Our own review’s running a little late this time, due to a shipping mix-up with Buena Vista and our screener, but we’ll be sure to have our own look at this set ASAP. Taking all the new content at once, this may very well be the most new, never-before-available content in a View Askew disc release. In the meantime, surf over to DVD Talk, a fantastic site who have done an amazing job at summing up the collection in just a couple of pages. Here’s what they said about a few of the biggest extras:
To that, one new feature of note has been added. In one of the most uproariously candid introductions in DVD history, Smith calls the Clerks Blu-ray a “vulgar cash grab,” but notes that they’ve “gotta keep wringing pennies out of this little black and white movie.” So, for what he calls the “15th Anniversary Give Us Your Money DVD,” he says he begged Miramax to let him add something new of value, in order to “take the sting out of having to buy Clerks for the 19th time.” (Although, he notes, “do you know how many times I’ve bought T2?”) What he added was “Oh, What a Lovely Tea Party: The Making of Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back” (3:18 intro, 1:27:17 feature), an intimate, fly-on-the-wall documentary directed by Smith’s wife, Jennifer Schwalbach, and his friend and fellow filmmaker Malcolm Ingram. It captures Kevin and the gang joking around on-set, supplemented by on-the-fly interviews with cast and crew (Affleck and Rock’s interviews are the highlights). It’s a tad overlong, and certainly feels homemade (Affleck’s interview is noticeably out of focus), but is a nice added treat for fans, even if it is, indeed, on the wrong disc.
Chasing Amy was originally released on laserdisc and DVD by Criterion, and unfortunately, that disc’s first-rate, uproarious commentary track is property of that label (as are the intros to the deleted scenes and a few other scattered extras) and therefore doesn’t make the leap. However, Buena Vista has done the right by the movie and worked up some excellent new bonus material. First of all, Smith and Mosier provide a new, “SModcast”-style Audio Commentary; they dub it a “technical commentary track,” and while it has some interesting technical information, it is also, in the style of their podcast, a pretty free-form ramble (my favorite detour was their way off-topic discussion of the pedophilia episode of Diff’rent Strokes). It’s a funny track, though not quite the scream that the Affleck-infused Criterion commentary was.
The treat of the disc, however, is “Tracing Amy: The Chasing Amy Doc” (1:21:15). Produced and directed by Zak Knutson and Joey Figueroa (who directed the similarly spiffy making-of docs for Clerks II and Zack and Miri, in addition to Smith’s most recent Evening With DVD), it is a well-constructed and compelling look at the making of the film, from their mindset coming out of the failure of Mallrats to the creation of the script (influenced by Mosier’s crush on Go Fish star Guin Turner, and Smith’s real-life relationship with Joey Lauren Adams) to the casting and budget woes, as well as Smith’s intensive rehearsals and Mosier’s stressful attempts to keep the film under budget. Most of the key players are interviewed-Smith, Mosier, Adams, Affleck, Lee (on the My Name is Earl set, in full Earl garb), Jason Mewes, cinematographer David Klein, associate producer Bob Hawk, Miramax acquisitions manager Mark Tusk, film critic (and Smith booster) Amy Taubin, and more-and wonderful vintage behind-the-scenes footage supplement the genuinely warm memories of the experience (check out Affleck’s sincere and heartfelt closing interview).
We’ll be spinning up the discs this week — In the meantime, if you’ve got a Bluray player or are planning on nabbing one for the holidays, the Stash is now taking orders for SIGNED SETS, the only place you can find them that way. It’s the perfect gift item for you or the View Askew fan in your life. Kevin also suggested grabbing a Dogma Bluray for just $7.99 to help complete the set via Twitter today. For current or future Bluray owners, this purchase is a no-brainer.
Three Classic Kevin Smith Comedies Now Available In One Must-Own Blu-ray Box Set!
THE KEVIN SMITH COLLECTION: CLERKS, CHASING AMY and JAY & SILENT BOB STRIKE BACK
Includes All New Blu-ray Editions of Clerks and Chasing Amy Plus Hours of Outrageous New Bonus Features!
If You Like Your Comedy Hip, Smart and “Blu,” Pick Up This Hilarious Box Set November 17, 2009, for an SRP of $89.99 Individual Blu-ray Editions Sold separately for an SRP of $39.99
CLERKS on Blu-ray!
Featuring All New Blu-ray Bonus Features!
• “Oh, What A Lovely Tea Party: The Making Of Jay & Silent Bob Strike Back”
• Introduction By Kevin Smith
• Plus Original DVD Bonus Features: Classic Commentary; Enhanced Playback Track; Intro To
The First Cut 2004 Commentary; 2004 Commentary (with New Authoring); Clerks Lost Scene – Animated Short; The Flying Car; MTV Spots With Jay & Silent Bob; Theatrical Trailer; Soul Asylum’s “Can’t Even Tell” Music Video; Clerks Restoration; Original Auditions; Snowball Effect; Outtakes From Snowball Effect; Mae Day: The Crumbling Of A Documentary With Intro By Kevin Smith And Scott Mosier; 10th Anniversary Q & A and more!
CHASING AMY on Blu-ray!
Featuring All New Blu-ray Bonus Features!:
• “Tracing Amy: The Chasing Amy Doc”
• “Was It Something I Said?” – A Conversation With Kevin & Joey
• 10 Years later Q & A
• Audio Commentary with Writer/Director/Actor Kevin Smith and Producer Scott Mosier
• Plus Original DVD Bonus Features: Deleted Scenes; Outtakes; Trailer and more!
JAY & SILENT BOB STRIKE BACK on Blu-ray!
• Bonus Features Include: Audio Commentary with Director Kevin Smith; Producer Scott Mosier & Jason Mewes; Deleted Scenes with Intros by Kevin Smith and Guests; “The Secret Stash” with Intro; Gag Reel with Intro; Internet Trailers with Intro; TV Spots; Stills Galleries; Behind the Scene featurette; Morris Day and the Time’s video “Learnin the Moves”; Music video Afroman “I Get High”; Music video Stroke 9 “Kick Some Ass”; Comedy Central’s Reel Comedy: Jay & Silent Bob Strike Back; Cast and Crew Filmographies; Guide to Morris Day and The Time (Still Frames), Storyboards and more!
Walt Disney Studios Home Entertainment, a recognized leader in the home entertainment industry, is the marketing, sales and distribution company for Walt Disney, Touchstone, Hollywood Pictures, Miramax and Buena Vista product, which includes DVD, Blu-ray Disc™ and electronic distribution. Walt Disney Studios Home Entertainment is a division of The Walt Disney Studios.
This isn’t quite on The Stash BluRay page just yet, but should be very soon. As always we’re expecting Kevin will sign the discs — And we’ll possibly even see some chances for you to get your set signed in person, as well. Stay tuned. This is a must-own collection if you’ve got a Blu-ray player.
Kevin Smith is getting so good at his public speaking ventures, it’s become a second career for him at this point. Hell, he could retire as a director and just tour around the country with his modified stand-up act, entertaining people across the country. You should know that Smith is a talented writer so he’s combined that skill with his gift of gab for the book “Shootin’ the Shit With Kevin Smith” which is out in stores as we speak.
In freewheeling conversations with his friend and producer Scott Mosier (as heard on their top-rated podcast, known as SModcast), we discover — to pick just four random examples of the riches therein — the genesis of Stalin’s Monkey Soldier army, the horrifying tale of Kevin vs. Steak Tartare, how to make bukkake eggs, and how Kevin was once willing to let Alanis Morissette get mugged…
We’ve got an exclusive excerpt from the book below, a conversation titled “Little Outhouse on the Prairie.” I’d like to think we’ve covered a wide range of topics here on JoBlo.com in the 11-something years since we’ve been up-and-running, but I think this is the first time we’ve had a discussion on using a corn cob to wipe your ass on the site.
You can read said passage at JoBlo, or in your very own copy of “Shootin’ The Sh*t with Kevin Smith”, which should be on your nightstand or bookshelf right now, dang it. Get yourself
a signed copy from the Stash.
Smith completed the first six issues and will begin writing another batch of six. “We’re breaking it up into a volume 1, volume 2 kind of thing,” Smith continued. “So the first six issues happen, then there’s a break, and then the next six issues happen, but I don’t know. DC’ll probably ultimately wind up going, ‘Why don’t we just make it two separate miniseries? 1-6 is one thing, and call the next one something else.’ So we may do that. I don’t know, but I know we’re going to stop at six for the time being and take a little break. Then whether or not the next issue is 7 or a new number 1 for a volume 2 miniseries remains to be seen.”
Keeping the audience entertained between sets was Jason Mewes — famous for playing Jay, a pot dealer in the Jay and Silent Bob flicks.
“It’s a lot of fun. It’s been great,” said Mewes, between signing autographs for a huge lineup of fans. “(There are) a lot of cool bands (and) a lot of cool people here.”
Between acts, Mewes dutifully told the crowd to “drink water, be safe, recycle and Jesus loves you.”
Kevin and Scott Mosier will be recording a live podcast at The Prince Charles Cinema!
07/10/09 at 18:00 Kevin Smith & Scott Mosier
Tickets (which are going to sell out fast) will be available at
www.viewaskew.com/events/uksmod
We are not aware when these will go live
Please keep in mind this has not yet been officially announced by View Askew — But hopefully we’ll be able to confirm soon.
Speedy Coming to SMALLVILLE
The Green Arrow has become a staple player in the ranks of characters featured in ‘Smallville’. He’s been unsuccessful in one endeavor on the show though: recruiting Clark as his full-time partner in crime-fighting. Well. KryptonSite suggests there may be a remedy for that, as season 9 of the show will introduce Arrow’s original sidekick Speedy.
Well, not the original, exactly. Mia Dearden is set to appear in an upcoming episode. She was introduced in Kevin Smith’s revival of Green Arrow back in 2001 and went on to take up the role of sidekick archer.
Check out KryptonSite’s description of episode 7 for more on the ‘Smallville’ version of Dearden.
CHASING AMY: Homosexuality proved to be passing fancy and sign of sexual deviance.
CLERKS: Aimless loser remains in dead-end job, abusive “friendship.”
GOOD WILL HUNTING: Underemployed genius squanders prestigious job opportunity to chase trim.
The November 17 release of Chasing Amy on Blu-ray will be offered in 1.85:1 1080p video and 5.1 DTS-HD Master Audio 48kHz/24.bit.
Bonus features are a mix of what was included on the previously released Criterion Collection DVD and newly produced extras. What will not be ported from DVD is the Kevin Smith DVD introduction (naturally), screen specific audio commentaries with the cast and crew (replaced with new commentary and a q/a), and The Askewniverse Legend guide. At the end of the day this new Blu-ray edition’s supplements are on par with the Criterion DVD, only more relevant in retrospect to where the cast and crew’s minds are today.
All of the new bonus features on Blu-ray are marked as such in this comprehensive list.
* NEW: Commentary with Kevin Smith and producer Scott Mosier
* NEW: Tracing Amy: The Chasing Amy doc
* NEW: Was It Something I Said? A conversation with Kevin and Joey
* NEW: 10 Years Later Q/A with Kevin and the cast
* Deleted scenes
* Outtakes
* Trailer
We’re stoked for this release, as Amy is one of our all-time faves. It’ll be great to watch the film again and take in all of this new material. Seeing what Kevin & Scott have to say about the film with all this time passing should prove for an interesting new commentary. As soon as the Stash has pre-orders out there, we’ll let ya know.
In a recent tweet, Kevin reveals that he’ll record a long-awaited new SModcast with Mosier this weekend, in town to celebrate Kev’s birthday. Also, he’s shooting nights as “A Couple of Dicks” hits the home stretch, right on schedule. Don’t forget, the new SModocast-based book hits shelves this Fall.
And finally, our favorite tweet of the week:
Landed safe at Newark Airport. Shocking, considering I sat behind LOST’s Ben Linus. Plane did not go to The Island, but Jacob hogged toilet.
Would you NOT be freaked out to see Ben on the plane with ya? Great stuff.
As for the above quote, we can’t gloss over Jason Lee’s performance as lead singer Jeff Bebe, just the right mix of jealousy, overconfidence, sarcasm, stringy hair and mellowed-out, super-cool, ’70s onstage enthusiasm, as this deleted concert scene proves. Not an easy role. Lee pulled off three distinctly different characters over the years — Bebe, Earl Hickey and Banky from “Chasing Amy” — and remains severely underrated.
Speaking of Mr. Lee, he also joined the ranks of Kevin as a recent guest of the always enjoyable Kevin Pollak Chat Show.
See ya next time!
…Chasing Amy is a movie that totally fits its time. Released in 1997 it takes a honest look at relationships and how people define themselves not so much by being heterosexual or homosexual but by being honest and falling in love with the person rather than the gender of that person. Of course everybody has a preference, but you are not chained to that decision. That’s the moral at work here.
…
The glue that holds it all together though is Smith’s script which starts off more in a comedic vein and then reveals itself to be this honest romantic story. Friends, background and timing can all affect who we fall in love with but not everybody gets a happy ending, and that is the beauty of this script. Life does move on when a relationship ends and even while you are in it, it’s not all roses and romance. Smith manages to find that balance of honesty and comedy while keeping in his trademark in-jokes.
…On the other hand, my appearance on Kevin Smith’s list of the five coolest people I’ve met at the San Diego Comic-Con put me in mind of the time I encountered Kevin Smith. It was round the back of the San Diego Convention Centre, near the loading bay. I was on my way to a panel when a gentleman with a kerchief-mask covering his lower face, holding a brace of pistols and wearing a rakish tricorn hat leapt out and demanded my wallet, and to dance a measure with my female companions. Obviously, I was having none of it, and with a cry of “Never, miscreant!” I stumbled into the fray. During our struggle the kerchief-mask slipped and I was shocked to see that our attacker was in fact director, writer and raconteur Kevin Smith himself. He fled, dropping my wallet and also several of the original Graphitti Buddy Christ and Jay & Silent Bob toys.
I can only presume that Mr Smith’s description of me in EW as “a sweetheart” was due to the fact that I did not turn him in that day to the San Diego magistrates that day to be hanged and gibbeted as a common highwayman or footpad.
Dogma
When Kevin Smith’s Dogma script hit the net in ’98, the mix of profound and profanity sent the powerful Catholic League into overdrive, especially given that their favourite target Disney was distributing. The subsequent furore forced the Mouse House to dump the movie and even saw Smith receive death threats.
In response, Smith anonymously joined the small group protesting his movie outside his local cinema, even doing an ‘in character’ interview with a news team. This is an act arguably funnier than anything in to the worthy-if-hit-and-miss loveletter to his Catholic faith. Still, any movie that has people explode upon hearing the voice of Alanis Morissette must have its heart in the right place.
