Filmmaker Kevin Smith versus critic Joel Siegel, “It’s on”

By M&C News Jul 19, 2006, 15:29 GMT

02/09/2003 - Kevin Smith - Daredevil Los Angeles Premiere - Mann Village Theater - Westwood, CA © Glenn Harris / Photorazzi

Richard Johnson and PageSix.com have reported that critic Joel Siegel and director Kevin Smith are at major odds with each other over Siegel’s reported dramatic exit from a screening of Smith’s new film, Clerks II.

The publicized exodus from the theater has given way to a major war of words between the two.

PageSix.com reports Siegel’s comments during the screening: "Time to go!  First movie I've walked out of in 30 [bleeping] years!" Siegel loudly proclaimed to fellow critics. 

His blow up occurred 40 minutes into the film.  The sequel Clerks II follows the hit 1994 film Clerks - according to IMDB.com, "the story about two convenience clerks named Dante and Randal as they annoy customers, discuss movies, and play hockey on the store roof."

Siegel told PageSix.com: "It was so foul and mean and repulsive. I finally realized I could not say anything positive . . . I wasn't ready for this kind of smut . . . I hope he doesn't make any more movies."  He was referring to the scene where characters graphically discuss hiring a woman to commit bestiality with a donkey.

MySpace blogger Kevin Smith shot back at Siegel in his personal blog: "This is a guy who seemingly prides himself on his own nyuk-nyuk wordplay. For 'Pirates 2,' he made us all titter with 'Yo, Ho, Ho and a Bottle of Fun' . . . He made us squeal with delight when he wrote, 'Wheelie Good Time for "Cars." ‘I mean Fozzy [bleeping] Bear laughs at this guy."

Smith continues: "I don't need Joel Siegel to [bleep] my [bleep] the way he apparently [bleeps] M. Night Shyamalan's, gushing over his flick ['The Lady in the Water'] before he's even seen it, but [bleep] man, man - how about a little common [bleeping] courtesy? You never, never disrupt a movie, simply because you don't like it. Cardinal rule of moviegoing: Shut your [bleeping] mouth while the movie's playing.
"I don't come down to your job and slap the taste out of your mouth for coming up with a line like, ' "Shark Tale" Is a Halibut Good Time' - so don't [bleep] with my stuff while it's still screening . . . “