Kevin Smith slams "nasty" critics

Warning: This article contains language and/or sexual references that younger readers are advised to avoid.

Kevin Smith has slammed critics of his latest movie Cop Out.

The director complained that members of the public should be allowed to review movies instead of professional writers.

"I gotta say that every day I hate film theory & film students & critics more & more," he wrote on his Twitter page.

"Film fandom's become a nasty bloodsport where cartoonishly rooting for failure gets the hit count up. Watching them beat the s**t out of it was sad. Like, it's called Cop Out; that sound like a very ambitious title to you? You REALLY wanna s**t in the mouth of a flick that so OBVIOUSLY strived for nothing more than laughs. Was it called Schindler's Cop Out?"

He continued: "Writing a nasty review for Cop Out is akin to bullying a retarded kid. All you've done is make fun of something that wasn't doing you any harm and wanted only to give some cats some fun laughs."

Smith added that he will make critics pay to see his movies in the future.

"Realised whole system's upside down: so we let a bunch of people see it for free & they s**t all over it?" he posted. "Meanwhile, people who'd REALLY like to see the flick for free are made to pay? Bulls**t: from now on, any flick I'm ever involved with, I conduct critics screenings thusly: you wanna see it early to review it? Fine: pay like you would if you saw it next week.

"Why am I giving an arbitrary 500 people power over what I do at all, let alone for free? Next flick, I'd rather pick 500 randoms from Twitter & let THEM see it for free in advance, then post THEIR opinions, good AND bad. Same difference. Why's their opinion more valid? It's a backwards system."

> Kevin Smith 'hits back at Cop Out critics'