DVD: Buy Clerks - Collector's Edition Online

Average Rating:

The film is about a convienience store clerk named Dante Hicks (Brian O'Hollaron). He's 22, and hates his life. He dispises his job working for slave wages for long hours at a boring store dealing with stupid customers, and is having some major girl problems. He is seeing a girl named Veronica (Marilyn Ghigliotti), but can't decide whether he loves her or his old high-school girl Caitlin Bree (Lisa Spoonhauer), who incidentally cheathed on him 8 1/2 times (you'll understand if you see the movie). He doesn't get much respect from his best friends (and sometimes worst enemy) Randal Graves (Jeff Anderson), who hangs out with Dante at the store chattering on about life, 'Nudie Booths", "Star Wars" movies, psychotic customers, and women. Randal also terrorizes customers, both at the store (called Quickstop Groceries), or at his job area, RST video Store. While Dante wanders about his life, Randal reads [Girlie magazines].

Dante's day starts out bad. he gets sent to work on his day off, and is then accosted by an angry mob against cigarette smoking. ... His day, however, gets worse. Customers get mad at him, and he has to deal with two drug dealers who hang out in front of the store named Jay (Jason Mewes) and Silent Bob (Kevin Smith, director). He is also torn between the two women he loves, and he can't have his hockey game as planned!

This movie sparkles with wit and lots of attitude, and features a very intelligent and thoughful script, but it doesn't make the movie perfect. One of the problems with the movie is that, while there are several funny things in this movie, some stuff is obviously trying to be funny, but just sort of sits there. An example of this is Jay and Silent Bob. They are just not funny at all. This is strange, since they would end up being the funniest parts of the next films. jay makes [rude] comments and Silent Bob speaks once, but mostly there just there so the movie can be 90 minutes instead of something like 80. It's also quite hard to understand what Jay is saying most of the time.

Another problem is the dialogue. The dialogue is TOO intelligent, so much that the line deliverings seem awkward. This isn't too often, but sometimes Dante and Randal will be having a conversation that seems very scripted and read through.

This is however, not an insult to the acting, which is usually quite good aside from the above mentioned. Brian O' Hollaron and Jeff Anderson play quite well off eachother, and the two love interests give good acting jobs. The only other actors that appear in the film are customers and a few of Dante's hockey buddies, and all are pretty adequate, if not outstanding.

The film is not for everyone, as said above, and goes on a bit to long, even if it's only 90 minutes (actually 93), with some unneeded scenes, but as a whole, this was a fairly satisfying movie, with lots of good scenes as well as bad ones. A recommendation, just not a perfect movie.

The DVD is a Collector's Edition, the third in the Miramax Series. it is quite good, but like the movie, not great. The film is presented in ugly black and white 1:85:1 matted widescreen, but this is not the fault of the DVD. The movie looks quite bad, but only because of the shockingly [inexpensive] cost to make the movie. Unfortunately, it's non-anamorphic, and doesn't fit widescreen TVs, stretching the picture unnaturally.

The soundtrack is dolby digital 2.0, which gets the job done, but isn't very exciting.

The extra features are good, though. There's an excellent and informative commentary by director Smith and lots of other people, as well as several good deleted an extended scenes, and the shocking original ending. there's an excellent full color music video for Soul Asylum's "Can't Even Tell" and the orignal theatrical trailer. A nice batch of extras for a pretty good DVD.

**1/2 out of ****

The dialog from writer/director Kevin Smith carries the movie as there is little action, but it works. You get a sense that the characters are real people as opposed to many movies in which the characters are empty and emotionless. Dante and Randall are smart and witty, and you get the sense that they have some kind of great talent that they don't know what to do with. Dante is especially unsure of what he wants to do with his life, and it takes Randall to point him towards the source of his problems. Anyone who has worked retail (including me) can relate to some of the annoying customers and how at times the job can become mind-numbingly and painfully boring.

I will not spoil the most notable scene for those that haven't seen the film. It happens off screen, but will still leave you with a look of shock when you find out what happened. Clerks is not for those who are easily offended by strong language or those uncomfortable with talk about sex (including "snowballing" and deadly means of self-gratification). But the movie works without resorting to crude, sickening humor. And of course, the infamous Jay and Silent Bob make their debut. This is a must-see for Kevin Smith fans and a great place to start if you want to get into Kevin Smith's work.

Nootch # 2