Clever and entertaining enough to recommend even to members of the 1%

This movie feels like it was made purely to piss off people who want good shows

Blistering performances.

This movie tries so hard to be funny, yet it falls flat every time. Just another example of recycled ideas repackaged with women in an attempt to appeal to a certain audience.

Let me get the positive out of the way: Clerks actually has a really important message for the dissatisfied clerks of the world and dissatisfied people in general: if you don't like your life stop complaining and actually change it. That's a really good message that not a lot of movies try to tell nowadays.Unfortunately, this message is mostly lost amongst the non-talents of a first time director and his equally unskilled crew. Even for a first time director Kevin Smith displays a severe lack of education in basic film production. He doesn't use the rule of thirds, the pacing of his actors is abysmal, none of the backgrounds are composed properly and the cinematography is god awful (how hard is it to make it so that 90% of the shots aren't tilted over???) The acting from everybody involved can be likened to that of a middle school play (and even that's being generous) and most of the dialogue is contrived and unnatural sounding. Maybe this just hit a cord with a lot of Gen-Xers that watched it, but speaking only as a 20-year-old millennial, I'd just recommend watching it once and never again.

"Clerks" are about two guys, Dante and Randal. Dante is the main character, who is having the worst day of his life. The day never goes right for him, for starters he isn't meant to be at work, on top of that there are constant bickers with his girlfriend and not to mention his video store sidekick Randal. Whereas Dante is dislikeable and at times annoying Randal is the comic relief. A genius character, who doesn't give a damn about his work. The two characters work off each other brilliantly, the picture and direction may not be great but the script is genius, extremely funny and witty, which makes it one of the funniest movies of all time. Kevin Smith rocks!The charm of this film resides entirely in the dialogs and in strange and sometimes weird (even creepy) situations. The conversations between Dante and Randall cover a large variety of topics, including but not limited to "Star Wars" and life in general... The conversations they have with various customers are even better... Two small time marijuana dealers, Jay and Silent Bob, who make their sales in front of the two shops, intervene in a couple of occasions - they don't say much, but their contributions are important. The language is very strong and the humour occasionally doesn't fly very high but still, this film has considerable charm and some gags are simply irresistible. Cynical and lucid Randal is a character somehow more appealing than Dante, on whom the whole story focuses, but ultimately I grew fond of both of them. Bottom line, this is an excellent, quite clever little comedy, with certainly a lot of strong language (but ultimately not so many "F" bombs) and a little bit of necrophilia, but ultimately surprisingly tender and gentle.Overall rating: 9 out of 10.

-----SPOILERS AHEAD-----I love this film, some people might hate it, but I think it's the true definition of Black Comedy. I liked this movie better than Clerks II, even though, because I don't really plan reviewing Clerks II, I thought it was a 7/10. But this one is better in any way, shape or form. Dante is a shop clerk who normally gets in trouble thanks to his friend Randal, a troublesome boy who also works in the shop, for example, Randal showed a picture of a gaping vagina to a customer, he often annoys other customers, and gave cigarettes to a 4 year old, which caused Dante to lose 2 of his friends (I believe). Later on in the film, we discover that Dante's girlfriend "Veronica" had sex with a dead body, which became a major impact to me. Dante and Randal are seen wrestling in one scene, seriously injured, but then they make up for all the trouble that happened. There WAS an original ending to the film, which was Dante getting gunned down by a robber, which at first I didn't know it was there, but I was happy that wasn't the original ending, because it didn't have any context to the film, it happened randomly, and it wasn't essential for the film. Overall, this film is definitely a nice example of black comedy, I really liked it.

Writer / director / co-editor / supporting player Kevin Smith made a Hell of a breakthrough film with this fresh and funny comedy, which spans one whole day and night. Brian O'Halloran stars as Dante, a convenience store clerk who reluctantly reports to work on his day off. Discontent with his lot in life, he's frequently visited throughout the day by his friend Randal (Jeff Anderson). Randal is supposed to be working as a clerk at the video rental shop next door, but he can hardly be bothered to show up there. The movie shows what happens as Dante deals with the melodrama in his life, and deals with the assorted troublesome customers that come into his store.The main draw in this effectively paced movie is Smiths' often hilarious dialogue. Now, the dialogue ensures that the easily offended, or those people bothered by excess profanity, will be annoyed, but there are still some DAMN funny lines in this. Loosely based on "The Divine Comedy" (with nine breaks in the movie to represent the nine rings of Hell), it's all breathlessly performed by Smiths' capable cast of newcomers. O'Halloran is very engaging as a rather uptight guy who needs to learn to take some responsibility for his lot in life. Anderson is hilarious as his more carefree buddy. Sexy ladies Marilyn Ghigliotti and Lisa Spoonauer have plenty of appeal as the women in Dantes' life: Spoonauer is Caitlin, the ex- girlfriend whom he continues to pine over, and Ghigliotti is Veronica, the patient current girlfriend who encourages him to better himself, and does nice things for him, but whose sexual history becomes a sticking point for him. Jason Mewes and director Smith himself debut their slacker characters Jay and Silent Bob, who became fixtures in Smiths' filmography. Some of the various eccentric convenience store customers are amusing with their particular quirks. Shooting in black & white may have been a budgetary choice, but it gives "Clerks" a definite low budget charm.It's all made even more enjoyable with the eclectic rock soundtrack, including one of this viewers' favorite bands, Alice in Chains. That "Berserker" song is pretty damn priceless. And it's wrapped up in a rather tidy but satisfying fashion.Eight out of 10.