YMMV / Mallrats

• Alternative Character Interpretation: Did Rene actually like Shannon? Or was she only dating him to make Brodie jealous and motivate him to be a better boyfriend? The latter is evidenced by the fact that she didn't object to having sex with Brodie in the elevator when she was dating Shannon, she tried to convince Shannon to leave him alone, she would look visibly uncomfortable whenever Shannon would slap her butt, and her claim about him doing everything Brodie failed to do as a boyfriend after dating for a few hours seemed dubious.
• Aluminum Christmas Trees: The "dirt mall" that Brodie and T.S. go to was the US 1 Flea Market. It's now a multiplex.
• Best Known for the Fanservice: The topless fortune teller with three nipples, or else the fifteen-year-old doing a sex study are the most remembered details about the film.
• Cult Classic: A box office flop at the time, the film gained greater appreciation from video rentals and TV showings. Vindicated by Cable and Vindicated by Video in other words.
• Diagnosed by the Audience: Willam, given his single-minded obsession with the Magic Eye poster. Brodie might count too, given his general lack of social tact, unkempt appearance, and obsession with comic books, among other factors.
• Fridge Brilliance: During the game show, Brodie constantly swears, belittles Gil and acts obnoxious. Now it could be said he is acting like his usual self, but when you really think about it, he's deliberately making himself look bad, and making Gil look bad so TS would have a better chance at winning over Brandi. His swearing also means that much of the material is useless as a TV show. Doubles as Heartwarming in Hindsight.
• Friendly Fandoms: With Michael Moore's Canadian Bacon, which was produced by the same studio (despite both films now being owned by MGM and Universal respectively) and opened around the same time to similarly horrid returns. Smith and Moore later had to do a press conference together for their respective films and reportedly sulked all the way through, asking one another how much they had anticipated their movies would make.
• Heartwarming in Hindsight: One of the final cameos from Stan Lee before his death was in the '90s-set Captain Marvel, rehearsing his role in this film. Smith was driven to Tears of Joy by it.
• Hilarious in Hindsight:
  • When Stan Lee is advising Brodie to get together with this girlfriend, he ends by saying, "I'd give it all up, just for One More Day with her."
    • And of course, Stan Lee's cameo to begin with, as this was a good decade before he'd become famous for having a Creator Cameo in every movie in the MCU until his death in 2018.
  • Speaking of the MCU, Mr. Svenning's actor, Michael Rooker, would end up playing the role of Yondu in it. Perhaps Kevin influenced him?
  • The Duke "Fuck List" was an infamous 2010 Powerpoint slideshow that became an internet meme. It was made by an 'experienced' student, who rated all of her sexual encounters in almost the exact same fashion as Trish. Although the girl in question was a college student.
  • The opening credits had parody comics featuring the characters. Shannon's (Ben Affleck) was called Buttman Adventures. Affleck would later play Batman in the DC Extended Universe.
  • Brodie accusing Gil Hicks of being a "Closet Case Self Loather." Jason Lee who played Brodie, later goes on to play a character in Chasing Amy that is revealed to be the exact description of that.
  • Art James' last hosted game show, the original US version of Catchphrase, was replaced by Perfect Match, which was basically a knockoff of The Newlywed Game hosted by Bob Goen. Come 1995, Art James appears in this movie, playing the (fictional) host of a transparent ripoff of The Dating Game.
  • Brodie (Jason Lee) tells a story about his cousin using what he thinks are his last moments on an airplane going down to jerk off, only for the plane to straighten out. In Almost Famous, the drummer for Lee's character's band uses what he thinks are his last moments in an airplane going down to do... something slightly less embarrassing^note He tells everyone that he's gay. before the plane straightens out.
  • Here, Jason Lee and Ben Affleck are hostile enemies. In Kevin Smith's next film they play best friends.
  • In the extended cut, Brodie clarifies that it wasn't the theme from Mighty Mouse that he had Rene do a striptease to — it was Josie and the Pussycats. Six years later, Universal's film adaptation of that property would follow a similar trajectory as this movie did (Box Office Bomb, then a Cult Classic Vindicated by Cable). For even more delicious irony, Seth Green and Breckin Meyer, the two top candidates proposed by the studio to replace Jason Mewes as Jay, were in Josie too.
  • Brodie insisting it would be impossible for Lois Lane to carry Superman's baby to term. Yeah, about that...
• Just Here for Godzilla:
  • Some Charmed fans watch the movie for Shannen Doherty, as it's one of her few big theatrical roles.
  • For Marvel fans, Stan Lee's brief scene. Even moreso after his cameo in Captain Marvel (2019) referenced this movie.
• Retroactive Recognition:
  • This is one of the earliest film roles for Ben Affleck and the beginning of the longtime friendship between Affleck and Smith.
  • This is also Jason Lee's first film role, coming off of a successful career as a skateboarder.
  • Thorgrim / Lt. Michael "Tank" Ellis / Secundus is a security guard.
• Sophomore Slump: The film got a horrible critical reception after Clerks got Smith pegged as the next huge director.
• Tear Jerker: Stan Lee's story about his ex-girlfriend. Sure, it was actually just made up by TS's suggestion so it could motivate him to win back Rene, but it was still a pretty emotional scene.
• Tough Act to Follow: Coming right after Clerks made this film subject to a lot of unfair comparisons at the time. In the commentary, Smith chastises the video box description of Chasing Amy for outright lying by saying he'd made "a big splash with Clerks and an even bigger splash with Mallrats."
• Unintentional Period Piece: The film is pretty much dripping with 90s culture, from the outfits to the music. Even Truth Or Date, despite being a 60s/70s throwback, is indicative of what was nostalgic in the 90s. Arguably, just setting the movie in and around a shopping mall has noticeably dated it, given the decline of shopping malls in the 2010s and '20s due to the rise of online shopping exacerbated by the Covid-19 pandemic.
• Values Dissonance
  • Child Prodigy purposefully seeking out and initiating sex on her own terms or not, Tricia is still 15 years old (though at least played by an adult actress), meaning that, no matter how much she may insist that she consents, the law still says she's too young to do so and is actually getting raped by multiple adult men. Playing this for lighthearted laughs would have been considered risqué in 1995, but after The New '10s, when even the most gently implied sexualization of minors (even those played by adults) is considered wildly exploitative, it would've earned Kevin Smith a lot of very concerned looks.
  • In an age where the the general public is less accepting of the word "retarded" or its derivatives, considering it to be equally as offensive as any of the worst racial slurs (especially after Tropic Thunder's infamous "full retard" scene), René proclaiming her love for Brody by saying she "love(s) the little retard" doesn't come off nearly as endearing.

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