What’s Your Favorite Easter Movie? Mine’s MALLRATS
I tried to think the other day what my favorite Easter movie is. I drew a blank. While every December we get inundated with Christmas movies, come spring the same doesn’t happen with Easter-themed flicks? I pondered this my question some more and finally decided to answer that my favorite Easter movie is Mallrats.
Now before I get into the how and why I chose Mallrats, let’s consider other movies worthy of this distinction. There are two that probably come to mind that for many reasons should be considered as superior movies. Specifically, The Passion of the Christ and Harvey.
The Passion of Christ is without a doubt the ultimate Easter movie, or more technically the ultimate Good Friday movie. I saw it twice in the movie theater and don’t think I’ve ever seen anything like it. It definitely captured the brutality that happened to Jesus following his arrest, trial, torture and crucifixion than any movie ever has.
Yet Passion isn’t a movie you simply throw on and watch. It’s one you need to be mentally prepared for. Its imagery is going to take you some place else emotionally, whether you’re a Christian or not.
The other movie that you’d think might pop up on the top of the list is Harvey starring James Stewart. Writing this reminds me that I need to watch Harvey. I never saw the entire film. I only remember seeing parts of it over the year on Channel 5 as a kid.
As a movie lover, it’s a little bit embarrassing to admit that I haven’t seen Harvey in its entirety. But since I haven’t seen it and The Passion is a deep experience, that elevates Mallrats as my favorite Easter movie.
What does Mallrats have to do with Easter you ask? It’s a movie about love lorn slackers hanging out at their local mall with “no shopping agenda.”
But Mallrats take place in the weeks leading up to Easter. Hence there’s an Easter Bunny Court for pictures set up in one part of the mall. “It’s been there since two days after Christmas,” Brodie, played by Jason Lee, tells his friend, T.S. Quint, portrayed by Jeremy London as they arrive at their local mall.
And this Easter Bunny does figure in prominently for one of the best gags in the movie.
When Brodie is beat up by the film’s villain Shannon Hamilton, played by pre-Good Will Hunting Ben Affleck, his wise-ass comment about his assailant to the malls two biggest slackers, Jay and Silent Bob, leads to one of the most disturbing and hysterical scenes in the movie.
You can see how it all goes down here.
Mallrats was Kevin Smith’s follow-up to his break out hit Clerks. When I first rented it on video I had no idea that Jay and Silent Bob had a role in it. I loved them in Clerks and was glad to have them back.
Since then I followed them on all their misadventures in Chasing Amy, Dogma, Jay & Silent Bob Strike Back, Clerks 2 and even Scream 3. Yes, they were in it for a brief cameo.
I’ve been a huge fan of Kevin Smith’s, especially the way he broke into Hollywood with Clerks back in 1994. I’ve seen him in person three times. Once at the Writers Guide Theater as he did a solo Q&A, another time when he and Scott Mosier were signing DVDs of Dogma. Most recently I saw Smith with Jason Mewes at the Ontario Improv as part of their Jay and Silent Bob Get Old tour.
I will admit that I never got into the non-Jay and Silent Bob movies. I also worried that I might have outgrown his ViewAskewiverse stories. Watching Smith and Mewes tell their stories and interact, I realized I will probably never outgrow these two. They crack me up.
Kevin Smith says he penned scripts for Clerks 3 and Mallrats 2. However, deals for those movies never came together. That’s probably for the best as I don’t know if those stories need to be revisited.
But Kevin is making Jay and Silent Bob Reboot. He and Mewes did a read of a scene from early in the script during their performance and I was howling. I’m eager for their return to the big screen.
Which was what got me thinking of Mallrats. For the longest time, it had been my favorite of the Askewniverse films. I popped it on the other night and I was immediately transported back to the glorious center of the 1990’s.
The music, the fashion, even hanging out at the mall because that’s what you did. It all came back to me.
Back in 1995 when Mallrats came out, many afternoons my friends and I would head over to the Tyler Mall, grab some lunch, and just walk around. We’d hit the video store (Suncoast Motion Picture Co.), the bookstore (B.Dalton Booksellers), and music store (Music Plus). Often we wouldn’t buy anything ’cause just like Brodie and T.S. we didn’t have a shopping agenda.
So is Mallrats the movie you should watch for Easter? If you’re a fan of Jay and Silent Bob’s and haven’t seen it in while, then by all means, throw it on. If you don’t know what I’m talking about, then watch Clerks.
If you enjoy it then yes you are ready to watch Mallrats, especially if you want to visit the mall twenty some years ago.
