Mallrats: Spoilers Podcast 002

This time out the Spoilers tackle Kevin Smith's Mallrats. We attempt to look deep into the film, relax our eyes and see the sailboat. This 1995 film marked Smith's induction into mainstream Hollywood... and upon its completion, his departure from it running and screaming. Mallrats features Ben Affleck, Jason Lee and Joey Lauren Adams--three actors who would follow Smith to his third film and his masterpiece, Chasing Amy.

So get yourself a bag of chocolate covered pretzels and a dixie cup of Coke (no ice) and listen in. And now the notes...

• Takes place on a Friday, the day before the events of Kevin Smith's first movie, Clerks.
• It was the debut film of Jason Lee, an actor who started out as a professional skateboarder.
• Numerous references to Smith's previous film, Clerks, as well as prophetic nod to his future films Chasing Amy and Jay & Silent Bob Strike Back.
• The DVD comes with an excellent commentary track by Kevin Smith, Ben Affleck, Jason Lee, Jason Mewes, Scott Mosier and Vincent Pereira that you should listen to if you haven't already. We'll try not to overlap too much.
• This film was rated R by the MPAA for nudity, adult themes and numerous "bad swears"

When you press play the disc starts with a long ad for Universal DVD before finally playing the film:

1. Main Titles
• The "cousin Walter" described by Brodie in this opening bit is the same guy that Randall talks about in Clerks as being his cousin who died from a broken neck attempting to give himself a blow job.
• The movie had been written to start a totally different way, even the opening voice over was drastically different. The original opening showed a fiasco at a gala event caused by a misunderstanding where it seemed as though the character of TS was attempting to assassinate the Governor. The gala was hosted by Mr. Svenning, so this embarrassment only heightened his existing hatred for TS. Oh, and the opening voice over was about Brodie being born in the mall.
• Title Song: Social by Squirtgun
• Budget Comparison:
  • Clerks: $27,000
  • Mallrats: $6,100,000
  • Chasing Amy: $250,000
• Smart Porky's ...toned down language
2. Julie Can't Make It
• TS and Brandi are introduced
• "Saw her at the video store" could this be RTS from Clerks?
• What kind of a name is TS?
• A few of the character names in Mallrats are from Jaws
  • Broodie was the last name of Roy Scheider's character
  • TS's last name is Quint which was the name of Robert Shaw's character
  • Broodie's last name, Bruce, was the nickname the Jaws crew gave the mechanical shark
  • I think TS stands for "The Shark"
• Julie's wake is briefly depicted in the Harbinger chapter of Clerks
3. Brandi's Father
• Michael Rooker as Jared Svenning
• It's a bit odd that the DVD has a chapter marker for the introduction of Brandi's father when it is really a part of "Julie Can't Make It" and yet the next chapter encompasses two full scenes. But you'll find that the chapter breaks in this DVD are a bit messed up.
4. Breakfast Time
• This is the reason I had no interest in seeing this film when it came loutishness Doherty
• The characters of Rene and Brodie are brought in
• Brodie wears a Henry Hudson High School shirt.
  • According to the insert that comes with the Chasing Amy DVD, the character graduated Hudson with TS, Brandi and Gwen. All the characters in Mallrats who graduated from the rival high school, North, seem to instinctively take issue with Brodie: Rene, Shannon, Steve-Dave, Walt and Roddy.
• I used to love Hockey on the Sega Genesis
• Rene is a pretty messed up chick if she's hiding in the bathroom crying because she isn't curing diseases or designing skyscrapers. Sure she's dating a guy who unmotivated but c'mon, set some attainable goals before you get all emotional.
• Soundtrack: Seventeen by Sponge
• Even though Brodie opens the door thinking it's Rene having changed her mind, TS's arrival should be a new chapter
• The similarities the Brodie's basement bedroom and my own underground layer are quite striking. I have had a mind to go out and buy a comic book collection just to recreate the set more faithfully
• Yet another Jaws reference
• In the original beginning TS and Brodie hit the mall to evade the press who were hounding TS about the alleged assassination attempt on the Governor. Now they go there because they believe it will help them get over their break ups and also to partake of some wonderful cookie Brodie has discovered.
5. Willam
• Soundtrack: Bubbles by Bush
• The scaffolding you see carried (and braining Brodie) makes a return cameo appearance on the Miramax back lot depicted in Jay & Silent Bob Strike Back
• Willam Black from Mallrats is a different character than the Willam "snowball" Black from Clerks. Different actors played him and, according to the booklet that comes with the Criterion version of Chasing Amy, the two Willams went to different high schools.
• The picture here is not of a sailboat. If you are one of those people who can actually make these Magic Eye posters work, you can actually pause the DVD (not now) and see geometric shapes.
6. Hatchet Man
• Jay and Silent Bob!!
• Standing in front of the pet store where Kevin Smith's friend Walt Flanagan bought a rat terrier. Later Jay will make reference to the dog when being chased through the mall. Walt also plays the hockey jersey wearing Fan-boy at the Comic Shop and in a challenging dual role, a stage hand
• "Mad fat chick killer" is a left over reference to the films original opening scenes.
• LaFours is played by Sven-Ole Thorsen who you may remember as Tirgis of Gaul in Gladiator and he also appeared in the Vanilla Coke commercials with Simon Cowl and Chazz Palminteri a year or so ago
• And here at "Time for Cookie" is the dialog exchange the allegedly impressed Warner Bros enough to let Kevin Smith write a script treatment for a Superman movie that has since gone through many directors, many scripts and finally seems like it might actually come to theaters. Check out an Evening with Kevin Smith for an extremely funny story about his time writing his take on Superman.
• Here we see Rene in the first of many outfits she wears while at the mall.
• Brodie mention Fletch here. He is Kevin Smith's favored actor for the role of Fletch in the film he has in preproduction
7. The Master Plan
• This blueprint and other great items are available from Jay and Silent Bob's Secret Stash online and from one of their 2 retail locations.
• Joey Lauren Adams as Gwen Turner gets burst in on by Silent Bob for the first of several times in this film
• The escalator rant: I looked into this and sure enough every year there are numerous escalator related injuries. Please, kids, fear and respect that escalator.
• Tricia Jones: sister of Heather Jones from Clerks and Alyssa Jones from Chasing Amy.
  • Reprised her role in Jay & Silent Bob Strike Back
  • $20,000! You could almost make a black and white flick about a couple convenience store clerks for that!
8. Comic Book Store
• Brian Johnson as Steve-Dave and the oft talk about Walt Flanagan as Fan Boy
  • These two characters have appeared in Dogma and Jay & Silent Bob Strike Back
  • Both actors are good friends of Kevin Smith's
    • Bryan and Kevin protested Dogma together. Check out An Evening with Kevin Smith for the full story
  • Walt Flanagan's dog reference
  • Rene in her second shopping outfit
    • Notice the Degrassi jacket we will soon find out to be Brodie's
9. Fashionable Male
• Build Me Up Buttercup by the Goops
10. Gwen
• Gwen Turner for the first time outside a changing room
• Brodie and Gwen seem to enjoy kicking TS
11. Mr. Svenning
• Walt Flanagan as the stage hand who shops at the same store as TS but otherwise looks like a bad undercover narcotics officer
• Roddy, Mr Svenning's assistant, is played by Scott Mosier the producer of many of Kevin Smith's films and the Willam Black from Clerks
  • That's beautiful man
• A Burt Reynolds/Smoky and the Bandit reference
• Brodie's cup
• Brutal beating
  • Affleck invoke the movie's title
• Notice how Silent Bob hides his face when he sees it's Gwen
• The Easter Bunny scene kind off foreshadows the Mooby scene in J&SBSB where Will Ferrell shoots a hole through him
• Stink Palm... the smart Porky's
• "the trouble you had at the Governor's Ball" another line left over from the original script
• "if it isn't my neighbor" also a carry-over from the original script
• another Burt Reynolds reference
• pretzel fan? is anyone a pretzel fan?
• Rene in yet another outfit
• Brenda?
• Superman 2 reference
• And a rare Star Trek reference
• Batman reference
12. At the Flee Market
• Soundtrack: Boogie Shoes by KC & The Sunshine Band
• Another Walt... possibly the fictional Flanagan based on Smith's buddy
• Brodie criticized the woman for selling comics with no boards but he's all to casual about bending them as he flips through them
• Savage... Randal from Clerks reference... Randal is a relative in some way
13. Ivannah
• Channeling, Fortune, Rhunestones, Barechested Palmreading
• James Bond reference...Priscilla Barnes herself a Bond girl having acted in Licence to Kill
• Rick's choice for The Spoilers Pee Break Scene
14. Brodie & Stan Lee
• I see the intermittant questioning by outsiders about TS and Brandi's break up and the "backseat of a Volkswagon" to be a callbacks to the "What smells like shoepolish?" running gag in Clerks
• Stanley Martin Lieber
• Don't you think Stan Lee's story here sounds suspiciously like Silent Bob's Chasing Amy?
• Spoiler listener Paul French writes: "Just watching Mallrats with Spoilers 2. Stan Lee was indeed in Daredevil. He plays an old man that the young Matt Murdoch pulls back off the street, saving him from a truck. Lee was indeed one of the creators of Daredevil, along with Bill Everett. One of the artists most associated with Daredevil, in the early years, was Jack Kirby, which was the name of Kevin Smith's Medical Examiner in Daredevil."
• Smoke Two Joints by Sublime
• Gil Hicks one year younger than Dante Hicks the character Brian O'Halleran played in Clerks
  • O'Halleran would go on to play Jim Hicks in Chasing Amy and Grant Hicks in Dogma then reprising the role of Dante Hicks in J&SBSB and Clerks 2
15. Stage Business
• Silent Bob, the guy who Jay compared to MacGyver is now using a pair of pliers to adjust nothing really. He twists tape and adjusts imaginary knobs
• Art James host and announcer of several game shows
• Gil pretty much describes the date with Shannon Hammilton that Rene told Brodie she had
• Another "Cousin Walter" story...where does Smith come up with this twisted stuff
• Bizarre lighting change due to having to reshoot to make up for the change in the opening scene
16. Set Up
• Trish's parents and Pendant Publishing were all aware of her research, why didn't the issue of statutory rape come up before this?
• A bit odd that Brodi points into the audience and none of the extras bother to turn around to see who he's talking to.
• Smith has gained both accolades and criticism from GLAD for his portrail of homosexuals, he's gotten flack from the Catholic Church for Dogma...I wonder if he's ever been given heat for his use of the word "retard" in this film
• New Kids of the Block reference
  • Affleck says "Call me Donny." After New Kids broke up Donny Walberg to appear in the Sixth Sense with Bruce Willis and Dreamcatcher with Mallrats' Jason Lee
• Empire Strike Back reference
  • Mark Hamill and Carrie Fisher would both end up doing cameos in J&SBSB, the first time they'd been listed in the credits of the same film for some time
17. Happy Ending
• Everybody's happy
• Soundtrack: Broken by Belly
18. End Titles
    • Soundtrack: Susanne by Weezer
      • Suzanne coincidentally is the name of the orangatan at the end of thise movie and in J&SBSB
    • So Brodie goes on to host the Tonight Show. Kevin Smith has since become a regular on the Tonight Show with his Roadside Attractions films.
      • The character of Brodie reappears in J&SBSB as the owner ot a comic book store, Brodie's Secret Stash (an obvious reference to Smith's own store, Jay and Silent Bob's Secret Stash). The blow up of a Variety newspaper cover shown behind the counter of the store explains that Brodie was critisiced by the FCC and Christian Mothers Association for his constant use of profanity, pelvic gestures and for stink palming guests. It also says he pepper sprayed his assistant and long time friend--could this have been TS?
    • Shannen Doherty repeared in another Kevin Smith movie, J&SBSB, but as herself, not as Rene.
    • Claire Forlani and Jeremy London, to date, have never since appeared in another Kevin Smith movie
    • LaFours shows up as Trish's loving assistant as a left over from a deleted storyline where she distracted him from interfering with Brodie's take over of Truth or Date by luring him into an Easter Bunny love nest
    • Ben Affleck went on to curse the careers of two women named Jennifer who's careers both took a slump after dating him (Gigli, Elektra). One of them, Jennifer Garner, is married to him and pregnant with his child. We wish them well.
    • Ethan Suplee has appeared in bit parts in many of Smiths films and had a sizable role in the Ivan Reitman film Evolution starring David Duchovny and Seann William Scott...who, coincidentally, was in Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back
    • Jay and Silent Bob and Susanne are a whole different story, and when that story is told in Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back, Silent Bob will have donned his famous green overcoat.
      • At a recent Q&A with Smith that I attended, he told a story about how affected he was by Tim Burton's Batman that he named his car "the Batmobile" and bought a black leather trenchcoat. If the coat he wears in this film is not that very same coat, I think it's safe to say that it is inspired by the coat that was inspired by Batman.
        • Smith is working on a second Evening with Kevin Smith DVD set, maybe that story will be on there
    • Soundtrack: Mallrats by Wax
    • Ends with "Jay and Silent Bob will return in Chasing Amy"... which they did... but if you believed the credits for Clerks, we should have just watched Dogma

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