Mallrats is an easy comedy with romance as its reason to live. Set almost entirely in a mall and populated by its denizens, we're rewarded by juvenile arguments, pranks and stunts.
Shannen Doherty is the big name of the production. She has a supporting role, playing, with a nice ring of truth, a girl who got sick and tired of her looser boyfriend, played by Jason Lee, and dumps him. Lee gives us the best performance of the cast, and with this verbose intensive role made his place on the big screen. Ben Affleck, at that time, was still relatively unknown, and even though this portrayal of an ass hole was right on target, the part was a very small one. The second main character was played by somebody that barely made the grade. His girlfriend was played by Claire Forlani who gave us a good solid performance.
The story is interesting, with nice details and interesting plot twists. Even though Kevin Smith got substantially more budget this time around, the film still has an obvious low budget shine to it. Smith is slowly polishing his skills, but has yet to reach full proficiency. The dialogs and original story are is best weapons, and this piece shows that well as each scene is delivered as a verbal dance. Excellent work.
Don't take it too seriously, and you'll have lots of fun.
7*/10
