This is a funny movie and the facts behind its production only proves that you can make miracles without no money but a shed load of enthusiasm and talent. Kevin Smith has both and this movie proves it. Released in 1994 with on a budget of around $27k this movie went on to make $3.2m at the box office. Written and directed by Kevin Smith he also produced it along with Scott Mosier. Starring Brian O'Halloran, Jeff Anderson, Marilyn Ghigliotti, Jason Mewes, Lisa Spoonauer, and of course Kevin Smith. The producers edited the movie as well. Predominantly shot in a shop where Smith was working nights so he could use the shop and wrote into the story that the shutters are jammed hence them being down throughout the whole movie. He would edit the movie together on the video’s out the back of the shop and roped in friends and members of his family to appear in the movie. Costing next to nothing to make IMDb gave it a creditable score for them at 7.7 out of 10 and Rotten Tomatoes gave it more than me with a 89%.
The story itself follows a young man called Dante Hicks who on his day off is called into work at the Quick Stop Groceries Store. Arriving at the store he discovers that the locks to the security shutters ae jammed with chewing gum and he devises a massive sign with boot polish and a sheet saying ‘I ASSURE YOU: WE’RE OPEN’. The shop next door is manned by another clerk called Randal Graves who is a bit of a slacker and works in a video rental store. The two prepare for the day in retail and are visited by various customers throughout the day. With Dante keeping the mantra of ‘I’m not even supposed to be here today’ throughout the movie. They manage to slack off for a hockey match on the roof and visit a wake. The story goes into more detail of Dante’s life and his conflicting feelings for his current and his ex girlfriends all whilst various other shoppers drop in and then leave. There are two notable shoppers or fixtures that park themselves outside the front of the store for the majority of the day. Namely Jay and Silent Bob who’s characters have appeared in many of Kevin Smith’s movies thereafter. Well this is where they begun.
This movie has probably gone beyond cult status now and is nearly into mainstream. The humour is spoken and the dialogue is continuous. This is a fast paced conversations where monologue follows monologue all whilst the writer, director and one of the characters in the movie plays an almost silent character throughout all his movies. Played to perfection in black and white this is just funny. It discussed crude and rude things but that’s as far as it goes there are many references to popular culture with references to Star Wars and Jaws plus others. It is just funny. If you haven’t given yourself the chance to watch this one then you really truly have missed out. This gave birth to a career for Kevin Smith and you could argue sequels but better explained saying it gave View Askew a universe for those characters to return and reference themselves and become loved by so many fans. There was a direct sequel called unsurprisingly Clerks 2 which I was dreading as when you have something this great I really don’t want to darken its name with a weak sequel. This wasn’t the case so I would recommend this and any other Kevin Smith vehicle out there. GO ENJOY because you really will!
Next up is Kevin Smith again.
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