Mallrats

I've always thought Kevin Smith was a much better writer than a director. He writes great, clever dialog, that maybe isn't too realistic, but is just fun to listen to. When he has his actors up there just saying his lines and being good actors, his movies work. But when he tries too hard to do some real complex scenes, it doesn't really work. He's not very good at directing. I thought Clerks was good for being made so cheaply, Chasing Amy was a great study of relationships, Dogma was a smart look at religion, and Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back was just stupid fun. I've now seen Mallrats, leaving Clerks 2 as the only View Askew movie I haven't seen. Mallrats is funny, but probably the worst movie in the Askewniverse.

It's not bad, just not great. I saw the extended version, and apparently it's quite a bit longer than the theatrical cut, so I don't know if the extra length really helped or hurt it at all. Jason Lee is maybe too loud a bit too often, but he's still great as Brodie, and he's really what holds the movie together. He consistently has the best lines and is most involved in the story. His friend's girl troubles are probably given more face time, but he's much less charismatic in his role, and I didn't really care that much. I like Jay and Silent Bob when they're just being stoned idiots, not so much when they're performing stupid stunts that don't fit with the rest of the movie. It's an entertaining movie, it just has less merit than I'm used to from Smith.