Publication Date: 07-11-2025

Attention Shoppers (2000) review

Dir. Phillip Charles MacKenzie

By: Steve Pulaski

Rating: ★★

I’ve always loved movies set inside places like stores and shopping malls, and upon learning about the existence of a movie called Attention Shoppers, a seldom-seen comedy from 25 years ago, I jumped at the opportunity to order the DVD, as it’s unavailable on streaming. If you’re like me, and such a simple thing as a film’s setting can draw you in, more often than not you have to face the consequences of your rash decision.

Attention Shoppers gives an A-level concept a D-level execution. The story of a sitcom actor who comes to grips with his waning fame thanks to a show few people love, the film was written by Néstor Carbonell, who lived this life to some degree as one of the stars of NBC’s Suddenly Susan, one of those rare sitcoms for which nobody has a modicum of nostalgia. The film ends with a “Based on a true story” title-card, suggesting Carbonell experienced something similar to that of the character he plays in Attention Shoppers. What could’ve been an observational, self-deprecating comedy ala Clerks instead settles for being an inert, frustratingly laconic piece of work about an actor who realizes he’s not nearly as important as he thinks.

Carbonell plays Enrique Suarez, the fifth-wheel on a show called Two Guys, Two Gals, and a Cuban. He uses a phony Cuban accent to woo the ladies who have tuned into the show enough for it to make it run for a few seasons. Always eager to flex his celebrity status, Enrique jumps at the opportunity to sign autographs at the grand opening of a Kmart in Houston. On the plane-ride to Texas, he is seated next to Mark Pinnalore (Luke Perry), the star of a rival sitcom who is also scheduled to be at the store. The two have a long-winded conversation about fame, Nietzsche, and what they expect from this event.

After 47 long minutes — more-than-half of the film’s already brief 87-minute runtime — Enrique finally arrives at the Kmart in the midafternoon, long after the morning “Blue Light Sale” has occurred. The store is sparsely populated, and after awkwardly having to set up his own card-table and folding chair for the signing event, the forgettable sitcom star gets a lesson in how fleeting fame can be. Instead of young girls flocking to his table, Enrique gets strange glares and uncomfortable interactions with Kmart shoppers. He might as well be a caged animal in the middle of the store.

It takes way too long for Enrique to arrive at the Kmart. The bulk of Carbonell’s script should’ve focused on his character dealing with the mundane interactions, the nonexistent ones, the boredom, and the occasional crowd of people at his table in real-time. As a radio DJ, this setup reminded me of many live broadcasts I’ve conducted at stores or other locations that were predicted to be hopping, but alas, weren’t. In those situations, the boredom is real, as are the subconscious feelings of inadequacies that fester into one’s mind as they start to ponder their own irrelevance. If Carbonell really lived through a similar circumstance, I would’ve thought he’d have more material on which to draw.

Several recognizable faces pop up in Attention Shoppers, though they had very little. The best of them is Michael Lerner, who plays Enrique’s limo driver in Houston. He’s got mush-mouth due to an irritated tooth, but expounds some bits of wisdom, his best monologue coming after the Kmart signing event has concluded. Cara Buono is Enrique’s wife, with whom the two indulge in a very uncomfortable rape fantasy sequence to open the film in what feels as comically misguided as it does unsettling. Lin Shaye is an obsessed fan of Enrique’s; Casey Affleck is a rugged redneck; and Kathy Najimy (Rat Race) is a Houston radio DJ who interviews Enrique on his way to the airport and later shows up at the Kmart for one of the film’s funnier scenes.

Once Carbonell brings us to the Kmart, the story finds some stable footing, but the whole project no less harbors a self-consciousness. It’s as if Carbonell wanted a 90-minute film set entirely in a Kmart, but didn’t think that’s what audiences would want to see, so he chose to frontload the story with a lot of filler. Tis pity. Before you assert that a picture set entirely in a department store would be boring, allow me to point you in the direction of one of the most underrated John Hughes movies in his entire catalog: Career Opportunities. It’s a lovely little movie, funny, romantic, and relatable. On the contrary, there are about as many laughs in Attention Shoppers as there are Kmart stores remaining in America.

NOTE: As of this writing, Attention Shoppers is unavailable on streaming, and can only be viewed by purchasing the out-of-print DVD.

Starring: Néstor Carbonell, Michael Lerner, Luke Perry, Martin Mull, Cara Buono, Carlos Jacott, Kathy Najimy, Casey Affleck, Lin Shaye, Al Israel, and Mary-Pat Green. Directed by: Phillip Charles MacKenzie.