MovieChat Forums > Mallrats (1995) Discussion > Terrible upon rewatch

Terrible upon rewatch

posted 3 years ago by [deleted]
6 replies | jump to latest

This doesn't hold up. The ideas are funny and the execution works briefly, but it falls apart.

Most of the jokes are too corny to land and Kevin smith's female dialogue may be the worst. It's like the actresses have a conveyor belt of verbal diarrhea. This happened in Clerks, but it wasn't as dominant. It's probably because he didn't have two female characters talking to each other.
If you have fond memories of it from 20 years ago, don't rewatch it.

[–] [deleted] 3 years ago

I couldn't stand it the first time I watched it.

[–] Kowalski (76914) 3 years ago

IT WAS POORLY REVIEWED AND RECIEVED BY THE GENERAL PUBLIC WHEN IT CAME OUT...YOU ARE EITHER A FAN OR YOU AREN'T.

[–] MovieChatUser497 (18943) 2 years ago

Yeah it’s nowhere near as good as Clerks.

[–] FilmBuff (7355) 2 years ago

I like it more with each viewing. When I first watched it, I neither loved nor hated it, but it's gradually become one of my favorites of Smith's films, and one I can watch almost any time.

[–] Melton (4951) a year ago

A hilariously wrong comment. Mallrats is great, Smith’s dialogue is fantastic and the actors’ delivery is spot-on. Jason Lee is a revelation, as good as Jeff Anderson as Randall.

Jay and Silent Bob are on superb form, the film is as charming and funny as ever.

It makes the few comedies that get made today look like safe, bland, commercial crap. 90’s Smith captured a generation who were far more self-aware, intelligent, witty, acerbic and interesting than the boring phone-zombie virgins of today.

[–] TandyMan (11193) a year ago

It's my favorite Smith film, one of my favorite comedies in general (because this was basically me and my friends), but I totally see why this failed to connect with an audience. Anybody expecting a spiritual/thematic followup to Clerks weren't gonna get it here. And it fails to follow any of the standard beats of a typical 80s/90s comedy, because Smith simply didn't know how to make that kind of movie yet. It's just jumbled and awkward and not well put together, but I feel that very much reflects the empty no-life nature of the characters in the story. And Smith's humor in this one is straight up my funny bone.