While listening to a podcast a few days ago, the movie “Clerks” came up, and I realised I had not seen it. A quick search on Amazon revealed it for a reasonable price, so I clicked the infamous Buy It Now button. Amazon were evidently in a generous mood, because they sent me two copies for twice the price.
I digress.
Last night we sat down to watch the movie. It’s worth mentioning that my only exposure to a Kevin Smith movie previously has been Dogma - a movie I loved; principally because of the supporting cast (Alan Rickman, Chris Rock, Alanis Morissette). Sitting down to watch Clerks, I was optimistic because I usually like movies that have attained cult status - Office Space is excellent, for example.
I’m not quite sure how to put this, so I’m just going to write down the primary thought in my head - I thought Clerks was monumentally crap. Really, really rubbish. Boring, and not that funny at all - unless being needlessly nasty to people is your idea of humour. After it finished I wandered over to Rotten Tomatoes to check the reviews, and couldn’t believe my eyes.
How on earth is this movie loved so much by the critics ? Reading down through the glowing comments, I got the sense that all these esteemed couch potatos working for the broadsheets dared not speak out because they would be contradicting their sycophantic peers.
The only scene that will perhaps remain in my memory of the movie is a predictably nerdy discussion about how many contractors must have been killed when the half built Death Star was destroyed in Empire Strikes Back - unfortunately that one scene was outweighed (for me) by the entire rest of the movie.
I know I’m going to be in the minority by failing to recognise the supposed brilliance of Clerks. Does anybody want a copy of it ?