The Good, The Bad and the Ugly Films

Posts Tagged ‘Criterion’

The urge to jump onto a new video format is pretty easy to resist, especially when the standard is not only serviceable, but ubiquitous. DVD is everywhere – in our living rooms, bedrooms, computers and cars. The picture quality is solid, especially when compared to VHS, which DVD stomped to a painful death. It’s reign as undisputed king of video was hardly the dynasty of its predecessor before HD was being touted as the next big thing. The format war between HD-DVD and Blu-Ray was at best uninteresting due to most homes being completely unprepared for it, and consumers oblivious to the revolution.

Even when the dust settled and Blu-Ray was crowned HD Champ, I was still not interested. I had an HD TV, but I also had an up-scaling DVD player, and a shit-ton of disks. What did Blu-Ray have to offer that what I had wasn’t already comparable to? Eventually studios wised up and floated the bait I could not resist… Exclusive Content.

They got me once before like this… Laserdisc! I won’t admit here what the tipping-title to that format was, but suffice is to say I owned a Laserdisc Player for one title, and ended up with a handful more before DVD came along and signed the death warrant for that format as well. DVD was an easy sell to me, and on the first week of the hardware release, I owned a $1000 DVD player! DVDs delivered on their promise of exclusive content right out of the gate, and finally Blu-Ray has caught on that content is king as well.

It was on the News Askew site that my interest for the format was piqued. News was breaking that Smith’s early catalogue titles were being tricked out for their Blu-Ray release and that the new content would be exclusive to the format.

Cut to me at Electronics Boutique buying a PS3.

So at last the disks that made me surrender to the Blu Side have arrived in stores. Now begs the question, was it worth it? Lets take a look at what I had VS what I got…

Clerks

Original DVD Release

Released in 1999, this first release of the film was a decent package with very good extras. The fact that it was a widescreen version didn’t matter very much as everyone had a standard 4×3 TV, but playback on some equipment now with a 16×9 set will result in black bars all around the picture – most of the Disney releases at this time are formatted like this; who knew then what a pain in the ass it would become.

Special features on the Disc:

• Audio Commentary with Kevin Smith and members of the cast and crew
• Deleted Scenes with Introduction by Kevin Smith
• Alternate Ending
• Soul Asylum Music Video
• Theatrical Trailer

Clerks X

This 3 Disk collection of the film, released in September, 2004, included the original theatrical version of the film as well as “Clerks: The First Cut”, the version of the film before it was sold to Miramax and ran theatrically. This cut includes its own newly recorded commentary track with Kevin Smith, Scott Mosier, Brian O’Halloran, Jeff Anderson and Jason Mewes. The deleted scenes and alternate ending are restored in “The First Cut” and are thus are not separated as they were in the original release, but otherwise all of the special features were brought back for this 16×9 anamorphic release. Oh, but that is not all… The release also includes the feature length documentary “Snowball Effect: The Story of Clerks,” about the making of “Clerks”. Other Special Features Include:

• An "enhanced playback track" featuring trivia subtitles and title card descriptions.
• "Clerks: The Lost Scene" animated short. This scene was originally written in the screenplay for the film but was never shot. For the DVD, the scene was animated in the same style as Clerks: The Animated Series. The scene can be presented in two different ways.
• The DVD also presents the owner with the ability to play the theatrical cut of the film with the animated scene as if it were part of the feature.
• ”The Flying Car”, a short film featuring Dante and Randal with an introduction from Kevin Smith.
• A series of short television ads that MTV commissioned from Kevin Smith featuring Jay and Silent Bob.
• An original film trailer for the film edited by Matthew Cohen with a brief introduction from Kevin Smith.
• Three short featurettes about the restoration process used to recreate the feature film for the Clerks X DVD.
• Original auditions for the film featuring Brian O’Halloran, Jeff Anderson, Marilyn Ghigliotti, and Ernest O’Donnell. The auditions are introduced by Kevin Smith and Scott Mosier.
• DVD-ROM features.
• “Mae Day: The Crumbling of a Documentary”, a short student film that Kevin Smith and Scott Mosier made during their time at film school. It comes with an introduction by Kevin Smith and Scott Mosier.
• 10th Anniversary Q&A session with Kevin Smith, David Klein, Scott Mosier, Marilyn Ghigliotti, Jason Mewes, Jeff Anderson and Brian O’Halloran.
• 13 deleted scenes and outtakes from "Snowball Effect"
• A still photo gallery of over 50 photographs and production images from Clerks as well as early photos of crew and cast members.
• Two collections of journal entries written by Smith. The first entries were written before finishing Clerks and the second were written while Kevin took the film to Sundance Film Festival.
• Eight articles and reviews about the film.

This is am amazing, comprehensive set that exemplifies how DVD can be done right, giving fans everything they could possibly want!

Clerks 15th Anniversary Edition (Blu-Ray)

This is, by Smith’s own admission, essentially just a format upgrade of “Clerks X” (and more money in his pocket). However, as a concession, Smith offers a 90 minute cut of “Oh! What a Lovely Tea Party,” a documentary about the making of “Jay & Silent Bob Strike Back,” directed by his wife Jennifer Schwalbach Smith. There is a three hour version of this out there somewhere, so i feel another dip coming… but likely for “Jay & Silent Bob Strike Back”

Chasing Amy

Criterion Collection

Disney/Miramax never gave “Chasing Amy” a Region One digital release before Criterion released their ported-from-laserdisc edition in 2000. Smith was initially a major laserdisc supporter, resisting the new DVD format and even saying in the commentary “Fuck DVD!” – a statement he humorously addresses in the introduction to the DVD. He is joined by Scott Mosier, Ben Affleck, Jason Mewes, Robert Hawk, Jon Gordon and Vincent Pereira on the commentary. Other features include:

• Ten Deleted Scenes
• Out-takes
• Trailer
• Special video introductions from the cast and crew
• The Askewniverse Legend – a guide to the characters in the (at the time) “New Jersey Trilogy”

Chasing Amy (Blu-Ray)

Since all the original special features of the Criterion release are owned by Criterion, this Disney/Miramax release had to go to the well to find all new features… and they took a BIG bucket! The 81 minute documentary “Tracing Amy” is a great addition to the disc and really nice retrospective on the making of the film. If you are a follower of Smith, you will know much of this information already, but it’s nice to have the variety of perspectives cooberate the story. “Was it Something I Said?” is a really nice 18 minute conversation between Kevin Smith and Joey Lauren Adams about how they tried to balance their personal relationship  with their working relationship, and the effects and aftermath of the films success and conclusion of their relationship. There is also a 28 minute Q&A with Kevin and the cast. The obligatory trailer and deleted scenes and outtakes are all included here as well, Sadly, the disks weakest point is the new commentary; recorded as a SModcast, Kevin Smith and Scott Mosier revisit the film in the tangential manner they do on their podcast, which is amusing, but ultimately not what I am looking for in a commentary.

Jay & Silent Bob Strike Back

Collector’s Series DVD

Following it’s 2001 Theatrical Run, Disney/Miramax (Dimension) released this super-packed Collector’s Series edition in Early 2002. Jay & Silent Bob headline this hilarious comedy that was made directly for fans of Smith’s Askewniverse as characters from “Clerks”, “Mallrats”, “Dogma” and “Chasing Amy” all appear throughout the film. The DVD release continues to cater to fans with the following features:

• Commentary with Kevin Smith, Jason Mewes and Scott Mosier
• An hour and a half of deleted scenes with introductions from Kevin Smith, Jason Mewes, Jennifer Schwalbach, Harley Smith, Scott Mosier & Walt Flannigan
• Gag Reel
• Still Galleries
• 2 Internet Trailers
• 6 TV Spots
• 13 minute Behind the Scenes Featurette
• Morris Day and the Time: Learnin’ the Moves
• A Guide to Morris Day & the Time
• 2 music videos: Afro Man “I Got High” & Stroke 9 “Kick Some Ass”
• Comedy Central’s Reel Comedy: Jay & Silent Bob Strike Back (22 minutes)
• Cast & Crew Filmographies
• Storyboards
• DVD-ROM materials, Open Mic Commentary, Screenplay Viewer, Cast and Crew Filmographies, Guide to Morris Day and the Time and Web Links

Jay & Silent Bob Strike Back (Blu-Ray)

What-the-huh?!? Bucking the trend of adding some new original content to the Blu-Ray releases, Disney/Miramax instead here drop the ball, stumble, chase after it, kick it, follow it out into the street, and get hit by a bus. Seriously, all that is here for special features is the DVD commentary ported over from the feature rich DVD. Seriously! That’s IT!

SO, in the end, is the upgrade from DVD to Blu-Ray worth it (or in my case, purchasing a Blu-Ray player in preparation for it’s release)? Well, let’s first go title-by-title…

While Smith inclusion of the “Oh! What a Lovely Tea Party” documentary as new content to the “Clerks” Blu-Ray as it’s sole new content is appreciated, it feels out of place on this disk. Furthermore, knowing there is a cut of it that is double the running time makes this seem more like a teaser for a future release. The advents of Blu-Ray can really do nothing but draw attention to the technical flaws of the film, so that is not a big booster for this release either. Really, if you already own the “Clerks X” DVD, you are pretty much good, making this particular upgrade BAD. However, having the the 3 disk collection on a single disk is a sweet perk (no having to swap out disks to enjoy all the supplement material! Yay!)

“Chasing Amy” fairs better in the supplements department, especially the “Tracing Amy” and “Was It Something I Said” features. The SModcast commentary though, is lacking, and it would have been great to have Joey Lauren Adams participate in it since she was glaringly absent in the Criterion commentary. The film looks great though, and I would want this as a supplement to the Criterion DVD anyhow, so I would still call this a GOOD upgrade even thought I feel the DVD is still an essential disk in it’s own right.

To be fair, the “Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back” Blu-Ray was not released for this collection, but in fact was released in September of 2006. This does not however excuse that hours of features were stripped away to make the release just a tit-hair above a bare-bones release. This is just UGLY, and if you own the Collector’s Series DVD, hang onto it!

Overall, “The Kevin Smith 3-Movie Collection” is a disappointment for owners of previous DVD releases. I understand that having a complete Askewniverse collection is a near impossibility, what with Universal owning “Mallrats”, and Sony having rights to “Dogma” (Lionsgate in Canada), but, c’mon! Where is “Clerks II”? Or if you really wanted to trick this bitch out, “Clerks: The Animated Series”? This is box set built around one solid release, a format release, and a rip-off, which averages out to BAD.

Before purchasing a Blu-Ray player, the deal I made with myself was that I was not going to replace DVDs I already had with Blu-Rays, just for the sake of having the title on the newest format. Well, this self-bargaining was bunk to begin with because the reason I wanted to get a BD Player was because of the promise of the new special editions of the films of Kevin Smith that had been in the works (which are now out… watch for an article on them when I am done going through them), which were to be BD exclusives. Besides, being a double-dipper from way back, the writing was pretty much on the wall anyhow.

Aside from chronicling my pathetic consumerism, I thought I would use this forum to soapbox as to whether or not the upgrade to Blu-Ray (or, The Blu Dip) was worth making when I take the leap.

This week I picked up the Criterion Collection edition of the Merchant/Ivory classic “Howards End” on BD. I had previously owned “The Merchant Ivory Collection” edition on DVD, also pressed by Criterion, though not branded as such, except for a small logo on the back of the case between the credits and the copyright.

The movie itself is easily one of my favourite films ever. The stellar cast features Anthony Hopkins, Emma Thompson, Vanessa Redgrave, and then Merchant/Ivory staple Helena Bonham-Carter. The film is an adaptation of the E.M. Forster novel of the same name, and adapted by Ruth Prawer Jhabvala – also a regular Merchant Ivory collaborator. The film is about the class system in England after the turn of the 20th century, as demonstrated by three families – the stuffy upper class Wilcox family, the progressive middle class Schlegel sisters, and the Bast’s, a couple trapped by poverty. The film focuses on their differences as well as their commonality, their integration and interaction, and  ultimately to all three worlds colliding in a country home called Howards End.

“The Merchant Ivory Collection” edition, released in 2005 on DVD,  was a very welcome release that took far too long to come along after DVDs had well saturated the market and dealt the death blow to VHS, on which it had only been previously available. The Two Disk collection had all the hallmarks of a Criterion release – a beautiful new anamorphic transfer, remastered sound and wealth of special features that included:

• Building Howards End – 42 minute doco featuring James Ivory, Ismail Merchant, Helena Bonham-Carter, Jenny Beaven, and Luciana Arrighi talking about the making of the film
• The Design of Howards End – 9 minute look at the costumes and production design of the film
• The Wandering Company – a 48 minute doco from 1984 about the films of Merchant/Ivory. This is a bit of a curiousity, as it looks at all the films the precede Howards End.
• A 4½ minute  original behind the scenes featurette
• Theatrical Trailer

Really, the only complaint one could have with this package is the lack of an audio commentary, which is now sadly too late with the passing of Ismail Merchant. DVD Verdict gave the DVD a 99 out of 100, and it was well worth the full retail I paid for it at Best Buy, at the time a $50 purchase, and a necessary upgrade from the pan-and-scan, full framed VHS copy.

The “Criterion Collection” BD was released on November 3rd, 2009. This was a release in wait, as Criterion had been mastering films in high-def when they released “The Merchant Ivory Collection” edition, anticipating the upcoming High-Def format. The film, and all the supplements are directly ported over in this re-branded, repackaged release. The only new inclusion here is a “new video appreciation of the late Ismail Merchant by Ivory,” which is a 12 minute featurette. Also included is an essay by critic Kenneth Turan printed on the booklet inside the case.

Criterion should be commended for their choice of cover art and packaging though. I appreciate they do not make a big deal about the format the disk is presented on, choosing a clear case instead of the standard blue ones the other studios use. Except for the size of the package, there is no indication on the cover that this is a BD. And what a beautiful cover it is – instead of taking the usual studio tack (or even that of their own first release of the film), the cover avoids use of pictures of the big-name cast, and instead features a minimal, understated illustration, much more in keeping with the film itself.

So, is the upgrade worth it for the High-Def?

Here’s the deal… I am pretty low maintenance when it comes to watching a movie. I am as happy to watch a movie on my computer as I am to watch it on the CRT in my room, or my iPhone, or the High-Def TV in the living room… as long as I can see the movie clearly, I am happy. I have always found that a good movie can be enjoyed on any decent hardware, and when I am told, “You have to see it on the big screen,” that is just code for “the movie has nothing to offer except special effects and action sequences!”

That said, I don’t think Howards End looked this good even in the theatre. The movie is so rich and lush looking here. You are even more inclined to get lost in this world for its 142 minute running time. Merchant/Ivory films have sometimes been dismissed as moving coffee-table books, but everything on screen here is alive and gorgeous. DVD Verdict gives this release a 93 out of 100, giving the lowest points to the video and audio. I guess everything is relative though – both releases were reviewed by different judges, and I imagine the BD release is graded on much higher standard, but I am really pleased. I was pleased with the price as well – even paying full sticker at Best Buy, it was less expensive than the initial DVD release.

If you do not own either editions, the BD release is the way to go. If you already own the DVD and are happy with it, you may as well hang onto it. If you have never seen the movie, give it a shot – I whole-heartedly think that this is one of the greatest movies ever made; beautifully shot, written and acted. Don’t just take my word for it – see what these guys had to say about it…

The HOWARDS END DVD to BD Upgrade: BAD (as in right in the middle. Nice packaging, and High Def format just makes up for the lack of new supplements or commentary.)

On this week’s episode we talk about box office, film news and review the upcoming DVD release “The Shortcut” (and have surprisingly differing opinions). We also find out why Ross is sometimes refused service at Mexican Restaurants!

Discussed This Week

• 3rd Biggest Overseas Box Office Earner Isn’t What You Think
• ‘Terminator’ producers buy time
• Weekend Box Office (I Can Do Bad All By Myself)

GBU List: College

• Opening This Week (Jennifer’s Body)
• What’s On Its Way From The Mouse House
• IFC strikes a deal with Criterion
• del Toro Movie News
• Warner Bros. creates DC Entertainment
• Canada at war over tax incentives
• Charlize Theron Back for Hancock 2

Review:

• The Shortcut

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It was a slow week for news and events at GBUF, but we managed to find a few things to talk about. Check out Ross’ new game “Rat-a-Tat-Tat-Tat! This-n-That!” and join us in paying respects to the sad passing of Actress Natasha Richardson.

Discussed This Week:

• Warner Bros Burning DVDs on Demand
• VHS Fetching Big Bucks on Ebay
• Criterion Handling the Special Edition of Benjamin Button
• Ross’ Review of Baron Munchhausen and discussion of Terry Gilliam and His Films
• Mark Talks About Seeing Watchmen in the Theatre…
• …While Ross and Allen Explain Why They Will Wait for DVD
• Ross Presents… Rat-a-Tat-Tat-Tat! This-n-That!
• Remembering Natasha Richardson

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DVD Active announced today the DVD & BluRay Release of David Fincher’s “The Curious Case of Benjamin Button.” An announcement in-and-of-itself was expected – the twist is that Paramount is releasing a single disc, no-frills, edition and handing over the special edition heavy lifting to Criterion!

It is not common for Criterion to take part in the initial release of new film. In fact, I can only think of a couple of times that this has happened before… once for Kevin Smith’s “Chasing Amy” (though it was on laserdisc and VHS before; Criterion handled the initial, and only release to DVD), and Wes Anderson’s “The Royal Tenenbaums” & “Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou”.

I like that Paramount has handed over the duties to the masters of Special Editions. It would have been nice if they did this last year when they released their Oscar contender “There Will Be Blood,” instead of the rather weak Special Edition they ended up putting out. It would be cool to see other studios follow suite.

The Curious Case of Benjamin Button is released on DVD & BluRay on May 5th.

Rating:

• Criterion Discs: