Nope...

I remembered after being asked in another thread wht movies I've walked out of that I hadn't finished Clerks. It gets the rare award of my inability to finish it with only three other movies. Underground, Pret-a-Porter, and City of Women. C'mon...I guess it was big because it was done on a ocuple thousand bucks with some friends in a video and convenient store, but it was seriously boring. I don't mean boring like Blair Witch boring. Blair was only boring because people expected a serious scare from it. In clerks, people apparently had much lower expectations upon entering because all it was, was a bunch of kids chilling and swearing and one guy being neurotic, and playing hockey on the roof of a store. That's pretty much it...I didn't get all that much further. I don't even remeber. But I find it funny how it vaulted Kevin Smith into the limelight. It was genuinely boring.

Me, I don't in particular love any of his movies, but I thought that Mallrats was okay as was Dogma. CHasing Amy was atrocious and mildly offensive even, and I never bothered with Jay and Silent Bob.

Seriously though, how could this make Smith so big. Is it the angst? Guess what, teens have enough of that in their regular lives. Perhaps there is an element of relateability? But than only pre-teens and young high schoolers owuld relate...not so much college kids and adults. Yet I've noticed how many more mature audiances still sing this movie's praise. How did this become such a staple of fanboydom?

Yeah, it was.

It might be overrated, but it's quite an entertaining movie. The movie has tons of flaws and the editing might be the reason why you found it boring. And, the movie has no real message. It's just a portayal of a convenience store; No insight is given on how to solve problems,

The one thing I like about Clerks, however, is the dialogue. The dialogue in Clerks (which wasn't the case in Jay and Silent Bob, Jersey Girl, or Dogma) is natural. The sequences are a bit contrived (well, from my perspective, but I dunno what goes on in Jersey) but each one is humorous and entertaining.

I was six years old in '94, so don't ask me how exactly it vaulted Kevin Smith into the limelight.

The whole slacker/grunge scene of the early 90s, which encompasses a lot of movies and music, really hasn't aged well at all.

They say history is written by the winners, and since the extreme corporate oriented mentality won out, the alternative culture looks pretty pointless in hindsight.

If we were living in a heavily democrat oriented era right now, people might look back on those movies differently.

Just something to consider.

@Archie, Nah...I consider myself pretty democrat, and still can't find much in this movie. I know the slacker genre was big, and the corporate win-out has resulted in rebellion-in-context movies like Officespace, but there is still a big love of Clerks that overlooks the fact its a damn bad movie and doesn't even have cult-status type merit to it.

@Torri, the dialogue in Clerks was even worse. Just a string of swears and boring talk, hey I worked at a video store for three years we never sounded like that. Meh, I dunno no, the nuerosis of that one guy reminded me of a bad youth suburban Woody Allen, it didn't come across as natural at all. Or maybe i have enough reality talk in my own life (all of it, lol) that when I go to the movies its the last thing I want to hear. I could get that for free on the streets.

n/t

I have not seen Clerks, but I generally dislike Kevin Smith's movies. I don't see how he has attained his fanbase.

Uh-huh. I kinda like Mallrats, but mostly because I could relate to it. My friend used to drag me to greendale mall to walk around for acouple hours and I never quite had any idea why or what the hell we were doing there.

Dogma had good points too.

That's about it. Why the hell is Kevin Smith so big?

sometimes, you gotta watch movies and juge them according to the time they came out.

thats my problem, i spend most of my time catching up to stuff and get disappointed cause I'm watching them all for the first time right now ... i still dont understand Alien's appeal.

No, it wasnt that funny. There were a few...i do mean a few, laugh out loud funny parts, but other than that it was no more than a cheaply made film on a video camera. I do like kevin smith, but this was VERY overrated. I expected great things out of this, and in return got a black and white piece of garabge that was trying ot be cool.

Almost as overated as office space

I am uncertain about Smith yet...

Chasing Amy way OKAY

Jersey Girl was one of the worst movies I have seen this year

Dogma is an amazing movie, one of my all-time favorite comedies

Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back was average...

The rest I have yet to see.

Oh, come on guys!

37!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

You guys just don't recognize the artistic value of Black + White. Clerks was a good movie and valuted Jason Mewes to the top of the pot world.

Did the black & white have anything to do with its popularity amongst pot smokers?

Clerks the Animated Series was funnier than Clerks the movie. In fact, Clerks the animated Series was the funniest thing Kevin Smith has done.

Mewes is the best part of Clerks because he is the only one in the entire film that comes across naturally.

The two guys sound like they are reading from a script, the customers sound like they are reading from a script, and every once in awhile there is an event that is obviously supposed to be "profound". The acting is horrendous, so utterly horrendous that it makes the point about whether the script is good or not moot.

I can still watch Reality Bites and Slacker and see that there was at least a modicum of production value, so don't give me the jizz about watching it out of context of the "grunge days".

The problem with Clerks is that the first time you see it, you think it's hilarious and fresh and all the things an independent film should be. However, ten years later the pop culture references have been done to death, the humour's stale and all the things that mark it as an independent film - badly shot, badly acted, badly everything technical - stand out more as being inept rather than charming.

I still love Mallrats despite it's flaws, Chasing Amy despite it's annoying Joey Lauren Adams, Dogma despite it's overwhelming amount of expository dialogue, and Jersey Girl despite nothing (Jay and Silent Bob I never loved. Except for the Hunting Season bit...). But, like Squee, I think the Clerks animated series is the best incarnation of the Clerks franchise to date. Hopefully Passion of the Clerks can change that...

Clerks is one of the all time classics. I honestly believe Clerks has one of the best screenplays of the 90's and it is truly one of the funniest films I have ever seen.

OT: Oh I just knew this would instantly become baumer's favorite forum!

If I graded them...

Clerks: A-
Mallrats: A- (very underrated)
Chasing Amy: A
Dogma: A-
Jay & Silent Bob Strike Back: C-
Jersey Girl: C+

Basically, Smith has been slipping dramatically in quality lately.

Wow Libs, that's a hefty amount of A's there. What did oyu like so much about them? Mallrats was underratted but I wouldn't put it much higher than a B, and CHasing Amy gave me a headache, reinforced tons of negative stereotypes, had a weak ending, and didn't even have the novelty of being a first as Clerks was. Its actually one of the movies I place even below Clerks. Dogma I though was another decent movie worthy of a B.

@Baumer...why do you think the screenplay was so good? It certainly didn't feel "natural" nor did it seem elaborate and designed. It just kind of hovered in between having no idea where it wanted to go. There were some hilarious one-liners I admit, but those do not an entire good script make.

I thought Chasing Amy was a wonderful movie. I felt the script hit the bullsye on an emotional level. The performances (yes, even Affleck) are also terrific, notably Joey Lauren Adams. Although the dialogue was profane, it was clever.

Libs, what are your thoughts about the ending? Didn't you think the third act was completely absurd?

I dunno. Chasing Amy is about as close as I think Smith is of making a great film and is in my opinion, a canidate for the "worst third act ever" award after Jurassic Park II. Smith just cannot drive the baby home, he completely loses himself in Chasing Amy by writing it from the perspective of a mid-twenties naive white man rather than from the perspective of Adam's character. The ending is not only an embarassing ending to the film but a testiment to how much of a git Smith seems to be at times.

I am also curious about baumer's opinions on why he thinks Clerks is the best screenplay of the 1990s.

I don't know, I felt the ending was somewhat of a letdown compared to the rest of the movie, but I'm not sure it qualified for "worst third act ever".

I loved Chasing Amy as well.

A really good friend of mine told me to check out some of Smith's movies, only checked out Chasing Amy last summer and loved it. Will probaly rent some of his other films (I'll start up with Clerks I guess) in the next months.