Hell hath no fury like a woman scorned for Sega.

Mallrats: 10th Anniversary Extended Edition and Chasing Amy. Most fans of Kevin Smith can tell you all about how they were one of the first people to see Clerks, and it meant so much to them because they were working behind the counter in some shitty hourly job. Not me. I can trace my fanboy crush to Christmas 1995, when I was trapped at Tyson’s Corner mall looking for some way to avoid the holiday masses and ended up ducking into the multiplex, where Mallrats looked like they best way to kill a couple hours. I don’t know if it was the slew of comic book jokes, the foul-mouthed humor, or just a feeling of kinship for a fellow Jersey boy, but I was hooked. I’ve stayed with Smith through good times (Chasing Amy, Dogma) and bad (Jersey Girl, Clerks II). I even made the pilgrimage to his comic book store in New Jersey when I was living out there. But as I’ve gotten older, age has given me a new perspective on his films, which was well-illustrated by the mini-marathon I watched yesterday.

I started with the 10th Anniversary edition of Mallrats, which Smith and producer/sidekick Scott Mosier re-edited from the original dailies. The addition of a new opening scene and some extra dialogue extends the film by 15 minutes or so, but unfortunately it mostly serves to expose the biggest weaknesses of the film: Some pretty horrible acting by Jeremy London and Michael Rooker, and an overwrought build of the main plotline. Instead of extending this film, Smith might have done better to re-edit the original and remove some of the unnecessary scenes. Some of the moments that used to make me laugh still earn a snicker, but mostly, the movie feels dated and stiff to me, and nowhere near as funny as I used to rank it. On the positive side, in an example of life imitating art, Mallrats’ biggest contribution was to expose the talents of Jason Lee to the world (much like the game show scene that ends the film), and to bring him together for the first time with Ethan Supplee, who now plays Lee’s dimwitted brother Randy on My Name is Earl. Also, thanks to Mallrats, I developed a crush on Joey Lauren Adams, which brings me to the next movie.

To put this in a frame of reference, I have a soft spot for romantic comedies, but not if they’re just the typical Hollywood crap. If a filmmaker can do things a little differently by putting a twist on the traditonal rom-com formula, then I usually enjoy it, which is why Chasing Amy is one of my top 3 favorite movies. I mean, how many other films boast a plotline of “boy meets girl, boy discovers girl likes girls, they fall in love anyway and everything is going great until boy finds out about girl’s pre-lesbian sexual history and his crushing jealousy and insecurity ruin everything”? We’ve all been there, right? Sounds like a bit of a downer, but this kind of story plays right into Smith’s wheelhouse. Instead of a bunch of throwaway dick and fart jokes, here he applies his wry humor to what ultimately becomes an examination of sexuality in mid-90’s slacker America, and how in the end, sexual preference is outweighed by being able to get past the prejudices we’re all conditioned to believe. As the tagline for the movie reads, “It’s not who you love. It’s how.” But in amongst all the pseudo-psychological subtext, there’s also a very sweet and heartbreaking love story, featuring a pre-action-hero-phase Ben Affleck in the last role I enjoyed him in until Hollywoodland, Jason Lee in a great role as Affleck’s homophobic friend who doth protest too much, and Joey Lauren Adams (*sigh*) as the gorgeous lesbian who might just like guys after all (a little too much for Affleck, as it turns out). Unlike Mallrats, outside of some obvious 90’s fashion, Amy doesn’t feel dated at all, mainly because love and heartbreak are universal themes. But for me, the power of the movie is this: Every time I watch it, I always end up feeling drained, like I just rode the same emotional rollercoaster that the main characters did. It’s not often in this age of slick special effects that movies suck you in so completely. When one does manage to connect emotionally, that makes it something special, and that’s why Chasing Amy will always be one of my favorites.