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The second movie in Kevin Smith's 5 film View Askewniverse series is Mallrats - a charming comedy about two losers, who, after being dumped by their girlfriends decide to spend a day at the mall. - and try and win their girls back. Jason Lee and Jeremy London play the dumped-and-depressed duo of ex-boyfriends who both succeed in bringing to life the characters of . Shannen Doherty and Claire Forlani - the two ex-girlfriends also perform well here. It's been said - not just by critics and fans, but by Kevin Smith himself, that Mallrats is a bad movie - and by far the worst of his 5. Personally, I rate this 3rd... with Dogma in front, and Chasing Amy last - I found this movie to be funny, charming and completely entertaining. Ben Affleck's character was also funny to watch. Jay & Silent Bob appear to add the cartoon comedy flavour, while Stan Lee cameos in an hilarious performance of himself.

I liked the script and the way that the movie was paced, although at times seemed like the scenes were stretched further than they should be. The sets were good and the lighting and cinematography is good also. I don't really have any major gripes about this film, it's just that, there are better movies in Kevin Smith's series.

After being dumped by their girlfriends, T.S. Quint(Jeremy London) and Brodie Bruce (Jason Lee) go to the mall to keep their minds off the situation. Soon, however, thoughts turn to getting their ladies back and the dynamic duo will have to fight mall security, a fashionable male (Ben Affleck) and a game show producer (Michael Rooker) in order to succeed.

Writing a fair review of "Mallrats" is one of the hardest things for me to do, and it is no surprise that I have not done so in all the years I have been writing reviews. The film came out when I was fourteen, and I went to see it with my cousin at the local mall after a rousing bus trip. We had seen the ambiguous advertisements in the back of comic books for months and just knew this was something we had to see. Once in the theater, we were practically alone -- there were only three other people, including a younger woman and her grandmother, both of whom walked out early on.

For whatever reason, I identified with this film. I had not yet seen "Clerks" and I did not have the background in film to really understand all the references to "Jaws" or "Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid" or "Apocalypse Now". But the potty humor mixed with the intelligent dialogue (even about scatological topics) hit home with me, and even now -- seventeen years later -- it remains my favorite film, despite my knowing full well it is not critically wonderful and often sexually crude.

I have given the film a high rating because I simply cannot get enough of it. I have the trading cards that were sold at the time, I have visited the Eden Prairie Center where the movie was filmed (it is in Minnesota, not New jersey, strangely enough). But, I want to stress this: my high rating does not by any means indicate this is a critically beautiful film. Read the reviews of the professionals at the time (Ebert, Maltin, and others) and you will see that it was more or less expected to bomb (although I think in hindsight many more people found the film to their liking).

Are there flaws? You bet. Watch Jeremy London, for example. A horrible, horrible actor. Even with these odd, scripted conversations he comes off as forced, and if you watch him while another actor is speaking, you can see him physically preparing himself to speak his lines. He cannot become the character of T.S. Quint, he can only be Jeremy London. Shannon Doherty, likewise, just does not seem to hack it... she is a better actress than many, but this film just did not work for her. She comes off as a reject from "Empire Records", and some lines she delivers make it seem she is not familiar with the subject matter.

Despite the flaws, I am still praising this film. Watch "Clerks" first (even though this one takes place first in chronological order). If you like "Clerks", try this one. Then try "Chasing Amy". All three are great. Personally, I think Kevin Smith's films went downhill after that (although "Red State" is redeeming). He may disagree and I know many of the fans do. But if you do not mind intelligent potty humor, "Mallrats" is for you.

Two underachieving slackers T. S. Quint (Jeremy London) and Brodie Bruce (Jason Lee) both lose their girlfriends on the same day Quint's girlfriend Brandi (Claire Forlani) breaking up with him due to wedges with her father and would-be TV producer Jared Svenning (Michael Rooker), while Brodie's girlfriend Rene (Shannen Doherty) breaks up with him due to his lack of drive, motivation, or ambition. With nothing else for them to do, Quint and Brodie spend time at the local mall where fate crosses their paths with their exes, troublemakers Jay (Jason Mewes) and Silent Bob (Kevin Smith), and various mallgoers and staff with grievances against the two.

Mallrats is the sophomore film of writer/director Kevin Smith that marked Smith's first studio project after the breakout success of Clerks impressed producer James Jacks enough to set up a film at Universal. As is the case with many indie directors who transition to the studio environment, Smith had often had to press producers to allow him on certain choices such as the casting of Ben Affleck or in the case of Jay's casting Universal's insistence that either Seth Green or Breckin Meyer played the part (with the Jason Mewes' dailies luckily putting the kibosh on such mandates). When the movie was released it did garner some positive reviews such as from Variety, but most critics tended to look upon it negatively and commercially it underperformed but would later find an audience through home video. Mallrats does show a struggle in smith reconciling his indie rawness with studio polish, but of the 90s slacker/gross-out comedies this was certainly one of the more ambitious and consistently funny of them.

Rather than a slice of life type affair that Smith presented in his debut film Clerks, Mallrats is a built on a more conventional "boy loses girl, boy gets girl back" type story that is primarily a driving engine for the setpieces and jokes within the New Jersey mall where much of the action takes place. While our two leads in Jeremy London's Quint and Jason Lee's Brodie are cut from a similar cloth to Dante and Randall, there's also an undeniably "studio" feeling with the film falling in line with the edgy Gen-Xer types of humor that defined the 90s such as in Beavis & Butt-Head. As Mallrats is primarily a delivery system for various jokes and physical comedy stunts, the film very much lives and dies on its gags and for the most part they work more often than they don't. Particularly standout scenes involving a topless fortune teller, an extended cameo by Stan Lee, and a climax set around a shameless Dating Game knock-off lead to some solid laughs especially from Jason Lee's Brodie who showcases some superb comedic timing. Admittedly some of the pacing could've been tightened up as Smith doesn't feel like he's fully acclimated to a studio comedy (a fact made even more clear in the extended cut which while posessing a certain curiosity factor is more of a glorified workprint with most of the cuts that have been made being positives).

Mallrats has found itself the subject of a cult following since its initial failed release and of that era of 90s slacker/gross-out films it stands above many of its contemporaries and has much snappier dialogue and creativity. Not as quotable or as influential as Clerks, but nonetheless an entertaining but flawed sophomore effort.

This is Kevin Smith's first `real' movie, i.e., one made with a real budget, real actors, and backed by a real studio. It was also a commercial and critical flop, most reviewers seem to regard it as his worst movie. That is understandable, seeing as he set such high expectations with `Clerks', a work of pure genius that was made on a budget so low that Smith was forced to use black & white film. `Clerks' is one of my all time favorite films, a classic that will probably still be popular many years from now, and so, by comparison, `Mallrats' simply doesn't measure up. But so what? It's still a great comedy, with lots of moments that make you want to split a gut, and is, IMHO, better than at least 90% of the other teenage/young adult movies out there.

The story (as with most comedies) is pretty basic. It's about a day in the life of two slackers who both get dumped by their girlfriends that morning. They then spend the rest of the day hanging around the mall (in an ironic touch, the mall in question, while supposedly set in New Jersey, is actually about five miles from where I live, in the Minneapolis suburb Eden Prairie) trying to figure out how to win back their girls. Along the way they encounter Kevin Smith's trademark ensemble of oddball characters, most notably Jay & Silent Bob who give what I think are their funniest movie performances. Kevin Smith continues themes established in `Clerks' (and repeated in his following movies) namely, homages to Star Wars, Jaws, and hockey and throws in some new ones, most notably, comics and video games. As in `Clerks', nothing much really happens, the two, as the tagline puts it, aren't at the mall to work or to shop, they're just there. Well, not entirely. Amid their random meanderings and encounters with other Kevin Smith favorites like Ben Affleck and Joey Lauren Adams there is an actual plot, namely, one of the guys is scheming to wreck a TV game show to be broadcast live at the mall later that day and he enlists Jay and Silent Bob to do the dirty deed. Why? Well, it's too complicated to explain in a brief review, but the payoff is hilarious. Whatever else one thinks of this movie, it has to be about the best send up of game shows ever as the dynamic duo infiltrate a Dating Game rip-off and turn the whole thing into a circus. The final 20 minutes or so of this movie is simply some of the funniest stuff you'll see anywhere.

What about the rest? Mostly it's pretty good, although Kevin Smith's penchant for pushing the envelope means he sometimes goes too far when it comes to matters of taste, most notably scenes like the infamous `chocolate pretzel' and a former `Three's Company' star playing a topless fortune teller, not to mention the 15 year old girl who's doing a `science project' that involves having sex with multiple men of varying ages. Also, Smith seems to have some sort of fixation on homosexuality that keeps coming up (pardon the pun) in his movies. Is he simply using gay jokes as a means of getting a cheap laugh or is this his way of working out some personal `issues'? I don't know and, further, I don't care because I think there are better, more creative ways to get a laugh. But, these complaints aside, this movie is still funny as hell, and, as with `Clerks', Smith proves he has a good ear for tunes to accompany the film, especially in the title sequence which features all the characters drawn comic book style. Very original, and it works perfectly. One final comment: I personally think the best way to watch his movies is to view them in order; this, for example, gives us the same basic slacker attitude and mentality of `Clerks', only in color and with a much bigger budget. He then went for the `quality' flick with `Chasing Amy' followed by the `issues' flick in `Dogma', finally returning to pure comedy in `Jay & Silent Bob Strike Back'. For one, the movies are all related, and each new one refers to his previous ones. Many of the jokes only make sense if you understand the context. And also, someone who saw the much more dramatic and polished `Chasing Amy' first and this film later might tend to dismiss it as sophomoric trash, not realizing that Smith got his start doing pure comedy, not romantic drama. In sum, this is a film in the tradition of `Airplane!' or `Scary Movie' in that it's all about going to any length to get a laugh, and, for the most part, it succeeds splendidly.

8/10

PS. As with all his other movies, Kevin Smith goes to considerable length to please his fans with his DVD's. They are all chock full of extra features, deleted scenes and the like, and his commentaries are some of the best in the movie business. Smith obviously knows he has a highly loyal fan base, and he returns that loyalty in spades.

I was originally going to write how "Clerks" managed to accomplish allot more than Mallrats with a much much smaller budget, but why kill the fun. This movie is great and a welcome addition to the world that Kevin Smith has created. Instead of the wise-ass remarks from the "loveable" Randal, we have the great Brodie Bruce (Jason Lee) ripping up the screen with his rude and crude observations. Mallrats is fun, enjoyable, and the one Smith movie you don't have to pay attention to, to enjoy.

This movie is about TS whose girlfriend breaks up with him after they get into yet another fight. His girlfriend's father seems to have it in for him and wants nothing more than TS and his daughter to part ways. After the breakup TS winds up at his buddy Brodie's house. From here it begins. Brodie will keep you laughing the rest of the way. Jason Lee made this character and this character made the film. Unlike in "Clerks", Jay & Silent Bob have a large part in this movie. They are in charge of helping TS get back with his girlfriend, which involves much sabotage. There is one main storyline and a couple of other ones along the way.

In all this is a great movie and who cares how it was put together. Allot of people felt it was a big jump for Kevin Smith (writer/director, Silent Bob) and Scott Mosier (producer) to go from a small independent budget to a Studio backed million-dollar budget. I might tend to agree, but who cares, this movie Rocks