Clerks (1-3)

Just because they serve you doesn't mean they like you
Just because they serve you doesn't mean they like you
CLERKS (18)
D: Kevin Smith
Artificial Eye/View Askew (Kevin Smith & Scott Mosier)
USA 🇺🇸 1994
103 mins
 
Comedy
 
W: Kevin Smith
DP: David Klein
Ed: Kevin Smith & Scott Mosier
 
Brian O'Halloran (Dante Hicks), Jeff Anderson (Randall Graves), Marilyn Ghigliotti (Veronica), Lisa Spoonauer (Caitlin Bree), Jason Mewes (Jay), Kevin Smith (Silent Bob)
 
Kevin Smith's debut feature is über-low-budget, filmed in an actual convenience store where Smith once plied his trade and the story is rather simple, but incredibly funny and memorable.
A placid convenience store clerk and his carefree friend both work on a regular Saturday afternoon and discuss topics ranging from girlfriends & sex to the Star Wars trilogy, whilst serving a strange array of customers causing a day full of mishaps and near chaos.
Despite having very little story to run on, Smith's down-to-earth, realistic dialogue makes this one of the great comedies of the 1990's, a must watch for Generation X-ers and a great example of filmmaking on a shoestring budget (the film cost $27,000).
8/10

Brian O'Halloran & Jeff Anderson in Clerks
Brian O'Halloran & Jeff Anderson in Clerks
With no power comes no responsibility
With no power comes no responsibility


CLERKS II (15)
D: Kevin Smith
The Weinstein Company/View Askew (Scott Mosier)
USA 🇺🇸 2006
93 mins
 
Comedy
 
W: Kevin Smith
DP: David Klein
Ed: Kevin Smith
Mus: James L. Venable
 
Brian O'Halloran (Dante Hicks), Jeff Anderson (Randall Graves), Rosario Dawson (Becky), Trevor Fehrman (Elias), Jennifer Schwalbach (Emma), Jason Mewes (Jay), Kevin Smith (Silent Bob)
 
12 years after the events in the first movie and Dante & Randall are still unsatisfied with their prospective careers, this time working in a fast food outlet after the convenience store from the first film is burned down.
The conversations still revolve mostly around relationships, sex and movie favourites, but the dialogue seems more forced and less forthright from the first movie and a love story is stuffed in to make this more of a romcom than a Generation X rant about modern society (akin to the first film).
It does have some funny moments, but also feels like Kevin Smith is running low on ideas and therefore has to revisit his roots.
6/10

Jeff Anderson, Trevor Fehrman & Brian O'Halloran in Clerks II
Jeff Anderson, Trevor Fehrman & Brian O'Halloran in Clerks II
They’re too old for this shift
They’re too old for this shift
CLERKS III (18)

D: Kevin Smith

Lionsgate / View Askew / Bondit Media Capital / Mewesings / Destro / Three Point Capital (Liz Destro & Jordan Monsanto)

US 🇺🇸 2022

100 mins


Comedy/Drama


W: Kevin Smith

DP: Learan Kahanov

Ed: Kevin Smith

Mus: James L. Venable


Brian O’Halloran (Dante Hicks), Jeff Anderson (Randal Graves), Marilyn Ghigliotti (Veronica), Rosario Dawson (Becky), Trevor Fehrman (Elias), Jason Mewes (Jay), Kevin Smith (Silent Bob)


Kevin Smith returns to the film that gave him his big break in this sequel that is practically a story of how he made the first film way back in 1994.

Best friends Dante & Randal are still working at the Quick Stop convenience store as they approach their 50’s and following a near-death experience, Randal decides to make a movie about their memories and experiences in their day-to-day work, enlisting the help of Jay & Silent Bob, who now use the defunct video store for their dealing exploits.  Cast members from the first two movies return to reprise the same characters, but the humorous conversations and diatribes are far more absent, as it’s more a Kevin Smith filmmaking memoir than anything else.

As a huge fan of the first film, it’s nice to revisit the characters and come full circle, but at this point it’s starting to feel like overkill on Kevin Smith’s part.

6/10


Brian O’Halloran & Jeff Anderson in Clerks III
Brian O’Halloran & Jeff Anderson in Clerks III