Like a grass roots Woody Allen film, Clerks is one humdinger of a stand-up routine.
Clerks (1994)
Tomatometer
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Reviews Counted:47
Fresh:41
Rotten:6
Average Rating:7.4/10
Runtime: 1 hr 32 mins
Genre: Comedies
Synopsis: Made for less than the cost of an SUV, Kevin Smith's first film finds 22-year-old Quick Stop clerk Dante Hicks (Brian O'Halloran) called into work on his precious day off. There he is besieged by... Made for less than the cost of an SUV, Kevin Smith's first film finds 22-year-old Quick Stop clerk Dante Hicks (Brian O'Halloran) called into work on his precious day off. There he is besieged by customers ranging from the agitated to the insane, not to mention Randal (Jeff Anderson), the clerk from the video store next door whose commitment to service is made clear when he observes, "This job would be great if it wasn't for the f@&%!#* customers." Dante's love life is a shambles, and the situation at the store goes from bad to worse, but he and Randal are never so beleaguered that they can't find time to discuss why the destruction of the Death Star in RETURN OF THE JEDI may have been morally dubious (uninvolved contractors were probably aboard). In fact, it was the clerks' clever dialogue, saturated with pop-culture references, that elevated CLERKS to cult-hit status among Generation-Xers and transformed Kevin Smith from film school dropout to indie auteur. Smith himself plays Silent Bob, while Jason Mewes plays Jay, his drug-dealing other half. Together the duo provide added comic relief, continuity, and wisdom in each of the the director's films. [More]
Starring: Brian O'Halloran, Jeff Anderson, Kevin Smith, Jason Mewes
Starring: Brian O'Halloran, Jeff Anderson, Kevin Smith, Jason Mewes
Director: Kevin Smith
Director: Kevin Smith
Screenwriter: Kevin Smith
Producer: Scott Mosier
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Release:
Jun 29, 1999
Reviews for Clerks
It comes from bad stock, curses like a longshoreman and doesn't bring a gift. Nevertheless, it's the life of the party.
...an utterly profane and amusing movie by first-time filmmaker Kevin Smith.
An impressive and irascible debut that rings true even when you're laughing too hard to hear it.
An episodic, dialogue-heavy picture shot in black and white, Clerks is nevertheless remarkably cinematic.
Clerks is so utterly authentic that its heroes have never heard of their generation.
It's not John Cassavetes' Shadows (1959), but what Kevin Smith's Clerks, lacks in subtlety it makes up for in laughs
So vulgar that it may prompt as many walkouts as it does cheerleaders.
...it is the ability to identify with the characters that makes the story so universal. I mean, we've all known people like these who have annoyed us all our lives.
I don't care if the flick cost $14.54 to produce; it's one of the funniest movies I've ever seen.
Smith dogpiles absurdity and obscenity on top of each other. The dullness of the dead-end jobs is brightened by bizarre bits--a fat guy asking for softer toilet paper, drops dead on the toilet.
Clerks for me was kind of like the Beatles on Ed Sullivan were for so many nascent Rock stars.
At 24, Smith also knows something about casting. Using a mixture of stage actors and novices, he's found the right ensemble tone to make Clerks seem as spontaneous as it needs to be.
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| Tomatometer Percentage | Movie |
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