Dogma (Special Edition)
|
List Price: Our Price: $9.59 You Save: $5.35 (36%) Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days Buy Used: from $0.35 (click here) Category: DVD See more DVD releases |
|---|
Canada
Movie Reviews of Dogma (Special Edition)
Movie Review: Dogma has new ideas about religion
Summary: 5 Stars
"Dogma" began with some notes by Kevin Smith(Clerks, Mallrats, Chasing Amy) before he even thought up "Clerks". Back then it was originally called "God" and he only had a few scenes written on some notes. Since then, he has written and directed "The Jersey Trilogy", which all surround semi-biographical stories of his life in New Jersey. This time around, New Jersey is the destination, not the primary setting. It is here where the story will begin and end.New Jersey: 1999
Cardinal Glick(George Carlin) plans to celebrate his Catholic church Centenial by steering Catholicism from a bleak past to an upbeat future. Anyone who enters the church will be in a state of grace, and all of their past sins will be gone. This is the event that two fallen angels named Bartleby and Loki(Ben Affleck and Matt Damon) discover as their loophole back into heaven. If they walk through the doors, their sins will be gone. After that they would have to cut off their wings, and then get killed, therebye sending their souls into heaven. They have been banished to Wisconsin until the world ends, and when that happens, they will have to sit outside of Heaven's gate for the rest of eternity. So they decide to travel to New Jersey, in order to return home. The problem is that if they get back into heaven, it will negate God's decree and all existence will dissapear as we know it.
The over worked voice of god named Metatron(Alan Rickman) summons a Catholic who's lost her faith named Bethany(Linda Florentino). She is helped by two profits named Jay and silent Bob(Jason Mewes and Kevin Smith). The pair are going to New Jersey anyway, so she asks to go with them. On the way they meet Rufus(Chris Rock), a dead man who claims that he is the 13th Apostle and was only left out of the bible because he is black. They all travel on their way in the attempt to stop Bartleby and Loki from succeeding.
Kevin Smith(Writer/Director) creates a comedy that is purely fiction, but it often seems quite believable(concerning religion). It also mocks those people who would hate it without seeing it first(There were many). It opens with a disclaimer stating that it is purely a work of fantasy, and that it shouldn't really be taken seriously. It goes on to make a joke about the platypus and then apologizes to all of the platipi enthusiasts out there. As far as the cast goes, there can be absolutely no complaints. It is suprising that Smith got the type of cast that he did because they were paid almost close to nothing. But it all paid off because "Dogma" is a satisfying comedy that puts a new spin on common belief. The characters of Jay and silent Bob have made an impression into the minds of moviegoers. The amount of speaking that Jay does sort of evens out the duo. Lots of people will love "Dogma" and of course, lots of people will not. Lets just hope that the people that don't like it see it first.
Movie Review: The best film on religion made in the last 10 years
Summary: 5 Stars
I must confess that I'm an extremely late newcomer to the delightful ViewAskew universe. Unfortunately, I live in Australia, which means I don't have much exposure to Kevin Smith's films - more's the pity. The first time I heard about him was in relation to Dogma and the so-called "controversy" surrounding the film. After watching Dogma, I must say that I've never seen a more ridiculous case of "wowserism" in my entire life.In my opinion, Dogma is the most underrated film made in the past decade. This is probably due in part to Kevin's prediliction towards, uhm...scatalogical humor. On first viewing, his style seems very similar to that of South Park. But a closer viewing shows that Kevin Smith is a writer who very much wears his heart on his sleeve.
Granted, Dogma has plenty of poop jokes, but underlying all that is a gentle sincerity and compassion that permeates the entire film. Dogma isn't just a South Park-clone. It's really a sophisticated and well-thought out diatribe against the dangers of organised religion, and the wonderful power and influence that a single idea can have. I found a lot of the religious discussions in the film to be deeply refreshing - it's wonderful finally being able to see people discuss religious beliefs without feeling awkward about it. For that reason alone, Kevin Smith has my undying admiration.
I was one of the lucky ones who bought the Special Edition DVD, and not the original "feature-free" version that was originally released. Regardless on whether you've bought the Dogma DVD already, I strongly recommend buying the Special Edition. There are plenty of good features, including -
- some moderately amusing outtakes,
- every single deleted scene that was left on the cutting room floor,
- and best of all - a very funny commentary from Kevin Smith (aka Silent Bob, also the Director and Writer), Jason Mewes (the one-and-only Jay), Scott Mosier (long-time friend and producer), Vincent Perriera (View Askew historian), Jason Lee (aka Azrael), and Ben Affleck (who gets a major ribbing from Kevin). You also get to see video footage of the cast members in the studio doing the DVD commentary. The commentary is the best part of the DVD, as it's obvious that these people are very good, close friends and they get along really, really well. Although that doesn't stop Ben Affleck getting a major ribbing from Kevin Smith every chance he gets!
In conclusion, I think Dogma is one of the most approachable and enjoyable films about religion made in the last 10 years. It has a really good mix of laugh-out loud humor and sincere religious discussion. You certainly don't have to be religions (and I'm not) to understand the issues raised in this film. I'm definitely going to watch Chasing Amy, and I can't wait for the `Jay and Silent Bob Strikes Back' DVD to come out. Bring it on!
Movie Review: "No Wonder He Says He Saw Jesus, Hommie's Rockin The Ganja!"
Summary: 5 Stars
In Smith's 4th masterpiece, we join Ben Affleck and Matt Damon as two fallen angels, don't even make me try to spell their character's names. These fallen angels were banashed from heaven many years ago, and ever since have been looking for a way to get back in. So, when a New Jersey church is celebrating it's 100th birthday (I believe it's 100 years) it is believed that if you go through the arches you are forgiven of all of your sins. So, Damon and Affleck believe that if they walk into the church their sins will be forgiven, they then have to cut off their wings (which makes them become human) and somehow die sinless, so they can get into heaven. However, if they successfully do this, all of existance will be unmade, because God is infallible and to prove him (it turns out to be a her in the movie) wrong would unmake everything.So, now the last Zion, Bethany (Linda Fiorentino) is summoned to stop them from this deed, before it can take place. Bethany is completely taken by surprise when the angel of the lord tell her what she must do. She meets up with the two, so called prophits, Jay and Silent Bob by her job at the abortion clinic. They volunteer to help her, in hopes of getting some action from her later on.
The then meet up with Rufus (Chris Rock) who is the 13 Apostle. He helps inform them that the deamon Azrael (Jason Lee) and three of his minions are trying to stop them, so that Affleck and Damon can make it to the church, because Azrael wants existance to end due to his hate of living in Hell. Rufus also tell them that Jesus was black, they left him out of the Bible because he was black, the virgin Mary had children AFTER Jesus, and they had more children, until there was Bethany, who is the last Zion, who had a cancer rot away her uterous, now she is incapable of having any more kids, which is why she is so angry at God.
Later they meet with the muse Serendipity (Salma Hayek) who helps them on their quest, of sorts.
With plenty of wit, and TONS of laughs, I was glued to the TV...when I wasn't in fits of laughter on the floor. Smoth does it again bringing an already long list of taboos (gay love/sex, drugs, necrophilia, etc.) under his belt, but now he adds roligion to that list. This movie is sure to offend deeply religious people, but for people who don't mind the ocassional religious joke, this is a great addition to anyone's movie collection and a very, very funny addition at that!
Movie Review: Not Kevin Smith's best, but very close.
Summary: 5 Stars
Chasing Amy will probably remain my favorite Kevin Smith film, but Dogma should always have a close second. After turning the Mallrats fiasco around with Chasing Amy, Smith decided to embark on his life's work, the one film that he'd been saving for just the amount of exposure it would get: Dogma. Though not a Miramax production or even from Universal (thank God), Lion's Gate decided to option his masterpiece and Columbia released it on DVD. Go figure.
Anyway, Dogma is about several characters in a looped story structure. Ben and Matt are two fallen angels trying to get back into heaven by entering a sacred, but before they do they go off and brutally kill people for fun. Bethany Sloane is a direct descendant from Jesus Christ (which still makes no sense to me since Jesus was an only child and never married, but don't think too hard about it) who has to stop them from entering or they'll destroy all of God's creation. Along the way, she has some help. Alan Rickman is Metatron and the sardonically witty English bastard he always is, Jay and Silent Bob are prophets who want nothing more than to bone Bethany at any cost, Chris Rock is the 13th Apostle and offers the angry black man's view of things, and Salma Hayek is a stripper who turns out to be Serendipity (???) However, the always loveable Jason Lee is a demon sent to make sure that B&M make it to the church and thus rein havoc on heaven. Anyway, it's a fractured fairy-tale and a clever one at that.
Some key moments: The first thing that stuck in my head after I first saw the movie was the scene in the Moovie corporate office. I won't give anything away, but it just completely disturbed me as how all this sin is revealed and then punished so brutally, then dismissed as nothing. Who knew that Matt Damon could be so evil? Especially as an angel?
There's the final realization from Bethany where she doesn't want any of this responsibility, which does play off of the original Terminator some, but Rickman carries the scene with an almost poetic pose.
The reason why this film works is for its initial farce on religion, then a showing of a more reasonable way to embrace it. Sure it's a comedy, and a foul-mouthed Kevin Smith comedy at that, but it delivers a way to question your own faith (whatever it may be) and to decide for yourself of whether you follow beliefs, or ideas. A high recommendation for and movie collector.
Movie Review: Why Smith is A Great Writer of our Generation...
Summary: 5 Stars
...and why most of it sits on a cutting room floor.On the Special Edition DVD, there is a scene where Bethany, who works in a Planned Parenthood clinic, discusses her past with a young woman who is prepared for her third abortion. This is a scene where the most skilled and political writer tempts violent retribution from the masses on either side of the abortion issue. Bethany, played by Linda Fiorentino, describes in visual imagery most suited for a novel, her own back story or reason for being in her particular line of work. In this 3 minute speech, you see the power of Kevin Smith as a writer. It may not be best suited for the big screen where we now expect million dollar variations of explosions and intercourse every Memorial Day weekend, but it is a bit of Hollywood driftwood preserved for us backwater types who don't get to screen View Askew movies at parties or film festivals before they are cut to commercial specs.
Had this scene taken the Dragnet "I've been down that road and you just don't know" approach it wouldn't have worked. Had it been forced and ditatched, it would have been artificial...but this one scene, a minor part of the 2-disk set, proves that Smith is destined for greatness, perhaps he is the one of our generation who can turn his skill to the printed page to create that mythological Great American Novel that has baffled and eluded the Gen X ilk of the early 90s.
As Smith and Co. restate in their introduction of each deleted scene, most of what was cut from the philosophical/religious treatise "Dogma" was because it added too much info to already established scenes. This is true and reminds me that Smith could be a great novelist should the urge strike. He has a gift for narrative and could write a vivid first-person novel without fear of being pretentious.
If you hated Dogma, or have a religious bias against it, these words won't mean anything anyway. But "Dogma" is more about faith and love of God than most so-called "christian" movies out there. Its about Ideas and faith and renewing our relationship with God than about obeying and swearing our oath to the ancient, faceless patriarch. This is the only DVD version of the film you should own and only because it does justice both to the film and to the reasons behinds its production.
Nice work, Kevin and Scott. Keep it coming. You're both ready for much more.