KEVIN SMITH COLLECTION, THE - Blu-ray review

Four or five years ago, the senior class at Illinois Wesleyan University asked Kevin Smith to be their commencement speaker. Surprisingly, he accepted, and I was in the audience for his talk--the last commencement speaker, by the way, that the University allowed seniors to choose. For the occasion, Smith said that he felt gypped not to have a shared four-year history with the graduating class, and so he took the liberty of constructing one . . . which he shared with the audience, using colorful language (yep, including the ol' F-word) and the real names of graduating seniors. "Hey," he said at one point, addressing a young woman and a young man who sat somewhere in a crowd of caps and gowns, "remember that wild threesome we had behind Presser Hall?" or something to that effect. As I listened, I wondered what the parents' of those students were thinking. Afterwards, I spoke with our college president and provost, who were visibly shaken, and I had to laugh. If they had bothered to check out even one of Smith's films, they would have seen that colorful language, irreverence, and slacker humor are what he does best. But it also occurred to me that they should consider themselves lucky that the senior class invited Silent Bob to speak for them, rather than Jay.

"The Kevin Smith 3-Movie Collection" brings two films to Blu-ray for the first time--"Clerks" and "Chasing Amy"--along with "Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back." At first glance, you wonder: Since "Dogma," "Clerks II," "Zack and Miri Make a Porno," and "Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back" have already been released on Hi-Def, why not make "Mallrats" the third film in this set? Fans are still waiting for Smith's second film to come out in Hi-Def. But the answer is simple: "Mallrats" was released by Gramercy Pictures, not Miramax. Bummer.

But for those who already have "Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back" on Blu-ray, Disney/Miramax is not going to make you buy it twice. All three films in this collection are available singly in Hi-Def Blu-ray.

Clerks (1994)
Smith couldn't have made a bigger splash with a low-budget debut film than if he had jumped from a high-dive platform while holding the camera. Though this 92-minute black-and-white film cost under $30,000 to make, it has grossed more than 3 million and won the Award of the Youth and the Mercedes-Benz Award at the Cannes Film Festival. Since then it's become a cult classic, something that has mystified Smith, who says it's been overpraised. And you know what? I agree with him. This day-in-the-life film, which follows convenience store clerk Dante (Brian O'Halloran) from the minute he opens the store until closing time, has plenty of truth-in-comedy moments, but there's a film-student quality to it. Much of the dialogue comes in sections that are too long, and the actors sometimes stumble over it, intent on remembering and delivering the lines rather than working on their acting and emotional place. And one of the film's most famous scenes, where Dante's ex-girlfriend goes into a men's room where an old man has retreated to use the bathroom (and a porno magazine) and thinks it's Dante . . . well, if you think about it too long, it ain't happenin', for any number of reasons. So much for logic.

But as John J. Puccio noted in his review, "The movie is mostly a succession of conversations, some of them hilarious, others not so," and it "becomes tedious, too, as the guys debate stale philosophy, bicker constantly, even have a knockdown, drag-out brawl late in the story." The "guys" are Dante and his friend Randal (Jeff Anderson), who share a history but nothing else. Dante is laid-back and accommodating, a push-over whether it's a customer doing the asking or a boss doing the telling. Randal, meanwhile, is a clerk from the video shop next door. He's acerbic and rude to everyone, and doesn't have even a smidgeon of the sense of responsibility that Dante has. He doesn't care if a couple of pothead drug dealers named Jay and Silent Bob (Jason Mewes and Smith himself) hang out in front of the video store, and he closes the store whenever he feels like wandering over to the Quick-Stop to chat. Which is often.

Dante's current girlfriend Veronica (Marilyn Ghigliotti) and former girlfriend Caitlin (Lisa Spoonhauer) turn up, and there's more talk punctuated by more profanity and weird situations. Does it go anywhere? Does it say anything profound? That depends on whether you believe that what passes for philosophical discourse on the level of potheads and slackers is worth examining. Sometimes the scenes can be funny, sometimes they're painfully staged, sometimes they're pointedly NOT funny. But it's a first film, for crying out loud. If I had reviewed this when it first came out, I would have been inclined to give it a 7 out of 10 because it shows comic rhythms and a sense of dialogue-as-structure that's worth rewarding. Looking back, I'd have to agree with Smith that it's more flawed than those who've praised it seem to have noticed. But maybe that was because it was so uncommonly good, considering it was a first film that was shot on the cheap. Low expectations are a filmmaker's friend . . . anyone's, for that matter.

Fans of the film will be pleased that this Blu-ray includes both the 92-minute theatrical release and the 104-minute "first cut" that was apparently Smith's director's cut prior to getting it in shape for distribution.

Chasing Amy (1997)
Watch "Chasing Amy" immediately after "Clerks" and you'll see why Smith thinks the former is overrated. I'm not alone in thinking that "Chasing Amy" is Smith's best film. Dean Winkelspecht said the same thing in his DVD review, and there are a lot more out there who agree. "Chasing Amy" may not have the diamond-in-the-rough charm of "Clerks," but it's plenty offbeat on its own and plays virtual spin-the-bottle with the romantic comedy genre: boy meets girl, boy finds out girl is gay, boy figures what-the-hell and pursues her anyway, boy . . . oh boy. It's consistently funny, the characters are more fully drawn, and there's a range of honest emotions that are frankly missing from "Clerks," which was all about the funny lines and situations. With "Clerks," you never forgot that a writer was behind the dialogue; that's not the case here.

In Smith's world, everyone is best friends since childhood. In "Chasing Amy," old chums Holden (Ben Affleck) and Banky (Jason Lee) have created a comic book based on Jay and Silent Bob: Bluntman and Chronic. Affleck and Lee have great chemistry and come across as longtime best friends better than anyone did in "Clerks." But in this film, the comedy comes in layers. Holden is the artist and Banky the inker, and from the beginning, when we see fans at Comicon give Banky crap for being "only an inker," it becomes not only a running joke, but the tip of an exposed nerve that leads right to the core of his character. And when Holden (as in, Holden Caufield?) enters into a relationship with the Amy (Joey Lauren Adams) he's chased, but discovers she isn't exactly chaste, it causes a strain on all of their relationships.

Forget production values (which are, of course, considerably better). The level of writing, the level of acting, the scenic construction are all WAY beyond what Smith attempted in "Clerks." "Chasing Amy" is a smart and sophisticated movie that has raunchy elements in it, and considerably more complexity.

Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back (2001)
Aside from the "Star Wars" allusions, with this film Smith returns to the raunch 'n' roll of "Mallrats" and "Clerks" and the zaniness of all the stories that were told in those films but not always shown. Here, Smith puts them on camera, and if there's such a genre as stoner farce, this one qualifies. Upset that people are making money off of them--specifically, that their way-cool comic book has been bought by a studio and people are getting big bucks by making a movie based on them--Jay and Silent Bob vow to get their share of the pie but also to restore their "good name" that's been tarnished by an apparently bad film that's generated some pretty bad reviews and some hostile Internet-speak. Life imitating art imitating life?

As I wrote in my review of the Blu-ray when it first came out, fans of Kevin Smith, Jason Mewes, and their Jay and Silent Bob characters are going to like this more than the average filmgoer. It's the weakest film in this particular trio because it's the most uneven. Some of the most hilarious scenes poke fun at net-nerds, hitchhikers, and guys who obsess over the darnedest things. It's when the humor gets a little broader that it fails to hit the mark. The wild, Mel Brooks' style plot insanities that occur when this slacker duo gets to Hollywood can feel strained at times, whereas when Jay and Silent Bob get back to what made them appealing in the first place--those inane conversations in front of the video store that started it all--the humor gets back on track. As Jay tries to share his "insight" into male-female relationships, we get this funny line: "She didn't tell me to fuck off once when I was talking to her, or try to pull out the pepper spray. Yep. This could be the one." And when George Carlin gives the guys a lesson in hitchhiking and it backfires when Jay tries it out on a nun (Carrie Fisher) who picks them up, it's one of the few examples of ribald humor that works, and it does so because of the chatty, quasi-philosophical set-up.

After Jay and Silent Bob get to Hollywood and we see actors playing their characters, the film gets even more self-referential, though as John wrote in his DVD review, "After a while, all this cinematic reflexivity of winking at the camera and nudging at the viewer get tiresome and redundant. Yes, Jay and Silent Bob were funny in small doses, but, no, they aren't as funny in big chunks."

Video:
Smith admitted that putting a rough-looking film like "Clerks" on Blu-ray is a bit silly (my word, not his), and it's awfully rough. Was it his idea? No. It was the studios, who are still trying to make money off of it. But let's face it, everything is shifting to Blu-ray, and "Clerks" needed to get there. Don't blame the AVC/MPEG-4 transfer. Though remastering the film in High Definition helps a little with the control of black levels, it actually exacerbates the extreme film grain that gave this a home movie quality. Thankfully, Miramax fought any impulse to try to clean this up, because to have the grain working FOR the home-movie look and then remove the flecks and flickers that occasionally pop up would have gone the other direction. This was shot using a 16mm black-and-white camera and converted to 35mm, so it's always going to show limitations of the source. It's rough-looking, and presented in 1.85:1 aspect ratio. I'd give it a 6 out of 10.

"Chasing Amy" looks considerably better in 1080p, despite a VC-1 transfer. But it's still not a Hi-Def showpiece release. This too was a low-budget film, comparatively speaking, and there's still a layer of film grain that can't be smoothed over. It looks as if someone's tried, too. In some scenes the facial detail appears more pore-free than others, and the edges sometimes look indistinct. But the colors look natural and there's nothing wrong with the black/contrast levels. It's still the best video treatment of this title that's available. "Chasing Amy" is presented in 1.85:1 aspect ratio, and I'd give it a 7 out of 10.

"Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back" also looks decent but not spectacular in 1080p. This one sports an MPEG-2 transfer rather than the more sophisticated MPEG-4, and while it's sharper than a standard-definition disc, this film doesn't have what you'd call a strong visual style. It's not the kind of demo disc you'd pop into your player to impress friends. There's a thin layer of grain throughout, which is especially visible in sky shots. Sometimes you don't get the level of detail in medium shots that you'd expect for Hi-Def, but the black levels are fine and so are the skin tones and levels of color saturation. "Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back" is presented in 2.35:1 aspect ratio, and I'd give it a 7 out of 10.

Audio:
So what happens when you take a scratchy, home-movie style soundtrack and give it the English DTS-HD MA 5.1 (48 kHz/24-bit) treatment? Pretty much the same as with the video. Hi-Def can't compensate for rough source materials, and since Smith's films are mostly dialogue anyway, it's like double-overkill. Where you notice the difference is in the music that pops up. But the distortion from the original source materials is still present. Subtitles are in English, English SDH, Spanish. Bahasa, Malay, Portuguese, Russian, Turkish, and Ukranian. I'd give it a 6 out of 10.

The DTS-HD MA 5.1 only works a little more magic on "Chasing Amy." As with "Clerks," it's not a dynamic soundtrack. Sounds hover near their sources, and the front-speaker spread isn't particularly wide, though it dominates. But dialogue is faithfully reproduced, and the soundtrack feels natural despite rear-speaker dormancy. Sometimes you get a little feedback or distortion, but for the most part it's better than "Clerks." Additional audio options are in German DTS 5.1 and Spanish Dolby Digital 2.0, with subtitles in English, English SDH, Spanish, German, Bahasa, Bulgarian, Danish, Finnish, Icelandic, Malay, Norwegian, Portuguese, Brazilian, Romanian, Swedish, and Turkish. I'd give it between a 6 and 7 out of 10.

Disney/Miramax went with an English PCM 5.1 uncompressed audio (48kHz/16-bit) on "Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back," but it's surprisingly effecting. There's a little more "pop" in this soundtrack than the other two titles in this set, with a deep bass that comes close to rumbling and mid-tones that are faithfully reproduced. Dialogue sounds natural and while the effects speakers are only intermittently involved, the mix is generally a pleasing one. Additional audio options are English and French Dolby Digital 5.1, with subtitles in English SDH, French, and Spanish.

Extras:
The bulk of the extras on this three-disc set are on the "Clerks" disc. The commentary track from the laserdisc is reproduced here-the one with Mewes cleared tanked-which offers fans more information that raunch. The theatrical version also has a trivia track that plays on all stand-alones.

The "first cut" gets the Profile 1.1 player pop-up commentary with everyone that's honestly more fun than the movie. These guys are quick on their feet, and you get the same kind of dialogue but with more honesty than in the film. Smith and his editor Scott Mosier give a brief intro to the commentary, and then it's on to the jokes.

Other bonus features on the "Clerks" disc include an hour-and-a-half making-of documentary . . . for "Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back." Huh? Apparently this isn't filler. It's brand new, and included at the request of Smith, who'd run out of things to give "Clerks" fans. O-kay. And rounding out the bonus features are some you've seen before, like the hour-and-a-half "Snowball Effect" that traces the phenomenon of the film's rise to cult status, a 10th Anniversary Q&A (42 min.) with the cast and crew, an animated 10-minute "Lost Scene," an eight-minute short film made for "The Tonight Show" called "The Flyingn Car," 15 minutes of original audition tapes, a 12-minute "Mae Day: The Crumbling of a Documentary" that was Smith's and Mosier's first production, a "Can't Even Tell" music video, trailer, and a 13-minute feature on the restoration for the 10th anniversary re-release.

"Chasing Amy" offers mostly new content for this release, including "Tracing Amy," a gem of a bonus feature that delves into all aspects of the film and isn't just Smith cutting up and self-deprecatingly talking about his accomplishments. The run-time is close to an hour-and-a-half on this feature, and it's the best thing on the disc. Smith's and Mosier's new commentary track is also entertaining, though perhaps not as informative. "Was It Something I Said" features Smith and his female lead Adams in a more sedate and at times uncomfortable 20-minute feature--uncomfortable because of the personal relationship and differences of opinion the two have/had. Rounding out the bonus features are the trailier, blooper reel (just 5 min.), 25 minutes worth of deleted scenes without commentary, and a Q&A that was made ten years later featuring the whole group.

As for "Jay and Silent Bob" bonus content, we get "hosed," as Jay might say. The only extra is an audio commentary by Smith, Mosier, and Mewes. Comments range from interesting to bland, and from thought-provoking to inane. Clearly, these guys are running out of things to say--though Mewes, crude as his character, talks about "swapping spit" with on actress and complaining that he didn't "get any ass" during filming. It's moments like these where we realize how Jay IS Mewes that makes the commentary funny and revealing. But as commentary tracks go, this one was all over the map. The only other bonus feature is "instant access to select movie scenes that showcase the ultimate in High Definition picture and sound." Ooooooo. As Ralphie would say, "Son of a bitch. A crummy commercial!"

Bottom Line:
All three films come boxed in a sturdy cardboard slipcase with three panels on the back that give specs and a rundown on bonus features, along with a one-paragraph blurb on each film. Fans ought to be happy with the set, and as I said, those who already own "Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back" in Blu-ray can purchase the other two, out on Blu-ray for the first time, separately. I'd give "Clerks" between a 6 and 7, "Chasing Amy" an 8 or 9, and "Jay and Silent Bob Strikes Back" a low 6. That averages out to a 7.