beall to pen a Justice League of America script isn't all too shocking. What is surprising however, is the assumption by WB that simply throwing a bunch of...

So, there's this movie coming out this Christmas that is "sort-of" a sequel to Knocked Up. But, not really.

I guess it would be best if I put it into words that my audience would understand. Think of Judd Apatow as Kevin Smith. OK, now think of Knocked Up as Clerks...

The Dark Knight Rises is certainly going to be a box office behemoth. This is a fact that Tim and I agree upon, but just because a movie makes a ton of cash does not mean that the film is good, or even well-liked by hardcore fans.

Star Wars: Episode I...

As you may have noticed by now, we have been trying something new this year. We decided to put a little bit of focus onto those movies that you would call Oscar hopefuls.

The logic seemed sound. Everyone gets excited around Oscar time and these movies that debut in theaters now...

I sure hope that the great Mark Twain doesn't mind my little homage to his famous quote in the title, but I felt it was uniquely appropriate given all of the mis-leading news stories and headlines swirling around the Internet today. If you only read the headlines, you might be...

On Friday night, I had the pleasure of returning to my alma mater (Butler University in Indianapolis) and introducing filmmaker Kevin Smith before his Red State, U.S.A. tour stop. It was amazing, surreal and unforgettable, but the real star of the evening was the film itself as it continues to...

Last week, we pointed out the parallelism between Kevin Smith's first trip to Sundance with Clerks and tonight's debut of his latest film Red State. Little did we know how much we had hit the nail on the head.

After tonight's Sundance screening, Smith made good on his promise to auction...

Director Kevin Smith begins an odyssey of sorts today as he travels to Park City, Utah for a return visit to the Sundance Film Festival. It was here in 1994 that Smith got his big break when Clerks debuted and was subsequently purchased by Miramax Films.

He's been back to Sundance...

The film year is much like the four seasons in that its very predictable and cyclical. While December is the height of awards season, January starts 2011's festivals season.

Beginning with the Sundance Film Festival in Utah in January continuing through France's Cannes Film Festival before concluding with the Toronto International...

You might remember back in March when we praised an anonymous YouTuber for their crass video that stitched together the best Arnold Schwarzenegger film quotes. Or, you may recall in May when we pointed you in the direction of a film collage of the words "get out of here."

Well, it...

With the upcoming release of Iron Man 2, British DVD rental firm Lovefilm conducted a poll asking film buffs which was the greatest sequel of all-time. Not surprisingly, The Empire Strikes Back took home the top honors, which should finally put to rest the ongoing argument between Dante and Randal...

For those of you who haven't yet seen Cop Out, first what are you waiting for? It's a Kevin Smith movie for heaven's sake, it's going to make you laugh. And second, you might want to hold off on my review that is about to come forth in this story...

We previously reported that Kevin Smith's next project will be a hockey themed movie called Hit Somebody based on the Warren Zevon song of the same name. Well, yesterday NHL.com (naturally) scored the dirt that Smith is eying none other than Seann William Scott for the lead role of Buddy.

"I...

You know what I like when I watch a movie? I really enjoy it when a director throws a little Easter egg or bone to the fans and I'm able to catch it. It makes you feel a shared kinship with said filmmaker.

Or, it makes you an extreme dork. Either...

Quentin Tarantino is one of those polarizing figures in film, you either hate him or you love him. I tend to be firmly planted in the love camp, but when I found his list of top 20 movies since he started making films, I started to question that love.

I mean...

By now if you're a regular reader, you've figured out that I'm a huge opponent of the current Hollywood fad of recreating movies. I mean seriously, why mess with a good thing, right?

I really have to draw the line when you attempt to remake movies from my youth. Classics such...

Directors. They are often the unsung heroes of a movie, or the very reason we enter the theater in the first place. Some directors are nameless, faceless beings that fill a necessary role in a movie's production.

While others like Hitchcock, Spielberg, Allen and Tarantino can instantly communicate to you what...

In the immortal (?) words of Ted Nugent, it's a "free-for-all" sort of day which is really code for I've been sick all week and I'm not really feeling creative enough to muster a specific topic to guide today's Social Friday.

But, I'm here (for now) and I'm going to do...

You may be wondering to yourselves right now, what exactly is a movie stinger? Well, we’re glad you asked, because we had no clue what they were either until we started this article.

According to this site (and some other online resources), it’s one name given to those little scenes in...

Sure, everyone likes movie quotes. I like them a little more than the average fella. Alonzo Mosley is a man after my own heart.

He's pieced together 100 different movie clips into an amazing collection. Starting at 100, Dialogue from each movie references a number, starting at 100 with Night of...

So, I'm back. Did you miss me? Probably not. Such is the life a lowly web site drone. But, I'm glad to be back and even happier that it's Friday.

And you know what that means.

It's another Social Friday.

I know, I can barely contain my excitement as well. So, Detroit was...

If there's one thing that we love about our jobs it's reading all the wonderful and sometimes bizarre emails that we get from our readers. Heck, we even started a new weekly feature to recognize the good, the bad and the ugly emails that we get.

However, it's a truly rare...

News is breaking on Kevin Smith's podcast (SModcast) and NewsAskew that the director/writer is going through the MPAA's appeal process for his latest movie Zack and Miri Make a Porno. You may have noticed last week that the MPAA officially handed the movie the dreaded NC-17 rating.

According to the podcast...

It used to be that everyone loves a clown, but I think the Web 2.0 version of this is everyone loves a list. Specifically, everyone loves a top 10 list and with last Thursday's movie t-shirt list, we're no exception.

Entertainment Weekly recently took on the daunting task of compiling a...

What? You didn't make it out to Park City, Utah for this year's Sundance Film Festival? Yeah, me neither.

We can all live vicariously through the likes of Film School Reject's Neil Miller who posted his top 10 films from Robert Redford's just-finished cinema showcase.

Wait, wait... Before you dismiss this...

You know when you're in the shower and a moment of inspiration strikes you? Well, this morning such a thought popped into my head seemingly out of nowhere and I'm about to share it with you. Don't worry, this is still a family site.

I was thinking that with all the...

Kevin Smith has a new movie opening this weekend (Clerks II, a decade later follow-up to his breakout hit Clerks) and like all of his previous films, he's managed to upset someone. This time, it's neither the Catholic League or GLAAD, but Good Morning America movie critic Joel Siegel.

It seems...

Kevin Smith's latest chapter to his Jersey "trilogy" is getting the Cannes treatment.

Clerks II is an official selection to Cannes, albeit out of competition. Clerks II joins The Da Vinci Code, Over the Hedge and X-Men: The Last Stand in making out of competition debuts at the Cannes Film Festival...

Sure, anyone can pick which movies will top the 2006 box office, but it takes much greater skill to pick those breakout hits that no one is talking about right now. By the end of the year, these movies could end up on the fast track to pop culture bliss...

Kevin Smith began filming yesterday (October 10th) on Clerks 2: The Passion of the Clerks, the follow-up to his break-through hit that checks in on our favorite minimum wage workers 10 years after the events of Clerks.

The low-budget sequel features Brian O'Halloran and Jeff Anderson reprising their roles of Dante...

Last night the AFI introduced their 100 top movie quotes of all-time. How well did they do? Let's review.

First, the concept of honoring movie dialogue snippets is long overdue. Quotes are the souvenirs we each take from a movie and share in conversation with one another in our average, mundane...

Go ahead, check a calendar. April 1st is still a long way off. Kevin Smith is re-opening the book on his View Askewniverse after God herself closed it following Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back.

Kevin has been working on a "smaller project" over the course of the last few months...

Kevin Smith is almost the poster child for DVD. After famously dissing the format on the audio commentary for the Criterion laserdisc of Chasing Amy, he has proceeded to create monster DVD versions of his films and even earn a little coin as a spokeperson for Panasonic's DVD recorder.

If his...

When I was in college--granted it was a few years back and at a very small school in Indiana--the coolest person we had come to campus was Carrot Top. Yeah, the crazy redhead comedian. He came to entertain as requested, I mean paid, by our student activities board.

Granted, this was...

Jason Mewes on-screen persona isn't far off from his real-life. The actor is now wanted by New Jersey police for violating his probation on real-life drug charges...it's not the movies Jason.

His face has become popular after co-starring with his best bud Kevin Smith in flicks like Mallrats, Clerks and...

It's been awhile since we ran an update on Jay And Silent Bob Strike Back because, mainly, there really hasn't been anything to write about. But today is different. We've culminated a few tidbits for today's post.

First, post-production seems to be right on schedule. Kevin Smith's first cut of the...

Well folks, it looks like Jay And Silent Bob Strike Back is almost in the can, as they say. Barring any last minute glitches or delays, Kevin Smith should finish principal photography on his latest New Jersey opus either today or tomorrow.

Over the weekend, Kev and family were back on...