During Mallrats shooting, two friends of Kevin Smith, Malcolm Ingram and Matt Gissing, recruited Mallrats' cast for their own project. This is extremely low-budget black and white movie, in which, at least as cameo, appear almost whole cast of Mallrats. IMDb says it is comedy, but it's crap. This has almost nothing to do with comedy. It is drama/adventure, with pretty good story, and Jason Lee carries it beautifully. The rest of the crew is good too, but their characters are not so well developed. Technically, movie is pretty bad, with unbalanced sound that almost disappears few times, and all together it leaves overall impression of amateur movie, or maybe homework of first year film student. But there are some great shots too. For some reason, most of rips on internet have first 15 minutes missing, but full 76 minutes version can easily be found to watch online. And do not even try to search for subtitles in any language. I warmly recommend using headphones to be able to understand all the lines. If you are not View Askew fan you should probably skip this, but if you like Kevin Smith movies, you are fan of Clerks or even Blair Witch Project, I think you'll find it worthy of your time.7/10

Posted from myspace.com/lyonsfreelance.com An obsessed fan of Star Trek may be called a Trekkie. I call myself an Askewie: an obsessed fan of View Askew. There are now many films produced under View Askew, but the ones truly deserving to be obsessed by an Askewie are the ones in theView Askew Universe: Clerks, Mallrats, Chasing Amy, Dogma, Jay And Silent Bob Strike Back, and Clerks II (It is permittable, however, to enjoy other movies by the View Askew God, Kevin Smith, such as Jersey Girl and Zack and Miri Make A Porno) But what about their red-headed step-sibling? What about that rare lost View Askew film, Drawing Flies? What about it?Drawing Flies may be arguably part of the aforementioned series with many names:Askewniverse,New Jersey Trilogy, the Clerks films, etc. Although it is not written and directed by Kevin Smith, in which the others are, but by Malcolm Ingram, who did the less-known View Askew produced film, Small Town Gay Bar. Kevin Smith is, however, the producer, along with his partner, Scott Mosier (no, not that kind of partner, you sicko, that partner is Jen Schwalbach). The arguable points in favor are one: most of the cast are from other Clerks films (as Kev seems to enjoy recycling actors); and two: Askewniverse characters are employed in this film (as Kev seems to enjoy recycling characters).The said cast are Jason Lee, Jason Mewes, Joey Lauren Adams (credited as Lauren Lyle), Renee Humphrey (Tricia Jones from Mallrats), and Carmen Llywelyn (Kim, Alyssa Jones's girlfriend in Chasing Amy; and the model of the poster in which Silent Bob crashes through and into the dressing room to reveal, again, Joey Lauren Adams, in Mallrats) (credited as her married name at the time to co-star, Jason Lee). The said characters are Silent Bob and William Black, portrayed respectively by their original actors, Kevin Smith and Ethan Suplee. The said are also credited as their character names ("Silent Bob as himself" and "Ethan as William Black").The story follows roommates, Lee, Lee, Mewes, Humphrey, and no-namer Martin Brooks, into the British Columbian woods for a camping/hiking trip after refused from their Welfare checks. Throughout their joint-and-vodka-fueled adventures, they stumble across a diaper clad gang led by Scott Mosier.Only later do they realize that they were used for a "delusional" mission of Jason Lee's character, Donner, to discover Sasquatch. After learning of Donner's ploy, wounded Az (Mewes) and Cassidy (Mrs. Lee) leave the rest of the gang to return to ....Vancouver...., while Meg (Humphrey) and Jake (Brooks) attempt to nurse Donner back to sanity. Meg and Jake fail however as Donner plunges to lows of rubbing himself in "sasquatch" feces and even eating it! The acting can be said to have been lost if wasn't for Mr. Lee's "Atlas" role of carrying the film on his shoulders, according to a reviewer on IMDb.com. Also, the quality is very low in the looks and sounds department. Clerks was also in black and white but did not look as shitty as this. In addition, I had a difficult time trying to classify the genre between my choices of comedy and drama, no clear signs were shown. Again, I'm going to have to recommend that you reserve some time from your busy movie-viewing life for Drawing Flies, the possible lost View Askew film.To read more reviews or other forms of writing from me, check out my aforementioned site.

First, I love Canada and Vancouver, it's a gorgeous city often used for filming locations. Finally a film set in Vancouver but we don't see any sights. You can tell it's a Kevin Smith film whether he produced or financed it himself. I see him at the party with his buddy Jason Mawes who played Az. Jason Lee without his famous mustache is quite believable as Donner, the man who seeks to find Bigfoot in British Columbia but cons his friends into going with him on a camping trip until they straighten their messed up empty lives. In the beginning, all of the characters live off the Canadian government with no desire to get jobs or seek a respectable living. Once they are cut off from welfare, Donner convinces the gang to visit his uncle's cabin in the deep woods of British Columbia but Donner has other motives. There is too much cursing or swearing going on here in the film. We never get to know the real characters. While the directors of this film are new, I believe in time that they will rise to better directors. I am donating my DVD to entertain the troops overseas. I have to say that Vancouver is always worth visiting and the directors should spend more time setting and filming in that wonderful mecca.

When DRAWING FLIES came out on DVD, I hadn't seen it yet and figured since I am a huge Askewniverse fan, I would enjoy this film as much as the others. Damn, was I wrong. This film was very disappointing, even for what it was: a low-budget, black and white indie film with a decent cast, a bad script, and no point. So know I own a movie which I think sucked, but then again I can watch it for LEE, MEWES, and SMITH.