Mallrats (1995)

Mallrats gives us a viewing of a day in the life for two teenagers, T.S. (Jeremy London) and Brodie (Jason Lee), as they wander around all day in a local mall while the girls who recently dumped them do the same. The two guys encounter characters like Jay, Silent Bob, 15-year old sex novel author Trish the Dish, 3-D visionally challenged Willam (the guy just wants to see the sailboat!) and many others. T.S. and Brodie have decided that they will attempt to win back the hearts of their ex-girlfriends before scumbags like Brodie's arch nemesis Shannon Hamilton (Ben Affleck) get to have sex with them in very uncomfortable places ("What, like in the back of a Volkswagen?"), while Jay and Silent Bob attempt to wreck one of their ex-girlfriend's father's game show in the meantime. Hilarity ensues.

Trivia: The studio almost replaced Jason Mewes with Seth Green to play Jay, even after Mewes played Jay in Clerks. Kevin Smith insisted that Jason Mewes should play Jay, but the studio made Smith take auditions for the role. Breckin Meyer also auditioned. In the end, all parties agreed that Mewes was right for the part. The Wile E. Coyote style blueprints used by Jay and Silent Bob were drawn by producer Scott Mosier. Stan Lee can be seen looking to his left or right repeatedly while talking with Brodie. This is so he can see his cue cards - not being a trained actor, memorizing lines was very difficult. Jeremy London on the other hand, despite being an experienced actor, forgot his lines repeatedly. While shopping, Rene Mosier (Shannen Doherty) is seen wearing at least three different outfits. Doherty had a clause in her contract that she could keep everything her character wore, so came up with the plan that her character should wear everything she bought on her shopping trip. Two main characters named Brodie Bruce and T.S. Quint are a reference to Jaws (1975) where there were characters called Brody and Quint and where the shark was nicknamed "Bruce" on the set.

I have no idea why it took me so long to watch this movie. The other two Kevin Smith View Askewniverse pictures that I have seen, Clerks and Dogma, I liked, and no, I haven't seen Chasing Amy of Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back, or Clerks II but they are on my list. I think the best part is the dialog. Smith is great at writing fun and intelligent dialog about things that you would never think about putting in a conversation. The dialog carries the movie and that doesn't happen very often. Out of the movies I have seen this year, the only ones that I can say have the dialog carry then in Before Sunrise and Before Sunset. It also amazes me that the guy that writes and directs the movie plays the character called Silent Bob.