Chasing Amy
So I watched Chasing Amy this morning and I found out something very interesting. The Criterion edition is apparently just a reissue of the original laserdisc edition that came out in...what was it, 1997 or so. The only addition to the DVD edition is the new intro by Kevin Smith mentioning this fact. Otherwise, it's cool shit. All the deleted scenes are introduced, at great length, by Smith, Affleck, Mewes and Mossier (and assorted combinations of the four). The menu set-up could be a little better, however, as the extras menu also contains the laserdisc intro for the extras as part of that screen so it's always running as opposed to accessing it as another menu option. Regardless, these guys are all funny as fuck. Ben Affleck is hysterical. This was well before he got so big for his britches, in fact I think Armageddon had only just been released when they recorded all this, but Affleck is probably the funniest of the bunch.
Now I'm also not one prone to listening to the commentary. Commentary comes on every disc but I think I've only watched one or two movies with the commentary turned on and I think the last one was Spider-Man. After watching the movie and the extras, I only intended on playing the commentary long enough to hear Kevin Smith say "fuck DVD" at the beginning. I ended up watching half of the movie over again. It's so goddamn funny. The commentary is by Smith, Mewes, Affleck, Mossier and I think one other guy. I was fucking cracking up, cause these guys are just total fucking goofballs. Mewes, I think, was getting pretty deep into drugs at this point (in the deleted scenes introductions he had that pale fucked up on hardcore shit look to him) so the guy, when he did speak, was pretty incoherent. But even fucked up he was still pretty funny. Five minutes would pass, ten minutes would pass, but I couldn't stop watching. I only stopped cause noon had rolled around and I had intended to go to JC Penney's tonight to try to find some pants. Whoops. Fucked that one.
The movie itself is a little different from what I remember, as it has been far too long since I last saw it. It has some major hang-ups over sexual politics and homosexual politics at that. I know Jason Lee's character is uspposed to be the antagonist, but his is probably the more interesting character overall. Sure he comes across as a bigoted asshole with issues, but the relationship between Affleck and Adams' characters was examined almost strictly in terms of differences between straight and gay people instead of in real personal terms (which is strange cause this film was made cause of Smith's break-up with Adams). Actually, the deleted scenes do cover some of this territory, hinting at why Affleck falls for Adams, but it doesn't delve too deeply at all. Adams is cute as a button though so I guess that's all one really needs to know. It's still a fantastic movie, but slightly less then I remember it. Smith's skills as a director are infinitely improved over Clerks and Mallrats and he really shows that he can get great performances out of his actors. Jason Lee's hands fucking own this movie. Seriously, you can mute out all his dialogue, but still understand everything he says just by watching his hands.
And of course, I still geek out over the whole comic book aspect of the movie.
4/5
Now I'm also not one prone to listening to the commentary. Commentary comes on every disc but I think I've only watched one or two movies with the commentary turned on and I think the last one was Spider-Man. After watching the movie and the extras, I only intended on playing the commentary long enough to hear Kevin Smith say "fuck DVD" at the beginning. I ended up watching half of the movie over again. It's so goddamn funny. The commentary is by Smith, Mewes, Affleck, Mossier and I think one other guy. I was fucking cracking up, cause these guys are just total fucking goofballs. Mewes, I think, was getting pretty deep into drugs at this point (in the deleted scenes introductions he had that pale fucked up on hardcore shit look to him) so the guy, when he did speak, was pretty incoherent. But even fucked up he was still pretty funny. Five minutes would pass, ten minutes would pass, but I couldn't stop watching. I only stopped cause noon had rolled around and I had intended to go to JC Penney's tonight to try to find some pants. Whoops. Fucked that one.
The movie itself is a little different from what I remember, as it has been far too long since I last saw it. It has some major hang-ups over sexual politics and homosexual politics at that. I know Jason Lee's character is uspposed to be the antagonist, but his is probably the more interesting character overall. Sure he comes across as a bigoted asshole with issues, but the relationship between Affleck and Adams' characters was examined almost strictly in terms of differences between straight and gay people instead of in real personal terms (which is strange cause this film was made cause of Smith's break-up with Adams). Actually, the deleted scenes do cover some of this territory, hinting at why Affleck falls for Adams, but it doesn't delve too deeply at all. Adams is cute as a button though so I guess that's all one really needs to know. It's still a fantastic movie, but slightly less then I remember it. Smith's skills as a director are infinitely improved over Clerks and Mallrats and he really shows that he can get great performances out of his actors. Jason Lee's hands fucking own this movie. Seriously, you can mute out all his dialogue, but still understand everything he says just by watching his hands.
And of course, I still geek out over the whole comic book aspect of the movie.
4/5
posted by Robert at 2:29 AM
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