MALLRATS (1995)
2-Disc 4K Ultra HD
Label: Arrow Video
Region Code: Region-Free
Rating: R (Theatrical), Unrated (Extended & TV Cut)
Rating: R (Theatrical), Unrated (Extended & TV Cut)
Duration: 95 Minutes (Theatrical), 122 Minutes (Extended), 85 Minutes (TV Cut)
Audio: English PCM 2.0 and DTS-HD MA 5.1 with Optional English Subtitles
Video: 2160p Ultra HD Widescreen (1.85:1)
Director: Kevin Smith
Cast: Jeremy London, Jason Lee, Claire Forlani, Shannon Doherty, Ben Affleck, Michael Rooker, Stan Lee
I saw Clerks (1994) in the cinema when I was 21 years old and was an instant Kevin Smith from that point of, I loved his cynical but warm-hearted depiction of 20-somethings slaving away for minimum wage at a convenience store with an attitude I could absolutely relate to that. I was a cynical shit too and I thought customers were annoying, and I was right, especially when your that age and totally self-absorbed. When Smith's sophomore film Mallrats hits the multiplex a few years later I was there day one with a big buttery tub of popcorn in hand, and I loved it, too. A romantic comedy that tells the story of another pair of do-nothings 20-somethings, this time we have Brodie (Jason Lee, TV's My Name Is Earl) and TS (Jeremy London, TV's
Celebrity Rehab with Dr. Drew), two guys recently dumped by their girlfriends on the same day who end up at the local mall to contemplate life and to win back their girlfriends. At the mall that they attempt to sabotage a live dating show being put on by the controlling father (a bald Michael Rooker, Henry: Portrait of a Serial Killer) of TS's ex-girlfriend Brandi, who is cheerfully pimping his newly single daughter on the show, with the original idea of sabotaging the show evolving into the guys hijacking it as wise-cracking participants.
Our self-obsessed protagonists are the comics nerd Brodie (Lee) and best friend TS (London), who have been not-unrightfully dumped by their too-good-for-them girlfriends Rene (Shannon Doherty, Heathers) and Brandi (Claire Forlani, Mystery Men), who have had quite enough of their boyfriends juvenile and misguided shenanigans. At the mall the guys ally themselves with stoner miscreants Jay (Jason Mewes, TV's Todd and the Book of Evil) and Silent Bob (Kevin Smith, Tusk) who are only too happy to help sabotage the dating show. Along the way Brodie and TS get spiritual advice from a three-nippled fortune teller (Priscilla Barnes, The Devil's Rejects), and irritate the statutory rapist manager of preppie clothing shop The Fashionable Male (Ben Affleck, Chasing Amy), who hates Brodie because he has a "lack of a shopping agenda" and because he wants to screw his ex in a very uncomfortable place, by which I do not mean the back of a Volkswagen.
Brodie ends up meeting his hero, the now late and legendary comic book creator and pop-culture icon Stan 'The Man' Lee, who arrives at the mall for a in-store signing event at a comic shop, and we also meet a host of other strange characters, including a 15 year-old teen girl who is writing a book about the the sex-drive of statutory raping-men, the mall security scourge LeFours (Sven-Ole Thorsen, Conan The Barbarian), Brodie's sassy ex Gwen (Joey Lauren Adams, Dazed and Confused), and Smith's usual troupe of friends including Scott Moser (Clerks), Walt Flanagan (Comic Book Men), Bryan Johnson (Comic Book Men), and Brian O'Halloran (Clerks) in various smaller but curiously weird roles.
The standout here is Jason Lee as the comic nerd Brodie, he is charismatic, sharp-tongued and always ready with a venom-fueled quip, he was sort of my movie hero when I saw this at the cinema, which tells you exactly what a self-absorbed shit I might have been at the time. The film is full of juvenile nerd humor (it's a Kevin Smith movie 'natch) with extended talk about the sex-lives of superheroes (again... Kevin Smith), but at the time I saw it that's exactly what I was looking for, I too sadly was also having conversation with my friends about the logistics of Superman and Lois Lane having sex. It's was a movie about comic-book nerd culture that was a good ten years ahead of it's time, I'd read comics from a young age but it was never something that was "cool". Anytime I talked about comics outside of a very select group of like-minded friends it was a thing of ridicule, and this was the first film that sort of made comic book collecting and nerd culture cool, which I think has a lot to do with the continuing cult-status of this flick following it's dismal initial box office turnout. These days we have Marvel and DC films that cost hundreds of millions of dollars dominating the cinema, back in the mid-90's we only had Superman (1978) and Batman (1989), and absolutely no films about a smart-mouthed comic nerds and fanboys, we only had Mallrats, and the rest of the world had yet to catch up with us, for better or worse.
Special Features:
- Audio commentary with director Kevin Smith, producer Scott Mosier, archivist Vincent Pereira, and actors Jason Lee, Ben Affleck, and Jason Mewes
- Introduction to the film by Kevin Smith (13 min) HD
- My Mallrat Memories - Interview with Kevin Smith (30 min)
- Mr. Mallrats: A Tribute to Jim Jacks by Kevin Smith (12 min)
- Blunt Talk - Interview with actor Jason Mewes (10 min)
- When We Were Punks - Interview with Cinematographer David Klein (6 min)
- Hollywood of the North: Animated making-of documentary featuring Minnesota crew members who worked on the film (12 min)
- Deleted Scenes - Kevin Smith and Vincent Pereira discuss deleted scenes and sequences originally cut from the film (62 min)
- Outtakes and behind-the-scenes footage (8 min)
- Cast interviews from the original set (9 min)
- Erection of an Epic: The making of Mallrats - archival retrospective with cat and crew looking at the making and release of the film (22 min)
- Q&A with Kevin Smith - archival Q&A filmed for the 10th anniversary (9 min)
- The Goops "Build Me Up Buttercup" Music Video (4 min)
- Theatrical Trailer (2 min)
- Extended cut of the film (121 min)
- Introduction to the film by Kevin Smith (13 min) HD
- My Mallrat Memories - Interview with Kevin Smith (30 min)
- Mr. Mallrats: A Tribute to Jim Jacks by Kevin Smith (12 min)
- Blunt Talk - Interview with actor Jason Mewes (10 min)
- When We Were Punks - Interview with Cinematographer David Klein (6 min)
- Hollywood of the North: Animated making-of documentary featuring Minnesota crew members who worked on the film (12 min)
- Deleted Scenes - Kevin Smith and Vincent Pereira discuss deleted scenes and sequences originally cut from the film (62 min)
- Outtakes and behind-the-scenes footage (8 min)
- Cast interviews from the original set (9 min)
- Erection of an Epic: The making of Mallrats - archival retrospective with cat and crew looking at the making and release of the film (22 min)
- Q&A with Kevin Smith - archival Q&A filmed for the 10th anniversary (9 min)
- The Goops "Build Me Up Buttercup" Music Video (4 min)
- Theatrical Trailer (2 min)
- Extended cut of the film (121 min)
- TV cut of the film featuring hilarious overdubbing to cover up profanity (89 min)
- Introduction to the TV cut by director Kevin Smith (4 min)
- Introduction to the TV cut by director Kevin Smith (4 min)
- Introduction to the Extended Cut by Kevin Smith and Scott Mosier (11 min)
-Stills gallery of the comic books featured in the film’s opening sequence Scott Mosier and Kevin Smith (4 min)
-Stills gallery of the comic books featured in the film’s opening sequence Scott Mosier and Kevin Smith (4 min)
- Kevin Smith on how Mallrats is an Easter movie (1 min) )
- Dailies (119 min)
- Still Gallery: Behind the Scenes Stills (147 images)
- Still Gallery: Comics (14 images)
- Collector’s booklet featuring new writing by Philip Kemp
- Fold out poster featuring replica blueprints for ‘Operation Drive-by’ and ‘Operation Dark Knight’
- Fold out poster featuring replica blueprints for ‘Operation Drive-by’ and ‘Operation Dark Knight’
Arrow Video have done terrific work upgrading Kevin Smith's seminal nerd culture sophomore effort Mallrats (1994) from Blu-ray to 4K UHD, if you need to see Mallrats in all it's 90's glory this is the best way to see it, the colors of the mall dazzle and those melty chocolate pretzels have never looked more disgusting than they do here.
