• Major congrats to Genius Products and all involved with the “Clerks II” DVD, which took home two honors at today’s Home Entertainment Awards, part of the Entertainment Merchants Assn.’s Home Media Expo 2007, which runs through Thursday at the Venetian Resort Hotel and Casino.
  “The titles recognized by the Home Entertainment Awards speak to the breadth of great entertainment that is available on home video and remind us why home video retains its hold on the public,” EMA president Bo Andersen said. “EMA is proud to acknowledge the outstanding attributes of these wonderful videos.”

  DVDs released from April 1, 2006-March 31 were eligible.

  The awards Clerks II Took: DVD Extras of the Year From an Independent Studio AND Marketing Campaign of the Year From an Independent Studio. Nice job and well deserved.

• We’ve got more Film Freak footage (say that five times really fast) for ya today — This is from that appearance that Kev and Scott made over the weekend on the program. Parts THREE, FOUR, and FIVE of the appearance are now up in living, breathing video courtesy YouTube.

• World’s Finest DVD Report posts the first review for the View Askew Production “Small Town Gay Bar”. The site calls it their “Pick of the Week” and gives it very high marks in their full review. Here’s a snippet:
  Even if this DVD was bare, I’d still fully recommend it. Thankfully, the DVD comes with a nice commentary, an introduction to the documentary featuring Ingram and Kevin Smith, a short “Chatting with Kev” feature, deleted scenes, and a featurette on some of the people who inhabit these small towns. Overall, it’s a great package providing additional information and content to an already stunning documentary. And if you’re wondering why Kevin Smith is featured on the DVD, well, he helped finance this documentary to get it off the ground. On top of that, he also a friend of the director. It’s great additional material to watch once you’ve been able to fully absorb Small Town Gay Bar.

  If I had to recommend one documentary to see this year, it would be this one. Small Town Gay Bar had me completely enthralled, absorbed in the story of these two gay bars and how significant they are. This documentary has so much going for it, and deserves a large audience. People need to see this to understand just what it’s like to be gay in America’s Bible Best. While reality there may be stark, it’s amazing to see how people find light, comfort, and hope in a gay bar, and with each other. These are truly amazing people, and I’m thankful that Ingram was able to let me into their lives. Ingram has a great gift as a storyteller here, and one who presents both sides of the story to the audience, making the reality of their situation even more startling. While my experiences growing up may not be the same as theirs, I also came from a small town with similar (though not as intense) discrimination. This is a story that resonates throughout North America, which is why I believe that while it’s not perfect, it is still an important piece of work.

  Small Town Gay Bar comes Highly Recommended. It’s an inherently moving and painfully truthful experience, about real people in a real place, struggling in a world where they are demonized. These two gay bars, and the people who inhabit them, fight for their right to just exist, and it is . . . unbelievable to watch. It’s an experience that you won’t forget, both brutal and uplifting. It will definitely make you think about your own experiences in life. In short, and as well as my shoddy writing skills can illustrate, Small Town Gay Bar is a must-see. Plain and simple.

• “Star Wars: The Legacy Revealed” (which featured Kevin in some funny segments) was nominated for a couple Emmy awards today – “Outstanding Nonfiction Special” and “Outstanding Writing for a Nonfiction Special”. We’re shocked to not see Ethan or Jason up for “Earl” this year.

• CHUD calls Mallrats #40 in their list of 50 cinematic “guilty pleasures” with a fairly extensive write-up. Here’s a few tidbits:
  Instead of pushing off from the critical success of Clerks, Kevin Smith made a film that proved he might actually be the voice of a generation, if Generation X was the lazy, unmotivated bunch of bums some claimed it to be. The characters in Mallrats occupy some neutral zone between junior high and college, and instead of the relatively accurate, if exaggerated dialogue of his debut, they all spew the verbose fantasties and monologues which would later be proven as Smith’s de facto m.o. The only time the dialogue works this time is during the game show finale, where I have to admit it’s actually funny as hell, even if Jason Lee’s jabs at Brian O’Halloran amount to shooting fish in a barrel. “I should know — we can smell our own,” gets me every time.
• How ’bout some more Rats news? Mallrats hit HD-DVD on June 26th, and High Def Digest has the first review that we’ve seen (we don’t have the high def equipment setup to review these puppies just yet). In short, the reviewer does give high marks to the film and the disc, which contains everything in the Mallrats 10th Anniversary package from a couple years back. Sounds like the picture and sound both offer some small step ups in quality.
• Shock Till You Drop and Cinematical have more San Diego ComicCon details realeased today. As we mentioned, Kevin will be speaking on Friday July 27th – STYD calls it a Q&A, while Cinematical just refers to it as a talk. Expect the usual format there, we’re betting on some new stories, too — A preamble to the big August 2nd event in Red Bank!
• Check out a new View Askew themed podcast called Salsashark. Looks like he’s got some more episodes on the way, too.

• Malcolm Ingram’s award-winning documentary “Small Town, Gay Bar”, produced by View Askew, will be available on a packed DVD August 7th, 2007. You can bet that we’ll have a fantastic pre-order price on SIGNED copies of this film through the Stash, so stay tuned for those details as soon as we can get ‘em. Those of you lucky enough to see the film at a Vulgarthon or another film festival over the past year or two can attest to what a good job that Malc did to capture this walk of life. Read Kevin’s reveal over at the board.

By the way, sneak into Kev’s post and you’ll also notice that he’s made a MAJOR casting for “Zack & Miri” — Judging by the secrecy, we’re betting this may be for the “Zack” role, too — As we’re still figuring Rosario for “Miri”. We can’t wait to find out who’s coming into the family.

• Some specs and art have leaked for the DVD arrival of “Catch and Release”, set to arrive on the 8th of May. DVDActive has the scoop which reveals that the disc will be light on extras (just two audio commentaries) but both fullscreen and widescreen versions of the film. We’ll be shocked if Kevin’s not on at least one of the commentary tracks. Here’s the report:

Title: Catch & Release
Starring: Jennifer Garner
Released: 8th May 2007
SRP: $28.95

Further Details: Sony Pictures Home Entertainment has announced romantic comedy Catch & Release which stars Jennifer Garner, Juliette Lewis, Kevin Smith, and Timothy Olyphant. The film will be available to own from the 8th May, and should retail at around $28.95. The disc will carry both anamorphic widescreen, and full screen presentations – along with English and French Dolby Digital 5.1 Surround tracks. The only extra material will be two audio commentaries (participants to be confirmed) and preview trailers. A Blu-ray release will also be available for $38.96.

• The excellent DVD review website DVD Verdict sings high praises of the awesome Clerks II DVD. Check out a snippet or two to see what we mean:

Read the entire review over at their site.

• The Hollywood Reporter has the fantastic news that DVD sales for Clerks II are off to a HUGE start, holding their own against major players such as “Superman Returns”, “Ice Ace 2″, and “Cars”. Yep, number FOUR on both the sales AND rental charts against all those big-budgeters! Many thanks to all of you who rented or bought the film, continuing to show the amazing track record of Kevin and View Askew when it comes to home video and DVD. Here’s the blurb from the HR article:

And Kev’s two cents (and news on some display changes at the beautiful Secret Stash shops):

• We ran some hints on Easter Eggs located on the new Clerks II DVD in our review earlier this month. But in case you were too lazy to track them down yourself, here’s a list of what’s been discovered so far. Of course, if you’ve got more to add, let us know:

• We’re pleased to report the highly anticipated arrival of THREE View Askew related titles on DVD today. First up, the latest in Kevin’s Askewniverse series, Clerks II, which many (including Kevin) say is the likely end to the View Askewniverse as we know it. You’ll certainly want to complete your collection with this one, and read our review of the disc set as well.

Next up — Kevin goes international with 2 Q&A sessions from Canada and the U.K. in “Evening with Kevin Smith 2: Evening Harder”. Another two disc set chronicles Kevin’s hilarious Q&As and anecdotes, as Kevin entertains packed houses like no one else can. Look for tons of laughs and unexpectected surprises in these no-holds-barred sessions. Now everywhere on DVD (finally caught up with you Australia!).

And finally, Jeff Anderson’s directorial debut, “Now You Know” — Not originally produced by View Askew, but now presented by Kevin Smith as it earns a place in Askew myth in its own right, due to discovering Trevor Fehrman who steals many a scene in “Clerks II”.

As we speak, fans everywhere are converging on Stash Westwood for a big signing of DVDs today with Smith, Mewes, Anderson and Fehrman. If you’re in line, we hope you’re having a blast, and look forward to your tales and photos.

For the rest of us, here’s hoping you’ve got your pre-orders in with the Stash, as it’s still the only spot to get personally signed copies of all these discs to put under your tree. In the meantime, here’s some other info on today’s releases and what special goodies you can find at various outlets:

• Suncoast Pictures are carrying the Clerks II DVD packed with the bonus DVD. The disc contains a music video contest winner, the VH-1 Special and 5 BONUS Train Wrecks.
• Many Best Buy stores are in short suppy of the Mooby’s Meal Box set. If you want one, we suggest you run and grab one as soon as you can!
• The free comic in the Circuit City version, we’re being told, is only coming packed with the Full Screen version of the film, NOT the widescreen. Be careful.

• One vigilant scooper from the North travelled down to a New York Best Buy last night and happened upon one of those limited edition Mooby Meal boxes, out EARLY! So thanks to him, we have some new high res shots of the contents of this beauty. We’ll be at our local Best Buy to pick these suckers up tomorrow, you can bet on that.

Of Canadian interest: Not as impressive as the Best Buy USA exclusive, Canadians get a free original ‘98 Clerks Comic book with the purchase of Clerks II on DVD. None of the other stores seem to have any deals of any sort.