''An Evening with Kevin Smith'' is a DVD featuring question and answer sessions that the

comedian A comedian (feminine comedienne) or comic is a person who seeks to entertainment, entertain an audience by making them laughter, laugh. This might be through jokes or amusing situations, or acting foolishly (as in slapstick), or employing prop c ...

and

filmmaker Filmmaking or film production is the process by which a Film, motion picture is produced. Filmmaking involves a number of complex and discrete stages, beginning with an initial story, idea, or commission. Production then continues through screen ...

Kevin Smith Kevin Patrick Smith (born August 2, 1970) is an American film director, producer, writer, and actor. He came to prominence with the low-budget buddy comedy film ''Clerks (film), Clerks'' (1994), which he wrote, directed, co-produced, and acted i ...

held with his fans at various American colleges in 2001/2002. The colleges were:

Clark University Clark University is a private research university in Worcester, Massachusetts, United States. Founded in 1887 with a large endowment from its namesake Jonas Gilman Clark, a prominent businessman, Clark was one of the first modern research uni ...

Cornell University Cornell University is a Private university, private Ivy League research university based in Ithaca, New York, United States. The university was co-founded by American philanthropist Ezra Cornell and historian and educator Andrew Dickson W ...

Indiana University Indiana University (IU) is a state university system, system of Public university, public universities in the U.S. state of Indiana. The system has two core campuses, five regional campuses, and two regional centers under the administration o ...

Kent State University Kent State University (KSU) is a Public university, public research university in Kent, Ohio, United States. The university includes seven regional campuses in Northeast Ohio located in Kent State University at Ashtabula, Ashtabula, Kent State ...

and

University of Wyoming The University of Wyoming (UW) is a Public university, public land-grant university, land-grant research university in Laramie, Wyoming, United States. It was founded in March 1886, four years before the territory was admitted as the 44th state, ...

. During the sessions, Smith answers questions regarding his movies, as well as his life. He discusses how he got started in the movie industry, how different films came about, his friendship with Jason Mewes, and his relationship with the media, fans, and various other celebrities.

Plot

The film features numerous comedic stories from Smith's life at that point in his early 30s. Smith first unearthed stories such as his relationship with

Warner Bros. Warner Bros. Entertainment Inc. (WBEI), commonly known as Warner Bros. (WB), is an American filmed entertainment studio headquartered at the Warner Bros. Studios complex in Burbank, California and the main namesake subsidiary of Warner Bro ...

and their famously unreleased '' Superman Lives''. The story became the basis for a 2015 documentary. The story Smith tells involves producer Jon Peters wanting to include elements of generic blockbuster cliché in Smith's script, these include

Superman Superman is a superhero created by writer Jerry Siegel and artist Joe Shuster, which first appeared in the comic book ''Action Comics'' Action Comics 1, #1, published in the United States on April 18, 1938.The copyright date of ''Action Comics ...

fighting a large spider, a story point later included in Peters' box office bomb '' Wild Wild West''. Another story Smith recalls is of when he first met his future wife ( Jennifer Schwalbach Smith) whilst promoting ''

Dogma Dogma, in its broadest sense, is any belief held definitively and without the possibility of reform. It may be in the form of an official system of principles or doctrines of a religion, such as Judaism, Roman Catholicism, Protestantism, or Islam ...

'' in 1999 and the birth of his daughter that same year. Smith tells of how he was physically injured the night he first slept with his wife, a fact he never told her until a full year into their marriage. One of Smith's most popular stories from the DVD is of when he was unknowingly forced to make a near 5-hour long documentary for

Prince A prince is a male ruler (ranked below a king, grand prince, and grand duke) or a male member of a monarch's or former monarch's family. ''Prince'' is also a title of nobility (often highest), often hereditary, in some European states. The ...

about

God In monotheistic belief systems, God is usually viewed as the supreme being, creator, and principal object of faith. In polytheistic belief systems, a god is "a spirit or being believed to have created, or for controlling some part of the un ...

and the evolution of man, both of which are two topics Smith has little to no involvement in. Smith reveals he was angry with the pop star towards the end of the week he spent with him, especially when he learns of the documentary never seeing the light of day, instead being put into Prince's vault which includes over 100 original music videos and hundreds of hours of music previously unreleased according to Smith.

Release

The film was originally released on DVD on December 17, 2002. In 2021, full HD shots from the film were seen in Malcolm Ingram's "Clerk" documentary. In 2022, the film became available on Canadian television network CTV's VOD service for the first time in 720p HD. On July 24, 2024, it was announced that Sony MOD would be releasing the film on Bluray for the first time on September 10, 2024. That release was ultimately cancelled, and no further details were provided.

Reception

Rotten Tomatoes Rotten Tomatoes is an American review aggregator, review-aggregation website for film and television. The company was launched in August 1998 by three undergraduate students at the University of California, Berkeley: Senh Duong, Patrick Y. Lee ...

the film has a 100% rating with 6 positive reviews collected. Joel Cunningham, writing for Digitally Obsessed, stated that the DVD was "essential viewing for any true fan of Jay and Silent Bob" and complimented Smith's abilities as a story teller. Adam Tyner of DVD Talk ranked ''An Evening with Kevin Smith'' as "highly recommended" though he noted that "at least ''some'' familiarity with Kevin Smith and his body of work is required to get much out of this two-disc set."

References

External links

* 2002 direct-to-video films 2002 films Works by Kevin Smith 2002 comedy films Documentary films about Kevin Smith {{2000s-US-film-stub