Watched Mallrats today after a long time and reconfirmed my stance on it. Mallrats has always been my favourite Kevin Smith movie and it still is.
I know Mallrats continues to get flak from many fans and viewers. Clerks and Chasing Amy are definitely better films and probably Smith's strongest works, but I still prefer Mallrats over them for the more fun and entertaining factor. It's still hilarious, including so many great lines.
It's surprising to know that the movie cost $6 million back then in 1995 despite it being limited in its scope and shooting locations.
And at a time now when adding comic and pop culture references in movies and TV episodes are becoming sort of a cliche and are almost passe during certain instances, Kevin Smith back then managed to make it seem organic with his writing and infused it naturally through his characters and plot lines. It also probably helped that not many film and TV people were doing those things at that time.
