Chasing Amy cover from HDRoom:

Mr Cinema:
GI Joe ahead of District 9 on your top 10 list...?

Wow....

Did they really need to stick Ben's name on the cover?

Should they put Joey Lauren Adams on it instead?

No, it should say "Starring Jason Lee, of Alvin and the Chipmunks."

WTH? All these other new extras, and then they don't port over one of the best commentaries of all time?? There better be a damn good reason, and I really hope Mr. Smith tells us exactly what it is....if it was a personal decision made by him, then it is disappointing but acceptable...if it is some BS reasoning by Disney or Criterion, then both of those companies can burn in the fires below as far as I am concerned....

My guesses are either Criterion won't give the rights to Disney or Disney just doesn't care and thinks it's dated.

I should ask Kevin Smith when I see him in Chicago next month.

Sorry to quote you on this, but I am SO glad it did do well. Turns out it's one of Quentin Tarantino's best and my favorite film of the year so far. I'm so glad it's doing much better than expected.

Clerks is detailed.

All of this on one disc? There's about five-to-six hours of bonus material here, which will probably end up encoded in SD which might not make a difference affecting PQ. Does the First Cut come included as it did in the X boxset?

With the inclusion of the three-hour plus J&SBSB documentary, it looks like the BD of it in the boxset will be the original one from two years ago. Sucks as if I buy the boxset, I'll have to hold onto the DVD of it.

I have a feeling it is not Criterion, as the other original bonus features ARE being included, so it would be silly for them to just hold out on the one commentary track....and Criterion seems to still have a good relationship with Disney, as they let them have all their bonus features for The Rock BD Disney released...

Go for it! I wish he'd come talk at some place closer by to me....

So it's safe to sell the Clerks X boxset, right?

The commentary for Silence of the Lambs has never made it to an MGM DVD its' only on the Criterion but all the other special features have.

The only thing the extras list doesn't mention is the First Cut, which I assume it would come with based off these two extras:

Intro To The First Cut 2004 Commentary
2004 Commentary (with New Authoring)

The new commentary was only on the First Cut, but "New Authoring" could mean they edited to fit the theatrical? No idea.

Sorry, that is not true...the rest of the Criterion supplements for that film have not been used on any of the other MGM releases either...the only overlap is with some of the deleted scenes, and even then the Criterion still has a few scenes that did not make it onto either of the MGM releases...

For those interested, Vincent Pereira (who is actually one of the participants on the original commentary track) posted this on blu-ray.com:

"Pity that I won't be on the Blu-ray commentary though, but at least I'm on the LD and DVD. Kevin mentioned to me that it was a licensing/cost issue that prevented the Criterion stuff being carried over."

That is kind of confusing, considering SOME of the extras are being carried over (deleted scenes, outtakes, trailer)....but still, way to go cheap ass Disney! Could have made a truly definitive edition, but no, you all had to cheap out....and thumbs down to you, snobby Criterion, for being difficult and apparently asking too much for something you can't even do anything else with now...

Wow... these releases totally slipped under my radar.

I'm probably in for the boxset since I'm a fan. My DVD is the original release of Clerks... I never upgraded to the X release, so it'll be nice to grab some of the new features. Chasing Amy is a favorite of mine, but I won't miss the commentary much. The JSBSB specs are disappointing since it's so barebones. Guess I'll hang on to the original DVD for that.

In the Chasing Amy commentary, Kevin Smith expresses his hatred for DVD; in reference to DVD replacing Laserdisc. I think the DVD has an intro where Kevin jokes about that statement and says that he didn't mean it (or maybe that it wasn't really him. )

Anyway, that could be part of why the commentary isn't on the Blu-ray.

If it is indeed a cost/licensing issue, I think Criterion has the right to charge Disney for it. Criterion produced the material in question. Why give it away?

I don't think Kevin Smith's decade-old comment about DVDs sucking is going to make anyone say "fuck! he's right!" and run out to buy an LD player. Hell, good luck finding an LD player!

Well, the deleted footage, outtakes and the trailer would be owned by the studio and licensed to Criterion, whereas Criterion would own the commentary wholesale. I wonder if the deleted scenes will still contain the same intros.

It still bugs me that Affleck's image on teh cover still to this day doesnt match him in the film. Like they couldnt photoshop some scruff on him? And lose the name above the title.

No, see, now the comment makes sense. Now he's telling you to chuck your DVD copies of his films in favor of the BDs.

No one is saying Criterion doesn't have the right to charge for it....no one is saying Disney should expect to get it for free either...

My beef is that either:
1. Disney isn't willing to pay what Criterion is asking them for it, OR
2. Criterion is asking an unreasonable amount for it...

Whichever one it is, I don't care, it is still BS in my book....Disney being cheap or Criterion being greedy...

criterion produced it so they have the right to charge what ever they want. obviously so many people clammering for it means there is value in the track/
which is a great audio commentary by the way

I'm consistently amused at how you could have the gall to ask me not to ever reply to anymore of your posts three weeks ago, yet you keep replying to mine...

ANYWAY, back on this actual topic.....sure, they can try and charge whatever they want for it, but asking for a far greater amount than what anyone is willing to pay is stupid, whether they have a right to do so or not, when the alternative for them is zero....I'm not saying they should just settle for some peanuts amount if that is all Disney offered....but both companies should be willing to compromise to make the best product possible, meaning Disney should pony up a few more bucks if necessary, and Criterion be willing to negotiate their price down a bit as well.....
As it is now, everyone loses out: the consumers get a less complete disc, Disney could possibly have lesser sales as some people on the fence may not "upgrade" since all the extras were not ported over, and Criterion gets zero payment....

Again, no one here knows the actual, complete specifics of the situation, other than the post from Pereira who got the vague answer from Smith...we can only speculate based on the limited facts we do have....