• Wow. When it rains, it pours. First Clerks and Mallrats are released to DVD format within a month of each other, FILLED with special stuff, and now it looks like the third of Kev’s flicks will soon be joining those ranks as well. Yep, you read it right. And it’s true. Unless, of course, Buena Vista reconsiders. News was released and reported by The Canadian DVD Users Group (An OUTSTANDING site if you want to know the latest in Canadian DVD happenings) today that Alliance will be releasing A Chasing Amy Special Edition on DVD! Quoted from the site:

Now, this raises a TON of questions. First of all, we’ll explain some stuff, though. Alliance is basically Miramax’s armin Canada. They’ve been handling all of Miramax’s DVD distribution. Some of you may recall the Good Will Hunting SpecialEdition that was released by Alliance? Not only did it contain an extra deleted scene, but a 16:9 enhanced transfer (which,upon further examination, looked good to us, though some argued that it was a “cheated” enhancement and not a true one).Also, Canadian DVDs are indeed Region 1, same as the United States, so anyone willing to cover the shipping charges fromCanada to whereever they live can own AND play these titles in their region 1 units.

Now, here’s what worries us: What happens to all of Criterion’s Special Edition material? Obviously Kevin and the ganghaven’t done anything NEW for this release (or we’d have heard SOMETHING about it), so the only real Special Edition materialthat’s out there would be the commentary, deleted scenes, and other little extras that were done exclusively for Criterion.As for the laserdisc commentary and Kev’s now famous comments on DVD at the start of it, we don’t care. Leave it alone.Better to leave the track untouched and a bit out of place on DVD than to try and tweak it, or replace it. It’s an outstandingcommentary, and one we’re sure DVD fans everywhere would be proud to own.

Now, a 16:9 enhancement would be great, so long as it is indeed a TRUE 16:9. Amy’s 1:85 ratio will fit nicely into thisformat. We at least expect this feature to be included on the disc, though, regardless of the other extras. Alliance loves16:9, god bless ’em. However, if you’re gonna do Chasing Amy on DVD, why not add even MORE? Sure, we want the commentaryand the deleted scenes, but how about an isolated track with Dave Pirner’s fantastic score? Or still photos of all the comicpages used in the film? Any more deleted scenes missing from the Criterion laser? Stick them on there, too. Let’s loadthis puppy!

So, the question remains, to buy, or not to buy? Hopefully, we can get some clarification on not only what’s on thisupcoming Alliance disc, but what Buena Vista plans to do about a release stateside as well. If a better release is cominghere, with more extras, a new transfer, whatever…We’ll wait. If Alliance can promise a disc that delivers a 16:9 transferAND all of the extras on the Criterion laserdisc, WE ARE SOLD! In fact, we have a feeling that a LOT of DVD-shaped packages are goingto be crossing that Canadian border on September the 28th. After seeing Mallrats and the amazing work that was done withit, though, Amy’s gonna be a tough disc to follow up with.

In closing, if ANYONE from Alliance or with connections to them is reading this, we’d LOVE to hear from you. If you can supply us with details, even test pressings of the disc, that would help even more. Hell, we’d love to see what you’re doing with From Dusk ‘Til Dawn, too! Another great movie with a fantastic laserdisc edition that fell flat on DVD. Bravo to you, Alliance. Best news we’ve heard all week.

We’ll keep you posted on this situation as it develops.