Review of Mallrats (1995) by Josh G — 05 Apr 2010

The low budget of Kevin Smith's Mallrats is apparent throughout the film, which is both a blessing and a curse. On the one hand, seeing Smith's group of talented friends working and having a good time gives the film a feeling that it was made by people who were really excited to be doing what they were doing. But on the other hand, the low budget reminds us that this is an amateur film - which makes the lame skits difficult to bear.

The movie is mostly about two guys who get dumped by their girlfriends and go hang out at the mall. There's something about a dating game show that will be taped in the mall's food court that day, but mostly the movie is filled with scenes that play out less like parts of a cohesive whole and more like individual skits that were put together by theme alone.

When Jay and Silent Bob show up, they add a little bit of levity to the exercise simply because Jason Mewes wears his character like a glove. The rest of the movie consists of lame or juvenile jokes (a running gag about sex in "an uncomfortable place" was never once funny).

Smith got a lot of attention early on in his career for writing dialogue that sounds realistic and personal. Aside from Clerks and Chasing Amy, though, he seems to mostly be squandering whatever talent he had in that regard. Mallrats is not one of his better outings. Too often, Smith the lets his movies rely too much on gross-out humor that is spoken more than it is acted. I know that he has a lot of potential toward making engrossing films instead of just gross films.

But like M. Night Shyamalan, I think that Kevin Smith has almost gotten to the point where he's got more failures than successes - it's only getting harder to keep defending him.