Such a frustrating disappointment

Absolutely brilliant

In truth, there is barely enough story here to make a film.

Good films always raise compelling questions, whether the format is fiction or documentary fact.

As raunchy and decadent that "Clerks" was coming out the prior year, at least I thought it was pretty funny. Coming from the same creative mind and direction of Kevin Smith, I expected "Mallrats" to be on a par but it failed to deliver. There were some humorous moments of course, and unless I'm mistaken, some of the language might have been toned down from the earlier flick, but there didn't seem to be enough to redeem this picture as one to recommend as a follow up to "Clerks". My understanding is that chronologically, this picture occurs the day before the events in "Clerks", but that's neither here nor there and of no consequence to my mind. The picture's most salient moment is when Stan Lee has his heart to heart chat with Brodie (Jason Lee), but after that it's pretty much down hill. The game show segment in particular was just terrible, it looked like it belonged in an entirely different picture. Still, it was cool to see Jay and Silent Bob once again, and Jason Lee has the right looks and temperament for the kind of character he portrayed. But if faced with a decision to make, you probably should just watch "Clerks" again.

Smith does have an ear for good dialogue (i.e his first movie Clerks), and when the stars align can make good movies (Chasing Amy). But by the time "Mallrats" came out, this particular style became tiresome. It was like a decently budget movie was made out of material only he and his friends thought was funny. I don't blame the guy for making it (as difficult as it is to get a movie made), but this feels like it was all the jokes not good enough to make it in "Clerks". Like that album a label puts out after the singer is dead. Just tracks that were laying around the studio.

Mallrats (1995) *** (out of 4) After being dumped by their girlfriends, TS (Jeremy London) and Brodie (Jason Lee) head to the local mall to drown their sorrows but soon get caught up in trying to get their women back with a little help from their mallrat friends.With the success of CLERKS everyone was waiting to see what writer-director Kevin Smith would come back with. MALLRATS would turn out to be a critical and financial failure but I think people really missed the point of the film. I still remember being the only person in my screening back in 1995 to be laughing their head off. It seems everyone else wasn't sure what they were getting but to me this film has always been a good satire.I think Smith's screenplay is quite goofy at times but that doesn't mean it's not good. In fact I think the script has been hated on for no good reason because it contains pretty much what one would expect from a screenplay by Smith. There's the comic book banter. There's the STAR WARS and JAWS jokes. Of course the humor is going to be raunchy but who cares as long as it's funny? There are many hilarious moments here with the comic back and forth between the characters as well as the game show finale, which contains plenty of great laughs.Another thing that really helps the film is its cast. Lee clearly and easily steals the film as Brodie, the slacker sidekick who always has something smart to say. Both London and Shannen Doherty are good in their roles and we've got several Smith regulars including Smith himself, Jason Mewes and Ben Affleck. Michael Rooker is also fun in his supporting bit as is Stan Lee and Priscilla Barnes.MALLRATS will never be considered a classic but I think it does a very good job at delivering laughs as well as shining a light on what it was like to be at the mall back in the 90s.

Set only one day prior to the events of "Clerks", Kevin Smith's follow-up to his absolutely hilarious debut film is sadly a major disappointment. That film had a very low budget and a fantastic script whereas this film has a much larger budget ($6million) and an incredibly mediocre script. It seems like a watered down version of "Clerks" in that the dialogue is nowhere near as witty or well observed (though it tries to be) and T.S., Brodie, Rene and Gwen are basically the poor man's Dante, Randal, Veronica and Caitlin. I had heard that many people found it disappointing but I went in an open mind, only to find out that they were right. When Smith guest starred in "Degrassi: The Next Generation", he poked fun at the film's poor reception in dialogue that he wrote himself. Caitlin Ryan tells him that this is her favourite Kevin Smith film and he replies, "You're lying. 'Mallrats' is no one's favourite Kevin Smith film." I just hope that the sequel "MallBrats" is better than this.On the bright side, Jason Lee is quite funny as Brodie and has most of the good lines but he could have been so much funnier with better material. The same goes for Michael Rooker as Svenning and Jason Mewes and Smith as Jay and Silent Bob, the only returning characters from "Clerks" in spite of numerous references to it. Jeremy London is likable as T.S. but the character doesn't have much of a personality and is a far less effective straight man to Brodie than Dante was to Randal. Ethan Suplee's "subplot" as Willam goes nowhere very slowly. Claire Forlani has been much better elsewhere while Joey Lauren Adams deserved more screen time. Shannen Doherty is simply forgettable as Rene but Ben Affleck is quite good as Shannon Hamilton. My favourite scene in the film is when Stan Lee gives the completely starstruck Brodie romantic advice but that is more of a sweet scene than a funny one.