#36
Post
by AYBG » Tue Jul 07, 2009 9:39 pm
Mallrats
7.5/10
After Chasing Amy I couldn't resist another visit to the View Askewniverse...
This one is paper-thin, but very funny all the way through.
Basically two teenagers (Jason Lee and some guy called Jeremy London) simultaneously get dumped by their girlfriends and hit the mall to recover and decide what to do. I love how Smith not only hires his nobody buddies as actors (he was responsible for the fame of Lee, now best known as "Earl" in My Name Is..., and Affleck) but uses them multiple times, even in different roles (all Smith's films are set in the same universe). Despite this, Lee plays the same comic book sex-craving geek he later did in Chasing Amy. Affleck is his antagonist/evil guy who likes to screw women in a certain uncomfortable place ("like in the back of a Volkswagen?").
The film is very much a product of the 90s - the haircuts, the clothes - and it's all the more charming for it. Compared to Clerks, this is a more balanced film, with a mixture of verbal and visual gags - Askewniverse staples Jay and Silent Bob in a sort of X-rated Looney Tunes! Yup, the film is very silly and gets pretty far-fetched and cheesy towards the end, but its the perfect antidote to Smith's more sentimental side (great in Chasing Amy and Clerks II, but scarring in Jersey Girl). I recommend it, especially for Smith fans.
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