Clerks III

Clerks III

After narrowly surviving a massive heart attack, Randal enlists his old friend Dante to help him make a movie immortalizing their youthful days at the little convenience store that started it all.

  • Released:
  • Runtime: 120 minutes
  • Genre: Comedy
  • Stars: Jeff Anderson, Brian O'Halloran, Jason Mewes, Kevin Smith, Rosario Dawson, Marilyn Ghigliotti, Trevor Fehrman, Jennifer Schwalbach Smith, Austin Zajur, Scott Schiaffo, Justin Long, Fred Armisen, Ben Affleck, Sarah Michelle Gellar, Harley Quinn Smith, Ming Chen, Walt Flanagan, Bryan Johnson, Mike Zapcic, Jason szalma, Lisa hampton, AJ Wilkerson, Bob Leszczak, Robert Hawk, Ernest O'Donnell, Dave Ferrier, Brian Quinn, Ralph Garman, Melissa Benoist, Danny Trejo, Joe Gatto, James Murray, Bobby Moynihan, Grace Smith, Sal Vulcano, Ethan Suplee, Donnell Rawlings, Kate Micucci, Marc Bernardin, Freddie Prinze Jr., Anthony Michael Hall, Amy Sedaris, Chris Wood, Scott Mosier, Jake Richardson, Michelle Buteau, Marc Bernardin, AnnaMarie Brown, Yassir Lester
  • Director: Kevin Smith
 Comments
  • minigun-64449 - 24 May 2024
    Abysmal
    I didn't have high hopes for this film when I heard it was coming out, but I didn't expect it to be THIS bad...

    As a teenager, I absolutely adored Kevin Smith's films. I watched them all the time and they inspired me to want to make my own movies. I don't love his old classics nearly as much as I used to, but I still enjoy watching them from time to time, and I can still see the magic in them that made me fall in love with the whole View Askewniverse in the first place. I personally have not been into Kevin Smith's work since Clerks II, but this is just a brand-new low for him. It's hard to put into words, but I'll give it a shot.

    It's almost unfathomable how Kevin Smith could possibly have thought this was a suitable ending to the Clerks franchise. It just takes a giant dump on the entirety of the View Askewniverse and all of the fans who have supported Kevin Smith for all these years. During the movie's runtime, he manages to destroy literally everything people liked about his movies. I'd almost say it was talented just how much he managed to destroy in a fairly short runtime, but no talent was involved with this movie whatsoever (Kevin Smith lost all of his talent a long time ago). I knew the movie was gonna be bad when I saw that Becky had been killed off, and it certainly doesn't get any better from there. We have to get all the god damn meta humor with Randal having a heart attack (that plays out exactly as it did in real life for Kevin Smith), Elias becoming a Satanist (which isn't even remotely funny), then a literal recreation of the production of the original Clerks. He then adds insult to injury by having Becky come back as a ghost in the graveyard (which is just a pointless scene that only exists to list off all the famous dead people Becky has had sex with), and then he kills off Dante (who has a heart attack because he didn't go "vegan" or whatever). That's pretty much the movie, but just when you think it can't get any worse, we get to hear Kevin Smith's stupid voice interrupt the ending credits by going on a moronic diatribe that ends with him talking about a scene that got cut from the film that was "important". If it was so god damn important to you, Kevin, then why didn't you put it in the movie?! This just shows us how much Kevin Smith's brain functions have declined in recent years.

    There's pretty much nothing positive to say about this movie. I guess Jeff Anderson and Jason Mewes did okay with the material they were given, but that's really about it. Why anyone would want to watch this crap, I don't know. Kevin Smith has done dozens of interviews, documentaries and so on and so forth about the making of the original Clerks. We don't need another retelling of that story. It's obvious at this point that Kevin Smith is just a has-been who's having a midlife crisis reminiscing on his "good ol' days" and it's just embarrassing to witness him acting like a moron in public like this. I hope he goes to bed every night embarrassed that he made this movie and released it to the public. I know I sure would if I made this. This should be named in the same breath as movies like Foodfight when talking about the worst movies ever made. I honestly think the 1 star is generous, but it's the lowest score I can give on here.
  • bowmanblue - 24 October 2023
    The ultimate in 'fan service'
    There were few more film-makers in the 90s who influenced me more than Kevin Smith. After all, he invented the 'shared universe' long before Marvel brought it to the big screen! I was almost his one man publicity machine back then, getting as many of my friends into his world as I could. However, slowly his films changed and I think the last one I actually enjoyed was 'Clerks 2' way back in 2006. Now, when I think of Kevin Smith, I just see him crying over bad 'Star Wars' films on YouTube and the abomination of his 'He-Man' series on Netflix. The when he rebooted his most famous characters 'Jay and Silent Bob' on the big screen I don't think I laughed once during its runtime.

    What I'm saying is that my hopes were not high when I sat down to watch 'Clerks III.' I don't remember it even being released in the cinemas (but then that could have been something to do with the global pandemic). So I finally decided to watch it on a streaming service. And - eventually - I was glad I did.

    I kind of starts off a bit on shaky ground. We're back at the Quickstop shop and lifelong buddies Dante and Randal are embarking on yet another day in the life of an employee there. I'm fine with regurgitating the setting, but the jokes seemed to take a while to get going and, when they did, I just felt they'd lost their realistic edge (I was on the brink of turning it off when a doctor in a hospital arrived to the ward wearing a Halloween witch's costume. But I stuck with it.

    And I was rewarded for doing so, as I ended up getting a film that wasn't just laugh out loud funny, but also quite heart felt in more than one place. The story centres on the two main characters deciding to chronicle their lives on film, i.e. Making a film of the first film (how meta!). And that was great - for me. But then I've seen - and loved - every film in the 'Viewaskewniverse' (with the exception of the Jay and Silent Bob reboot). So I was well catered for, picking up on every sly wink and nod to camera and the relating back to past exploits and stories.

    If this film truly has a 'downside' is that, if I pictured myself as watching it out of the blue with no knowledge regarding what has come before, I simply wouldn't have 'got' anything. I wouldn't have a clue why the things that were happening were funny or tragic (or both).

    So, basically, if you're a fan of Smith's early work then this is the ideal conclusion to the 'world' he's created. However, if you have no idea of anything that's come before this I would probably recommend starting with the original 'Clerks' film - don't worry, it still holds up (and the sequel is pretty good, too).
  • downtomovie - 20 June 2023
    Kevin Smith Reborn?
    A movie that I really did not see ever being made from the original being released in 1994 or the sequel which is one of my favorite Kevin Smith flicks in 2006. This movie is based on Kevin Smith's massive heart attack that changed his life as well as the behind the scenes making of the original Clerks film which was Smith's first film where he maxed out multiple credit cards to finance and had him become one of the most popular indie filmmakers of the 1990's. What I did not expect watching this movie was for it to pull as the heart strings and be such an emotional watch that the film was. The movie also offered several laughs as most Kevin Smith movies do for me as I have been a fan since seeing Mallrats on ABC in my younger years. There is a really fun audition scene with several cameos in the middle of the movie which was fun and did not overstay it's welcome. Like I said there are parts of this movie that caused me to get misty eyed and that is something that Kevin Smith has really done to me but I am definitely excited about a revisiting of this one when it comes to physical media which will happen as Kevin Smith has praised the success of Jay and Silent Bob Reboot on Blu-Ray and DVD which essentially got Clerks 3 made by Lionsgate.
  • info-585-712090 - 1 January 2023
    Didn't Expect To Cry
    I love Kevin's movies and Clerks is a classic. Went into this expecting to laugh and be entertained but at no point expected to be crying.... Twice. Generally a beautiful way to end the trilogy. Hats of to Mr Smith for the curve ball and for the memories.

    2022 was a really busy year and I had been holding off to watch Clerks 3 to when I could just sit on my own while the family were busy to I could get to enjoy a movie without being interrupted. My wife walked in at the last 10 secs and was wondering why I was crying and it was too hard to explain how Clerks is a big part of who I am since a young teenager to finally now as The story comes to an end. I think it was even more emotionally knowing it was from Kevin's heart and how he felt.
  • jayandmichele - 18 December 2022
    Disappointing
    First off, I get it. Kevin had a heart attack and was snacked in the face with his own mortality. I get that he wanted to convey that feeling into a movie. However, one of the (formerly) funniest franchises I've ever seen isn't the place to do it IMO. There were definitely some funny parts. Elias's character was hilarious. But every time I was enjoying and laughing at the movie, it never failed to take that as a challenge to kill the mood and make it depressing. I'd been looking forward to this movie since I heard it was going to be made. I was extremely disappointed as I was expecting the hysterical content I've come to expect from Randall and Dante but it just didn't materialize.
  • gratefulbambina - 5 December 2022
    I'm grieving so hard
    I just can't wrap my head around this. Why would you take the best comedy into such deep drama like this? When Rosario Dawson, Trevor Fehrman, and Jennifer Schwalbach Smith joined for Clerks 2 it brought it to a whole new level of funny. Then Clerks 3 just ripped it all away. I am so crushed and disappointed. I would love to see what the original script was when you wanted to film it a couple years ago when Jeff Andersen didn't want to do it. Maybe you should if killed off his character and made it with the 4 actors that made Clerks 2 what it was. I feel horrible that I hated this so much. I wish that it went a completely different direction to close the chapter. Clerks has been my favorite movie for 28 yrs and now I'm grieving it. I don't want to feel sad thinking of my favorite comedy!!! 😭
  • james-george-wall - 18 November 2022
    It's a mixed bag
    It's a real mixed bag. But an improvement on the Jay and Bob Reboot film.

    Let's start with the bad.

    There's some unfunny moments, jokes that miss the mark, and there's some bad acting (which sometimes falls on the side of endearing). The whole casting scene is pretty cringe, and there's some great cameo, which I felt could've been used better. But mostly there's far too much winking at the camera, the film is meta enough without all the "see what I just did there?" moments and call bags. Randell's hair is truly awful.

    The first 15 minutes or so are a little rough to watch, but once you're in the swing of it and climatized to the tone of the film it gets better.

    The good stuff.

    It's always nice to see these characters back together, the nostalgia always wins. The dramatic scenes work much better than the the big comedy moments. There's actually a really sweet film amongst the d!ck and fart jokes. It's a film for fans of Kevin Smith and it's actually nice to see him finish off this series. And there's a VO over the credits that makes you feel warm inside. I felt like this could be Kevin's last film, but I'm sure the gang will be back again in Mallrats 2 or another Jay and Bob movie.

    I don't really know where Kevin is going with his career, will he try anything original again... or is he sticking to this group of characters... I guess we'll have to wait and see.
  • lineart-12973 - 4 November 2022
    Nerve-wracking
    If you can make it through the first songs without wanting to scream or kill yourself then this film may be for you.

    Now here comes the filler to get the inexplicably required number of characters to make this a review.

    If it was 200 years ago do you think humanity would just die out from CV-19 - a disease with almost no mortality in people of child bearing years.

    This is why people ignore doctors. They keep saying stupid stuff.

    Vaccination will help reduce mortality among the elderly and high risk people and that is itself a noble goal. However if we did nothing this disease would pass as most disease pass because of the same evolution mechanisms that have served us for thousands of years. When you say nonsense and treat the vaccine as a holy goal in itself without any basis in statistical reality you sound like a zealot not a scientist.

    The earth has been heating and cooling for thousands of years, long before the industrial revolution. The historical data shows that the earth heat's up before the carbon levels go up. It's been like this for thousands of years. The data also shows that 90% of the carbon emitted into the air comes from mother nature. If man some how goes back to the stone age that will only cut 10% of the emissions. The idea that man is responsible for global warming is a hoax. The scientist who supports man made global warming are given free access to the platform and those who appose the idea of man made global warming are silenced.