Fellman's Movie Reviews

RED = SPOILERS: 

One of the classics of comedy and one of Kevin Smith’s best movies, Mallrats is still to this day a movie that everybody needs to see. Whether you’re a comic book fan or just looking for your girlfriend, Mallrats has something for everybody. It’s goofy, silly, raunchy, romantic, action-packed, and even a little sexy at a couple of points. But what it isn’t, is boring. Mallrats will never let you down. I know I’ve seen it more than a couple of times and I still haven’t gotten tired of it.  

What’s it about? Mallrats is about a day in the life of two young men, Brodie and T.S., who have just both recently broken up with their girlfriends and are finding solace by going to the mall to pass the time. Brodie is there looking for comics while T.S. learns that his girlfriend’s father is setting up a game show that he’s producing in the middle of the mall. The game show is a dating game rip-off and T.S.’s girlfriend has agreed to be on the show, so T.S. is trying to find a way to stop it from happening. Meanwhile, Brodie runs into his ex-girlfriend, who happens to be dating the manager of an upscale store in the mall. Jay and Silent Bob, fan favorite characters of the Kevin Smith universe, make frequent appearances to cause mischief.  

What’s good? This is one of Kevin Smith’s best scripts. The dialogue is witty and irreverent. The running jokes are interspersed and placed in great spots. Jason Lee’s delivery is some of the best acting in a comedy and I still use it as a landmark to this day. The conversation between characters just flows so easily and naturally that it’s unreal that they got it on camera.  

What’s bad? I mean, it’s not the highest budget movie. So, it’s not like you’re working with “Star Wars” kinds of special effects or anything. But, aside from that, there’s not a whole lot to criticize. Except maybe that scene where Bob is skating through the mall on the skateboard and the socks are flying up in the air. That’s a pretty cheesy effect. 

The acting? The acting is good. A lot of people are coming off of TV or other movies, so it’s not like you have inexperienced actors. I don’t know how much experience Stan Lee had when he made this movie, but he looked pretty comfortable on camera… 

The effects? The effects are as simple as they can be for a mid-level studio film. It’s not a big budget picture, so you can’t expect it to be on par with Star Wars or something like that. But it wasn’t like it was really bad or anything. Like I said though, the sock thing with Silent Bob on the skateboard is one of the cheesiest effects in movie history. A classic comedy trope.  

The dialogue. The conversations in this movie are some of the best pieces of comedy, ever. The way they’re just so abrupt and scathing is a model for how Kevin Smith tries to write most of his other works. They flow so easily with each other. There really is something about a Kevin Smith dialogue that makes it work. It’s one of his strong suits.  

The special edition. Watching the extended version versus watching the original version really is a huge difference. When you’ve seen it as many times as I have, and you can notice the minute details, all of the footage that they’ve taken out really does deserve to be taken out. And the beginning scene kind of changes the whole storyline of the movie. It’s really bad when you see what it could have been, and it really makes me happy that it came out like it did.  

The parallel to Clerks. If you know the lines to Clerks, you can put all the jokes together. They fit together pretty well. The movies are taking place at the same time in the “View-Askiewniverse”. Which is the informal name that Kevin Smith has given to the universe that his movies have created. 

Willem and the magic eye poster. This is one of my favorite jokes in the movie, where Ethan Suplee goes ballistic on the magic eye poster and just starts going nuts because he can’t see the sailboat. I never got why he couldn’t do it. It’s just un-focusing your eyes. Maybe he’s TOO focused… 

Faster Than Walt Flanagan’s Dog. People wonder who Walt Flanagan is, like it’s some trivia reference. It’s just a friend of Kevin Smith that’s in all of his movies. He’s the guy who says “Tell him, Steve Dave!” in Mallrats. He plays a couple of different characters in Clerks. He ran a comic book store with Kevin Smith a while back. It’s just an inside joke… 

Like the back of a Volkswagen. This is one of the best running jokes, ever. Not just because of the joke itself, but because of the delivery of it, and the faces of the people who make it when they say it. This joke alone makes this movie one of the all-time greatest comedies, in my opinion.  

So, yeah. Go and see Mallrats. Whether you’re looking for cookies, comics, or sailboats, Mallrats has all three. I can guarantee you won’t be disappointed. And as always, keep on watching, with a smile on your face…