Mallrats

Granted, it's weaker than his other three films to date. On the other hand, a weak Kevin Smith movie is stronger than a strong film by most other writers/directors. This film is hilarious! It takes mall culture to a higher level! A good contrast to Richard Linklater's/Eric Bogosian's Suburbia, though it's better than Suburbia in most ways. Many of the pop culture refs and the satire of young adult life make this film even cooler! And how the hell did he get Stan Lee to appear? (And he was surprisingly really good!)

This is Shannen Doherty's best role (mainly because she's hardly ever on screen;), Jason Lee's best role, and Jeremy London's best role (not to be confused with twin brother Jason who was the awesome Randall Pink Floyd in Dazed and Confused...though Ben Affleck and Joey Lauren Adams were both in Dazed as well...)

Look for an amusing role played by Ethan Suplee (Seth in American History X)

Overall: this film just plain rocks! It's got great quirky writing, great direction, solid acting, a three-nippled topless clairvoyant, a hilarious love connection parody, a 15 year old nympho (played by the amusing Claire Forlani), Stan Lee...what more could one ask for?? It's not his best, it has flaws, but it's still classic Smith! An easy 7/10!

To everybody who did not like this movie: You are not obviously Kevin Smith fans. I am, and everyone one of the NJ3 are great. This one is just different. Shannen Doherty is surprisingly cool in this one, and Jason Lee is hysterical. Jay and Silent Bob are hysterical as usual, and everyone else is great. Watch if you are a Smith fan, just keep an open mind.

The second movie in Kevin Smith's 5 film View Askewniverse series is Mallrats - a charming comedy about two losers, who, after being dumped by their girlfriends decide to spend a day at the mall. - and try and win their girls back. Jason Lee and Jeremy London play the dumped-and-depressed duo of ex-boyfriends who both succeed in bringing to life the characters of . Shannen Doherty and Claire Forlani - the two ex-girlfriends also perform well here. It's been said - not just by critics and fans, but by Kevin Smith himself, that Mallrats is a bad movie - and by far the worst of his 5. Personally, I rate this 3rd... with Dogma in front, and Chasing Amy last - I found this movie to be funny, charming and completely entertaining. Ben Affleck's character was also funny to watch. Jay & Silent Bob appear to add the cartoon comedy flavour, while Stan Lee cameos in an hilarious performance of himself.

I liked the script and the way that the movie was paced, although at times seemed like the scenes were stretched further than they should be. The sets were good and the lighting and cinematography is good also. I don't really have any major gripes about this film, it's just that, there are better movies in Kevin Smith's series.

As most Smith fanboys know, Mallrats has been trashed critically, financially (bad box-office) and by a lot of Smith's own fan-base.

Personally I like it. Even without watching the DVD with commentary by Smith its obvious that this outing was backed by Hollywood, emitting a polish and lack of gloom that his other films don't have and thus gaining flack over its lack of "Indie" look and feel and hammy storyline. Had this film been in black in white, shot using a cheaper production method, or had a less happier ending, it possibly would have fared better with the fans than it did.

Listen to the dialogue though and its soon apparent this is indeed pure Smith. And it shines. The long diatribes about seemingly nothing, the anti-establishment rumblings of Brody (who ironically spends a lot of the film clarifying escalator ettiquite and other mall law), and a bigger involvement of Jay and Bob (but not too much) make this as good, if not better than the other Kevin Smith films and quite possibly my favourite of his.

Its hard to rate this film, you'll either really like it and give it a 10 or tuck into another chocolate pretzel after giving it a 1.

This is Kevin Smith's first `real' movie, i.e., one made with a real budget, real actors, and backed by a real studio. It was also a commercial and critical flop, most reviewers seem to regard it as his worst movie. That is understandable, seeing as he set such high expectations with `Clerks', a work of pure genius that was made on a budget so low that Smith was forced to use black & white film. `Clerks' is one of my all time favorite films, a classic that will probably still be popular many years from now, and so, by comparison, `Mallrats' simply doesn't measure up. But so what? It's still a great comedy, with lots of moments that make you want to split a gut, and is, IMHO, better than at least 90% of the other teenage/young adult movies out there.

The story (as with most comedies) is pretty basic. It's about a day in the life of two slackers who both get dumped by their girlfriends that morning. They then spend the rest of the day hanging around the mall (in an ironic touch, the mall in question, while supposedly set in New Jersey, is actually about five miles from where I live, in the Minneapolis suburb Eden Prairie) trying to figure out how to win back their girls. Along the way they encounter Kevin Smith's trademark ensemble of oddball characters, most notably Jay & Silent Bob who give what I think are their funniest movie performances. Kevin Smith continues themes established in `Clerks' (and repeated in his following movies) namely, homages to Star Wars, Jaws, and hockey and throws in some new ones, most notably, comics and video games. As in `Clerks', nothing much really happens, the two, as the tagline puts it, aren't at the mall to work or to shop, they're just there. Well, not entirely. Amid their random meanderings and encounters with other Kevin Smith favorites like Ben Affleck and Joey Lauren Adams there is an actual plot, namely, one of the guys is scheming to wreck a TV game show to be broadcast live at the mall later that day and he enlists Jay and Silent Bob to do the dirty deed. Why? Well, it's too complicated to explain in a brief review, but the payoff is hilarious. Whatever else one thinks of this movie, it has to be about the best send up of game shows ever as the dynamic duo infiltrate a Dating Game rip-off and turn the whole thing into a circus. The final 20 minutes or so of this movie is simply some of the funniest stuff you'll see anywhere.

What about the rest? Mostly it's pretty good, although Kevin Smith's penchant for pushing the envelope means he sometimes goes too far when it comes to matters of taste, most notably scenes like the infamous `chocolate pretzel' and a former `Three's Company' star playing a topless fortune teller, not to mention the 15 year old girl who's doing a `science project' that involves having sex with multiple men of varying ages. Also, Smith seems to have some sort of fixation on homosexuality that keeps coming up (pardon the pun) in his movies. Is he simply using gay jokes as a means of getting a cheap laugh or is this his way of working out some personal `issues'? I don't know and, further, I don't care because I think there are better, more creative ways to get a laugh. But, these complaints aside, this movie is still funny as hell, and, as with `Clerks', Smith proves he has a good ear for tunes to accompany the film, especially in the title sequence which features all the characters drawn comic book style. Very original, and it works perfectly. One final comment: I personally think the best way to watch his movies is to view them in order; this, for example, gives us the same basic slacker attitude and mentality of `Clerks', only in color and with a much bigger budget. He then went for the `quality' flick with `Chasing Amy' followed by the `issues' flick in `Dogma', finally returning to pure comedy in `Jay & Silent Bob Strike Back'. For one, the movies are all related, and each new one refers to his previous ones. Many of the jokes only make sense if you understand the context. And also, someone who saw the much more dramatic and polished `Chasing Amy' first and this film later might tend to dismiss it as sophomoric trash, not realizing that Smith got his start doing pure comedy, not romantic drama. In sum, this is a film in the tradition of `Airplane!' or `Scary Movie' in that it's all about going to any length to get a laugh, and, for the most part, it succeeds splendidly.

8/10

PS. As with all his other movies, Kevin Smith goes to considerable length to please his fans with his DVD's. They are all chock full of extra features, deleted scenes and the like, and his commentaries are some of the best in the movie business. Smith obviously knows he has a highly loyal fan base, and he returns that loyalty in spades.