Kevin Smith: 3 Movie Collection Blu-ray

Movie Collection Grade: A-

DVD Features Grade: A+

Overall Grade: A

This is an awesome box set if you're a fan of Kevin Smith. It's basically a huge treasure chest of re-mastered films, awesome special features and lots of interviews and commentary with the man himself. The three movies chosen to be in it are among his best. Thankfully we're not wasting any time with Mallrats or Clerks 2. I personally would have preferred Dogma over Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back but that's just me. So what we do have here is his initial opus Clerks, Chasing Amy and the aforementioned Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back all on Blu-ray.

On the list of new classics I'd have to put the original Clerks very near the top. Not only does this movie continue to hold up and be funny regardless of when you are watching it despite being set in a very recognizable time period (there's no mistaking the early 90's in New Jersey) but no matter how many times you see it you can always find something new to laugh at. This movie basically encapsulated my high school experience. I think everyone has that one quotable movie that was constantly referenced in their cliques at school. For me, Clerks was the film that kept us laughing for four years.

Now with this special edition they're showing us close 15 minutes of original footage including an alternate ending that I'd never seen before. The quality is incredibly bad (which they admit in the intro) but it doesn't matter. It's nice to be able to see the original product as it was before all the extra money came in to spruce things up.

It seems a little ridiculous to buy a Blu-ray disc to watch something that has all the quality of an overworked slightly damaged VHS tape, but the script, the dialogue and the direction are so sharp and multi-layered that you completely forget about all of its visual and auditory shortcomings within the first five minutes of the film.

The disc also gives you the option of watching the original longer cut of the film that played the festivals without the improved quality and music tracks, or to watch the theatrical version that was slightly more put together and edited down to a 91 minute runtime. The difference in quality between the two isn't staggering but you can definitely see where the additional money went into the film once it was picked up by Miramax.

The disc also has an incredible amount of special features on it. Way too many to go into detail about each of them so I'll just mention a few. And we should also note that a lot of these features were originally made for the 10th Anniversary Edition of Clerks and they've just been brought over to augment the 15th Anniversary

Edition here. (Nothing wrong with that.) We've got the animated Lost Scene of Clerks which takes place at the wake which is good, the Flying Car short film they did for the tonight show that reunited Brian O'Halloran and Jeff Anderson which was OK, they have some of the original audition tapes which are always trippy to watch, there's an awesome Q&A with the cast that has some of the worst audience member questions I've ever seen that gives you a real insight into what these guys are like in real life, and finally there are some technical features talking about picture and sound restoration and some more interviews.

As much as Clerks summed up my high school years of boyhood tomfoolerie and shenanigans the second film in this set pretty much explains my college years. Chasing Amy explores those issues of having to let go of the past you've grown up with and make a new fresh start for yourself. And of course the issues of sexuality and love turn out to be far more complicated than we ever thought possible in our younger years and Amy does an amazing job of pulling the audience through those feelings regardless of whether or not you personally struggled with them. It also pretty much launched Ben Affleck and Jason Lee's careers. (I bet Brian and Jeff wish they had just waited to star in Smith's third film instead of his first.)

But overall Chasing Amy is in my mind Smiths most personal and emotional film asking questions and dealing with issues that most straight guys would never even talk about let alone make a film about; so I have a huge amount of respect for the film in that regard. The one negative I will say about seeing this movie with the enhanced picture and color is that it made the crazy nicotine stains on everyone's fingers blaringly obvious. I mean seriously guys you smoked A LOT in that movie. I'm amazed no one is smoking through the hole in their throats yet because of that film.

The Special Features on this bad boy include a great documentary that talks about the Mallrats fiasco and how that slump really led to the creation of Chasing Amy as we know it today. It's really well produced and definitely worth watching especially for aspiring filmmakers or really anyone who wants to work in the business. There is an honesty to how frankly they speak about the business and how it affects friendships and relationships "” it was really eye opening. It also runs for over an hour so it's a very complete look at this filmmaking team's development over those few years.

Other Special Features include some outtakes that are funny, some deleted scenes and another anniversary Q&A with the cast which was awesome and had way better questions than the previous

Q&A on the first disc.

The third and final Blu-ray is dedicated to Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back the most Hollywood-ized film of the set and my least favorite. Again, I think using Dogma here would have made way more sense which is the reason why the Movie Collection Grade is an A- instead of an A + just fyi. That being said, re-watching the movie after so many years had an interesting affect on me. I found myself experiencing the 'you can't go home again,' feeling. It's fun to see those characters in new situations but the fact is it can never be as good as it originally was. This movie had tons of guest spots and awesome winks to the audience but ultimately really sucked as a film. The only reason for watching it is for those quick references back to the older films. Dogma was a much better film and really should have been in here.

As a whole it's really interesting to look at Kevin Smith's work now in 2009 because he might very well be one of the last filmmakers of his kind. It's a very different world now than it was when he was struggling to get his first film made. First time filmmakers were forced to be extra creative because of the limitations of black and white 16 millimeter film with shitty sound and grainy resolution. You also didn't have the fancy editing options that we have today or the luxury to shoot a million different takes because the cost of film isn't an issue. All of the limitations that technology and budget placed on him were part of what made his work so exceptional. With all the money and tools in the world at his finger tips the man made Mallrats"¦ enough said.

As I said earlier if you're a fan of Kevin Smith's work than this should be a no-brainer purchase. It's his best stuff in the best possible format and presentation. I'd definitely go out and buy this one because you'll want to re-watch these every now and then when you start feeling nostalgic; or if you're Jeff Anderson or Brian O'Halloran.

Movie Collection Grade: A-

DVD Features Grade: A+

Overall Grade: A