"A gritty, edgy, lo-fi product becomes an underground sensation in the early 1990's. Then, thanks to video distribution, the product suddenly has enough fans in enough different places to be labeled a "cult hit." In an attempt to parlay that status into even more success, the product makes a few increasingly-concerted attempts to break through into the mainstream. However, those attempts necessitate that the product be softened around the edges a bit, causing it to lose some of the charm that made it a hit in the first place. Stabs at full-fledged mainstream acceptance never quite live up to expectations, and right after the turn of the century, the franchise hung up its boots, presumably forever. At least: until somebody got the bright idea to do a big-budget revival of the one-time cult hit here in the Year of Our Lord 2006.-Rick Scaia, drawing almost a perfect parallel. Though I must say, I already saw "Clerks II," and it was much, much more impressive to me than what I've seen so far out of the "new" ECW. Posted by Stephen Silver at June 21, 2006 02:30 PMAm I talking about ECW or Kevin Smith movies? Doesn't matter, since all of a sudden, I'm going to think myself massively clever for realizing how freakishly identical their stories are."