Clerks (1994)

Clerks is a movie I could talk about all day, so I'll try my best to keep this short and to the point. Clerks is Write/Director Kevin Smith's first movie. It's very low budget (around $30,000), it's in black and white (cheaper film), and the acting really isn't great. And you know what, I don't care about any of that, because this movie will make you wet your pants with laughter.

Clerks is the story of two convenience/video store employees, Dante Hicks (Brian O'Halloran) and Randal Graves (Jeff Anderson) and the trials and tribulations of their daily lives as a store clerk in New Jersey. The movie starts with Dante opening the Quick Stop after being called in on his day off. Randal, being the ever vigilant employee that he is, eventually shows up late for his shift at the video store next door. The movie's focus is on these employees, and the misery that ensues at their dead end job. The film lacks a lot of movement from location to location (aside from a short hockey game on the roof, a car scene, a short stint at  a funeral home), and really grasps at the brains of these two individuals. Both characters contrast well with one another. They are best friends, but are very different entities. Randal is an outspoken, outgoing, "do as I feel" sort of man, while Dante is somewhat shy and timid. He hate's his job, but also hates the idea of change.

The film is full of memorable movies, including the introduction of two well known and popular characters Jay (Jason Mewes) and Silent Bob (Kevin Smith). Smith uses this movie to eventually build a long series of movies including Mallrats, Chasing Amy, Dogma, Jersey Girl, and Clerks II, which all tie into one universe. He's much like John Hughes (Pretty in Pink, Breakfast Club, ect.) in that all his movies focus around the same town and similar characters, but all have very different plots. Unlike Hughes however, Smith practices his right of free speech a great deal more. Sexual jokes and crude language are abundant in all of his films, and more present in Clerks than anywhere else. It may offend some, but the wittiness of the writing proves to make a hilarious movie.

The movie is rated R as it may include "adult themes, adult activity, hard language, intense or persistent violence, sexually-oriented nudity, drug abuse or other elements" according to Netflix. Although I agree with most of this, the nudity and violence isn't really present at all aside from the hockey game and a short fight with Randal and Dante. This movie is however a true masterpiece, despite what it looks like, or how the acting is. It focuses on solid characters in a very relate-able theme (at least if you've ever worked in a retail store of any type). If I was giving movies a star rating on here, it would easily be a 7 out of 4. That's 175% awesomeness. Be sure to check it out while it's on instant queue. Hopefully you like it as much as I do. Happy watching!