I am a big fan of Kevin Smith, a director chock full of pop culture references that he dwells with more depth than even pop-culture savvy Tarantino. But it is Smith's heart and soul that he injects into his New Jersey characters, either from the View Askewniverse or otherwise, that makes them real and unassuming. "The 4:30 Movie" is not at the top of his game and is too slight to really score but it is an amiable effort. I only wish the focus was more squarely on Kevin Smith's alter ego than some unnecessary characters that I did not get much mileage out of.
It is New Jersey sometime in 1986 when movies like "Top Gun" ruled the box-office and when everyone has an interest in checking out "Poltergeist II" (eh, not me at that time since 1986 was one of the worst years for Hollywood movies but I digress). The Kevin Smith alter ego is Brian David (a most appealing Austin Zajur), a movie fanatic who keeps going to the same cinema house to see "Astro Blaster." The truth is he wants to go out with Melody (Siena Agudong), a girl he almost went to second base with over a year earlier. Brian David has his "Say Anything" moment where he calls her at a restaurant, pretending to order food when he just wants to ask her to see the R-rated "Bucklink" (most definitely modeled on "Fletch"). Yes, avid Smith fans, a date in a Kevin Smith never goes smoothly, does it? Somehow, in this movie, it sort of works out and so whatever hangups or rejection could exist is mysteriously absent. There is no real urgency.
"The 4:30 Movie" is about Brian David and his two friends, the very horny Burny (Nicholas Cirillo) and Belly (Reed Northrup), a dweeb who loves to wrestle and is always excited at the prospect of it. Seeing these three kids going to the movies and thinking of sneaking into R-rated flicks is sort of fun for a while, yet it gets repetitious and a bit numbing. I wanted more scenes between Brian and Melody, thus Smith could easily have made a charming "Before Sunrise"-type flick of just these two and their misadventures. Instead we are saddled with an unlikable theater manager (Ken Jeong) who drives around in a Batmobile and we get a fictitious angry wrestler named Major Murder - these two characters are toothless at best. The faux trailers for movies that never existed is cute yet overextended. And Rachel Dratch as Brian's mother who calls the movie theater to berate her son for not bathing the cat also drags on past the tolerable meter.
"The 4:30 Movie" could have had Smith aiming for the skies, really ramping up the shenanigans of the three close friends and the romantic entanglement between Brian and Melody (this couple is one of the most disarming and sweetest young couples I have seen in the movies in a while). Still, Smith stops short of going further than he could have with this autobiographical take. It is not a comic blast of a movie - just a cool, slight breeze nostalgic trip of a movie.
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