Written by: Dominick at 12:15 pm
Filed under: Blu-Ray,Comedy,Movies
Movie Info:
Writer: Kevin Smith
Director: Kevin Smith
Cast: Brian O’Halloran, Jeff Anderson, Marilyn Ghigliotti, Lisa Spoonhauer, Jason Mewes, Kevin Smith, Scott Mosier, Ben Affleck, Jason Lee, Joey Lauren Adams, Shannon Elizabeth, Eliza Dushku, Ali Larter, Jennifer Schwalbach Smith, Will Ferrell, Judd Nelson
Rating: R
Studio: Buena Vista Home Entertainment
Release Info:
DVD Release Date: November 17, 2009
Online Availability: Amazon for $53.99
I have been a huge fan of Kevin Smith since I saw the movie Dogma. I was a little too young to get into the Clerks craze when it first came out (I was 13), so I didn’t even know about the comedic genius of Smith until I saw Dogma. As a practicing Catholic at the time, I found this movie quite hilarious, familiar and awesomely funny. From that moment, I became interested in Smith. Of course, I never got the opportunity to see another Smith film until I saw Clerks a few years later.
When Dogma came out there was no IMDB that I knew of, and the internet wasn’t as widely used as it is today. It was harder to find out about who Smith was and his other works. While I owned a VHS tape of Dogma and watched it many times, it wasn’t until I caught Clerks on a premium station late at night that I realized this had to be another Kevin Smith movie. It was Jay and Silent Bob who gave it away. From there, I actually pursued finding other Smith movies at the local Blockbuster.
After seeing Clerks, I saw Chasing Amy and when Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back came out, I bought that on DVD right away. Since then, I’ve been a loyal fan of Smith, who speaks to a generation I understand. Excluding Jersey Girl, I am a big fan of the movies he has written and directed. There is nothing like Clerks out there, and because of this the story, the jokes and the unique, yet every day Joe characters never grow old or tired.
I admit it. I was excited to get this set. I own all of these movies on DVD, but I don’t have any of them on Blu-Ray. For me, because I own these films, the big thing when it came to recommending this set would have to be quality. If you are a fan of Smith, as I am, you probably already have these movies on DVD. New fans can usually benefit from a collection, but again if the DVD quality is better or similar, it is often less expensive to go the DVD route. My goal in this review is to mention whether this set is worth upgrading for fans who already own these DVDs or purchase over previous, less expensive releases for those who haven’t had the chance to purchase any of these movies.
The Kevin Smith Box Set Film Plots
Clerks
Dante, an employee at the Quick Stop convenience store gets called into work, even when he isn’t supposed to be there. The film follows the events of his day and life as a 20-something, convenience clerk in suburban New Jersey. Dante interacts with his best friend, Randal, who runs the next door video store, though he is rarely ever there.
Dante also spends time with his committed, devoted girlfriend, Veronica, and attempts to re-hook up with his ex-girlfriend, the girl he’s always loved, Caitlin Bree. Throughout the course of the day, Randal and Dante go to a funeral, play street hockey on the convenience store roof, tell off a Chewlie’s gum rep, and see what happens when a man dies, and nobody realizes it until it is too late. The audience is also introduced to the dope selling Jay and Silent Bob.
Chasing Amy
Holden and Banky have a successful Comic Book series, Bluntman and Chronic, based on stoners Jay and Silent Bob. The two go to a comic book convention where they meet comic artist, Alyssa Jones. Holden falls for Jones, but she says that she is a lesbian, so the two become friends instead. Banky doesn’t like Alyssa and this strains his relationship with Holden. Unable to hide his feelings for Alyssa, Holden tells her the truth. This makes her uncomfortable with Holden, though they do start to date, despite her being more attracted to women.
When Banky goes searching through Alyssa’s past, he finds incriminating evidence that could ruin her relationship with Holden. Wanting to break them up, anyway, this is good news for Banky. However, it is Silent Bob who speaks of his time “Chasing Amy,” his own Alyssa, which makes Holden consider the possibilities with Amy, despite feeling betrayed by the omissions she’s made concerning her life.
Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back
When Banky sells the rights to Bluntman and Chronic to Hollywood, the characters become the laughing stock of the internet. Their real life counterparts, Jay and Silent Bob, are upset by all the negative press surrounding the movie, so they make it their mission to get to Hollywood and stop Miramax from producing the film. Of course, they have very little money so they have no choice but to hitchhike from New Jersey to California.
Along the way, the duo meet some interesting drivers, who give them rides. This includes a nun and a group of ultra-hot girls who are travelling by van and turn out to be criminals. Jay ends up falling in love with one of the girls, Justice, who he nicknames Boo Boo Kitty Fuck. When the girls set Jay and Silent Bob up to take the fall for their crimes the state police end up getting involved and Jay and Silent Bob end up with a monkey, whom the police believe they have kidnapped.
Storyline/Plot: 
Replayability:
Acting:
Directing:
Audio/Visual:
The Kevin Smith Box Set is awesome when it comes to content, but as you’re dealing with three different movies filmed at different times and in different aspect ratios things can get a little sketchy. Nothing is truly horrible. Obviously, Clerks could use some work, but given that it was filmed in 16mm on a lower than low budget, it’s not all that bad. So here is how things go.
Clerks has an aspect ratio of 1.78:1. Amy appears in 1.85:1 and Strike Back offers the best at 2.35:1. As you would expect all are sporting 1080p. Clerks offers some grain and a softer picture. It’s a black and white flick, but the blacks aren’t super strong. This is likely due to the film quality and the budget constraints. In any case, you’d be hard-pressed to find a better movie, so I can ignore the bad things. Truly bothersome elements, like compression errors do not exist here.
Amy‘s biggest problem seems to be inconsistency. Colors are good, but the picture quality and sharpness seem to vary from one scene to the next. Things like flesh coloring is magnificent though and again, things like compression errors aren’t included so there isn’t much to complain about. Strike Back is the newest of the three films and it definitely looks it. The picture quality is very nice, the colors are good, and the detail is high. There aren’t too many, if any, complaints to be found in this film. All in all, the three films all offer at least decent picture quality and nothing appears that distracts from the greatness of the films.
Like the video, the audio offers some differences in quality. The main thing is that all offer clear dialogue and everything is easy to hear without large amounts of distortion. Clerks offers the poorest quality, but that is merely because it is the film with the lowest budget.
None of the films blow it out of the park where dynamic sounds are concerned. However, for the most part, Amy and Strike Back offer a taste of what you would expect from a current Blu-ray release. I did not notice any large sound issues. Things like volume toggling or disturbances were not a problem. French and Spanish language tracks are also available though I cannot comment on their quality as I did not listen to them. Subtitles are available in all three languages.
Visual: 
Audio:
Bonus Features:
Fans of special features will be elated because there are a ton of extras for every movie in the Kevin Smith set. To make things easier on everyone, these features have been split up based on the movie they accompany.
Clerks
Things get rolling with a Kevin Smith intro. For close to four minutes, Smith lets you in on why he is putting another release of Clerks on the market for fans to purchase.
Then you have your option of film with commentary. You can watch the theatrical version or the rough cut version. The theatrical includes an optional commentary with Smith, Mewes, Mosier, and O’Halloran. The rough cut has a commentary as well. This can be watched/listened to in full screen mode or picture in picture. You can also opt out of watching and just listen to the commentary. If you choose to watch the theatrical cut you might want to also use the enhanced playback, which pops up trivia and other facts. It also has a fun swear word counter and some other cool stuff.
“Oh, What a Lovely Tea Party: The Making of Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back”: This 90 minute (give or take) documentary was filmed during Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back. You get a lot of fan favorite material including behind the scenes stuff, interviews with the cast, and some general silliness.
“Clerks – The Lost Scene”: The “Lost Scene” is a scene that was never shot. In animated form it is during the wake of Julie Dwyer. Kevin Smith offers an introduction to go along with the animation.
“The Flying Car”: This short has Dante and Randal talking about…you guessed it…flying cars. Like most of the other features this has been ported over from the previous DVD release.
“Clerks Restoration”: This includes three short pieces that were for the tenth Anniversary DVD. Scott Mosier and David Klein are both on hand. Mosier talks about the sound updates and Klein tackles picture enhancement, albeit briefly. Finally, Mosier and Smith intro the tenth anniversary DVD. If you never bought the tenth anniversary then you might want to watch it. However, if you have it you’ve probably already seen this and could skip it.
“Snowball Effect: The Story of Clerks”: Here you have another 90 minute documentary. You get a chance to learn about everything from the filming process of a (then) new director to what it is like going on the journey to Sundance. Fans, assuming they have not seen this, will really enjoy this. If you haven’t watched this on other DVD versions of Clerks you should watch it now.
“Mae Day: The Crumbling of a Documentary”: This is all about the documentary about Mae, a transsexual and how she dropped out of the film school project that Mosier and Smith were planning to do.
Also included are several outtakes, a Q&A session, a bunch of MTV spots with Jay and Silent Bob, the trailer, and a music video for “Can’t Even Tell.” Finally there are audition tapes for O’Halloran, Anderson, Marilyn Ghigliotti, and Earnest O’Donnell.
Chasing Amy
The commentary featured on Chasing Amy appears to be new, which is a treat as many of the special features are just ported from other DVD versions. In the commentary are Mosier and Smith. You can expect a lot of rambling and random topics, but overall, as one would expect, this is a good time.
“Tracing Amy: The Chasing Amy Doc”: Fans of the movie will enjoy this 80 minute documentary that deals with the movie start to finish. This even includes what it took to get the movie financed, details about writing the movie, casting, and just a slew of other details.
“Was It Something I Said?”: This is probably the worst of the special features that have been included here. It is nothing more than a talk between Kevin Smith and Joey Lauren Adams. This is roughly 20 minutes and discusses their relationship between work and their personal lives.
A Q&A session is on tap for around 30 minutes including the round table of Jason Lee, Jason Mewes, Joey Lauren Adams, Scott Mosier, Kevin Smith, and Ben Affleck. This was done after the movie’s tenth anniversary and was ported over from the previous DVD.
Also included are ten deleted scenes (separate viewing or play all option), a series of bloopers and outtakes, trailers, and the theatrical trailer.
Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back
Things begin and end with a commentary including Kevin Smith, Scott Mosier, and Jason Mewes. Again, you have more of a general conversation that could lead just about anywhere. If you’re a fan of Smith commentaries then you should enjoy this. Don’t expect things scene specific because they don’t really roll that way. In any case, it’s a fairly decent listen.
So, as you can see, the worst bonus section is in Jay and Silent Bob Strikes Back. However, with all of the other special features I can’t muster the need to complain too much. I doubt you will either, since the better movies have the most features.
Bonus Features:
Bottom Line:
If you have all three of the newest DVD versions, you may not want to upgrade to this Blu-Ray set right away, especially since it is over $50 for this set. While this is the best quality you will find for these movies, the quality isn’t so mind blowing you have to upgrade. Adding in the fact that the bonuses are almost exclusively ported from previous releases and you might want to save up for future releases. However, if you don’t own these movies and are a Smith fan, this is a great way to get three of his best films in one set, with excellent quality for what is available to these films. Whatever way you plan to purchase these films, all three of these movies come highly recommended!
Overall Rating:
Technorati Tags: Kevin Smith, Box Set, Clerks, Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back, Chasing Amy, Comedy, Blu-Ray, Funny, Ben Affleck
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Written by Dominick - Visit Website
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Dominick Evans is in his late 20's. He spends his days working as a full time writer/editor and a part time musician/composer. His passions in life include music, directing films, watching movies, reading books, watching sports, wheelchair football, politics and spending time with his family (fiancée Ashtyn, son Robert, and shih-tzu Oliver). Other interests include being an advocate for the disability and GLBT communities.
