Mallrats has found a new audience over the past 20+ years with home video media, and myself enjoyed it a bit more) and now 2.5 decades later, manages to get a complete Blu-ray release with a few new features and an upgraded video transfer.
Mallrats
(1995)
Genre(s): Comedy, Romance
Arrow Video | R/Unrated – 95/122/85 min. – $39.95 | October 13, 2020
Date Published: 11/08/2020 | Author: The Movieman
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Arrow Video provided me with a free copy of the Blu-ray I reviewed in this Blog Post.
The opinions I share are my own.
THE MOVIE — 3¾/5 |
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Plot Synopsis: To ease the pain of being dumped by their girlfriends, comic book nerd Brodie (JASON LEE) and best friend TS (JEREMY LONDON) take a trip to the local mall. They soon discover the mall is being used as the venue for a dating show, in which Brandi (CLAIRE FORLANI), TS’s ex, is the star. To win her back, the pair enlist the help of professional delinquents Jay and Silent Bob (JASON MEWES, KEVIN SMITH) to hijack the show, while Brodie carries out his own mission to mend his relationship with Rene (SHANNEN DOHERTY), who has caught the eye of his nemesis Shannon (BEN AFFLECK).
Quick Hit Review: Upon its release, for which it was a box office flop even with a $6.1 million budget, Mallrats was certainly a stain for Kevin Smith as his follow-up to Clerks. It would seem if not for the critical praise received for his third film, Chasing Amy (a film I love), one wonders if he would still be working today. But in any case, all these years later, and probably took around ten years, Mallrats saw a revival with a solid fan following. Personally, while I enjoyed my first viewing back in 2005 when it was released on DVD, it didn’t exactly wow me, however seeing it only for the second time, probably enjoyed it a lot more, and making me laugh throughout even with some of the stilted dialogue whenever the romantic material came up, the finale especially. Being someone of the sarcastic nature, I did gravitate towards Jason Lee’s Brodie character more so than Jeremy London who I would say is the weak spot of an otherwise fine cast.
Mallrats is not one of Kevin Smith’s strongest films, even looking at it in a new light, as some of the dialogue comes across a little stilted, particularly once we get into the more romantic parts at the end, however it’s still a fun, time-waster of a comedy with a similar humor to Clerks and Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back. |
SPECIAL FEATURES – 4¾/5 |
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This two-disc set comes housed in a clear HD keep case and comes with a booklet and a fold-out poster featuring replica blueprints for “Operation Drive-by” and “Operation Dark Knight”. There is also, in the initial run, a nice matted slip cover. The inner sleeve is reversible with the original poster artwork on the other side. DISC ONE: Audio Commentary – Writer/Director Kevin Smith, Producer Scott Mosier, Archivist Vincent Pereira and Actors Jason Lee, Ben Affleck and Jason Mewes Interviews:
Hollywood of the North (10:13) – Newly produced animated making-of featurette that features the Minnesota crew members. Deleted Scenes (1:02:48) – Kevin Smith and Vincent Pereira discuss deleted scenes and sequences originally cut from the film. Outtakes and Behind the Scenes Footage (8:12) – Just some odds and ends of footage, some with the cast riffing or breaking character. Cast Interviews from the Original Set (8:37) – Archive footage from 1994 with Jason Lee, Kevin Smith, Jeremy London and others. Erection of an Epic: The Making of Mallrats (22:09) is an older retrospective featurette with the cast and crew looking at the making and release of the film. Q&A with Kevin Smith (9:01) – Smith kind of just discusses the material made for the 10th anniversary DVD release. Music Video (3:38) – “Build Me Up Buttercup” Theatrical Trailer (2:23) DISC TWO: Introduction (4:24/11:00) is available for the “TV” and “Extended” Cuts, the former newly filmed for this release. Soundtrack EPK (4:02) – A soundtrack promo featuring Scott Mosier and Kevin Smith. Dailies (1:59:35) – Raw footage that’s in rough form. Stills Galleries:
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VIDEO – 5/5 |
| Arrow Video releases Mallrats onto Blu-ray where it is presented in its original 1.85 widescreen aspect ratio and a new 1080p high-definition transfer. Per the notes in the booklet, this was a 4K scan of the original 35mm camera negative and then graded and restored with Kevin Smith and director of photography David Klein approving. Having never owned this on Blu-ray and my DVD misplaced somewhere, I can’t make any direct comparisons, however this, like the majority of Arrow’s releases, looks absolutely fantastic, colors are vibrant and detail incredibly sharp throughout, with the natural film grain and noise on full display giving it as close to a theatrical appearance as possible.
Also notable that the additional scenes in the Extended Cut were also remastered under the same system. |
AUDIO – 4½/5 |
| The movie comes with a DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 track which I’m assuming is the same or very similar to the one on the original Blu-ray release. As such, I don’t expect a whole lot for a comedy and this one is pretty standard, dialogue comes across with nice clarity and there are a few “action” scenes (so to speak) that has some modest depth for the front and rear speakers which for the most part is used for the score and soundtrack. |
OVERALL – 4½/5 |
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Overall, Mallrats has found a new audience over the past 20+ years with home video media, and myself enjoyed it a bit more) and now 2.5 decades later, manages to get a complete Blu-ray release with a few new features and an upgraded video transfer along with Arrow’s as usual high standard packaging. |
Check out some more 1080p screen caps by going to page 2. Please note, these do contain spoilers.