Archive for July 6th, 1999

Clerks & Rats DVDs From The Stash!

July 6th @ 12:00 am | No Comments » | Scooped by Brad & Chris

  • Okay, answer us this: Why order your View Askew DVDs from anywhere else? The Stash is NOW offering both Clerks and Mallrats (preordered, of course), signed by Kevin himself! Don’t miss out on this chance to own these 2 films, not only in their highest available quality format, but signed by the guy who made it all possible:
Clerks – The original classic, in all it’s Black & White glory! This disc features a running commentary by Kevin and a crew of special guests, a ton of deleted scenes (introduced by Kevin), the original ending to the film, Soul Asylum’s “Can’t Even Tell” video, and the original trailer. 1:85 widesceen, Dolby Surround Sound. 1995. $34.99

Mallrats – Go back to the mall again with this brand new, high quality, 16:9 enhanced transfer of the second in the Jersey Trilogy. Heralded as one of the greatest DVDs manufactued thus far, this sucker is packed to the brim with extras, including (but not limited to) an hour of deleted material, a new production featurette, running commentary with multi-angle accessible live segments, & The Goops’ “Build Me Up Buttercup” video. If you buy a DVD player, this is the disc to bring home with it. If you already own a DVD player, what the hell are you waiting for? $29.99 (available July 20th)

Clerks DVD Review (Finally!)

July 6th @ 12:00 am | No Comments » | Scooped by Brad & Chris

  • I actually had this sucker done and ready to go right before all the stuff went down last weekend…So while it seems like the disc’s been out forever, here’s some thoughts on the flick, the transfer, the extras, and lots more. This review comes as part of our new DVD Reviews section, which, in addition to our Criterion Armageddon review (due to Ben’s involvement) will be revamped sometime this week, and soon contain a Mallrats review, a Good Will Hunting Review, and someday, god willing, an Amy review. For now, though, surf on over and see what we thought of Clerks.

Kevin: Dogma Editing DONE (Again) & More!

July 6th @ 12:00 am | No Comments » | Scooped by Brad & Chris

  • A nice long post from Kevin greeted us upon our return from vacation, where, among other things, he speaks of the joys of fatherhood, the new 2 hour cut of Dogma (wow, that’s a far cry from the 3+ it used to be!), as well as the fact that a MID OCTOBER release is still planned!!!
WHAT DO I NEED ALL OF YOU FOR? I’VE GOT A KID NOW…

Actually, I’ll stick with you guys – as I rarely have to change your shitty diapers.

All’s well here. We’re done with ‘Dogma’ (again). Running time’s down to two hours even, without end credits (sorry, Mister McCarthy – that half hour to forty five minutes you requested were not do-able). Vincent’s conforming the workprint now, and after Howard touches up his score, we’ll be back up at Skywalker for a final re-mix. Then, mid-October release (which doesn’t seem that far away anymore).

Speaking of Vincent, I’ve seen the ‘Mallrats’ DVD. It is really, really fantastic. It won’t cure maladies, but it’ll come close (particularly if your malady has something to do with hives from not having a decent video release of ‘Mallrats’). Huge kudos to Vinnie and J.M. Kinney on the stellar job. Even if you hated the movie, you’ll love this DVD. I swear.

I really don’t want to become one of those guys who talks incessantly about his child, but I gotta say: she’s… just perfect. She’s adorable – a real looker. And quiet? Boy, this kid’s far from being one of those screamers.

She gurgles when she’s hungry – very politely, in fact.

But her arrival was quiet and polite as well. After about a four hour labor (half of which was hard for Jen, prior to the epidural), the Doctor announced “Okay – you’re read to push.” Jen and I were watching cartoons, and our mouths about hit the floor. We weren’t expecting to start pushing until ten or eleven at night, but here it was – 4:40 in the p.m. – and they were getting geared up to unveil the kid. From the first time the doctor said “Push,” it took Jen all of ten minutes. On the first push, in fact, I saw the top of the baby’s head. It was all quick and painless (although I’m sure Jen would have something to say about that), but moving and emotional. I cried, Jen cried, the baby cried (though not much; one or two loud ones, and then she assumed her official role as ‘Quiet and cute baby’). I’ll never, never forget it (though it happened so fast, I’m still trying to hold onto subtle details and nuances that are buried in my subconscious). Jen instantly became my hero, for the strength and courage she exhibited. Next time I’m about to rail at her for some stupid and petty shit, I guarantee my tongue is frozen by the memory of how brave she was, moments before Harley emerged.

It’s over a week later now (yesterday was her one week birthday), and I can see that this (wife, child, family) will forever be far, far more interesting, important, inspiring than writing dick and fart jokes and yelling “Cut,” for a living.

Of course, those jokes and that shout are what’s going to put the kid through what I’m sure is going to be an extremely expensive college, so I won’t be giving it up anytime soon.

We’re very happy to hear that Harley’s doing so well and that the birth went smoothly also.

Kev hints also that Lee’s big speech in the film’s been trimmed a lot in order to arrive at that running time. Many folks whohave read or seen the scene are a bit upset by this…Trust us, though, at 2 hours this film is gonna be PACKED. And you’llsee it all on the DVD about a year or so from now, anyway, so don’t fret TOO much.

Commentary

July 6th @ 12:00 am | No Comments » | Scooped by Brad & Chris

  • Hi! Miss us? We missed you.

Where the hell were we, you ask? Well, it’s a complicated answer. Plans to switch servers were supposed to take place well in advanced notice, so we could actually give you warning as to when that was going to take place. Unfortunately, it became a rush job, since one contract was running up and we wanted to get the new one started ASAP. Long story short, the holiday weekend screwed us, and we ended up with no website. Period. Our files were cleaned off the server in assumption they were going to be transported, but to no avail. Add in the fact that we were both in and out all weekend with family stuff, plus some other personal issues going on to further complicate things, and it spells disaster for a website.

In addition to the SERVER change, we were also anticipating an internet provider change, which would have meant our e-mail would have been out of service for a day…Which is why we didn’t want a ton of mail coming in. It may have been lost!

As the dust settles, where are we? The same place we started. We decided rather than experience ANY more downtime, that all the files would be restored to the old server until we can contact someone from the new place and straighten things out. We’ll give fair warning next time though, and should experience little, if ANY, downtime. With that said, though, everything SHOULD be back to normal (but let us know if you find a problem), and let those e-mails fly in!

We felt as bad about the downtime and not explaining as you probably did finding the boring white page that stood here, and will do our best to keep you better informed if anything major like that happens again. Hope you all had a very enjoyable holiday weekend here in the States.

Alright, we’ve got some catching up to do, that’s for sure!

View Askew NewsBites™

July 6th @ 12:00 am | No Comments » | Scooped by Zack Smith, Katy Dutton, J Fields, Anthony, Brian Hendrix, & Rich Raphael

  • The new issue of CREATIVE SCREENWRITING (the one with Stanley Kubrick on the cover) has an interview with Brian Lynch on pages 10-11. It’s mostly based around “The Next Muppet Movie,” although “Big Helium Dog” and “A Better Place” are mentionedas well. Congrats to Brian on his growing success. We don’t have a transcript, but if anyone does and wants to send ‘er in, we’re all ears.
  • ‘Clerks’ was placed at number 75 in an English newspaper list of the ‘Top 100 Cult Movies of All Time’ list. This newspaper was ‘The Times’, which is an extremely serious, and somewhat conservative, national newspaper. Therefore, for ‘Clerks’ to be even included, even heard of, is an honor. They called it raw talent, even genius. The winners were flickssuch as ‘A Clockwork Orange’ and ‘Star Wars’ (placed at 1 and 2 respectively).
  • Some more national press for Kev & Jen’s new bundle of joy, from this past week’s Entertainment Weekly:
A 7-pound 8-ounce girl, Harley Quinn, to Dogma director Kevin Smith, 28, and his wife, Jennifer Schwalbach-Smith,28, June26, in Red Bank, N.J. It’s the couple’s first child.

Okay, that’s not much — So what’d we miss??? Let us know!