I'm Chevy Chase and You're Not (2025)

An impartial look at the comedic actor known for playing bumbling, arrogant characters with his trademark acerbic wit, from his beginnings with National Lampoon to his meteoric rise on Saturday Night Live; and the flourishing film career at the height of his popularity, before his perceived fall from grace. 

I've always liked Chevy Chase. Even when the world says you shouldn't like 'this person' because of 'this, that or the other.' Honestly, I relate more to the outcasts than anything. Once you get past his thorny exterior, you realize he's full of contradictory layers; thin-skinned and sensitive to criticism, but just wants to be loved. Even when he rubs people the wrong way, there's a self-awareness of coping and pain behind his eyes. This doc features him, warts and all. My only complaint is that it feels like it merely scratches the surface.

3 pratfalls out of 5

KillRoy Was Here (2022)

So, a little background information. This film was never actually released. Kevin Smith made this horror-comedy anthology back in 2020, but it failed to find a distributor. He was convinced to sell it as a limited edition NFT, so it remains watched by a select few private collectors who bought into that hype. I was able to track down a source of one of these copies (for free) and here is my review.

It should stay unreleased.

1 floppy dick nose out of 5

The 4:30 Movie (2024)

Kevin Smith's most personal film to date. Set in 1986, a teenage cinephile asks the cute girl out to the 4:30pm showing of an R-rated movie. In the meantime, he and his two buddies spend the day at the theater, hopping from screen to screen, while trying to avoid the high-strung manager. It's the kind of film that will make you smile if you're familiar with the time period and the films being represented, although it's a bit too cutesy with all of its references and numerous winks to the camera. It's one of those movies I wanted to like more than I did, but it ultimately fell short of expectations. I enjoyed it more than Clerks 3, that's all I'll say.

2½ movies snuck into out of 5

YOGA HOSERS [2016]

After the disastrous box office results from Tusk, I don't know how Honorary Canadian director Kevin Smith miraculously made the second part of his True North horror trilogy.
Yoga Hosers follows teenage Canadian clerk BFFs, the Colleens, as they fend to save their convenience store from a horde of tiny Nazi Mounties made out of scrumptious sausage and sauerkraut.
While Tusk was disturbingly funny and disgusting, Yoga Hosers might be just as demented but it's really really dumb.  There might be some great chuckle-worthy Canadian in-jokes but everything is predictable, inane and quite frankly embarrassing.  Johnny Depp's Christophe Waltz-esque French-Canadian P.I.  and his ever-moving moles are the highlight of the film and that's not saying a whole lot anymore.  It's pretty awful but somehow I can't but help admiring Smith and his endless ambition to do whatever the hell he wants.

2 Pucky Charms out of 5

HOLIDAYS [2016]

A gaggle of genre directors (including Kevin Smith & Nicholas McCarthy) band together to create Holidays, a pretty tedious horror anthology that is more huge miss than minor hit.
Nobody seems to have brought their A-game to this mess of a film and it hurts the enjoyment of it quite a bit.  There's a few moments of interest, mostly Nicholas McCarthy's hilariously offensive Easter segment but you're better off avoiding this uninspired amateurish shit-fest at nearly all costs.

1 Jesus Bunny out of 5

TUSK [2014]

Every now and then a film comes along and lingers with you for days, constantly bringing up that nagging question: "what the fuck?"
Kevin Smith's oddball horror Tusk is most definitely one of those films.
In what is destined to be a cult classic, the story follows an obnoxious podcaster who interviews a man that ends up surgically turning him into a human walrus.  It dives deep into the absurd but always manages to bring the characters to the surface for the stark realization that it's actually quite horrific as it is hilarious.  Michael Parks steals the show as the batshit crazy walrus lover, particularly when he's sharing a gut-wrenchingly funny scene with Johnny Depp that steers into David Lynch territory.
It's far from perfect but that's actually part of it's midnight movie appeal.

3 Clerks out of 5

LIVE FREE OR DIE HARD [2007]

Len Wiseman drags the ageing John McClane kicking & screaming into a post 9/11 digital age in the fourth Die Hard film, Live Free Or Die Hard.
As an action film, it delivers with some hilariously ridiculous, yet effective thrills however Timothy Olyphant's villain is a bit flat and the film would have benefited a bit more had they made Maggie Q.'s kick-ass kung-fu bitch the big bad.  Unlike Indiana Jones 4, this film works in the hero's advanced age into the story rather than just using it as an excuse to make silly one-liners which is nice.  I enjoyed that the majority of the special effects didn't resort to CGI to give it a bit more of a Die Hard feel, unfortunately they went bat shit crazy with the color correction in post-production and it makes it a bit more artificial than it really is.

3½ timex watches in a digital age out of 5

RED STATE [2011]

I had the thrill of catching director, Kevin Smith personally screen his own film, the disturbingly, violent thriller "Red State". Smith takes "stabs" at lunatic fundamentalist religious groups aplenty in this ridiculously violent film that inspired picketers to attend even the Vancouver screening.

The film does run quite short, offers nothing thoughtful and does lag in a few areas but all in all it's an entertaining ride that offers more thrills than chills and gives Eli Roth a run for his money in shlocker department.

3 Bullet-riddled Raptures out of 5