Available at Amazon.com
The Weinstein Company present Now You Know Written by Jeff Anderson. Running Time: 102 minutes. Rated R for language and sexual content. Originally released in 2002.
Director:
Jeff Anderson
Cast:
Jeremy Sisto..”¦”¦..Jeremy
Jeff Anderson..”¦”¦..Gil
Trevor Fehrman..”¦”¦..Biscuit
Rashida Jones..”¦”¦..Kerri
Kevin Smith..”¦”¦..Married Guy
Jennifer Schwalbach Smith..”¦”¦..Bachelor Party Hooker
The Movie:
This movie is further proof that if you’re friends with Kevin Smith you can get a film made. The first proof of this came in 2000 with Vulgar, a crappy little film directed by Smit’s pal Bryan Johnson and starring Brian “Dante Hicks” O’Halloran, but I digress.
In this Smith knock off Jeremy Sisto plays Jeremy, a depressed man whose fiancé, Kerri (Jones), has mysteriously called off their wedding. While Jeremy tries to figure out what when wrong he hangs out with his two loser buddies Gil (Anderson) and Biscuit (Fehrman) who’s idea of a good time is going into someone’s house and rearranging the pictures on their walls. Anyone who’s seen Clerks II will remember Fehrman as Elias, Randal and Dante’s nerdy co-worker. This was his first time working with the Jersey group, Kevin Smith liked him so much in this he cast him in his own movie.
And it would be a Smith related film without a cameo from the big man himself. Kevin Smith plays the small roll of “Married Guy” who spouts off to Jeremy at his bachelor party about the virtues of marriage after which he takes his turn with the Bachelor Party Hooker played by Smit’s real life wife, Jennifer Schwalbach Smith.
While containing much Smithesque dialogue none of it is nearly as entertaining as the real thing. The scene where Gil and Biscuit talk about how they dealt with a lawnmower running over a dog seems like it should be funny. However it is just awkward and uninteresting. Biscuit is obviously the “Randal” character to fill this film with all the inappropriate rants but none of them bring any laughs. In fact nothing in this film brings a laugh. It’s very long, somehow running an hour and forty-two minutes, and very boring with a painfully predictable ending.
STORY: 4
ACTING: 7
LOOK/FEEL: 5
ORIGINALITY: 3
ENTERTAINMENT VALUE: 3
FINAL SCORE: 4.5
The DVD:
The Video:
The film is presented widescreen 1.85:1. This film looks pretty decent for a first film. Especially when the director himself admits to not knowing much about the art of directing.
The Audio:
The film is presented in 5.1 surround. For some reason this movie was really quiet. I had to crank my speakers to hear the dialogue. Also, it is mixed very poorly, often times the music drowning out the dialogue.
Extras:
Commentary with Kevin Smith And Jeff Anderson: Kevin Smith is always entertaining to listen to, and having him and Anderson bantering back and forth is far more entertaining than the actual film.
Extended Intro to the film by Kevin Smith and Jeff Anderson:This intro is these two talking about why Jeff wrote the script and how the film got made and bunch of other Smith-like ramblings for 11 minutes. You don’t get much new here if you’ve watched the commentary.
Q & A with the filmmakers: This was filmed after a screening of the film and audience members ask Anderson, Fehrman and the cinematographer questions about the film. And since they are audience questions there all pretty lame. Also, a lot of the info is repeat from the commentary. This runs about 45 minutes.
The Inside Pulse
If you’re a Kevin Smith fan the commentary is worth listening to I guess, but the movie is pretty worthless. It offers nothing new or interesting in the realms of the relationship movie and it’s far from funny. Go watch Clerks or Clerks II if you need a Smith fix.
