"Mallrats" (1995) - Movie Review

I liked “Clerks” and “Chasing Amy”. I liked “Jersey Girl” too. I missed this second directorial venture of Kevin Smith. So what can I say about a movie which can be pointed out into numerous occasion that it does not fit to be on screen in first place? There were times when I was about to stop the movie and be done with it. I sat through the whole to write my opinion. I guess this is one of the toughest of being a reviewer is to sit through the worst of all movies. As much as I love watching and writing about it, some times there is regret sensed in all directions. The only redemption is to analyze about why it failed and what could have been done.

The film style is typical Kevin Smith movie making as that of “Clerks”. He combines the lively mockumentary style pictorial along with the comical nature of the characters to bring in his style of presentation. The start could not have been any worse. T.S (Jeremy London) getting dumped by his girl friend Brandi (Claire Forlani) decides to hang out with his another loser friend Brodie (Jason Lee) who got dumped by his girl friend Rene (Shannon Doherty). They feel “The Mall” will be the ultimate place to shed their sorrows away and relax. Having something so trivial is not surprising since Smith stunned with even more slimmer situation with his “Clerks”. Not letting my hopes down, I wait for something out of ordinary to happen. Disappointment grew in exponential terms. While there seem to be something builds upon the nothing, the dialogues appear to be built upon some casual dumb talks with nice sounding words. It appears to be clever and interesting, but it does not ignite the interesting conversations. In fact it appears seriously surprising how come Rene was even dating Brodie. There seems nothing motivating or even funny about what he says or acts.

The screenplay is so hung upon the style of the movie which is not sleek or new but the feel of it. The different repetitiveness of the same incident in numerous scenario (Silent Bob played by Kevin Smith himself breaking in accidentally into different dressing room where Gwen played by Joey Lauren Adams) is boring and predictable. The main key of this style of film making worked for Smith previously because the characters were not trying to comical but were being what they are. Here the character of Svenning (Michael Rooker) is blatantly made express weird funny emotions. It is evident in every sequence of him trying to be funny in actions since there are no funny dialogues for him. The irritating part is that his actions are not funny either. While this seems to be out of proportion, the characters of Jay (Jason Mewes) and Silent Bob are even more pathetic. With all this happening and when I am thinking that there could not be any worse scene, there comes the sequence of “topless fortune teller” just put the icing on the worst possible cake ever made.

The buddy being the bad one infiltrating the good minds to do the unimaginable things is a beat up routine and also a best routine. A routine which forms the core concept of any comedic feature. It is a strange fact that in real life, we need a friend as we might call him to instigate things which one might not try out. The friend should be in such an impressive form of character to make his buddy do anything. This cleverness in a believable way makes it funny. Ferris Bueller in “Ferris Bueller’s Day Off”, Kumar in “Harold and Kumar goto White Castle”, Stifler in “American Pie” and lot other movies. Brodie in “Mallrats” is not funny but pestering and annoying without any slightest sense of comic attached to it.

It is true that a director cannot be at his top notch in all his movies. It is also true that he can be in his bad days in some movies. It is also true that the technical and acting department might let him down too in some of those. But this is the movie where everything fails and when I mean everything, it is everything.