Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #19129 in DVD
• Released on: 2005-07-18
• Rating: Suitable for 18 years and over
• Aspect ratio: 1.85:1
• Formats: Anamorphic, Box set, PAL, Special Edition
• Original language: English
• Number of discs: 3
• Running time: 88 minutes

Amazon.co.uk Review
Before Kevin Smith became a Hollywood darling with Chasing Amy, a film he wrote and directed, he made Clerks, a $27,000 comedy about real-life experiences working for chump change at a New Jersey convenience store. A rude, foul-mouthed collection of anecdotes about the responsibilities that go with being on the wrong side of the till, the film is also a relationship story that takes some hilarious turns once the lovers start revealing their sexual histories to one another. In the best tradition of first-time, ultra-low budget independent films, Smith uses Clerks as an audition piece, demonstrating that he not only can handle two-character comedy but also has an eye for action--as proven in a smoothly handled rooftop hockey scene. Smith himself appears as a silent figure who hangs out on the fringes of the store's property. --Tom Keogh, Amazon.com

Synopsis
Chronicling a day in the life of Quick Stop clerk Dante Hicks, CLERKS captures the hilarity of the humdrum even as it raises slackerdom to existential proportions. From behind his counter, Dante desperately tries to exert some power over the crazy customers, his own love life, and his incorrigible friend and fellow clerk Randal--the type who sees nothing wrong in closing the video shop he works in to go rent movies from a better store.

Customer Reviews

Thirty-Seven?
Made in 1994 for $27,000 on Kevin Smith's credit cards, shot almost entirely at night in the store where he was working, oddball friends roped in for every job on both sides of the camera, and possibly the funniest script ever written specifically for 18-25s makes Clerks one of the greatest achievements in indie filmmaking.

We see a day in the life of downtrodden slacker Dante (Brian O'Halloran) who gets called into work in his convenience store in Anywheresville, New Jersey at dawn on his day off. What follows is the weirdest day in the history of low-end retail. No spoilers, but Dante is harassed both physically and mentally by his boss, his boss's wife, customers, friends, colleagues, sales reps, corpses, lovers, ex-lovers, ex-lovers of his ex-lovers and the two local drug dealers. He lurches back and forth between earth-shattering revelations and bizarre crises until someone from the past turns up and he makes his worst decision yet. The earlier events of the day are as nothing compared to what fate has in "store"..

Many of the sublime setups revolve around his best friend Randall (a seminal performance by Jeff Anderson) a video store operative who makes Dante look like a Lexus Dealer, and who is the source of Dante's chagrin on more than one occasion. The film also introduces Jay and Silent Bob (Jason Mewes, Smith's muse, and Smith himself) as the local substance wholesalers with wisdom beyond compare when Jay is not abusing the local community.

The script has just as many quotable lines as Withnail and I - grotesque, cringeworthy, profane in the extreme and very, very funny. Kevin Smith would never reach the same heights again, getting closest with Dogma, although all his films are watchable. Clerks does not appear on TV very often in the UK, and has not been available on R2 DVD before, so if you've only seen his more common recent work this film will put it those films in context. See how Jay and Silent Bob started out, and see all the characters that are referenced in "Mallrats", "Chasing Amy", "Dogma", and "Jay & Silent Bob Strike Back".

Just remember - NEVER walk into your local video shop and try and rent 'Happy Scrappy Hero Pup'...

a deliciously slick film about everything and nothing
black and white, take your average american guy, throw in a crappy job, a crazy mate, a couple of pavement drug dealers, a pretty lose girlfriend, and an ex, and you've got a day in the life of Dante. Superb acting. Superb dialogue. Superb direction, and a spit in the face at the million doller hollywood blockbusters. Who needs special effects when everything else is so delectable.
I defy you not to watch this film and love it.
And then go and tell your friends about it so they watch it to.
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I'm not even meant to be here today
The thing that makes clerks so special is that anybody can relate to it, it’s life.

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!

However the main highlight of the films isn’t the main characters, they are the side characters. Jay and silent Bob are perhaps the best movie characters of the last ten years, who themselves have created an empire and a cult status beyond belief. There are also characters such as (without trying to spoil anything) the antismoking mob leader, the guy on the quest to find the perfect egg and of course the old man wanting the employee only magazines. This is defiantly the perfect movie; please do not be put of by the black and white footage, because it is a modern film and one of the finest comedies ever.

The DVD is packed to the bone, the shorts are hilarious and brilliant, and the original cut of the movie is amazing to watch if you’re a fan of the movie, it also includes a brand new ending which changes the film completely. The Q and A is extremely funny and very insightful to the film. I am so glad we got this edition In the UK; I don’t think there could be a better way to compliment the film. Please buy it, its genius