• Alright, I’ll take full responsibility for this one — In haste reading Vincent’s post yesterday, I mistakenly misread that the Cannes print would be used for the Dogma Special Edition DVD. This isn’t true. Kevin prefers the theatrical print, so the exact same transfer of the film on the current DVD will be on the SE DVD as well. All the extra scenes, including the stuff from the Cannes version of the film, will be in the 100-minute deleted scenes supplement. Sorry for misleading anyone, it was just careless reading on my part.

• We’ve been forgetting to mention this for over a week now, but it’s some very cool news that you may have missed unless you regularly surf the View Askew WWWBoard. Vincent Pereira revealed that a second commentary was recorded for inclusion on the already-loaded Dogma Special Edition DVD due sometime this fall (no official release date has yet been announced). This second track was with just he, Kevin, and producer Scott Mosier. It focuses more on the making of the flick itself, rather than the more whimsical track with Affleck, Lee, & others. Both tracks should be worth the time to listen to, for sure. Add those to the brand new documentary, the extended (by 8 minutes) Cannes print of the flick, AND (our favorite) an approximately 100 minutes of deleted scenes, and you’ve got what’s probably going to be the best DVD to hit the market yet. And we’re not just saying that because we’re fans. It’s gonna be damn cool.

• Well folks, you’ve asked, pleaded, and begged, and now, it’s finally a reality. Chasing Amy is on DVD shelves everywhere here in the US (it’s a week or two late in Canada due to a shipment problem from the distributor, sorry folks). We took a few hours and sat down with this disc last night, checked out the menus, watched the movie from start to finish, and checked out all the extras. Wanna know what we thought? Read our EXCLUSIVE REVIEW of the disc here, one of the first (if not THE first) reviews of the release on the web!

Thanks again to Criterion for supplying us with the test pressing of the disc. Though it arrived just a day before the disc’s release, it’s the thought that counts, and it seems that the other big DVD sites got nothing at all, so we’re very appreciative.

Since we’ve mentioned it, a few more questions have come up on the disc so we just wanted to clear the air on a few things. The disc has always been a joint effort from Criterion & Buena Vista, we just weren’t sure who was putting their name on the release. So this disc WILL be an official “Criterion Collection” disc, and contain all the material that was found on the Criterion laser released a couple years back. All the deleted scenes, commentary, stills, and other good stuff will all be in here, along with a NEW anamorphic transfer supervised by DP Dave Klein and a new special DVD introduction done by Kevin. Buena Vista’s handling all the release and promotion of the disc, though.

Above you’ll find scans of the DVD’s front and back, courtesy of DVD File. Click them for larger versions.

Unfortunately, we’ve got no contacts at Buena Vista anymore and hear that the other DVD review sites have the same problems in dealing with them, so it looks like any reviews on the disc’s material from us will have to wait until sometime next week, once our mail-order copies arrive and we’ve had a chance to look at the thing. We’ll keep ya posted.

• When asked a question about the way cool new Fight Club DVD (A great DVD and a fantastic flick, see it), Vincent dropped some big details on the upcoming Dogma Special Edition DVD. Check it out!

Well, it seems that the day that will answer one of the most oft-asked e-mail questions e-mails in News Askew history is just a week away, but it hardly seems like it!

Criterion‘s Chasing Amy DVD is scheduled to street one week from today, on June 13th. Unfortunately, we’ve yet to get a peep out of Criterion on the disc, aside from an e-mail scolding us a while back when we posted rumors that it wouldn’t make the release date. We’ve asked a couple times for a review copy of the disc and received no response. So, we’re sorry to say, it doesn’t look like there will be any advanced review of this disc. It’s sad that Criterion doesn’t cooperate with DVD sites, since it doesn’t seem anyone else has received a copy, either, but we’re especially disappointed that we’re not able to bring you an advanced look at one of just four flicks that this site was first created to celebrate.

We’ll likely just place orders for the disc online from one of the discount stores and drop a review up here once we’ve gotten our copies and had a chance to watch the flick, but it may be later than usual. We hear that the new anamorphic print is absolutely perfect, and that there’s a new introduction on the disc from Kevin, but that’s all we know as far as new material over the already seen Criterion laserdisc. We’re sure those of you who’ve yet to see the Criterion laser stuff will dig it, though. There’s a lot of great material on that disc, for sure.

Anyway, to sum it up, we suppose the disc will just quietly arrive next week. Sorry that we weren’t able to get better coverage on this for you, but we’re at the mercy of the studio and it looks like this time we’re just not going to get nice treatment (like the air expressed review copies Columbia/Tristar gave us when Dogma’s DVD was released). We’ll keep you posted as best we can on this one.

• Dogma hits shelves nationwide on VHS and DVD today. Remember, the DVD is just the bare bones version, which you can buy for about $15 at most discount and web retail shops. A Special Edition DVD set is due this Fall. The VHS tape is available FOR RENT ONLY, if you want to purchase it, it’ll cost you over $100. Most tapes arrive at a “sellthrough” price a few months after they are released, but no such date has been announced for Dogma at this time. There are no plans to release a Special Edition on VHS.

So, what are you waiting for??? Get out there and rent Dogma! Let’s see how high that sucker can get on the video rental charts! And, as a reminder, now that you can have a copy at home, you can safely play our Dogma Drinking Game. Just be careful!

• We chatted with Vincent Pereira briefly today about the “A Better Place” Special Edition DVD that’s coming soon. Seems that the disc is now scheduled to arrive on JULY 22nd, as Vincent has hooked up with some folks from Skywalker sound and is getting the final plans in place. He’s heading up to New York this weekend to lay down a bunch of the soundtrack, and then it won’t be long before he’s off to the Ranch to supervise the brand new Dolby Digital 5.1 mix. It’s gonna be a great disc. We’ll have an exclusive first look of all the goodies on this thing soon.