Review of Mallrats (1995) by Will L — 21 Jun 2014

With just a few films under his belt, writer/ director Kevin Smith quickly rose through the ranks to become one of my favorite filmmakers, and while "Mallrats" is by no means a bad film, it is sort of regarded as the idiot stepchild of all of Smith's children.

It definitely takes a step backward from the ground he broke with "Clerks", his landmark debut feature. With this film, you get even more lowbrow humor without all of the pointed observations that mark his better films. It may seem redundant calling a Kevin Smith film immature, but that's exactly what this is. The characters aren't as likable and the story is mostly silly. It was the one Smith film that didn't fit in with the world he created. Until he made "Dogma", that is.

Yet the movie is not without a certain charm and appeal. There are some laughs, and Jay and Silent Bob are once again in fine form. Ben Affleck has some laughs in a small part, and it's just an accepted fact that no film featuring Joey Lauren Adams can be all bad. But, there's too much going on here, contrived stuff involving Stan Lee and a "Dating Game"-like game show that made me long for the much simpler format of "Clerks".

You like to see talented filmmakers grow with each new movie, but "Mallrats" is a minor stumble in a promising career. The gags are more gross-out for gross-out sake rather than genuine laughs based on three dimensional characters that we all can relate to. Fans of his brand of humor will laugh as I did, but you sure miss the spark that made "Clerks" something special.