I have a love/hate relationship with Kevin Smith's films. Basically, the earlier the better.
Clerks is one of my all time favorite movies. I went to high school with Brian O'Halloran who played Dante and we were pretty good friends, but we lost contact after he graduated (he was a year ahead of me). I had no idea he was in the film until I saw it and as soon as he was on screen I said out loud in the theater "Holy shit! I know that guy!" I think the film is absolutely brilliant and proves that big budgets and high-priced actors are completely superfluous if you have a great script and a little bit of vision.
Mallrats is another piece of genius. When there were fewer movies in Kevin's catalog,
Mallrats used to get a lot of abuse (pre
Jersey Girl) but I always defended it. Perhaps growing up in the same part of New Jersey as Smith makes me unable to be objective, but his representation of that world is often scarily accurate. It's also fun to know every location and reference to real places (especially the Rte. 1 Flea Market aka "the Dirt Mall"). If I have a favorite character in the View Askewniverse, it's definitely Brody.
Chasing Amy was alright. I am of the same mind as Woofer about Ben Affleck so a film with him as leading man can only be so enjoyable for me, but I thought Kevin's script was good and Banky was a great role for Jason Lee (for a guy who came from the world of skateboarding, Lee developed into a pretty enjoyable actor).
Dogma was excellent. There's little I can say about that hasn't already been said. It was nice to see Kevin manage such a large story and cast and still have it feel very much like a Kevin Smith film. I also get a lot of mileage out of making my favorite joke about Dogma which is that the moral of the story is that Alanis Morisette's voice can kill you.
Jay & Silent Bob Strike Back begins the slide for me. It's not that it isn't funny because it certainly has it's funny parts, but it's rather stupid, even for a movie about Jay & Silent Bob. Jason Mewes works for me in small doses only. Having him on screen for two hours is far too much for me.
Jersey Girl - well, it'd be better to just pretend this movie doesn't exist. I felt compelled to see it because it was Kevin's. I wish I hadn't.
Clerks II - sometimes I wish people would just leave well enough alone of their better works. When Kevin resurrected Dante and Randal for the stupid little Jay Leno segments I was mildly annoyed. When he decided to make a second movie with them, in color(!) I got much more annoyed. It falls into my "must every movie become a franchise?" line of displeasure. Like
Jay & Silent Bob Strike Back, it's not that it wasn't funny, but compared to the real
Clerks, it pales in comparison. Just because Kevin had more experience and more money didn't mean he needed to revisit his past successes.
I have yet to see
Zach & Miri so I can't comment on that other than to say that I've loved Seth Rogen since Freaks & Geeks so I suspect however I feel about the film, I'll love his performance.
And I cannot make a Kevin Smith post without mentioning
Clerks: The Animated Series. As short-lived as it was, it was hilarious. I almost think it's better that there were only six episodes because there aren't any bad ones.