YMMV / Jersey Girl

• He Really Can Act: This is widely considered George Carlin's best performance as an actor. Not surprisingly, Kevin Smith wrote the role specifically for him.
• Harsher in Hindsight: Ollie's blacklisting from his publicist firm for dissing Will Smith is rather ironic considering Will Smith himself would be banned from the Oscars for 10 years for slapping Chris Rock in 2022.
• Hilarious in Hindsight: Ben Affleck calls his Garbage Truck "The Batmobile." Come 2016... Even funnier is that that there is a scene later on in the film where Batman and Deadshot start talking about parenting.
• It's Not Supposed to Win Oscars: Kevin Smith himself infamously responded to the film's rather lukewarm critical reception by stating that it was "not for critics". He later specified that he made it for his daughter. Several critics applauded Smith for trying something new, however.
• Overshadowed by Controversy: The movie may have saved a little face had it not come immediately in the wake of Ben Affleck and Jennifer Lopez's massively overhyped relationship, which indirectly resulted in the nuclear disaster known as Gigli.
• They Changed It, Now It Sucks!: Because it looked and felt more traditionally "Hollywood" than his other movies, many felt Kevin Smith had sold out with this movie.
• Unintentional Period Piece: The movie gets dated to the 2000s by having a major character work behind the desk at a video rental store. The store still has a majority of VHS tapes, rather than DVDs, and of course video rental stores went out of business a decade later due to the rise of online streaming services. The film also takes place when Will Smith was at the height of his popularity as a blockbuster star. In The New '10s he opted for Tom Hanks Syndrome and a couple of bombs caused his star power to lessen slightly. And if you go meta, the film features Jennifer Lopez and Ben Affleck as a couple, immediately marking it as a product of the 'Bennifer' era.

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