Overview: Following the smash success of his first feature, Clerks, Kevin Smith returned with Mallrats. Spawning a raft of characters and in-jokes that Smith would carry throughout his career, the film continued the one-of-a-kind comedic world known as the View Askewniverse.

Simultaneously dumped by their girlfriends, comic book obsessive Brodie (Jason Lee) and best friend TS (Jeremy London) plan to ease the pain of their losses by taking take a trip to the local mall. Amongst shoppers, they discover the mall is being used as the venue for a dating show, in which TS’s girlfriend Brandi is the star.

Hatching a plan to win back their significant others, Brodie and TS enlist the help of professional delinquents Jay and Silent Bob to hijack the gameshow in a bid to win back Brandi. Meanwhile, Brodie carries out his own mission to make good his relationship with Rene (Shannen Doherty), who has attracted the attentions of his nemesis Shannon (Ben Affleck).

Featuring a cast including Joey Lauren Adams, Ben Affleck, who would go on to be recurring collaborators in Smith’s movies, Mallrats can now be rediscovered in this 4K Ultra-HD Blu-ray edition boasting a beautiful restoration and hours of bonus content.

4K Blu-ray Verdict: With the valuable lesson that the little nuances found by hanging out at a shopping mall are the best parts of life, Mallrats is a piece of entertainment that’s humor is crude yet insightful.

Jeremy London and Jason Lee as two guys who have just ended relationships, but have markedly different attitudes about it and they have a really great odd couple chemistry as a result. London plays T.S. Quint, the hopeless romantic type, not over the loss of a girl and determined to get her back that we see often in movies and in ourselves in real life sometimes.

Lee’s character, Brodie, is more what the movie is about. He cheers himself and his friend up by taking a trip to the mall, and indulging in the cookie stand, the comic book shop, and conspiring with two shady characters (Jay and Silent Bob) to screw over his unpleasant neighbor, who also happens to be a major reason that his friend got dumped.

Whether the film portraying Brodie’s lifestyle is healthy or not is debatable, he lives with his mother and lacks ambition. However, I think Lee’s character is the one we admire more of the two, because he is much happier and less worrisome over the course of the film as his counterpart T.S. and still gets the girl at the end.

The movie takes place over a short period of real time, pretty much, a single afternoon at the mall. Along with the two protagonists, a series of pleasantly quirky recurring characters are all found hanging out, including Joey Lauren Adams (as T.S.’s promiscuous ex-girlfriend) and Ben Affleck (as a perverted department store owner) in different roles than they’ll have in Smith’s future project Chasing Amy.

With great dialogue as a tool, these mundane interactions between these seemingly ordinary people come to life and as a result, it becomes so engaging to watch their paths intertwine all the way to the climactic live dating show scene at the film’s finale!

Bonus Features:
4K restoration by Arrow Films of both the Theatrical and Extended cuts of the film, approved by director Kevin Smith and cinematographer David Klein
4K (2160p) UHD Blu-ray presentation in Dolby Vision (HDR10 compatible)
Original DTS-HD MA 5.1 surround audio
Optional English subtitles for the deaf and hard of hearing on all cuts
Audio commentary on the Theatrical version and and other cut with director Kevin Smith, producer Scott Mosier, archivist Vincent Pereira, and actors Jason Lee, Ben Affleck, and Jason Mewes
Introduction to the film by Kevin Smith
My Mallrat Memories, an interview with Kevin Smith
Tribute to producer Jim Jacks by Kevin Smith
Interview with actor Jason Mewes
Interview with Cinematographer David Klein
Hollywood of the North, an animated making-of documentary featuring Minnesota crew members who worked on the film
Deleted Scenes, Kevin Smith and Vincent Pereira discuss deleted scenes and sequences originally cut from the film
Outtakes and behind the scenes footage
Cast interviews from the original set
Erection of an Epic: The making of Mallrats, an archival retrospective with cast and crew looking at the making and release of the film
Q&A with Kevin Smith, archival Q&A filmed for the 10th anniversary
‘Build Me Up Buttercup’ music video
Still galleries
Archival introduction to the extended cut by Kevin Smith and Scott Mossier
Soundtrack EPK
Dailies
Theatrical trailer
Easter eggs
Illustrated collector’s booklet featuring new writing by Philip Kemp
Fold out poster featuring replica blueprints for ‘Operation Drive-by’ and ‘Operation Dark Knight’
Reversible sleeve featuring original and newly commissioned artwork by Robert Sammelin