Project-Blu ‘Chasing Amy’ Blu-ray Review, by Nate Boss

Chasing Amy

By: Nate Boss, 11.182009

The Movie Itself:
Editor's Note: Portions of this review have been reutilized from the review of the Canadian import of Chasing Amy.

Kevin Smith proved himself to be a hit, with critics and audiences alike, with his debut film Clerks, that was financed through his credit cards and comic collection. His next foray into feature filmmaking wasn't so lucky, as Mallrats was ravaged by critics, suffered from some terrible early test audiences, and went through numerous cuts, before being unceremoniously dumped at theatres to be ignored by the masses. The mighty had fallen, in a sense, the sophomore slump proved itself correct. The random irreverent comedy concerning dick and fart jokes kicked Smith in the dick.

His next feature, not financed by Universal (the distributor of Mallrats. Can you really blame them?), is seen by some as his best film, as his only true touching film that breaks his norms, not focussing on random hooligans and a certain pair of drug dealers. The indy hit Chasing Amy went on to great success, earning a spot in the Criterion Collection (Smith's only invite to said "club"), and a spot in many home video collections where the question isn't whether it will stand the test of time.

The question for me is: will I be able to stand Chasing Amy this time?

Holden (Ben Affleck) and Banky (Jason Lee) are a pair of comic writers, creating the underground favorite Bluntman and Chronic. But both men are somewhat of social nightmares, loners together, basically. That is, of course, until Holden meets Alyssa Jones (Joey Lauren Adams), a fellow comic writer, at a convention. He tries to get with the girl, but, get this: The girl wants to get with the girl. My God, she's a LESBIAN! (cue: dramatic music, dramatic gopher, too) Can Holden keep things friendly, or will his social awkwardness force his feelings to the surface? Can Alyssa handle the relationship between the friends, either? Can Banky come to terms with his own issues? Will budding success break the duo apart?

I've seen Amy far too many times, to the point that it has no message, it has no point, no humor, no surprise. I used to think Smith's films would have infinite replay value, adding them as some of my first DVD's (both of my first 2 DVD's were from Smith's works), but over these many years, I don't know whether it was tastes changing, me changing, or my thoughts on the film changing. All I know is the film hasn't changed, yet it evokes such a different response from me now.

How many lesbians have YOU turned straight? Honestly now. Me, I take pride in turning straight girls lesbian. It's a wonderful feeling, knowing that someone knows that no man can measure up to me. That and it's kinda hot. (How can a girl fuck another girl? Are you talking about strap-ons or something?)

Smith (I've had my finger up my ass. I wouldn't say I've had anal sex.) showed some signs of growing as a director/writer in his third feature, but showed that there was not truly THAT much growth. There really was no need to include Smith staples Jay and SIlent Bob in this tale. ANY random guy could have told the story. Hell, Coey London, Rick Darris, or even Walt Flanagan could have had the conversation with Holden. It would have made more sense. We wouldn't have to worry about likeness rights (which set up the vastly inferior Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back premise). Smith wouldn't have been such a gimmick director. It was just amateur

Affleck (That's funny, he says you're hung like an infant) absolutely stinks up this one, and this is coming from a real Affleck fan. He's just broke as fuck in this film. Casey's one line performance in the film outshines his brother. Ouch. Ben just has an awkward delivery nearly at all times, from his dancing (dude, you're huge. Don't dance), to his hamhanded facepalm when he finds out he's been courting a lesbian (oh noes!), to his line readings that lack any emotion, and his facial expressions that match.

The counterpoint to corpse Affleck is the brilliant Lee. His portrayal of Banky, after his Brodie performance in Mallrats, is epic. His million dollar smile shines through even the worst scenes. His comedic timing is at it's peak (it later dropped to NOTHING for Dogma, man was that painful), here, but the fact that the writing seems to be aimed at his talents, giving him all the great jokes is key. It's sheer brilliance that Banky sees girls making out all around him, and doesn't realize he's in a gay bar, until he sees girls TALKING to each other.

Chasing Amy ties the other films in the New Jersey 18-film-ology together. In the club, in a terrible expository scene, Holden and Alyssa discuss their roots in the Joysey, linking Clerks and Mallrats awfully. Do we really need a scene where past events are recapped to link the story? Why can't we just have a standalone story? Why do we need a flashback IN FRONT of the Quick Stop store? It could have been ANYWHERE else, in the entire world.

Smith may have made himself a directorial darling with Chasing Amy, but 2 things: 1- DAMN has this film aged terribly, and 2- DAMN has he not shown ANY form of growth. He still hasn't. His ONE attempt to branch out in Jersey Girl? LOLz. His attempt to get the gross out crowd in Zack and Miri? Lame, and an obvious forced effort. Go from the heart, not the dick.
Rating: 6/10

The Presentation:
I feel a hate crime coming on.

I wasn't a fan of the Canadian Import of Chasing Amy, by any means. It sucked more than a certain View Askewniverse character (thirty seven!??!?!). Anyways, I sold it quickly after viewing it, to get it out of my collection, to prevent it from touching my good discs, and because I knew the American version would be better.

It is. It certainly is.

Hey, I always notice that bored look in their eyes!

But not by much. Chasing Amy is AUTHENTICALLY brought to Blu-ray with a VC-1 1080p encode at 1.85:1. The movie's filming styles and film grade limits the possibilities of the appearance of the film, and keeps it in a niche market, making me wonder why it was even prepared for Blu-ray besides Smith's insistence on making new special features (ones that Criterion turned down on a re-release of their lone domestic DVD release of the film). That said, it isn't even done justice here, so that's 0/2 on Chasing Amy on Blu-ray.

Rather than just go off on a compare and contrast situation (I'll save myself the effort: don't buy the Canadian import!!!!!!), I'll just stick to the facts, ma'am. The picture is an immediate upgrade looking at the comic book panel credits, with words suddenly becoming legible (the nerve!), but then the rest of the film happens. The picture is again fuzzy, and this time I'm talking Sulley from Monsters Inc fuzzy. It's not just the grain (which can be quite hefty in backgrounds), it's a little something known as Dee Enn freakin' Arr. DNR, baby, DNR. It's all over the place, and not just a light waxing. It's smeared all over the place, smearing features all over the place. Clothing fabric lacks any real definition, appearing as just blobby, puddly messes. To boot, there's a heft of digital noise on facial features in countless scenes, that DNR couldn't scrub out (it's that mighty). To boot, there's some huge halos, not just small rings. The edge enhancement is most visible in the oral sex debate scene in the gay bar early in the film.

Sure, it's still better. But, to quote a certain soon to be dead character from The Matrix: "Not like this...not like this..."

ooooooooooh! Yanni!

The audio isn't going to spark any debates. Sure, the Canadian import sported a Dolby TrueHD track, while this release has a DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 mix, but to compare the two, one would have to sit through them. Considering how generic the TrueHD track was, that's bad enough, but the DTS-HD Master Audio, while certainly an upgrade, isn't worth picking bones out of one's teeth over. Sure, clarity is bumped, but the film still is as front heavy as a double G'd porn star. The score gets the most obvious upgrade, with a higher natural range and some nicer bass, but again, start the film, and that's all gone. Bass, dies. Dynamic range, dies. Yells sound spiky and forced. There's a hum in the background of some sequences. Best of all, something I've never noticed before (does that mean it doesn't exist elsewhere??!?!?), the opening audio, Tube of Wonderful by Dave Pirner, has a light blip, a short skip in the audio. The hell!?

Again, better, but not THAT much of an upgrade.
Rating: 5/10 ( 4.7/10- video, 5.2/10- audio)

The Extras:
The big upgrade here, from the Canadian import, the reason to buy, is the exclusive new content, as well as previous extras being brought over. Sure, there's those damn lingering timelines that just need to go the hell away (don't ever press pause, unless you want the next ten seconds of the film to be mostly blocked!), but everything else here is a welcome upgrade from the pile of crap import. There's a NEW audio commentary, from Kevin Smith and Scott Mosier, replacing the previous entry (why couldn't it just be brought over? Does Criterion own the rights to it?), while a new documentary of Smith and his films up to and including Amy titled Tracing Amy: The Chasing Amy doc breathes almost an hour and a half worth of content into a previously hollow corpse. There's a conversation between Kevin Smith and Joey Lauren Adams, previous lovers and the inspiration for this film (oh, that's flattering!), as well as an also new Questions and Answers segment. The deleted scenes from the Criterion DVD are ported over, as is a trailer, outtakes, and some trailers for other Miramax films.
Rating: 7/10

Overall:
Sometimes it's a spread brown eye kind of night. If that's your sort of thing, go for the Canadian import.

Thank god the real release of Chasing Amy wasn't just tracing the Alliance Canadian import. I'd have to go batty like Batman all over Miramax if that were the case. This release is highlighted by the extras package, easily, justifying the upgrade for hardcore Smith fans. This one will never look or sound clean. Never. It hasn't aged well, in my eyes at least, over the years, but really, this is Smith's most heartfelt film since (or after) Clerks. And I'm telling you, the bitch could be a bigger fucking germ farm than the monkey in Outbreak!
Rating: 6/10