Film Review-Clerks III

Kevin Smith, the once-indie film-making prodigy, has made his entire career not from his film Clerks, but from the tale of its production. In 1993, Smith famously used multiple credit cards and raised $27,575 to create a charming, dialogue-driven film during his off-hours at the New Jersey convenience store where he worked during the day. 

As a fan of Clerks and Clerks II, I gave Kevin Smith’s latest film, Clerks III, a chance despite his recent lacklustre output. While it is marginally better than Tusk and Yoga Hosers, it falls short in many ways. The movie is a meta-comedy that heavily relies on references and recreations of scenes from the original film, which can be expected, but the execution is so lazy and uninspired that it left me in disbelief. The film fails to expand on the source material in any meaningful way, making it one of the laziest sequels I have ever seen.

Kevin Smith seems to have made a deliberate decision to cater solely to his podcast subscribers, which I am, and alienate everyone else, which is unfortunate. The movie is filled with callbacks and references to the original, but the way it was written — by simply rehashing old material — ensures that it will never be as quotable as its predecessor. While the original film was endlessly quotable, this one falls short due to its lack of originality.

⭐️⭐️

Episode 199: Clerks cast interview

Gerrod and Rix attended the latest MCM expo in London and sat down with Brian O’Halloran, Marilyn Ghigliotti, Scott Schiaffo and a bunch of other journalists.

Clerks is a 1994 independent black-and-white buddy comedy film written, directed and co-produced by Kevin Smith. Starring Brian O’Halloran and Jeff Anderson, it presents a day in the lives of titular store clerks Dante Hicks (O’Halloran) and Randal Graves (Anderson), along with their acquaintances. Clerks is the first of Smith’s View Askewniverse films, and introduces several recurring characters, notably Jay and Silent Bob (Jason Mewes and Smith).

Clerks was shot for $27,575 in the convenience and video stores where director Smith worked in real life. Upon its theatrical release, the film received generally positive reviews and grossed over $3 million in cinemas, launching Smith’s career.

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Kevin Smith teases Mallrats sequel

It’s well known that Kevin Smith’s Mallrats was a complete box office bomb. The writer/actor/director’s follow-up to the beloved Clerks nearly ended his film career. 

However it developed a huge cult following a few years later, after it arrived on VHS. I still place it in my top five Kevin Smith movies.

Smith has teased his Twitter followers with a sequel. 

It wouldn’t be unheard of for Smith to return to an old project, he was making cinematic universes before they were common place.

My problem with a Mallrats sequel is that Jason Lee and the gang and now in their mid-forties, it would be a little bit ridiculous for them to still be running round a shopping centre. 


Kevin Smith visits the Star Wars set

It’s well documented that Kevin Smith is a die hard Star Wars fan, he has referenced the franchise in nearly all of his films.
Smith is currently in the UK, touring two of his many podcasts and was invited along to the set by JJ Abrams.
Due to the NDA (non disclosure agreement) that he had to sign, he couldn’t reveal any details of the film. But he did put out this picture on his Instagram account with the following text.

“Visited JJ and his EP VII set. I signed the NDA so all I can share are this old Bantha-Tracks subscriber’s tears and snotty nose of joy. The Force is WITH this movie. Holy Sith…”

Smith mentioned on the most recent episode of Hollywood babble-on, which was record before the visit:

“I got an Email about a month ago from a dude who was like ‘Hey Kev, we haven’t talked in a while. Been thinking about you.
We just started shooting in the desert, man. We’re heading over to London, if you’re gonna be in London, then blow me up and roll up on the set, man’.
signed JJ Abrams.

So I hit him back and I was like, ‘I am gonna be in fucking England. I’m coming over to do some shows with my friend Ralph’.

So he was like ‘oh great, then you’ve gotta come stop by the set’.

So, I was just like, wow. How easy was this? I didn’t have to ask, he hit me up out of nowhere and shit.
And I’m sitting there going, I don’t know him that well. So I started second guessing it and I was like you know what, I’ve gotta see if this is legit. So I wrote him back an email and I was like
‘I just checked in with your office, so I’m all set to visit. But just in case, I wanna put this out there just in case you hit the wrong Kevin in your address book, this is Kevin Smith. The Clerks guy’
and he wrote back the perfect email, just a two letter response ‘oh fuck’.”