“Don’t miss Kevin Smith’s Mallrats at midnight on August 4th and 5th. What better place is there to watch a couple of slackers drift through life than the Alamo Drafthouse? Plus, we can all agree that Ben Affleck plays his most believable role in Mallrats as a self involved mean spirited jackass. What more can you ask for? For more information check www.drafthouse.com. See you at the movies.”

“With the release of Clerks 2 and Kevin Smith’s birthday coming up on August 2nd, what better time is there to dust off one of Smith’s classic movies. That’s right, I’m talking about Mallrats.

Brodie Bruce, a Sega and comic book obsessed college student, and his best friend, TS Quint, are both dumped by their girlfriends on the same day, and to deal with their loss, they both go to the local mall. Along the way, they meet up with some friends, including Willam, a guy who stares at Magic Eye pictures, desperately trying to see the hidden image; Gwen, one of TS’s ex-girlfriends; and Jay & Silent Bob, of Clerks fame. Eventually, they decide to try and win back their significant others, and take care of their respective nemesises (TS’s girlfriend’s father, and a store clerk who hates the two for not having any shopping agenda).”

Idiosyncratic director Clerks againKevin Smith strikes back

By BRUCE WESTBROOK

He may be an auteur, but Kevin Smith is donning his backward baseball cap and trench coat again as Silent Bob. The New Jersey filmmaker is about to start his seventh feature and first sequel, with sure-to-offend title Clerks 2: The Passion of the Clerks. The film follows 1994’s Clerks, about Smith’s early convenience-store career.

“It’s about what happens to the angry young man when he turns 35,” Smith said of Clerks 2. “How long can you maintain your position of outsider when you’ve left the demographic that counts. It’s a little touch of pre-midlife crisis.”

The first Clerks was shot in the wee hours at the store where he worked. Miramax’s Harvey and Bob Weinstein bought the $27,000 production and launched him into the mainstream — or as close to it as an edgy regional filmmaker can get.

Miramax was bought, too — by Disney — and now the Weinsteins are leaving to form another studio.

“Whither they goest, so go I,” said Smith, who’s doing Clerks 2 for their new studio. “I’ve had great relationships with the Weinsteins for 11 years. I’ve never brought them a movie where they said no.”

The only film he didn’t make for them was his biggest flop — and, in a weird way, his biggest hit. That was 1995’s Mallrats, which just returned to DVD in a 10th-anniversary edition. A cult favorite, it also plays at midnight Friday and Saturday at the Landmark River Oaks.

After the bare-budget Clerks made $3 million, Universal gave Smith $6 million to shoot Mallrats, a raucous comedy about slackers at a New Jersey mall. Savaged by critics, it earned just $2 million at theaters.

“It wasn’t my finest hour,” Smith said of Mallrats, whose ensemble included rising actors Jason Lee and Ben Affleck. They then starred in his next film, acclaimed romantic comedy/drama Chasing Amy.

Mallrats finally found its audience via TV showings and a 1999 DVD.

“For the intelligentsia and people who are into film, Chasing Amy, which I love, and Clerks are the real touchstones,” Smith said. “But for the mass audience — which isn’t that massive, but big enough to keep me doing this for 12 years — it’s Mallrats all the way. That was their entry point to my work. They still hold great affection for it.”

Not expecting a second DVD, Smith crammed Mallrats’ first disc with extras. But when Universal wanted a follow-up, he couldn’t refuse.

“I still carry a sense of Catholic guilt,” he said, “Granted, the movie has long since gone into profit via DVD and TV, but I still felt, ‘Man, I blew somebody’s $6 million, and I’d better make it back for them.’ ”

So he hatched an idea. Since Mallrats was the only film he didn’t edit, Smith would recut it, using alternate takes and unused scenes.

One problem: His raw footage had too many master shots without “coverage,” or cutting to close-ups. “Scenes just go on and on, and there’s no way to get out of them,” Smith said. Yet he managed to tweak some scenes while adding a half-hour of unused footage.

“The longer version is still an exercise in futility,” Smith said. “If you never liked that movie, the longer version won’t make you like it any more. But fans want to see everything — to be entranced in the world of the movie.” (The River Oaks will screen Mallrats’ original cut.)

After Mallrats and Amy, Smith hit his stride with Dogma, a cutting look at organized religion, then Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back, a comic swipe at Hollywood excess. In each, Smith played Silent Bob, with pal Jason Mewes as Jay, two Jersey stoners who originated in Clerks.

The only film Smith would like to forget was his latest, Jersey Girl. The maligned comedy-drama starred Affleck and then-fiancee Jennifer Lopez at the peak of their overexposure.

“That one I don’t feel as bad about,” Smith said. “It cost $35 million to make, and we made $25 million, but we followed Gigli (also with Affleck and Lopez), which never got past $6 million. That’s the silver lining to the dark cloud of that chapter of my life.”

Besides his film work, Smith writes comics, including recent runs for Spider-Man and Daredevil. He also wrote a screenplay for a Superman movie but was burned by studio meddling and backed off.

“There’s much more freedom on the page,” Smith said. “You can invoke obscure things that, in a movie, an exec will take out to make it palatable to the mainstream.”

Smith believes he’ll never be a mainstream filmmaker.

“I can’t think that broadly,” he said. “I can enjoy broad entertainment, but I can’t make it. That’s why I like staying where I am. As long as the Weinsteins will have me, I’m with them. They’re the dudes who gave me my shot. Without them, I’d still be working in a convenience store.”

But his independent streak has made Smith a favorite filmmaker to dedicated fans. He stays in touch with them via his Web site, viewaskew.com. There, Smith recently held an auction to help Hurricane Katrina victims.

A barbecue at his home sold for $11,500. A walk-on part in Clerks 2 went for $16,000. In all, the auction raised $33,825, which Smith matched, for a total of $67,650 going to the American Red Cross.

“Back in ‘91, we had a terrible storm in New Jersey, and when water came over the sea wall, my house got flooded, and I had water up to my knees,” Smith said. “So when I saw New Orleans, it really took me back. I thought, ‘I’m in a position to raise some loot, so let’s do it.’ ”

Of course, some folks are never satisfied.

“People on the Internet said, ‘Oh, another (half-baked) attempt by a celebrity to help.’ But you know, I’m matching all that money myself, and besides, what are you doing, buddy? I tell you, the Internet has unleashed the most bitter, pejorative people on earth.”

Thanks, all who attended, for your patience and for keeping it orderly.

Thanks to the Stash staff (Xtian, Bob, Gina, Emile, Dave, Alberto, and the new chick), for taking care of all our guests.

Big thanks to Gail, who kept the line moving, insuring that not only did nobody leave without getting their stuff signed, but insuring, also, that we were all out of there by ten o’clock.

And thanks, especially, to Brian O, Jason L, Ethan S, Jason M, Scotty M, Renee H, and for showing up and signing ’til everyone was taken care of.

It was a big, successful event, kids. We started with a line that wrapped the block, and still managed to get out of there before midnight. Amen.

THE DAY OF THE ‘RATS

By MIKE LENGYEL
News Askew Writer

LOS ANGELES, California (NA) – September 24, 2005

October 20, 1995. That was the day that MALLRATS, the follow-up to Kevin Smith’s debut indie hit, CLERKS, opened nationwide on 800 screens. Three days later, the film was unapologetically deemed dead on arrival at the box-office. But afterwards, almost seemingly by divine intervention, MALLRATS was resurrected and found its audience, where it was unable to before, on home video. Now nearly ten years later to the date, the film is being celebrated with the release of a 10-year Anniversary Edition DVD from the very same studio that had previously wanted to bury the flick after opening weekend, to being the same studio that has now produced and released not one, but now two DVD editions of the film on the market.

Today though, marks a high point for Smith and company as after nearly a decade, vindication comes full circle. That’s clearly made evident by the hundreds of fans who showed up, some standing in line as early as 2pm Friday (with the festivities actually scheduled at 2pm Saturday mind you), and by the start of the signing had already begun wrapping itself down the block and around Westwood Village.

Smith, joined by fellow cast mates, Jason Mewes, Renee Humphrey, Ethan Suplee, Scott Mosier and later on into the evening, Jason Lee and an un-announced surprise appearance by Brian O’Halloran (who’s currently in-town prepping to shoot the sequel to CLERKS), fans were eager and patient outside, while inside, groups were ushered through at about 20 at a time, with an average of 100 fans getting in and out each hour. Even some other surprise notables were caught stopping by the signing. “Hey wasn’t that Paul Dini and isn’t that MTV’s Andy Milonakis over there?!?!”

(Note the Fliptz bag of chocolate cover pretzels on the table.)

Just as one lucky female fan got her backside signed by Smith, another learned the cold hard truth about purchasing those signed movie posters off E-Bay when he asked Lee to verify his signature on cast signed ALMOST FAMOUS poster he purchased off the site. Lee quickly dismissed the poorly forged signature as a fake, and then proceeded to show him how he actually signs and prints his name on the poster and then adding “the REAL” above his freshly signed, now authentic, autograph.

This was easily by far and large the best possible signing Smith has ever held to date. Backed by nearly the entire ‘RATS cast, Smith also lined up CLERKS TAS and comic artist, Jim Mahfood, to do a live wall painting of the various characters in the View Askewniverse, that fans could watch inside being done as well as groove to some sweet jams being spun live in-store.

It helps that Smith now has a store to call his own out here on the West Coast, which allows him far greater control of how to handle and sponsor such in-store appearances. And because of such, once inside, especially during this signing, one almost feels like they’re at a party hosted by Smith where they can relax, and freely meet and greet cast and crew all without feeling like being ushered in and out all too quickly by store security.

By 9pm, the last in line was in, signed, sealed and delivered, while some attendees chose to leave, others decided to stick around and continue to mingle with the likes of O’Halloran, Smith and his wife, who grooved the night away to the beats and rhymes while Mahfood and company continued to rock the back wall.

1. The ORIGINAL Mallrats Collectors Edition DVD was released in the United States on this day. July 20, 1999

2. The Mallrats 10th Anniverasry screening and Q&A was held in Los Angeles on this day. April 27, 2005

3. MALLRATS premiered on the ABC television Network on this day. August 29, 1998

Martin Ford, Brent Waltz, Jacob Loyd, Mike Harris, Michael Quickery, Michael Hader, Carter Reubin, Kate Cilano, James Dawdy, and Jason Dreyer