 Ah Kevin Smith. Writer, director, all-around cool guy and personal sorta kinda doppelganger. No matter what you feel about his movies, you can't help but love the dude behind the scenes. His career got its start here with a low-budget project called 'Clerks'.
It's funny, I remember being 13 years old, at home, sick with a terrible flu. My TV's "default" channel was the Viewers Choice preview channel - where you'd see short trailers for what was playing on Pay Per View. 'Clerks', I recall, was one of these. It looked like it could be neat, but being 13 and a bit of a goody-goody at the time, I didn't exactly show interest. Fast-forward to 2001 when 'Jay & Silent Bob Strike Back' was released. THAT was my actual intro to Kevin Smith's world, and I kinda worked backwards from there. But the movie that stood out the most to me in the group - 'Clerks'. By the time I was introduced to it, I was working at a grocery store, so the connection was pretty solid. I couldn't help but find the movie hilarious because it was so relatable. It also helped that I was at that perfect age of 20 at the time. It's always been one of the few movies out there that truly spoke to me. You could tell Kevin Smith did his time in retail, and that's who I wanna speak to with this suggestion more than anyone. If you have ever worked in retail, which I think ends up being most people out there, this movie is for you - especially if you work in a grocery or convenience store. The film serves as a sort of voice for this group. It's everything that we all, deep down, WISH we could get away with saying. The film itself centers on Dante Hicks (Brian O'Halloran), who gets called into work on his day off. He works as a clerk at a Leonardo, New Jersey grocery store called the "Quick Stop" (and it 100% exists in real life, which is pretty cool). He opens up the store, and proceeds to spend his day conversing with his friend Randal Graves (Jeff Anderson), serving customers, and pining over his ex Caitlin Bree (Lisa Spoonauer) while still dating his current girlfriend, Veronica (Marilyn Ghigliotti). On paper, the film doesn't sound altogether exciting. However, it's loaded with little subplots that add to the humour of it all. Some of the conversations that take place are hysterical. Anything from the loss of maintenance workers on the second Death Star to Randal's argument that title does not dictate behavior. The film has a sort of charm to it wherein, if you've ever worked in retail, you get it. In closing, it should probably be known that 'Clerks' is ONLY available in black and white! Some will say it's in colour, but it never, ever was. It's actually KNOWN for being presented in black and white. That said, it's just something to keep in mind that this one was shot on a very low budget. It was Smith's foot in the door project, so please just don't allow the quality to take away from the experience. I said it before, and I'll say it again - if you've ever worked in retail, check it out!
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 It has been quite some time since I've done one of these. Why not go with a true blue classic? If you were to ask me what my overall favorite all-time comedy was, I'd say... 'Monty Python and the Holy Grail'... but if you looked on the other side of the coin, you'd probably find 'Young Frankenstein'.
In Mel Brooks' classic, Gene Wilder plays the grandson of the infamous Dr. Frankenstein. However, he disassociates himself from his family name by going by Frederick "Fronk-en-steen". He has inherited his grandfather's castle in Transylvania. Upon arriving in Transylvania, he meets Igor (Marty Feldman, and it's actually pronounced "Eye-gore"), whose grandfather once worked for Frederick's. Frederick eventually meets his lovely new assistant, Inga (Teri Garr) and the castle's caretaker, Frau Blücher (Cloris Leachman) as he settles in. Eventually, he is drawn to his grandfather's private library, where he discovers his grandfather's plans to resurrect a human being, and the whole thing goes from there as a sort of parody of the original 'Frankenstein' as only Mel Brooks can do. Adding to the cast are an array of names. Peter Boyle, who most would know by now as Frank from 'Everybody Loves Raymond' plays the Monster, and does a brilliant job of it all without ever having to speak. His facial expressions and body language just say it all. Gene Hackman plays a blind man, and along with Boyle provides arguably the funniest scene of the movie. The lovely Madeline Kahn as Frederick's tightly-wound fiancee is often quite funny, as she plays the kind of woman who won't let Frederick do anything. And finally there's Kenneth Mars as Inspector Kemp - a guy with a fake arm and a bit of a speech impediment who leads the eventual angry mob. When put altogether, the writing and visual humour are both hilarious, making for a fine balance. It's incredibly quotable, and it seldom relies on crude humour. When it does, though, it does it cleverly. Being that it's farcical about one of the biggest titles in cinematic history, there is even something about it that's timeless. So, if you've never seen 'Young Frankenstein' before and need a good, genuine laugh while keeping things relatively light, I can tell you that it has never failed to bring a smile to my face. Of all the Mel Brooks films out there, it's easily my personal favourite. |
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