MY MOVIE SHELF: Mallrats

The Task: Watch and write about every movie on my shelf, in order (Blu-rays are sorted after DVDs), by June 10, 2015.  Remaining movies: 203  Days to go: 207

Movie #174:  Mallrats

Mallrats is a very stupid movie. Mallrats isn’t even a very good movie. But for a certain group of slacker college kids for whom Clerks was less groundbreaking indie and more hilarious cult film, Mallrats was an acceptable followup. For the Clerks enthusiast, Mallrats had the return of Jay (Jason Mewes) and Silent Bob (Kevin Smith) and a plethora of references to people in the Clerks universe, that were considered funny just by virtue of them existing (i.e., if you got the reference, it was amazing). And it also had the tell-tale rapid-fire dialogue of writer director Kevin Smith, which was a draw for actors and fans alike.

Mallrats sees friends T.S. (Jeremy London) and Brodie (Jason Lee) both being dumped by their girlfriends Brandi (Claire Forlani) and Rene (Shannen Doherty), and then heading to the mall, as any red-blooded suburban dweller would do. T.S. mopes about all day trying to find a way to get Brandi back, while Brodie, in denial about how upset he is at losing Rene, still manages to screw her in an elevator.

All sorts of hijinks ensue, involving everything from harebrained schematic plans to Batman gadgets to Stan Lee waxing nostalgic on love to a topless psychic to Magic Eye posters to sweaty ass hands and melty chocolate-covered pretzels. It all culminates in a sabotaging of Brandi’s father’s dating game show so T.S. can get her back and Brodie can woo Rene. So it’s kind of sweet, a little.

Of course, it’s also foul, as all these Jay and Silent Bob films are to some extent. Dick jokes, sex jokes, farting during sex jokes, comic book character genitalia jokes, ass jokes — the movie has them all. Mixed with Smith’s tendency to philosophize about pop culture, it makes up what amounts to his signature style. It was pretty funny and cool when we were all in our twenties, but while I still have a bit of nostalgic affinity for the film, I admit it gets old easily.

One of the biggest problems with Smith’s work, in fact, is that his dialogue is so quick, so exact, that it often comes off too rehearsed and the timing never quite lines up. The most obvious example of this (though it happens throughout the film), is the repeated trampling of the joke about Shannon Hamilton (Ben Affleck) liking to screw his ladies “somewhere very uncomfortable.” Every time it follows with “What, like the back of a Volkswagon?” And every time the line comes too quickly, too forced, and the joke rarely lands like it should.

The one performance that really stands out for me (as it did for Smith as well, soon after dating her for a while and then writing Chasing Amy about their relationship, and for her to star in) is Joey Lauren Adams as Gwen. There mainly to provide exposition about T.S. and Brandi’s relationship up to that point, how great he is and how great they are together — how Brandi is stupid to let him go — she nonetheless stands out. She’s funny and charming and has a forceful personality that draws your attention, making the most of her small role and then some.

Like I said, while it’s not a very good movie, it still does hold appeal for me in a lot of little ways. And as a piece of the entire Jay and Silent Bob series, it’s a fun little film as well as a part of my very young adulthood. For better or worse, it holds a place in my heart and it probably always will.

MY MOVIE SHELF: Iron Man

 

The Task: Watch and write about every movie on my shelf, in order (Blu-rays are sorted after DVDs), by June 10, 2015.  Remaining movies: 226  Days to go: 227

Movie #151:  Iron Man

I have at least one friend who’s going to be upset I don’t own any of the Iron Man movies, but those are the breaks. I actually like Iron Man 3 quite a bit, I just don’t have it. But Iron Man 2 is a messy, convoluted piece of garbage. At least from what I can remember of it.

I went into Iron Man completely cold. I’d never heard of Tony Stark or Pepper Potts or any of the mythology or lore surrounding Iron Man at all. So the movie had to do the heavy lifting of introducing me to this character I’d never encountered before without making it tedious and without feeling dumbed-down to the millions of Marvel comics fans who were coming to the film with dozens of pre-conceived notions and expectations about who and what Iron Man should be. In my completely unscientifically based opinion, I think it did an excellent job.

Everything you need to know about Tony Stark (Robert Downey Jr.) is shown, not exposited (well, just a little exposited), in the first fifteen or twenty minutes of the movie. He’s cocky, he’s slick, he’s a genius and an incorrigible lothario. He’s also a mega-multi-zillionaire who sells weapons for a living.

So the movie sets up the capture of Tony Stark via attack by unspecified Middle Easterners using his own weapons against Americans, provides a little bit of backstory, then goes right into Tony’s captivity and how he secretly builds himself an armored super-suit to bust out of there. When he gets home, he modifies and perfects the super-suit, becomes Iron Man, and maybe gets drawn into additional unspecified Middle Eastern conflicts because of his emotional baggage on the subject. There’s also some sexual tension with his uber-assistant Pepper Potts (Gwyneth Paltrow) — who doesn’t get a whole lot to do, but which I excuse because she’s basically the most competent, level-headed, boss chick ever and it never once feels like she’s just an errand-girl for Tony, but more like his keeper, his handler, his employer and she holds a lot of sway over him — and a nasty bit of betrayal from inside Tony’s inner circle.

I have to admit, I never really thought of Jon Favreau of any kind of Hollywood player before Iron Man, despite his breakout turn as the writer of Swingers. I certainly didn’t think of him as a director, and given the only big thing he’d done before this was Elf — which I almost categorically hate, truth be told — it’s understandable how blown away I was by his success with Iron Man. The story is tight and focused, the effects are amazing, and scenes are not wasted but rather used to their full potential (or thereabouts). Plus I think it’s pretty fun that he also plays the role of Happy Hogan. (You know, Raj on The Big Bang Theory really has a point about Stan Lee’s obsession with alliterative names.)

Since Iron Man is basically an origin story film, it works well that there’s not some external Big Bad nemesis to defeat, rather an intimate friend-turned-traitor who provides the impetus for said origin. It’s more contained that way, and allows the audience — particularly ones not familiar with the characters — to get acquainted, while still being entertaining. One of the reasons I think the current Marvel/Avengers franchise is so successful, in fact, is because Iron Man set it off to a great start. It’s definitely one of my favorite of the current films and one of my favorite of the current characters as well (but not the top spot, which goes to a single character in a single movie, yet to come). It’s a solid film that provides an excellent foundation for all the great, fun, imaginative Avengers movies yet to come.

And you’ve got to love a superhero who doesn’t mope around in his secret identity for once, right? Right.