The first film in this three film set is Smith’s debut, the low budget grainy black and white 16mm film, Clerks. This award winning film about a day in the life at the Quick Stop convenience store introduced the world to Smith’s wit and gave us some classic characters (some that would appear in most of Smith’s future films). The film, although looks more like a student film then a studio picture, won over audiences by Smith’s smart script and it is with Smith’s writing style that keeps audiences in stitches and brings them back wanting more.

The only other film making its Blu-ray debut in this set is Smith’s third film, Chasing Amy. This romantic comedy centers around two comic book artists Holden McNeil (Ben Affleck) and Banky Edwards (Jason Lee) who have created a successful comic book series called Bluntman and Chronic. Holden at a comic convention meets and falls for another comic book artist, Alyssa (Joey Lauren Adams). Holden thinks he has a chance with Alyssa until he finds out there is one small problem in his plans, she’s a lesbian. However even with that against him, he can’t get her out of his head and one night the two do begin a romantic relationship. With this new unrealistic yet happy relationship in full bloom, his working one with Banky begins to go sour. Banky makes it his quest to find ways to put the kibosh on their happiness. The third film has been out for some time on Blu-ray and makes you wonder why they didn’t debut Mallrats to Blu-ray instead. If they would have waited and done so, this could have been Kevin Smith’s first three movies instead of an erratic collection of films. Regardless, Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back is the third disc and Smith’s fifth film he released. The film takes the supporting characters of, you guessed it, Jay and Silent Bob and gives them a whole movie to let them spread their mayhem from coast to coast. When Jay and Silent Bob (Jason Mewes and Kevin Smith) find out that the Bluntman and Chronic comic is being made into a motion picture, the two set out for Hollywood to stop the film or get paid. Along the way the two bump into sexy diamond thieves, befriend an orangutan named Suzanne, participate in a duel with Cock-Knocker (Mark Hamill) and even perform with Morris Day and The Time.

Kevin Smith has proven to be a unique voice in particular with his films in the View Askewniverse. Time will tell if he will ever consider going back to that world after saying Clerks II was the final chapter. Regardless, The Kevin Smith 3-Movie Collection delivers a few of them in glorious Blu-ray. Clerks perhaps doesn’t fair well with this upgrade but let’s face it, no one has ever watched that film (or any of Smith’s films for that matter) for pushing the envelope in cinematography.

Extras

From the beginning, Kevin Smith has always gone out of his way to offer up bonus material for all his films and has embraced the latest and best technology of the times. In fact some of the bonus material from Clerk’s comes from the Laser Disc edition back in the 90’s. Speaking of, Clerk’s is jammed full of extras including a couple just for the new Blu-ray edition. This includes a new introduction and oddly enough a documentary entitled Oh, What a Lovely Tea Party: The Making of Jay And Silent Bob Strike Back. Which is just what it sounds like, clocking in at feature length at an hour and a half. Perhaps this is Smith’s idea to help make up for the lack of bonus features on that films disc. The rest of the bonus material has been available with previous releases but that doesn’t mean it isn’t worth checking out. First off you have an option to watch the theatrical edition or the First Cut version of the film. Both versions have different commentary tracks and the theatrical version even has a enhanced playback track that includes trivia. There is a animated short entitled Clerks: The Lost Scene, The Flying Car short with Clerk characters Dante (Brian O'Halloran) and Randal (Jeff Anderson) that was made for The Tonight Show with Jay Leno. There are MTV Spots With Jay and Silent Bob, theatrical trailers, a Soul Asylum music video, the original auditions for the movie, a 10th Anniversary Q&A, Snowball Effect: The story of Clerks, outtakes from Snowball Effect and "Mae Day: The Crumbling of a Documentary" that was Smith's and producer Scott Mosier's first student film. Clerks bonus material is an example of the love and care Smith has for what he does.

With Chasing Amy on Blu-ray, Smith has gone back and taken the time to beef up the bonus material for this well deserved film. There is a new commentary track of the film with Smith and Mosier. Tracing Amy is a whooping hour and a half documentary on the making of the film. Was it something I said? – A Conversation With Kevin & Joey is a twenty minute one on one conversation with Smith and lead actress Joey Lauren Adams. The two recall their time and experience on making Chasing Amy along with some honest and at times uncomfortable talks about their personal relationship as well. 10 Years Later Q&A – With Kevin Smith And The Cast. The other bonus material that was available with previous releases included over twenty minutes of deleted scenes, outtakes and a theatrical trailer.

Now we come to Jay And Silent Bob Strike Back and we find the only bonus material is the commentary track with our two main actors Kevin Smith, Jason Mewes and producer Scott Mosier. As far as commentary tracks go this one is a lot of fun and amusing but it’s shocking again that this is in the box set with it already been out on Blu-ray for some time. Obviously Smith saw this being an issue and added the documentary for this film on the Clerks bonus material. Still it’s very strange and one can only imagine all the deleted scenes this film must have waiting to be seen by Smith and Jay and Silent Bob’s fan base - maybe some day.

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