Year:
1995
Studio:
Universal Pictures/Gramercy Pictures
Movie:
4/5
DVD:
5/5
Teaser
TS (Jeremy London) has just broken up with his girlfriend Brandi
(Claire Forlani). Actually she dumped him. Meanwhile, TS's good friend
Brodie (Jason Lee) has also been dumped by his girlfriend Rene (Shannen
Doherty). What are two young single men to do to raise their spirits?
Go to the mall! There TS and Brodie will have a chance to win their
loves back while evading mall police and their arch enemies Shannon
Hamilton (Ben Affleck) and Jared Svenning (Michael Rooker).
Movie
"Mallrats" is the greatest mall movie ever and certainly my favorite
Kevin Smith film. It totally died at the box office, showing that
apparently I have poor taste. In any case, this is a comedy movie with
a romantic subplot. As with Kevin Smith films, his humor is more geek
oriented, which I really do enjoy at times.
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Actors
Jason Lee in his first feature role did an amazingly good job
portraying the sarcastic Brodie. Jeremy London (or "Party of Five's
Jeremy London" as the guys in the commentary labeled him) is not bad as
TS. Sure, once pointed out he does make a lot of mistakes, but I didn't
notice when I watching the film. Shannen Doherty was fine. Ben Affleck
was still in the early part of his career when he played toughs.
Everybody was good.
DVD
An excellent DVD. The commentary team includes Kevin Smith, Jason Lee,
Jason Mewes, Ben Affleck, Producer Scott Mosier, and View Askew
Archivist Vincent Pereira. Unlike in Clerks, everybody contributes and
it's not just Kevin Smith talking (and this time Jason Mewes is awake
and sober). It's a group of guys who loved the movie talking about it
and ribbing each other about various scenes. The commentary includes
multi-angle footage of the guys talking, so in some scenes of the movie
you get a picture-in-picture of the guys talking about the scene.
Also included is a 20 minute featurette "Look Back" at Mallrats. An
hour feature on deleted scenes which was kind of long. The comments to
the deleted scenes were good, but some parts, especially the originally
filmed opening sequence, are painful to watch. The theatrical trailer
and a music video round out the extras.
Recommendations
This is a great movie. I can't imagine why people would not want to see
it.
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