Kevin Smith: 3 Movie Collection – Blu-ray Disc Review

Tags: Ali Larter, Ben Affleck, Chris Rock, Dwight Ewell, Eliza Dushku, George Carlin, Jason Lee, Jason Mewes, Jeff Anderson, Joey Lauren Adams, Kevin Smith, Lisa Spoonauer, Marilyn Ghigliotti, Scott Mosier, Shannon Elizabeth, Will Farrell

have ratings of 8.0, 7.5 & 6.8 on IMDb
1080p in AVC , VC-1 & MPEG-2
DTS-HD 5.1 Master Audio & PCM 5.1
include dvd ports (mostly) and exclusives
–
– 1994, 1997, 2001
– 92, 113, 104 minutes
– Miramax (Disney)
– (except third film which is Region A)

Overall Verdict – Fans Will Be Somewhat Pleased

Buy it for $53.99 @ Amazon.com

— Review written by: Brendan Surpless —

The Movie Themselves are written and directed by Kevin Smith

“Clerks” follows a wild, wacky day in the life of two workers of retail life. Dante (Brian O’Halloran) works for a convenience store called the QuickStop, while his somewhat friend Randall (Jeff Anderson) works for a video store next day. Both clearly don’t like their respective jobs at all, which is easily shown throughout the film. There really isn’t much else to mention here, so I’ll get into what makes this film work on the level it does.
The real humor of the film comes with director/writer/actor Kevin Smith. As this was his directorial debut, his sense of wit and charm comes through excellently. He clearly has a unique mind and his sense of satire is evident throughout. Take the scene where a customer goes up to Randall in the video store and simply utters “do you have that one with the guy who was in that movie that was out last year?” Now one might think that this is being a bit over-the-top, but the real humor is that there are people out there that would go into a video store and ask a question like this. Smith easily pokes fun at not only society, but also the common folk. There are so many sequences with Smith delivers this that I’m not really going to get into it as I feel the audience needs to experience this one without much knowledge if that haven’t already. My Rating: 4/5.

“Chasing Amy” follows comic-book artist Holden (Ben Affleck) and his attempt at a relationship with fellow artist Alyssa (Joey Lauren Adams). At first both seem happy, but Holden is turned off by Alysssa’s sexuality, that being that she’s a lesbian. Also making matters worse is that his best friend Banky (Jason Lee) begins to despise his former friend for his childish manners. Lastly, let’s add in that Holden is beginning to have questions about his life and where he’s going. The film, quite possibly Smith’s best, essentially deals with a topic that is nowhere new (relationships) but is able to turn itself into something more than a standard rom-com simply because of Smith’s unique style of direction and his insight into the topic.

While Smith felt the pain of failure with his previous film “Mallrats” (a big budget film at $6 Million, which ended up failing at the box office), with “Chasing Amy” Smith had to prove to everyone (Hollywood and himself) that he could create another gem like “Clerks“. Smith ended up convincing Harvey Weinstein to give him another shot, only this time he was only given a $250,000 budget. While this clearly didn’t hurt the quality of the film, the V/A does come into question but more on that later. The reason why “Chasing Amy” has turned into a kind of cult, rom-com is simply because of Smith’s approach to the subject at hand. Akin to that of his breakout debut, here Smith takes an well addressed topic of relationships and is successful in creating not only characters we care about, but also a message that is not only meaningful and, well, emotional at points. All too often modern rom-coms attempt this but only end up giving us superfluous characters that we never end up bringing up after the movie has concluded. With “Chasing Amy“, Smith has created a truly excellent film that I personally loved. My Rating: 4.5/5.

“Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back” follows both Jay (Jason Mewes) and Silent Bob (Kevin Smith) as they travel to Hollywood in hopes of stopping production on a film based on their characters called Bluntman and Chronic. Naturally both get themselves involved in many antics, one of which sees Jay fall in love with a diamond thief. Instead of literally going over the physical plot, I’m just going to jump right into what makes this one so damn funny.

After addressing the two above films, now we come to “Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back“, clearly Smith’s more commercial, somewhat juvenile film. Don’t take that statement wrong though as unlike the modern toilet humor films, this one isn’t ever gross but instead is downright hilarious. And it’s a genuine funny not a gross-out funny. Some of the funnier sequences occur as more observations at things around the film and pokes at the genre and stars themselves. Take one of the initial scenes between Holden (Ben Affleck) and Jay and Silent Bob. Obviously upset at the pending Bluntman and Chronic film, both go see Holden wondering what the hell happened. Well the funny moment here is not only the internet bit but also the comment “A Jay and Silent Bob movie, who would pay to see that?” A simple look at the camera (obviously the stars looking at us, the audience, then just smiling) is priceless. It’s scenes like this and oh so many others that make this such a classic film. While this won’t appeal to everyone, I truly feel that those big comedy fans who understand real humor and laughs will love this one. My Rating: 4.5/5.

Video Quality will be broken down by each film as well will tell disc sizes, usage and codecs. But first, you’ll find exact Disc Usage below:

Disc 1 (“Clerks”) uses 40.8GB total.
Disc 2 (“Chasing Amy”) uses 22.9GB for the movie out of 39.8GB total.
Disc 3 (“Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back”) uses 18.5GB for the movie out of 18.8GB total.

“Clerks” uses a BD-50 (50 gigabyte dual-layered Blu-ray Disc) and the AVC MPEG-4 codec in the 1:85:1 Aspect Ratio. “Clerks” might be the last title you might expect on Blu-ray due to its rather low key look and feel, but the hi-def presentation here is impressive for the films age and budget. The first instance fans will notice is that the film’s black and white print has never really looked better. Gone are all the dirt and specks that have littered the various dvd counterparts. I can’t really comment all too much on the color palette as this is a black and white film. But I will mention that the darker scenes do have solid, deep, bold blacks. No real instance of smearing or blotchy colors here either. Even though newbies to the format will scoff at this transfer as it lacks the “pop” of say something like “Transformers“, we have to keep in mind the budget and age of the film. Being a fan of the film, I was pleased with what was presented. All in all this earns a good “3.5 Star Rating“.

“Chasing Amy” uses a BD-50 (50 gigabyte dual-layered Blu-ray Disc) and the VC-1 codec in the 1:85:1 Aspect Ratio. The one aspect about the earlier Kevin Smith films is that most of them honestly don’t look that great in hi-def. Shot on a rather low budget of $250,000, “Chasing amy” looks okay here but fans might be disappointed with what’s presented here. The film’s color palette looks rather dull featuring muted colors that lack any real pop or definition. Grain levels tend to fluctuate as well ranging from heavy grain in one scene to barely any grain in another. The film’s print is also in poor condition with video noise, specks and dirt ringing throughout the presentation. I feel this is a mixture of both the low budget and a decision to not remaster this. And this is quite the oddity as I thought “Chasing Amy” is usually regarded as Smith’s best effort, which is why I find it weird that nothing was done here. I will note that I didn’t expect this to be a perfect transfer but damn if I didn’t expect something better than this. All in all I can’t give this more than a “2.5 Star Rating“.

“Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back” uses a BD-25 (25 gigabyte single layer Blu-ray Disc) and the MPEG-2 codec in the 2:35:1 Aspect Ratio. As of the initial Blu-ray releases in 2006, this one sported an MPEG-2 transfer instead of the now fairly virtually used AVC MPEG-4 codec. Now due to this, those who are first seeing this disc will cry that this is a rather poor transfer. But putting this into the perspective of the 2006 time period, this is a somewhat decent transfer. The film’s color palette tends to focus on brighter colors like those that do occasionally pop off the screen. Black levels are solid for the age, but they do tend to waver in the darker shots (see the Scooby Doo van scene for an example). Detail wavers from okay to something that looks more like a DVD transfer. An example would be any scene where there is a wide background shot, like that of a field. All in all, if your expectations are accurately set, you’ll be somewhat satisfied with this presentation. This earns a “3.5 Star Rating“.

Audio Quality will be broken down by each film as well will tell what audio formats each film uses.

“Clerks” uses a English 5.1 DTS-HD MA (48 kHz/24-bit). Don’t really expect much out of this lossless track as this is probably the last film that needs a lossless fix at all. Dialogue is delivered via the center channel but I found that I had to play with the volume on more than one occasion simply because it seemed that the film’s dialogue had been raised a bit (even with a flat balance of +0db, I still had to adjust the volume more than once). LFE, surprisingly, is somewhat active mostly thanks to the film’s rock/punk soundtrack that gives a little oomph here and there. Dynamics are active with the film’s odd sound direction resulting in some activity here. Akin to that of the film’s video, I went into this with the right mindset and came out pleased. All in all this earns a “3 Star Rating“.

“Chasing Amy” uses a English 5.1 DTS-HD MA (48 kHz/24-bit) Akin to that the of the accompanying video, this provided DTS-HD is certainly okay for the material at hand, but doesn’t really do much that improves it over the dvd counterpart. The first item to mention is that the film has a rather heavy front mix, mostly due to the lack of budget Smith had for the film. I will say that the dialogue is mostly intelligible with only a few instances where subtitles are required for those who haven’t seen the film before. Dynamics are pretty much absent here with the only real moments of any rear activity being accompanied by what sounded like open air moving by. It’s almost like something was suppose to occur but the effects weren’t added. This is a true shame as I expected much more here considering that “Clerks” sounded fine with it’s minimal budget. All in all this earns a rather disappointing “2.5 Star Rating“.

“Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back” uses a English 5.1 Uncompressed (48 kHz/16-bit). As this film was one of the first Kevin Smith films to hit the format back in 2006, the included 5.1 Uncompressed track is certainly good, but I would’ve liked if a 24-bit track was thrown on this disc. Dialogue reproduction is solid with no instance of drop out out of the center channel. Dynamics are fine as well, particularly during the sequences that take place on the Miramax lots. Here background chatter is distinct as is LFE (mostly on the “Scream” parody portion). Speaking of LFE, I found the LFE to be rather subdued during the first half of the film or so, but more active and robust toward the latter half. All in all this is the type of track that will clearly please fans more than audiophiles. This one earns a “3.5 Star Rating“.

Bonus Materials will be broken down by each film and will note if the features are presented in either Standard Definition or High Definition video.

“Clerks” bonus features are presented in Standard Definition video with English 2.0 Dolby Digital with optional English/Spanish subtitles.

• Introduction by Kevin Smith: This is an exclusive to this Blu-ray release.
• Oh, What a Lovely Tea Party: This is an exclusive to this Blu-ray release. Running near 90 minutes in length, this is a making to “Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back“. Featuring just about everything we’ve come to expect out of a Kevin Smith making-of, topics like the film’s characters, production sets, cast and on set laughs are discussed.
• Classic Commentary Circa ‘95 (Theatrical Version: This commentary features Kevin, Mos, Mewes, Brian and others.
• Enhanced Playback Track: This is a trivia track with cast and crew quotes.
• The First Cut Commentary: This commentary features Kevin, Brian, Jeff, Mos and Mewes.
• 2004 Kevin Smith Intro: This runs near 9 minutes and is basically a back forth conversation between Smith and Mewes.
• Clerks: The Lose Scene: This is an animated short.
• “The Flying Car”: Roughly an 8 minute 2001 short made for “The Tonight Show with Jay Leno” that features both Dante and Randall, except sans the vulgarity.
• MTV Spots with Jay & Silent Bob: Roughly 18 minutes worth of MTV spots with Smith and Mewes.
• Theatrical Trailer: The film’s original trailer is shown.
• Soul Asylum Music Video: Here’s the music video for Soul Asylum’s “Can’t Even Tell“.
• Clerks Restoration: Here, in roughly 12 minutes, the 2004 DVD restoration is spoken of
• Original Clerks Auditions: Here are 15 minutes worth of original audition tapes, most of which aren’t even slightly funny. More for the completist I suppose.
• “Snowball Effect”: This is the original story of how “Clerks” came to be. At near 90 minutes in length, this one also dives into how Smith got into the business and where he feels he has gone.
• “Mae Day: The Crumbling of a Documentary”: This runs 12 minutes in length and is the first film both Smith and Mewes made while attending film school.
• Outtakes from “Snowball Effect”: Here are roughly 39 minutes of outtakes that didn’t make it into the above feature.
• 10th Anniversary Q & A: This runs nearly 42 minutes and is another instance of Kevin Smith taking something that could be rather bland (a Q & A session) only to turn it into something funny and informative.

“Chasing Amy” bonus features are presented in both Standard Definition and High Definition video with English 2.0 Dolby Digital with optional English/Spanish subtitles.

• Audio Commentary with Writer/Director/Actor Kevin Smith and Producer Scott Mosier: This is a new, exclusive commentary recorded for this Blu-ray release and it does differ from the commentary found on the Criterion Collection. Both are funny and lively throughout, speaking on the more difficult parts of filming on a lower budget than the previous film.
• Tracing Amy: The Chasing Amy Doc: This is another Blu-ray exclusive. Running a whooping 82 minutes in length, this is a making of that is worth picking this title up for. Topics addressed include shooting on a low budget, locales and casting. Like most other making-of’s found on Smith’s discs, this one is definitely worth checking out.
• Was It Something I Said?: Here both Adams and Smith sit down for an 18 minute chat about the film’s lasting power.
• 10 Years Later Q & A: Here’s a 28 minute chat with the cast and crew of the film.
• Deleted Scenes: Here are 25 minutes of deleted scenes that while funny didn’t do much for me. Perhaps an included bit from Smith would have done more.
• Outtakes: Here are roughly 5 minutes of outtakes.
• Trailer: The film’s theatrical trailer is shown.

“Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back” bonus features are presented in High Definition video with English 5.1 Dolby Digital or English 2.0 Dolby Digital sound with optional English subtitles.

• Audio Commentary with writer/director/actor Kevin Smith, actor Jason Mewes and producer Scott Mosier: This is a fairly lively chat that is mostly dominated by Smith (which would make sense as these films are kind of his pet projects). I don’t imagine those who have seen just this film out of Smith’s series would want to listen to this. More for the completists out there.

Overall, the bonus materials range from downright excellent (both “Clerks” and “Chasing Amy“) to extremely disappointing (“Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back“). Speaking of that, it’s a downright shame that the same 2006 disc was just re-issued in this box set instead of giving this a remaster/including all the features found on the original dvd release. While the V/A found on the discs are fine, fans might question “Chasing Amy and it’s lackluster treatment. Still, to finally these films on Blu-ray makes this one worth a purchase, but more only for fans. Those new to the world of Smith will want to throw this collection into their Netflix queue before spending their hard-earned cash.

Blu-ray Disc packaging:

Screenshots:

NOTE: The full-sized 1920×1080 files are in a .PNG file format and uncompressed. Bare with the slow loading times, keep in mind these files are at least 1MB (1 megabyte) in size each.

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