After the screening of his latest film Red State at the Sundance Film Festival, Smith had set up an auction to sell the distibution rights to the movie. No one could've predicted what happened next.The Clerks director who was once hailed as a cinematic genius has been under a ton of criticism from critics, the internet, and former fans. There is a lot of unneccesary hatred toward Smith (especially online) and as a fan of his, I kind of feel bad for the dude. All he's ever done is try to make entertaining movies and IMO he has been mostly successful. His track record hasn't been that great lately but his filmography speaks for itself. 

Kevin hasn't been making things easier on himself lately, he is refusing to screen his latest movie Red State for critics and won't do any publicity for it either. He held an auction for the distribution rights to Red State Sunday after the screening at Sundance. The auctioneer's opening bid was $20 to which Smith himself bid and then the auction was immediately closed. After which he explained that he would distribute the movie himself by touring the 50 states with it, would then film his hockey comedy Hit Somebody, and then RETIRE? He went on to say he would no longer direct and focus solely on producing and distributing films. WTF? 

There are a lot of Smith-haters out there and it's starting to look like he is just giving up, I think he forgets he has even MORE fans than haters. Cop Out was under heavy fire and Red State received almost all bad reviews after Sunday's screening but that doesn't mean he is a bad director. Clerks, Dogma (the most clever take on religion I've ever seen), Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back...these are all incredibly funny movies. I refuse to believe that the guy who wrote and directed these movies was just a "lucky hack" or that he has "lost it". Smith would do better to just keep making films that interest him and say screw the critics. 

Check out the extremely long auction of Red State in the video below for more details. 

More From Banana 101.5