Review and news hub for movies, music and video games

Movie:		6.0
Picture:		8.0
Sound:		8.0
Extras:		7.0
Score:		7.0

Director(s):	Kevin Smith
Writer(s):	Kevin Smith
Starring:	Ben Affleck • Eliza Dushku • Jason Lee • Jason Mewes • Jeff Anderson • Mark Hamill • Will Ferrell • Brian O'Halloran • Joey Lauren Adams • Shannon Elizabeth • Ali Larter
Genre:	Comedy • Drama
Website:	http://www.viewaskew.com/
Release Date:	November 17, 2009
Rated:

List Price:	Blu-ray - $55.99
Amazon:

This isn’t the first time a set titled the “[insert name] collection” has debuted with a less than stellar compilation of films attempting to represent a filmmaker or actor’s career. What Miramax did right here was calling it a “3-Movie Collection” thus letting themselves off the hook for not having some of Kevin Smith’s better films. The set includes Clerks, Chasing Amy and Jay and Silent Strike Back which means the collection might not all be the crème de la crème de Smith, but it certainly lets you see a wide range of the man’s talents as a director. However, I think the best way to think of this set is as a sign of his career financially and not necessarily professionally.

With Clerks, Kevin Smith operated on a shoestring budget and cast his friends in the leads after deciding he didn’t have the chops to handle Randal’s plentiful and witty dialogue. The film relies almost entirely on the strength of its dialogue and pop-culture references, but in its time that was enough to propel both the film and Smith into the hearts of fans as the film slowly climbed to the status of cult favorite. Dante (Brian O’Halloran) and Randal (Jeff Anderson) run the local convenient and video stores, respectively. The former dwells in a pool of self-pity and romantic angst as he deals with dissatisfaction over his station in life and the future nuptials of an ex-girlfriend. Randal, on the other hand, has no thoughts other than the enjoyment of his lazy job and thinking up new ways to torment the customers. It’s a character piece plain and simple and the few action bits that exist do little more than break up the huge walls of indulgent dialogue for which Kevin Smith is known. It still has plenty to say and makes for a hilarious few instances of social commentary, but the more you watch it the less you’re able to respect it. If it deserves any consideration it’s because it shows you where this director started.

If you trust Kevin Smith’s Superman Reborn story on An Evening with Kevin Smith, Chasing Amy established Kevin Smith as an actual writer and filmmaker in the eyes of Hollywood. Now, whether or not that’s true can be debated, but there’s more than enough in Chasing Amy to make the casual viewer believe it. Chasing Amy features the most developed characters and serious storyline to have graced a Kevin Smith movie while still maintaining the director’s characteristic loves for all things lewd or pop-culture oriented. Jason Lee plays the inexplicably angry Banky who works on a comic book with longtime friend Holden (Ben Affleck). Again, themes of satisfaction with one’s station in life (f**kin’ tracer!) and sexual exploits play major roles, with the latter actually becoming the one of the final plot points. Holden becomes smitten with Alyssa Jones and fights for her affection as she receives equal pressure from her fellow lesbians to not abandon ranks for the more traditional romantic notions Holden stands for. The characters stand up to scrutiny and the story entertains even as it throws challenges at the social norms of love. The collection needs Chasing Amy in order to stand on its own two feet, because the third film really doesn’t help it at all.

Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back deserves credit for showing what Kevin Smith does when he has a huge budget to play with and the name recognition required to rope in a bunch of big name stars. Jay (Jason Mewes) and Silent Bob (Smith) set out to Hollywood to halt production of a movie based on them because they read the trash talk of fans on internet message boards. It’s a road trip premise with a bunch of side stops added to increase the film’s lunacy and stoner-pleasing qualities. The film is a love song from Smith to Smith celebrating all of his past films and how far he’s come. You can’t call it a great film or even a good film, but it’s a fun mindless film intended for the fans who’ve stuck with him since the beginning – a fact made obvious by both the film’s cameos and supplementary audio commentary. Stars who make appearances include Tracy Morgan, Carrie Fisher, Mark Hamill, Ben Affleck, Shannon Elizabeth, Eliza Dushku, Ali Larter, Will Ferrell, Jason Lee, Judd Nelson, George Carlin, Sean William Scott, Matt Damon, Jon Stewart, Shannen Doherty, Wes Craven and Jason Biggs.

Clerks Blu-ray Bonus Features

For the most part, all the extras on the disc have been included in past DVD releases save for two which were recorded exclusively for the Blu-ray release. The first is an introduction to the film by Kevin Smith which, if you own a DVD copy, has roughly the same look and feel as his introduction of the deleted scenes which appears on the older releases. Finally, and it’s hard to say if this extra influenced the choice in the set or was recorded because of the selection, there’s a “making of” featurette for Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back. Why it shows up on this disc? I don’t know. However, thanks to this copy of the Blu-ray being the 15^th Anniversary Edition, there are a huge slew of additional extras to keep the fan entertained long after the movie ends.

Chasing Amy Blu-ray Bonus Features

What’s troubling here is the omission of some good extra features that have appeared on past DVD releases; in their place we find a new audio commentary with Smith and Scott Mosier, a documentary chronicling the production of the film, a retrospective conversation between Kevin Smith and Joey Lauren Adams and a Q&A session featuring Smith and the cast. The new additions are more than welcome and quite good, but considering the size of Blu-ray discs there’s no reason at all that the older features couldn’t have been included as well.

Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back Bonus Features

This is an unfortunate and really bad joke. Besides a decent audio commentary of Smith, Scott Mosier and Mewes pointing out all the cameos and recounting stories from the film, there’s a lone extra feature and it’s three scenes highlighting the power of Blu-ray. What the hell?

The set makes it pretty clear that it exists to help clear out copies of Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back that aren’t selling quite as well as the two titles that came with it. Additionally, considering the other two in the set have new features it makes the third barebones disc look even more pathetic. For all intents and purposes this is 2/3 of a worthwhile purchase.