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The Fandom Portals Podcast
"Welcome to Fandom Portals—the show that explores how your favourite fandoms can help you learn and grow!" 🎙️✨
Each episode, we explore TV, movies, comics, and games to reveal how these worlds and the characters in them help us learn about resilience, courage, friendship, and more.
The Fandom Portals Podcast is hosted by Aaron Davies and Adam Brasher, two friends who are obsessed with fandoms, storytelling, and building a community where passion and positivity come first. From Marvel to Middle-earth, Star Wars to indie comics, we dive deep into the stories you love — and how they help us learn and grow. ✨
The Fandom Portals Podcast
Jersey Girl (2004) – Kevin Smith’s Sweetest Swing, Ben Affleck and JLo's Off Screen Impact and Embracing Quirky Authenticity
Episode Summary:
In this episode of The Fandom Portals Podcast, Aaron and Brash revisit Kevin Smith’s most divisive film: Jersey Girl. Departing from his usual vulgar wit and the View Askewniverse, Smith explores fatherhood, grief, and second chances in this misunderstood dramedy starring Ben Affleck, Liv Tyler, and George Carlin. The hosts reflect on how real-life publicity, editing regrets, and emotional resonance shaped this movie’s legacy—and whether it deserves its Razzie rep. Plus, insights from Reddit and Threads, Kevin Smith trivia, and the always chaotic Fandom Fact Face-Off.
Topics:
- Kevin Smith’s pivot from Jay & Silent Bob to heartfelt drama
- The Bennifer effect: How tabloids tanked Jersey Girl’s reception
- George Carlin’s final role and understated performance
- The child actor conundrum: Raquel Castro’s performance
- Why Liv Tyler’s character feels dated (and a little cringey)
- Behind-the-scenes regret: the 30 minutes cut due to J.Lo backlash
- Ben Affleck’s subtle performance and emotional arc
- Deleted scenes, missed cameos, and Bruce Springsteen’s near-involvement
- Personal reflections on fatherhood, identity, and living for love over legacy
Key Takeaways:
- Jersey Girl was Smith’s personal risk—a film about loss, parenting, and redemption—but got buried under Bennifer gossip and fan expectations.
- Kevin Smith now regrets cutting 30 minutes of emotional depth due to public backlash.
- The film’s emotional core lies in accepting love in unexpected places and embracing quirky authenticity, like Ollie supporting Gertie’s oddball Sweeney Todd musical.
- Ben Affleck’s nuanced grief performance gets more credit today than it did in 2004.
- The message: True love isn’t reshaping people to fit your world—it’s choosing to enter theirs, flaws and all.
Quotes:
“True love isn't about molding someone into your world—it's about stepping into theirs.”
“He kept calling her ‘the kid’—until the moment he saw her for who she was.”
“You’re the only thing I’ve ever been good at.”
“That street sweeper was the Batmobile to her. That’s all that matters.”
Apple Podcast Tags:
Jersey Girl, Kevin Smith, Ben Affleck, Liv Tyler, George Carlin, View Askewniverse, Movie Analysis, Fatherhood Films, Pop Culture Podcast, Geek Freaks Network, Fandom Portals Podcast, Movie Trivia, Film Deep Dive, 2000s Cinema, Jennifer Lopez
Contact Us:
Website: https://www.fandomportalspodcast.com/
Instagram: instagram.com/fandomportals/?locale=en
Threads: threads.net/@fandomportals
Email: fandomportals@gmail.com
Letterboxd: https://letterboxd.com/fandomportals
All right, in this episode, we are going to be covering Jersey Girl, made in 2004, and you will learn how stepping away from Kevin Smith's unusual style shaped the fate of Jersey Girl, how the surprising power of real world publicity can impact the movie for better or worse, and you will also learn why embracing individuality might just be the secret to building stronger, more meaningful relationships. Welcome to the Fandom Portals podcast, the podcast that explores how fandoms can help us learn and grow. This week, Brash and I are tackling the Kevin Smith classic Jersey Girl, made in 2004. It's a movie about a widower who must look after his precocious daughter and rebuild his life and career after he's sidelined by an unexpected tragedy and a personal blow-up. Before we get into that, we're going to do our gratitudes. Brash, how are you going today?
Speaker 2:I am very good. I was actually trying to find something from the movie I could quote on my entrance at Intro Inn and unfortunately, that's okay, because you're the only thing I've ever been good at. Ooh, yeah, got it Nice. I was going to go the line from one of the only lines I found really funny, from when the kids have to to at the very start, when the kids are doing like their hotel or talking about their parents jobs and the long kids like oh, my parents are very religious.
Speaker 2:I could hear him screaming at jesus. I thought I was like ah yes no um, anyway, what are you grateful for, brad? What's?
Speaker 1:like grateful for um.
Speaker 2:I am grateful for my neighbors. This week I had to go away for work for just a night and they fed their little buddy, ace, for me, and I'm always grateful. They're always there to help me out if I need it or look after Ace when I need it, which isn't too often. And the next time will be when we go to Melbourne to watch Critical Role. And that's four nights, five days, being away from Ace. So I struggled one night. Let's see how long I can go after five days.
Speaker 1:I feel the same way, man, I feel the same way. Yeah, very excited for Critical Role trip to Melbourne, but, yeah, the time away from loved ones and loved pets and things like that is going to be tricky. My gratitude in the spirit of this movie, jersey Girl, goes to my partner, kalia. I've talked about her on the podcast before but I'm very thankful for her. This movie, especially in some of the themes in it, made me realize how lucky I am to raise children with a loving and devoted partner. So thank you, kalia, for all that you do, thank you for the sacrifices you make and I love you very much.
Speaker 2:From Aaron no, I need to tell you more I do I need to tell you more?
Speaker 1:and here I am telling it publicly to lots of people in front of Brash. Thank you very much. I love you, Carly. All right, Enough of the sappy stuff, let's get into a Right now. Brash with Jersey Girl. Okay, here's the call sheet. This movie was directed by Kevin Smith. It was his sixth movie. It was also written by Kevin Smith. Do you know any other Kevin Smith movies? Brash, I know nearly all of them, I believe.
Speaker 2:Give us a few. Hasting Amy. Yes, clerks, clerks. 2. Clerks 3. James Silent Bob. James Silent Bob Strikes Back, correct Bob. And Bob Bob struck back, correct, correct, correct. Then you got more rats.
Speaker 1:duplex dogma, one of my favorite movies of all time.
Speaker 2:Yes, dogma rules genocide Bob reboot, which was it was out. It was a movie. Yeah, there's the ones I can think of. And sorry, it wasn't genocide Bob, it's genocide Bob strikes back. That's the movie, not genocide Bob and then genocide Bob back, but anyway, I got a sneeze coming. I should Bust, bust, bust Good movies Dogma I love Dogma. Dogma's one of my all time favourite movies.
Speaker 1:He's definitely got a style which I think he did step away from for Jersey Girl. I saw an interview with him where he said that his mum was quite happy with this one because he stepped away from his usual language-rich type of movies where the four-letter words are quite well-practiced and the themes are also quite well-practiced. So Kevin Smith's mother was very pleased with this one. This movie stars Ben Affleck. I have been on a Ben Affleck binge for the last month and a half. I'm trying to watch as many movies of Ben Affleck as I can, and some of you might say that is a monumentous feat, because you know he has some really good movies and he also has some absolute trash movies and he has some that are very much in between. But I think he's a talented actor and also a talented filmmaker and a talented writer as well. So this one is one of his more grounded roles in a emotionally driven sort of movie. He is the leading character alongside Liv Tyler. He's also alongside George Carlin. What do you think of George Carlin Rash?
Speaker 2:I love George Carlin. The only time I've the more. The most I've seen George Carlin is in Kevin Smith movies. Yep.
Speaker 1:Some of the most I've seen.
Speaker 2:Yeah, comedy specials and I always loved George Carlin.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I think he played a more serious role than what people were used to seeing him in, and Kevin Smith kind of wanted to show his acting chops in that space. This was the last movie that he was in before he unfortunately passed away. This one also has Jennifer Lopez in it for a brief period of time We'll talk about that a little bit later but it also starred Raquel Castroro, who played gertie. The young girl in this movie brashes on record as hating, uh, child actors yep, unashamedly hating child actors.
Speaker 1:on raquel castro, just briefly mostly annoying sometimes all right, as all seven-year year olds should be Mostly annoying, but sometimes alright. This budget was $35 million and it made $35.5 million worldwide, so it was considered a flop, so much so that it was nominated for a Razzie Lots of Razzies. Do you know what a Razzie is, brash?
Speaker 2:Like the worst movie of the year or something.
Speaker 1:It's pretty much the opposite of the Oscar. It's called the Golden Raspberry Awards, so basically, when people blow the raspberry to a movie, not a serious award show, it's a parody award show that honors the worst films, and Jersey Girl received nominations for the worst actor in Ben Affleck, worst supporting actress in Liv Tyler and the worst on-screen couple, with Affleck and Jennifer Lopez being nominated. Jesus, they didn't win, but I think the public reception of Ben Affleck and Jennifer Lopez influenced those votes at the time, which is a bit of a shame, because this was a bit of a passion project and a personal project for Kevin Smith, and the fact that it wasn't so successful may have been something that he's reflected on in years to come. All right, let's get into our hot takes.
Speaker 1:This is our hot takes segment, where we discuss our first thoughts of the media and unpack the boldest opinions, from what surprised us to what split the room. We'll also highlight your hot takes from our threads and Instagram and Reddit communities. So if you want to get involved in that, check out the show notes below. This is your hot takes on Jersey Girl 2004. Br brash, what are your overall thoughts on the movie? When was the first time you watched this movie I think I actually watched it.
Speaker 2:My mom bought it, I think, and I decided to watch it with her in the lounge room, so I think I was moving about 14, 15 I think it was a similar age.
Speaker 1:My my introduction to this was a dvd. I don't know who bought it, but yes, I watched it as well. I think the first thing that stood out to me was the fact that I remember when this came out there was a whole lot of buzz around Jennifer Lopez and Ben Affleck, which we'll get into a little bit later. But Jennifer Lopez didn't appear in the film very much. She was cut pretty early out, taken to heaven, you might say, in childbirth. She died yeah, she did.
Speaker 1:I think this was a bit of a different movie for Kevin Smith to bring out. It was a love letter to fatherhood, so they say, and it was inspired by the fact that Kevin Smith himself had just had a child, harley Quinn Smith and I saw an interview with him talking about the inspiration for this movie and he saw his wife playing with his daughter and he thought to himself how lucky he was to have her and what it would be like to raise that child without her. And he wanted to explore that and he wrote 50 pages of a script and put it to the side. And then a while later he was talking to Ben Affleck at a 4th of July party at Ben Affleck's house and Ben Affleck was just coming off a few sort of big Hollywood projects like Pearl Harbor and he was marketing that movie out everywhere and he just wanted to get to something a little bit more grounded, character driven. That was dialogue heavy and Kevin Smith said well, I've got something here that I've written. He handed the script over, or sent it over to Ben Affleck days later and Ben loved the idea. He thought it was exactly what he needed to do, so he dove onto it, being frequent collaborators as well. So the two of them got working onto Jersey Girl.
Speaker 1:But did you enjoy it upon your first watch, brach? Did you enjoy it on this watch? What were your thoughts?
Speaker 2:Probably enjoyed it on the first watch, more so than the second watch, because on the first watch I was only 14, 15.
Speaker 2:I was still young and dreaming about the future and it probably still hit me in the feels and, being from a family that's a broken family, I didn't really get to see my dad too often. I don't get to really see my dad too often, so I think sort of it'd be harder, like not so much that my dad's father was dead and not in my life at all, but he wasn't always in my life. So I think back then probably hit me a bit. It probably was like a bit of a nicer watch and also I was a fan of Kevin Smith's work and also the titles in it and, being a teenage boy, that's always just a good watch. But yeah, uh, this watch. However, yeah, it was like I didn't feel as emotionally towards it as I thought I would be like looking at something. I know they're not not that different in age, but for some reason ben affleck just seems so much older than live tyler. For some reason it always seemed like the Tyler was almost a teenager and he was an adult.
Speaker 1:Well, I think in the movie he's in his mid-30s and she's telling him that she's 26, 27, so there is a bit of an age difference there.
Speaker 2:I mean, yeah, but it seems it seems a bit more like huge than that, because she's like, oh, I'm doing the college report and it seems like in his 30s, like it. Just it's just like because, and also like she's very like spirited and happy and free and lots of flittery and stuff like that and I don't know. It just seems the connection was just not there for me. Yeah, and then I'd forgotten Jeff Lopez was even in the movie and honestly, I couldn't even tell it was her when looking at her until she spoke and I'm like, ah, it's Jeff Lopez, because he has the same voice in everything.
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah, it was a good watch, don't get me wrong. It was still a good watch, but for me it just wasn't as impactful as it probably was back when I was younger and now, so that I'm in my 30s as well and don't have a family or anything like that that I have to worry about, it sort of misses the mark for me, I guess for me, because I'm like you with family and obviously it might impact you a little bit differently. Me, it's just like well, that's what you get for falling in love, you idiot.
Speaker 1:My take was a little bit different to that. I did enjoy the movie, but for me I was watching Ben Affleck come to a realization that I think is pretty obvious. So obviously he's trying to get his career on track, but in the process of that he's also detracting away from his relationship with those people that love him a lot, also detracting away from his relationship with those people that love him a lot. And I think in my kind of life I have positioned myself in a place where I can be there for my family as much as possible, whilst also providing and being the provider and the protector that I can be. So for me it didn't really hit as an emotional realization that Ben Affleck's character of Ollie goes through I didn't think the same thing that he did and go through the journey as he went through it. It was almost for me watching him catch up. I guess and that might sound, you know, arrogant or whatever but I'm a very similar age to what Ollie is in this story. I'm a father of two as well and I think that, yeah, it just it wasn't, and I'm not a aspirational businessman like he is in this in the music industry, but it wasn't so much of a hard shift for me, if you know what I mean. It was almost like a natural kind of shift into like it was difficult, it was tricky, but that shift about being aspirational with my work and then also fatherhood like I've always tried to sort of balance them as best I can and always prioritize fatherhood where I could, whilst also still providing so for me it was a little bit of annoyance watching Ben Affleck's character and then I also looking at some of the themes that were in this. Now, like watching this and seeing some of the themes about like how forward Liv Tyler's character is upon just meeting Ben Affleck's character, that was a little bit of a cringe for me as well when I was watching it. Everybody can have their own thing, that's fine, no judgment, but it just felt a little bit forward for me. I felt a bit uncomfortable watching it, honestly, at my age now. So I like the movie, it's an enjoyable watch and I think there's some definitely poignant themes in it that can be explored. But yeah, I'm the same as you. I didn't really enjoy it as much as I kind of did the first time I watched it, where it was a little bit more emotionally impactful. So, yeah, similar vibes.
Speaker 1:Let's see what our threads had to say. Peruna, 2001. Frequent commenter. I think we mentioned this person last week as well. So, peruna, thank you for continually commenting on our threads.
Speaker 1:They said I remember a lot of drama outside of the movie with Ben Affleck and Jennifer Lopez and also Kevin Smith's first move outside the Jay and Silent Bob universe Funny because everyone judged it because of Jiggly and didn't realize that J-Lo was only in it. Briefly. I liked it in which Kevin Smith had continued to make some serious things. I think I agree with some of what Peruna said, but I also disagree because I do like Kevin Smith's comedic stuff as well and I have watched him say in interviews that this was like a stretch for him. It was him trying to flex his muscles to do something a little bit more serious, a little bit more grounded, something that was apart from the universe that he's usually known for. I think it's called the Askew Universe or Askew Universe, yeah, and it's basically the universe that features those five interconnected movies with Jay and Silent Bob as recurring characters. The thing with that is Kevin Smith.
Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah.
Speaker 1:Kevin Smith also said that he wanted to try and make a movie without the safety net of his past movies to help him. So a lot of times when he was writing gags or writing jokes, if he didn't know how to finish off a punchline, he could just slip in a gag or a reference to an old movie and an old character and rely on some of the work he'd done before. But he wanted to see if he could go without that in this Jersey Girl and tell a little bit more of a personal story about a message he wanted to portray. We have Hagen Gabriel who says the little girl was funny, she should have had a career in commercials or something, and that they liked George Carlin in it as well. I think I agree with all of those points GC Sears says. I always had a soft spot for Jersey Girl, rewatched it a few years ago and still enjoyed it, though Liv Tyler's character and material hasn't aged well as I discussed before.
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah, yeah. I still have to say I love Liv Tyler. For me it wasn't so much like I'm comfortable, it was more like it just seemed forced to push the story along.
Speaker 1:I think so too, and it was kind of exploring that. It was almost like a will he jump at it or will he not, to prove how dedicated he is to raising his child, like the fabling test of morality for the character of Ollie. Will he jump at this chance or will he continue to raise his daughter and honour the connection that he had with his widowed partner or not? Like that's kind of what it felt like for me. And then you know the manner in which of her forwardness it also played into the part where she seemed like she was a little bit more spirited and a little bit younger than he was because he'd already gone through a career upward trend in the music business and then a downfall, and then he then worked again.
Speaker 1:you know, seven years had passed as he was raising his daughter and seven years he was doing the street sweeper job. So yeah, it's just kind of displaced those two a little bit. We have BlackRockJoe, who was a fan of our D&D Valiant Odyssey show, and shout out to Joe if you're listening to this one for following us over to our new podcast, the Absolute Legend.
Speaker 1:He says not a horrible movie at all, and I can agree with that too. Outside of the Box podcast, which is Christine, who's guested on this show as well, she says hi Christine, yeah, hi Christine. It introduced her to Sweeney Todd, which is now one of her favorite musicals of all time.
Speaker 2:One of my favorite musicals of all time as well. I absolutely love Sweeney Todd.
Speaker 1:I love the movie adaptation of the musical starring Johnny Depp and Helena.
Speaker 2:That was also extremely good as well.
Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah. So I think this was actually my introduction to Sweeney Todd too, because I'd never heard of it prior as well, Sweeney Todd being the musical performance that Gertie and Ollie and her family does at the end of the movie in the third act. All right, Seems like mostly positive from our threads that they say a lot of the same thing where it's. The movie was underrated at the time, but generally heartfelt and quite well liked. Let's see what our Reddit has to say. Yes, we have CursedSnowman5000. That says I actually thought it was a pretty good movie and wish this was the avenue. Kevin had gone down as a maturing director after leaving the Jay and Silent Bob stuff with Strikes Back, but sadly that is not what happened.
Speaker 2:And probably a good thing, because then we wouldn't have the boys.
Speaker 1:Hmm, did he write that or adapt it?
Speaker 2:And probably a good thing, because then we wouldn't have the boys. Mm, mm, did he write that or adapt it? Yeah, he's the one that produced it, him and Kripke. Oh nice From.
Speaker 1:Supernatural. Yeah, Yep. So we have DFGDF. It says it's not his best movie and, as recent years have shown, it's definitely not his worst movie by a mile as well, Even if critics ripped it apart at the time. That was more about the Jennifer Ben thing that was going on kind of right in the middle of his filmography and a good middle-quotest kind of movie for the recent decade, and the performances were fun. We also have a really, really long answer that comes from Nolpillv2, and basically the summary of it says that that they find kevin smith the only one that can really bring the heartfeltedness of a john hughes movie into something that has dick jokes and star wars babble and characters that are older than 20. But he says that jersey girl doesn't really exemplify this, but it is genuinely a sweet movie and that they remember it pretty fondly as well. So I think it's quite positively received now in 2025, but I don't think that was the case in 2004. Yeah, it's definitely the case in Rotten Tomatoes as well the aggregate site and they've basically given it a 42% on the tomato meter and for the audience score it's not much better a 48%, I think. At the time it was definitely not well received, but now it is viewed a little bit more kindly. All right with that.
Speaker 1:Let's get into our fandom fact face-off. All right With that. Let's get into our fandom fact face-off. All right, the hosts go head-to-head with the trivia battle about the focus media learning new facts along the way. When the hosts collectively gain 25 points from correct answers, we will give away a movie voucher to someone on our mailing list. Our mailing list link is at wwwfandomportalspodcastcom and we will send you one email every month with our newsletter and also any giveaway updates. So far we have nine points, which means we need 16 more before the giveaway activates. Brash, I might go first this time, Alright. So this time my question for you is there was a major character and subplot that was almost entirely cut from the final film of Jersey Girl. Do you know who that character or actor was? They only appear briefly in this movie, at the start and through the middle, but they did have a bigger part to play.
Speaker 2:Not Jason Briggs was it.
Speaker 1:It was Jason Briggs. Yeah, the co-worker played by Jason Briggs. He was the comic foil.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I thought that he was meant to be a bigger part in this movie. Like he like because he was just in his life, then out of his life, then back in his life, yeah, he kind of I thought like he'd be like come visit him and shit like that, or something like that. Yeah, or stay friends.
Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah, I actually liked how he re-entered the movie where he said he's been waiting years For a chance to help him out.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I thought that was very sweet.
Speaker 1:I thought that was a really good way to re-enter him. So I didn't feel like his character was just there, because that was pulled on the heartstrings for me. But it does say that Smith felt that the tone was too inconsistent for Briggs' character because he played almost the comic foil to Affleck's character and provided levity in the film in the heavier moments and he wanted to do something heartfelt. So it didn't really fit the tone. And because of that inconsistently, a lot of his scenes were cut from the theatrical release. But you can see them on the deleted scenes of DVD extras if you want to as well.
Speaker 1:But Jason Biggs, obviously famous for playing Jim in American Pie and I think this was actually during the time when American Pie was coming out, wasn't it Because this is 2004. Yeah, 2004. And American Pie was pretty much around the same time. So he did have that tag along with him as well to be this comedic comic relief kind of character. So he did have that tag along with him as well to be this comedic comic relief kind of character. So he was cut completely, all right. So that's one point. Your go, brash, my go.
Speaker 2:So in the movie, when Ben Affleck's character, olly and Gertie are talking about the play that she wants to do for the school play, she talks about cats and then, of course, because cats are no longer around best, when you're Todd and Ben Affleck says, oh, are you sure it's a musical, and he's like. I remember once losing a bet and having to go see a show, a musical, where they were all on roller skates. It was terrible. I had a terrible time, do you remember?
Speaker 1:or do you know what musical they were talking about? A musical on roller skates, on roller skates. I have no idea. Very famous one.
Speaker 2:Is it? Is it Rent? It's not Rent Is it Hair. No, it's not Hair. It's written by Andrew Lloyd Webber, very famous. Is it Starlight Express? It is Starlight Express, yes, about train, about a. It's similar. It's very. For me it sort of seems like a very similar vein of what Cars 3 is, so an old-style locomotive wants to try and test his mettle against the newer, upgraded locomotives, and it's about his journey on being a faster and better train than the new ones.
Speaker 1:This would appeal to lots of different audiences, especially amongst those children who absolutely love trains, like Thomas the Tank Engine.
Speaker 2:I have a friend in high school who absolutely loves trains. We used to call him just train boy because he was just just obsessed with trains. Like he actually ended up when he went to Union Melbourne. He'd go to the place where they have like the, where they like take kids and that for rides on their trains. He used to go to that and he used to drive the trains for the kids and everything around them. Yeah, it was really good.
Speaker 1:Very cool.
Speaker 2:Very, very, very into it. Lovely, no, but I'm pretty sure. Yeah, he is the composer, andrew Lloyd Webber. Andrew Lloyd Webber for Phantom of the Opera. He is, yes, and Jesus Christ of the Star and School of Rock. You are correct it was Starlight Express.
Speaker 1:Okay, my next question. As we've discussed, the opinion of people over the film Jersey Girl has changed over time. Most notably, kevin Smith has some personal regrets based on Jersey Girl. Do you know what one of the biggest regrets he has regarding this movie? Busting Jennifer Lopez. It has something to do with Jennifer Lopez, but that is not correct.
Speaker 2:That's probably my own personal thing, so I'm not a big Jennifer Lopez fan.
Speaker 1:But okay, because of the drama between Ben Affleck and Jennifer Lopez, mm-hmm, he did something because of that, all of the stuff that was happening with Ben Affleck and Jennifer the time he did something to his movie to try and accommodate for public backlash you know, is it to make him seem like they're all good when they weren't?
Speaker 2:no, so basically he had, I don't know I don't know what the drama is between jennifer lopez and benefit, because I just didn't give a shit yeah, yeah, no.
Speaker 1:Um, basically he made the movie about 30 minutes longer and it had footage of about 30 minutes explaining the relationship between Ollie and Gertrude. Ben Affleck and Jennifer Lopez's character and it provided more emotional weight when she actually passed and then also the connection that Ollie had with her as to why he loved her so much. So that sort of grounding, emotional scenes between Gertrude and Ollie helped explain his grief later on. So Smith has said that he cut that because of the backlash everybody was having towards Jennifer.
Speaker 2:Lopez.
Speaker 1:And it really compromised the emotional weight of the film. And he says, if he was a more seasoned director and if he was somebody who was also, he felt very vulnerable because he was putting forward a very personal story and he wanted it to really work well. So he listened to that backlash and cut parts of the movie out based on public opinion, instead of going by what his artistic vision was. And he regrets that now and he uses it as a learning experience in his career today. All right, you're good my go.
Speaker 2:So kevin smith named the main character of ollie, who's played by ben affleck, because of work he was doing just before making this movie. Do you know the character that ben affleck's character is based off of?
Speaker 1:Well, the name yes, I do so. He is named Ollie, which is named on Oliver Queen, which is Green Arrow, and I think he did that because he was writing some.
Speaker 2:He was writing Green Arrow just before that. Yes, because Green Arrow is one of my Well, my top, equal, top favorite DC character character. So I've got green arrow and night waiting. They're my two favorite dc characters, both of which don't have powers.
Speaker 1:Very good. Kevin Smith is famous for writing Marvel Mites as well. With Joe Quesada he's done heaps of Spider-Man and Black Cat stuff and he's also done a bunch of Daredevil when he worked for Marvel. He's also a frequent DC comic book writer as well, and currently in this day and age, in 2025, he's writing Archie comics comics and most specifically, archie meets Jay and Silent Bob. So very big in the comic scene, kevin Smith, and I think he's even got a podcast where he talks about that kind of thing as well. He very much so does. Yes, yeah, all right, all right, point for the pill, my turn, okay. So this movie had a very different ending than what was portrayed on screen, and a very famous musician was meant to appear in the film but ended up declining due to scheduling conflicts. Do you know who that musician was? And your clue is they have a very strong connection to New Jersey and Kevin Smith is a big fan.
Speaker 2:I know at one point Bruce Willis was meant to be in the role of. Will Smith yeah, that's correct, they didn't, but I don't. That's what. When you said, oh, there's someone else meant to be in the thing, I'm like cool, is it the Bruce Willis one? But no, no, it's a musician that I have no idea who it is, who's who is a New Jersey.
Speaker 1:One of his songs features in the soundtrack and he has a nickname known as the Boss.
Speaker 2:Oh, fuck, yeah, jeans, red fucking scarf hanging out of the back of it, fucking Bruce.
Speaker 1:Springsteen. Yes, it is. Bruce Springsteen was meant to have a cameo in this movie because the climax instead of Ollie going and having an interview in his old job position, he was actually supposed to be going to a Bruce Springsteen concert in order to connect with some people there to potentially have a new job connection, and Bruce Springsteen was supposed to cameo. He declined due to scheduling conflicts and he still allowed Kevin Smith to use imagery and music for his cinematic feature. So we almost had Bruce Springsteen in this movie but we didn't end up doing it and the end of the movie was subsequently changed and I think the end of the movie works a little bit better because it actually defines the choice that Ollie had to make.
Speaker 1:You know, he's not going to this recreational concert. He's actually this lifelong dream that he's had to be a music producer or a PR agent, where he's worrying about how everybody else thinks of particular music artists and the position that he has in this position of power. He's worried about all the different things that are happening there. He actually has to make a conscious choice to turn and pivot away from that and move further into fatherhood, and he did so through his conversation with Will Smith, noting that he is just a guy who wants to play in the mud with his kids. So I think that the ending worked a little bit better than what was originally planned. So unfortunate that Bruce Springsteen wasn't in the movie, but also fortunate for the storytelling purposes. Alright, that is a point to the Kitty Brash, it is your go.
Speaker 2:Okay, this one might be a little bit hard because it's going to test how closely you're watching, like looking at a particular scene. But in the video store you see four videos that actually star both Ben Affleck and Liv Taylor. Can you name what those movies are?
Speaker 1:Well, I know that. Ben Affleck and Liv Taylor, well, there's not the ones where they're effectively in together.
Speaker 2:They're just movies that they were in Right and I say, if you get two out of the four, Well was it Chasing Amy?
Speaker 1:Chasing Amy? No, it wasn't. Ch Well, was it Chasing Amy? Chasing Amy? No, it wasn't Chasing Amy. Wasn't Chasing Amy? Oh, Good Will Hunting, yeah. Also written by Matt Damon and Ben Affleck.
Speaker 2:And he actually in the movie Ollie is standing right next to another movie that he is in A very poetic movie Stars Geoffrey Rush and Gwyneth Paltrow.
Speaker 1:Oh, shakespeare in Love. Shakespeare in Love. Yes, he only plays a small part in that one, I believe. I mean, yeah, he plays Ned Allen in that one, or Ned Allen?
Speaker 2:That was one of the other niche ones. There is one he was standing like. He stands right next to.
Speaker 1:I'll just tell you some of the Liv Tyler movies lord of the rings one, two and three stealing beauty dealing beauty where she is predominantly on the cover of that yeah yeah yeah, stealing beauty that one also stars jeremy irons in it as well yeah, and that's. That's a bit of a mature film. You might say Yep.
Speaker 2:It's even got Rachel Weisz in it too. Yeah, yeah, but yes. So Stealing Beauty, Good Will, Hunting Phantoms was another one that was in the VR store as well. Yeah, yeah, phantoms was a video that you could see in the VR store when they were looking around at all the videos.
Speaker 1:That's one of Ben Affleck's first roles.
Speaker 2:Yep, so they had a bit of placement there for some of the movies that they were in, yeah, which I thought, which I expected to see more. I thought I'd see a lot more of their films, just like placed around that video store.
Speaker 1:Yeah, especially with Kevin Smith's like attitude towards situational comedy. Like that. I would have thought the same. And also I also liked in the movie when they're going to pick out a movie to rent and then Gertie picks up Men in Black like Will Smith, yeah, and Ben Affleck's character, ollie, says anything but that she always wants to rent out Dirty Dancing. So I also loved seeing in this movie the the hearkening back to when we used to go to the video stores all the time and also not to be crass or anything like that but when pornography films used to be on VHS tape in the back of video stores.
Speaker 1:Never went into those areas Never went into those areas, but I always wondered what was there. It's just crazy to see how times have changed. It's like a little time capsule, and that was in like 2004 as well, so that was only about, you know, 21 years ago.
Speaker 2:Even that sort of scene has changed. They're all like sort of old 90s films. Yeah, so like 1998 for Shakespeare in Love, 1997 for Good Will Hunting, 1998 for Phantoms and then 1996, I think it was for Stealing Beauty. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, so early 90s films, or mid-90s films or mid-90s films, yeah, which fit the time, because that's the time periods that they were in at the age of 90s yeah.
Speaker 1:Exactly right. I don't think I get that one because I took too many clues. So for this week's Fandom Fact Face-Off, together we got four points, which is definitely above average, which is great, which means that we have 13 points total, meaning we need 12 more to go until this giveaway activates. Remember, if you wanted to be a part of the giveaway, join our mailing list, which is at wwwfandomportalspodcastcom, and you can also find us on all our social medias, so you can come and check us out there too. All right, let's get into our Set Secrets segment.
Speaker 1:Set Secrets is where hosts look behind the scenes and focus on the movie to give you all the information on what went right, what went wrong and what was interesting about the way the movie was made. A couple of things I want to talk about in this segment, brash. One, of course, is the impact that Bennifer had on this movie, and the other is Kevin Smith's changing attitude towards this movie as time has gone on. I know you're an absolute fan of everything to do with celebrities, so why don't you give us all the information you have on Bennifer?
Speaker 1:Okay so when it comes to Bennifer, I'm absolutely joking. Listeners of the Bennet Porter's podcast Rash staunchly doesn't really care do not care for every bullshit their personal life is their personal life.
Speaker 1:I don't give a shit about it and you know what? I think Kevin Smith, ben Affleck and Jennifer Lopez wished that everybody had the opinion that you had, because the Bennifer craze was a media oversaturation that happened in the early 2000s. It resulted in both of those actors, jennifer Lopez and Ben Affleck, having their lives basically in the spotlight all the time from the paparazzi. It resulted in poor film choices from both actors, especially Ben Affleck, whose career took a nosedive during that time, especially for the movie that was Jiggly, which is a 2003 movie. That was an enormous critical box office failure and it was really panned for its bad writing and the awkward chemistry between Ben Affleck and Jennifer Lopez, which you wouldn't think would be the case, because if they're a couple in real life, the chemistry should be natural on set.
Speaker 1:We've seen that happen lots and lots of times as well, but it became a particular sort of punchline, you might say, which led people to think that, you know, people were prioritizing fame over the quality of work, and we've seen that happen as well, where somebody is cast in a role because they're famous or they think they could sell the movie more so than if they were actually a fitting part for the role. So Gigli was an absolute bust and the tabloid overload you might say between Ben Affleck and Jennifer Lopez relationship became. It was literally the obsession of the 2000s. They were probably one of the first people that actually had a couple nickname and that's been a trend that's gone on forever and ever, whether we like it or not. They were doing everything together, including the music video jenny from the block. Do you remember that song?
Speaker 1:brash, jenny from the block yeah it was at every 2000 disco that you ever went to and it was an earworm for the longest time as well. Yeah, yeah, it was basically turning admiration into like a mockery. They were just everywhere. It was the time when the paparazzi were just going wild. They didn't really help themselves because days before their 2003 wedding, jennifer and Ben cancelled their wedding ceremony, saying that there was too much media attention. But then they officially broke up in 2004.
Speaker 1:So whether that was the real reason, and you know, to be fair, for them it would be definitely hard to have a relationship in those kinds of environments, and a lot of it may or may not have been their fault. Relationships can do a lot for celebrity careers, but in this case it did the precise opposite. So Jersey Girl was supposed to be a bit of a personal project for Ben to get back to his grounded roots, and it was also sort of a not a favor to Kevin Smith. But he wanted to work with somebody he was familiar with and comfortable with and, just you know, slide back into acting through character and dialogue like he enjoyed. And he kind of got caught up in this Bennifer escapade and, as I said before, you know it kind of damaged the reputation of the film.
Speaker 1:I watched an interview with the producer of Jersey Girl and he said that they did lots of test screenings for Jersey Girl and had lots of different versions with lots of different cuts of the film, whether some had a lot of Jennifer Lopez and some had not much of Jennifer Lopez. And he said you know sometimes that the feedback you can get is kind of nuanced so you can move your film around it to make it more audience accepted. But in this case he said it was literally overwhelming the not hatred hatred is a bit of a strong word but the disdain or the dislike for the character of Jennifer Lopez and Ben Affleck together on screen. They just thought it was another sort of sellout move where they were trying to put the hottest celebrity couple in a film together to sell more tickets and sell more movie going experiences. So it didn't help them out at all.
Speaker 2:Yeah, no, it was a choice made.
Speaker 1:I think so, I think so, and for Kevin Smith as well.
Speaker 2:I think for him it probably would have been because, like him and Ben Affleck are friends. So I think he sort of and, as you said earlier, how he's made that choice and he's like, looking back up, I wouldn't have made that same choice because, like, sometimes you've got to just think about the product over sort of the marketing of it, the marketing of it, yeah, and how it's going to reflect on your friends, being like Ben Affleck and that in it as well, and just sort of just go with your gut on it and go with what you reckon.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I think that it. I don't know if it affected their friendships. I don't know.
Speaker 2:I was going to say it wouldn't affect it, but he would have done it to I don't know, to try and help their image of his friend Ben oh right, yeah, yeah, yeah. Yes, exactly, oh right, yeah, yeah, yeah, yes, exactly. I see what you're saying now. Yeah, he said he probably should have. Sorry, ben, but we're not gonna. We're gonna not worry about your personal issues. We're gonna try and make sure it's a good movie.
Speaker 1:Put the movie out as it should be and have the the story be told as it needs to be. Because, yeah, kevin Smith has has said, you know, he made this, this movie for his daughter and it was his kind of first grown-up film in quotation marks it was the first one where he was moving away from his famous characters and his safety nets, so he was taking a bit of a risk. But kevin smith has also said that he thinks that ben affleck's performance was was honest and also underrated by a lot of people, and I can see some scenes where the nuance of his performance definitely shows through. There are a few takes. I know that the scene where he is given the news that Gertrude has passed away, that was shot a lot of different times and he reacted in a lot of different ways. At one point he got so physical in the performance that he ended up vomiting, and that was one of the ones where the test screen was shown to a public audience and it was met with laughter, unfortunately. So with that they decided to change that and I think the performance that they landed on for that was nuanced enough to show the impact of it.
Speaker 1:But for me it was what happened after that moment where he was completely disengaged from the child, where he was completely non-attending towards the child, he still had a business-minded attitude.
Speaker 1:He was basically trying to move on as if that thing in the room crying upstairs didn't exist.
Speaker 1:And that was the kind of underrated performance I think Kevin Smith is talking about with Ben Affleck, because it's sort of he was so committed to that part, in that sort of way he was playing that that it did sell off to me.
Speaker 1:And that was what I was talking about before in my hot take segment where I said I was just waiting for him to kind of catch up and realize that what he should be doing is looking after his daughter, which is exactly what George Carlin's character was telling him at the time as well. So, or his father as well. I think that it's definitely a shame, because there are lots of times when you can harness the massive public attention for a good reason for a movie, but in this case I think it just got so wild, so quick and everybody was just sick of Ben Affleck and Jennifer Lopez that it just didn't do any favours for the movie even little things, like the whole time between sort of that part where um his wife Gertrude dies, he just calls baby Gertrude, just the baby or the kid, yeah, or the kid.
Speaker 1:That's a really important, important observation.
Speaker 2:Not even by name, yeah not even by name at all. It's more like it was more like an annoying thing than it was like annoying distraction thing in the background rather than an actual child. And yeah, that was the part that I picked up. I'm like he keeps calling it the baby and the kid, Yep, and I'm like that's your daughter, dude.
Speaker 1:Yeah, exactly, I think that was done intentionally, like that's been pretty clever.
Speaker 1:Writing from Kevin Smith because the moment he does call her Gertie, that's when he has that monologue with the baby where he starts to realise and open up and say how much that he did miss the baby's mother and then at the end of that he promised to do better. And then that's when we see him picking her up from school in the street, sweeper the Batmobile. Which funny story. He endeder the Batmobile, yeah, the Batmobile. Which funny story. He ended up driving a Batmobile as the new Batman. But I think that that's when he was. That was when his character took that turn. And then the seven years where he dedicated himself to being a father was where we start him in that sort of story space as the new Ollie and where his growth is going to happen from there. So it's almost a tale of two stories him coming to terms with the fact that he needs to be a father and go through that grieving process, and then the second one is where his old life comes knocking at his door again and is he going to value his old life or his new life again?
Speaker 1:I think that this was a genuine attempt for Kevin Smith to do an emotional piece of storytelling and I think honestly that Affleck and Tyler and also George Carlin's performances weren't the cringiest things in the world. I watched movies where you really can't just sit through the dialogue. I think this one was okay. The only time I felt embarrassed was during the times when Tyler was being excessively forward around that kind of thing. But yeah, I think I stand with Kevin Smith where he says he wishes he stood by. He wishes he stood by the movie that he made and he might have had something stronger in terms of Jersey Girl. But you know, sometimes you can't fight bad publicity. They say publicity is good and bad and any publicity is good publicity, but in this case it definitely was not.
Speaker 2:But, yeah, we're watching it again. You can see where it was going with it. It is, in essence, a beautiful story about yeah, but for me I don't know if it means to be a movie, because I love Kevin Smith and everything as well. But if you're going to watch a movie about, well, they probably copied it off of Jersey Girl actually, to be honest, but Kevin Smith's movie from 2019, I think it was um Fatherhood, where his wife dies and he is then stuck looking after the child and has to try and deal with that, and I was like watching Jersey Girl and I'm like this is like what would be like the prototype to what Fatherhood is.
Speaker 1:Oh yeah, the Kevin Hart movie. Oh, so did I say Kevin Smith? Yeah, you did. Kevin Hart movie yeah, directed by Paul White. Yeah, I remember that one.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I remember I watched Fatherhood and I was like I think it made me cry when I watched it or maybe tear up. At least I don't really watch it often in movies, more in anime.
Speaker 1:but anyway, I will admit I cried in this movie. When I watched it again for the podcast, I cried at the end when you know he realises and they're together and they're doing the play together and that kind of thing like that. That made me cry a little bit. No, it didn't hit me that hard. No, I'm just a big baby, aren't I?
Speaker 2:Yeah, but yeah, oh, fatherhood, yeah. So I think like you could probably this would be in like the building blocks for what I reckon fatherhood.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I would definitely say that. I think it's some of the inspiration for it and even though it's got common themes you know where a father and I actually wonder. I wonder how mothers would view this movie. You know how the fathers are having a really hard time being a single, single father.
Speaker 2:And like all the state of her mom's and shit like yeah, uh-huh, yeah, we have to deal with this shit anyway.
Speaker 1:No matter what Exactly Not. So, yeah, when you're at work, that's my life.
Speaker 2:Thank you.
Speaker 1:Yeah. So that's exactly why I need to thank Kalia more, because she does this like I'm not an absent father by any means, but she definitely does a lot of the hard yards and a lot of the heavy lifting in that space. But that we've definitely digressed from the set secrets. But we'll go into our most valuable takeaways now All right, to our most valuable takeaways now, all right. This is the heart and soul of the podcast, where we break down the one thing that hit hardest, stuck longest or taught us something new from what we just watched. It is our moment to spotlight the takeaway that made us think, feel or see things differently. This is what we learned from Jersey Girl 2004. So I talked to you about my most valuable takeaway before Brash. It is pretty much that I wanted to talk about something that was a little bit universal, because we know that the underlying message to this is Ben Affleck's character, ollie, learning that being a father is more important than any kind of aspirational job that he might go for, and some of the real journey and growing that he will go on can be done through that journey of parenting. But I think that for me, the thing that hit the hardest was that true love isn't about molding someone into your world, like getting his whole family to fit into his world in New York, but it's about stepping into others' world or stepping into New Jersey, quirks and all. So it doesn't look as glamorous in New Jersey, it's not as high profile, there's not as many people patting you on the back. But you will be fulfilled in a completely different and new way by embracing the quirks of what you have and what brings you joy, rather than seeking joy and approval from others. That was kind of my most takeaway from this, and I think it comes most poignantly in the scene where Ollie is willing to embrace Gertie's individuality by. You know, at first she wanted to do a cat's musical, but once she went and saw the Sweeney Todd musical she wanted to do the song God, that's Good from Sweeney Todd in her musical.
Speaker 1:And you know, you know as a father you have two options there. You could say, oh, honey, that's not really appropriate, age-appropriate, audience, you know, really sort of squash that creativity and that drive that she has. Or you could do what Ollie did and get the whole family together to rehearse, get everybody involved in the musical, really embrace and surround her for her idea, love her unconditionally and accept her for the individual and special nature that she obviously has. She's weird, she's quirky, but she's unapologetically her and he's being a father who embraces that about her. So it doesn't have to be a father-daughter relationship where that happens. It can be any relationship where you're really just you know, finding what really makes someone who they are, and loving them for that person or just at least allowing them to be that person in your presence, without judgment. That's what I took from this movie is sort of like a universal lesson yeah and yeah.
Speaker 2:When you're telling me about, I'm like, yeah, that is a good take on it. My take was just don't fall in love, don't have children. No, that is a horrible take and don't do that If you can find love, do it.
Speaker 1:I think that love comes in many forms.
Speaker 2:If you want to be rich and famous, don't have children and don't have a family.
Speaker 1:Well, that's kind of what he unintentionally learns, isn't it? Yeah, yeah, intentionally learns, isn't it? But, yeah, yeah, I think that it's all. It also goes back to what we were talking about in our ready or not episode, where all he's not really trying to fit in, as it were, he's not trying to be polished in his role in New Jersey as father and street sweeper and it it. I think he's happiest or happier in those years where he's doing a job that pays very little recognition from anybody other than himself and his father and his daughter loves him for it unconditionally like.
Speaker 2:That's the relationship and the fact that he pulls up in a street sweeper and she's so excited about that exactly in front of a prep school, by the look of it too yeah, and, and. For me, if I would be embarrassed to pick up my kids from high school in a street suit. But then if I was pulled up and I'd be embarrassed, but if I looked out and I saw my daughter running towards me with that smile on her face, I would be like you know what the rest?
Speaker 1:doesn't matter, it is pretty fucking cool, exactly right.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I think it's easy to place our expectations on our kids as well, like or even everybody else you know, and that that's just pressuring and it makes it harder and for the kids to be and grow up who they are and have that sort of self-confidence, to be themselves in a space and have them not lean into peer pressure and things like that. But it's far more rewarding to lean into and embrace anybody as their full self and she definitely exhibited that when she performed the Sweeney Todd musical with everybody that loves her as well, even those uncles that weren't really her uncles.
Speaker 2:Of course they were his uncles?
Speaker 1:Yeah, those men are not related to you yeah.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I think he definitely learns as well. Yeah, yeah, I think he he definitely learns as well. You know, he chooses love over image and he, he chooses being authentic in his life as opposed to being in control of where his career is going, and all of those things, I think, are really beautiful undertones in the movie of jersey girl. That can be celebrated and, you know, it just goes to show that letting go of how things should be can sometimes be the first step towards a more meaningful life, and a meaningful life may not look how you pictured it in the first place. It may actually be something that takes you by surprise. So that's what I took from this movie of Jersey Girl, and I know it has a lot of very clear messaging, but I tried to go with something a little bit more sort of subtle that could be taken for everybody, not just sort of fathers and parents in this instance. But yeah, you ready to rate it? I'm ready to rate it. All right, let's rate it.
Speaker 1:This is the Fandom Portals on a Board. It's time to rate it and rank it. Each host has five stars to give this movie out of five categories Story and script, characters and performance, direction and tone, visuals and soundtrack and our overall enjoyment. If it hit the mark, hosts award a star. If it didn't, hosts keep the star. If it was almost great but missed the mark, hosts award a star. If it didn't, hosts keep the star. If it was almost great but missed the mark, it gets awarded half a star. By the end of the segment, each host will have their own score for the movie out of five, and then we take the average and put it on our official Letterboxd Honor Board list. If you want to look at our Honor Board list, you can find it and track our rankings anytime which is at fandomportals on Letterboxd All right rankings. Anytime which is at fandomportals on Letterboxd Alright Brash.
Speaker 1:I'm going to start with the story and the script. I think this had some emotional messaging. It's pretty genuine in its take. It explores ambition versus fatherhood with sincerity. I do think that it's a bit simple in its narrative and it lacks strong dramatic stakes or any kind of structure in that sort of space. As I said before, it's a story played out in two parts and you can obviously tell that some cuts had been done through that space too. The dialogue seems authentic, but there is also times where it seems a little bit dated for this age, so for those reasons I'm going to give it a half star.
Speaker 2:Yep, I couldn't agree more. I'm of a similar mind. Yep, I couldn't agree more. Um, I'm of a similar mind. Uh, also half a star for me, as I think more so. Like the story and even even it being simple is fine and the story is a beautiful story, um, one that, like I, I wish, like I think, in kevin's mind, that the, the original vision he had for it, I think, is one of absolute beauty. But, yes, unfortunately, I think, due to parts getting cut out and also the speed in which some of the story is played through, I think, dulls it down to a half a star.
Speaker 1:That's a point too. I think it's just over 90 minutes, isn't it this one, and it does go through quite a big sort of portion of it, and I also find that the act structure is a little bit unconventional. But the last act, I think, is a little bit rushed too. It just seems to all happen very, very quickly.
Speaker 2:Very quickly.
Speaker 1:And then also the beginning act as well is rushed through, which is no. Like Kevin Smith has said, he cut a lot out of the beginning and that really detracts from the relationship of Ben Affleck and Jennifer Lopez, which then lessens the stakes and emotional impact of her passing. So yeah, I think half a star is pretty good and generous for us here. All right, let's go on to characters and performance.
Speaker 1:So for me it was Raquel Castro that stood out the most as the child actor. She was annoying, as a seven-year-old should be, but she was also. She'd gotten to that stage, as seven-year-olds do, where they start to figure out that adults are sometimes full of shit, and she portrayed that pretty well. She was able to be emotional in times when she needed to be emotional, but obviously there were times when her acting and also the acting of of others around her, sort of lacked. So ben affleck gave some passable and nuanced performance in parts, but I think it was kind of inconsistent and same same as live tyler as well, and george carlin uh, they all you know the chemistry between them all work, but the depth is kind of limited in this.
Speaker 2:So half a star for me as well hi, yeah, I no star for me from this, don't get me wrong. I enjoyed Ben Affleck as an actor, tyler as an actor, but it just yeah, it was hard to. I found it hard to believe them.
Speaker 1:Actually, that is a good point as well. Their chemistry together. Live Tyler and Ben Affleck. Armageddon was way better. Armageddon was way better. Armageddon was way better. Yes, 100% better, and I think that one came before this. It did so they had history yeah, they had history, but it just didn't seem to click or work and I think that's what I think that might be, what the reason why is?
Speaker 2:because they've had that history. They came into this one that is more. It seems more friendly. Yeah, that's exactly it. More as like they're just pals than they're meant to be romantically involved.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I think that might've been an a intentional choice for Kevin Smith, because I don't think he wanted Liv Tyler's character of Maya to be the romantic launch pad, you might say, for Ben Affleck's new life as a single dad looking for love.
Speaker 2:I think he wanted to keep the story focused on a father-daughter relationship, I think initially that the Maya character was going to be portrayed by Joe Lauren Adams, oh. But then he's like oh no, I can't do that, because then it's going to be two chasing Amy.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I actually think there was another actor he had in mind as well. I've forgotten who, but she was very short.
Speaker 2:Oh, yeah, eliza, Eliza Doucheclue. Yeah, eliza, doucheclue, she was my crush when I was a teenager. She's from the Chew Looter movie.
Speaker 1:Bring it on. Bring it on Buffy the Vampire Slayer.
Speaker 2:Yeah, she was in Buffy.
Speaker 1:Yeah, she was in Buffy the Vampire Slayer. Yeah, she's in Buffy. Yeah, she plays Faith. Yeah, she most poignantly plays She-Hulk in a lot of different.
Speaker 2:Marvel projects. The voice of.
Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah. So yeah, they were going to get Eliza Dushku, but she stands at a five foot nothing and would have looked childlike next to Ben Affleck's 6'3 physique.
Speaker 2:And also is an even bigger guy, because she was born in 1980. Yep, so she's even three years younger than what Liv Tyler is. And then Liv Tyler was born in 77 and Ben Affleck's 73.
Speaker 1:That's good memory, dude. That's exactly point on. Yeah, how the fuck did you do that? 72 for Ben Affleck? Oh, 72?. Yeah, I'll give you that.
Speaker 2:Yeah, so that would have been an even bigger age gap than what? Eight years or something.
Speaker 1:Let's go to direction and tone. So for me, for this one he softens his usual style Kevin Smith does. It's heartfelt as opposed to comedic. It's steady, it's not really flashy. It's commendable what he tried to do, but it's not really cinematic and he compromised on his vision. So I'm tossing up between zero and half a star for this one. I think for the tone it does have a nice warm tone throughout. I'm probably going to give it zero.
Speaker 2:I'm going to give it a half star Because I think for me the acting was complimented, because of the tone, because as much as I didn't like well, as much as the actors fell short, for me I think the scenes and just the effects of how they shot it made up for it. Looking at the backdrops of, like New Jersey, yeah, the cityscapes, cityscapes. But like you see the difference, like they show the difference, like New York was always flasher and clean and then New York always looked rougher and more downgraded.
Speaker 1:Oh yeah, jersey did yeah.
Speaker 2:They showed the two parts of it. I thought the direction that went that way that sort of helped with the acting.
Speaker 1:Yeah, with the next one that we're going to do with visuals and sounds, I feel like those contrasting images of New Jersey and New York really played into the aesthetic of the film to the point where, even though New Jersey looked like it was roughed up, it was almost like the diamond in a rough you know what I mean. Or the caramel center to the rough outside. That's what you find in New Jersey, and we know that Kevin Smith has a very big affinity for New Jersey as a setting. A lot of his movies are set there. And then New York as well, being flashy and shiny on the outside. Even the status of Ollie Trinkie's character, where he wears these suits, his hair's always done. He's in a room full of people that are always smiling, dressed to the nines, but true happiness evades him. So I think that that visual connection was pretty good.
Speaker 1:I think that the score was pretty. I don't know. There's not much I can really write home about the score. The one song that kind of hit me was the Fleetwood Mac song that was playing. I don't know what that one's called Landslide, landslide, landslide. That was one that sort of resonated emotionally with me. So I think I'll probably give visuals and sound. Half a star just for that juxtaposition of the two cities, mirroring the character's journey, and also for the inclusion of the song Landslide in a very pivotal and poignant moment. So what about you for visuals and sound?
Speaker 2:Again, going on to the tone of it, I think the visuals helped with the tone of the movie. As I was saying before, with the differences between New Jersey and New York. I like the basicness of it. So you got what you had like. The New Jersey was the streets, you had the sort of the front visual of the school, you had the father's house, you had the bar and the movie store. Those were the New Jersey places.
Speaker 2:And then New York places was all the high rises, the big apartments and um, all the flashy board, board meetings and stuff in there, um, will smith, uh, showing that they had, and then with all the, though, I do do one thing I want to point out. When they did the, is I, when I had all the reporters there for Will Smith, like looking at that crowd of reporters.
Speaker 1:All those reporters looked like they came from New Jersey yeah, and you know what all those reporters in that crowd also looked like all of the disgruntled New Jerseyans when they were going to fix the pothole too. So those extras were obviously re-hired for the same mob scene.
Speaker 2:You might say and like how they acted. I like that's not real, but hey, so for me I'll say Half-Tired yeah, like the music I wish, because usually in Chasing Amy there's good, really good music in Chasing Amy. The soundtrack yeah, the soundtrack I thought was. I was hoping it would be a little bit better, but it wasn't still. Yep.
Speaker 1:Okay and lastly, let's go for overall enjoyment and rewatch ability. I don't think a rewatch for me is essential. It's definitely not one of Ben Affleck's best films. It's gentle and sincere and it's watched for me. It's good for for parents and for that messaging. But I think for me, if I was going to watch a kevin smith film and even a ben affleck film, I probably wouldn't put this one on. That being said, for the, for its emotional messaging and the fact that I do like watching george carlin in this, and I think I'll give it half a star for enjoyment.
Speaker 2:Um, yeah, I'll look. I'm probably never going to watch this movie again, to be honest. Yep, I was. Actually I'm kind of excited about watching it again because I'm like, oh, I haven't seen Little Tyler in ages in anything. I'm like last time I saw her was in How's Tonya. I was watching that, what was it? Lone Star 911, where she plays one of the medical first responders. I was really excited and then after watching it, I was like all right, yeah, that was a thing, that was a thing I just did. Yeah, that was 90 minutes or something. So, for me because this is something probably more personal to Kevin, about something very specific, it's probably not targeted towards someone like me. Yep, specific, it's probably not targeted towards someone like me. Yep, it's for enjoyment. So, yeah, but I'll have. I'd have to give it zero stars because, yeah, for me, like had no emotional sort of buy-in. Buy-in for me, yeah, it didn't tug at any emotional strings for me because I don't have children or wives to worry about.
Speaker 1:So I think that leaves you with a total of one and a half stars and it gives me a total of two stars. So let's see where it sits on our Venom portals on a board. So with 1.75, we have a new last place movie, oh shit, yeah. So Red One, which is currently at 20, starring the Rock and Chris Evans. It got an average of two from both of us, and this one here will score 1.75. So it is currently our Razzie winner. Jersey Girl gets to be the last place in the Sorry Kevin Smith. Sorry Kevin Smith. We'll have to do another Kevin Smith movie to make it up to him.
Speaker 2:If we need dog masks, oh well, I think it'll be close.
Speaker 1:I think it'll be good. But yeah, this one here definitely sits at our 21 spot at 1.75 for Jersey Girl. All right, let's get into our sign-offs. If you liked this episode, make sure you go and tell a friend. Guys, it's the best thing that you can do for a small podcast Like us.
Speaker 1:Word of mouth is the greatest marketing tool that you could ever do. If you wanted to get some more of the Phantom Portals action, you can do so at wwwphantomportalspodcastcom. And while you're there, you can sign up to our mailing list, where you'll be the first to learn about any giveaways, and we also do a monthly newsletter. Just one email a month and you will be the first one to know about any of our giveaways and you'll be eligible to enter them all. We don't do any flashy tricks here at the Phantom Portals podcast Portals podcast. If you join our mailing list, you're in the running for a giveaway. So if you wanted to have any of your opinions read out on our podcast, you can do so by joining our threads, instagram or Reddit communities, which is at Fandom Portals.
Speaker 1:Next week, we have an interview with Michael Papalethereau, who is an Australian filmmaker, and he is going to teach us how to make a professional film from scratch. He is currently doing the film festival circuit for one of his short films called crossroads, and we got to chat with him and sit down and learn everything that he has to teach us about filmmaking. So that's what's coming next. That's it for me, aaron keep learning, keep growing, keep loving fandoms.
Speaker 2:brash thanks everyone for coming by and listening to us or me mainly ramble on, and I appreciate every single one of you.
