Kevin Smith is one of the most gifted writers in the business, and I am continually impressed with his gift for natural dialogue, his knack for the outrageous, and his entertaining, interlinking world filled with interesting, complex characters (in their own ways, at least). Mallrats possesses all of these traits, it is at times hilarious and often entertaining, and yet, seemingly through force of sheer will, it has been transformed into a fairly bad movie.
On his website, Smith states that his goal was to attempt to breathe life back into the raunchy, R-rated teen comedy, and among other influences, he cites "Porky's." I state this as a warning. And it shows: what results is a movie where a third of the time you're rolling in laughter, and two-thirds of the time you're staring at the screen in a stupified trance as the central characters attempt to deal with their relationship difficulties in increasingly moronic, unfunny fashions. Smith has shown, in both Clerks and Chasing Amy, that he's capable of better.
No movie with Jay and Silent Bob can be entirely bad, but I hope that this is the low point in what should be a long and prosperous career for Kevin Smith.
On his website, Smith states that his goal was to attempt to breathe life back into the raunchy, R-rated teen comedy, and among other influences, he cites "Porky's." I state this as a warning. And it shows: what results is a movie where a third of the time you're rolling in laughter, and two-thirds of the time you're staring at the screen in a stupified trance as the central characters attempt to deal with their relationship difficulties in increasingly moronic, unfunny fashions. Smith has shown, in both Clerks and Chasing Amy, that he's capable of better.
No movie with Jay and Silent Bob can be entirely bad, but I hope that this is the low point in what should be a long and prosperous career for Kevin Smith.