Mallrats

As a primer for understanding '90s (sub) pop culture, you couldn't do better than Mallrats, Kevin Smith's slacker ode to the joys of sex, weed, comic books and capitalism.  Starring a veritable who's who of rising stars at the time, the script does its amateurish best to be an equal opportunity offender, but winds up having its heart in the right place after all.

Dumped by their respective girlfriends, Brodie and T.S. (Jason Lee & Jeremy London) head to the mall to drown their sorrows at the food court, sharing their tale of woe with a motley group of post-high school hangers-on:  Jay and Silent Bob (Jason Mewes and Kevin Smith), a pair of trouble-making doofuses, Gwen (Joey Lauren Adams) the hot chick who got away, and Tricia (Renee Humphrey), an underage sex researcher whose latest subject, Shannon (Ben Affleck), has an eye on Brodie's ex (Shannon Doherty).  Meanwhile, T.S. tries in vain to impress his ex-girlfriend's father (Michael Rooker) before he can marry her off on his local game show...which just so happens to be taping in the very same mall!

 

The follow-up to Clerks, Smith's film doesn't fall very far from the tree.  And, honestly, that's the appeal for those tuned into his particular brand of disaffected male humor.  His movies don't rebel so much against any particular establishment as they do against the high school hierarchy of jock culture.  His heroes still get laid; they just do it between issues of Spiderman and a few rounds of Sega.  Mallrats is full of such naughty witticisms, many of which have aged poorly.  But there's a certain spectacle to watching so well many known actors mud wrestle with Smith's middling dialogue.  And, despite it all, this community of mutants, misfits and male chauvinist pigs winds up coming off a surprisingly charming.

 

Arrow Video's two-disc limited edition Blu-ray features a brand-new director-approved restoration of the theatrical and extended cut plus a huge helping of old and new extras.  Among the material making its debut are interviews with Kevin Smith (who also provides a filmed introduction), Jason Mewes and cinematographer David Klein, plus a newly produced animated Making Of documentary.  Archival extras include a retrospective, Q & A, deleted scenes, outtakes and interviews.  Disc two features a newly assembled TV cut of the film with intentionally bad overdubbing to cover up all the naughty words.  All that and a fold-out poster you can hang on your wall...right next to the one of Chasing Amy you've had up since 1997.

 

 

 

 

 

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