Dogma

Rating:
Summary: FUNNY AND SUPERB
Review: One word describes this movie "HILARIOUS". One thing though, if you don't have a sense of humor, way too religious, then don't bother yourself, you will get nothing out of this except a bad temper. For those who are like me and are free spirited and don't buy into all the religious BS, buy it, own it, and love it.

Rating:
Summary: The title says so much...
Review: Forget how funny this movie is. Forget about all the great actors and actresses in it, and forget how much controversy this movie caused. Forget the abominable abundance of the f-word, and forget that one of the characters is made of feces.

Do not forget this, however: Most popular religions today started with a bunch of good ideas. One time, this African had some great ideas about how his kindred could get along, and WE the people deemed him a prophet, almost supernatural. Started naming ourselves Muhammad, or Mohammed, or whatever, to honor him.

Another time, this Jew who spoke Aramaic had some good ideas about how his kindred could get along. WE the people first embraced him, then killed him, then declared him immortal so that killing him wasn't such a bad thing after all. Started naming our kids Joshua, or Jesus, or whatever, to honor him.

Wanna hear the best part? Now we're fighting each other (we meaning humans) in the Mideast because some man-made religious landmarks happen to overlap in the same city. Am I oversimplifying things?

So "Dogma" reminds us that an end-of-the-world event like the plenary indulgence of two fallen angels (or maybe world war III in the fertile crescent) would be brought on by...yep- We the people. Why? Because we set up a million and three rules (some of which are contradictory) and called them Catholicism, or Buddhism, or whatever, when all we need are a few GOOD IDEAS!!!!

Wanna hear something else funny? The phrase 'plenary indulgence' wasn't around until 1600 years after Jesus died. Know what else? Jesus didn't found Christianity. We did.

In this movie we have what? A Latin muse who's a stripper. An African disciple ignored in a European Bible. A Catholic martyr who works in an abortion clinic. And some white boys, the most derelict of which were labeled prophets! What do they have in common? A Jew named Jesus? Not quite. Just a few good ideas.

And in the end, it's all a movie, right?

Rating:
Summary: Many a true word has been said in a joke
Review: Kevin Smith is no doubt a brilliant writer, and even though his directing skills could use some polish, Dogma is a step above his other films (well, except Chasing Amy). The storyline is one of those that you have to pay a lot of attention to though; Linda Fiorentino stars as a Catholic woman that works in an abortion clinic and is more and more losing her faith. One night she is visted by "The Voice of God" (Alan Rickman) and given an assignment to stop two banished angels (Ben Affleck and Matt Damon) from re-entering heaven through a loophole in the Catholic Dogma, and will thus destroy all existence. She is teamed up with good ol' Jay & Silent Bob (Jason Mewes and Smith), the unknown 13th Apostle (Chris Rock) and a rather sexy muse who works in a strip club (Salma Hayek who steals the entire movie). Jason Lee is fantastic as the horned Azrael who has a few tricks up his own sleeve, and George Carlin is funny as Cardinal Glick. But what makes Dogma work is that there is a lot of truth about religion that is discussed and joked about in the movie, mainly Salma Hayek's character talking about what is right and wrong about organized religion, and Matt Damon convincing a nun to quit her faith are some brilliant dialogue that will make the viewer think if he has an open mind. All in all, Dogma isn't really as controversial as some say it is, but those with unique tastes will enjoy.

Rating:
Summary: ...
Review: Clerks was excellent. Mallrats was okay. Chasing Amy was a little better than okay. Dogma Blew. I didn't even so much as crack one bit of laughter while I was watching this godawful piece of tripe. I was extremely let down. Even Chris Rock was dull. Something I once thought was an impossiblity. I recommend this to any insomniac for a sure-fire cure to their affliction. Mere words can't capture the essence of how putrid this movie was. For the love of humanity, please don't be foolish like myself and actually BUY this movie.

Rating:
Summary: thats for jay and silent bob
Review: ok so i have only seen this and jay and silent bob strike back. i liked jay and silent bob always will since i own jay and silent bob strike back. i would never buy this unless it was for pure idiocity. the story took me nowhere. this disses god. im a very religious person. i did not get this movie. its that hard to understand. i had to watch it twice to give it 2 stars. ok im a huge fan of kevin smith though. hey why else would i rent mallrats and clerks.

Rating:
Summary: A Kevin Smith fan, but I was left out of this one.
Review: I've always been a fan of Smith's movies. I was looking forward to seeing Dogma, especially curious around all the controversy. I wish I could say I was offended, but instead, I just didn't get it nor think it was funny. It was just one run on sentace of a joke that I never got to begin with. Maybe it's because I didn't grow up with the Jesus religion, and instead grew up with the old testament and torah. My catholic friend's who disliked Catholic school liked it, but again, I felt it was their inside joke that I was on the outside of. I look forward to seeing the next one Kevin. thank you.

Rating:
Summary: DVDeity calls, and Smith answers the bell
Review: This review will only talk about the features included on this DVD edition. My review of the movie proper was posted August 20, 2001.

---

Since commentary tracks are the most important feature, to me, of any DVD, and since this is my first time listening to one (well, two here) of Kevin Smith's legendary commentary tracks, let me get right at it.

Messrs. Smith, Affleck, Mewes, Lee, Mosier, and Pereira appear on the first track. The Jays, Mewes and Lee, don't contribute all that much; the former adds a spaced-out comment or two, but only when prompted, giving cause for the others to ridicule his grammar; the latter only pipes up to ask director Smith a technical question once in a while. Vinnie Pereira, who is described as View Askew's resident historian, is proven negligent on several occasions, for not knowing some detail or another. Which, to me, proves that he's probably right most of the time, and only got called on it while the audience was in the room, for the purpose of some good-natured ridicule. Scott Mosier, producer and second unit director, answers any and all technical questions that Smith can't, and takes some all-in-good-fun flak for his cameo in the film, a scene on the bus where he's asked to make-out with his girlfriend. Ben Affleck, far and away the biggest star in the room, is both incredibly articulate on why he's proud of the movie and his role in it, and good-natured at being the butt of many of his lesser-known cohorts' jokes. Kevin Smith, writer/director, is funny and forthcoming with his feelings about the movie. He doesn't shy away from the on-set conflict between Linda Fiorentino and himself, he's outspoken about the undue criticism the film received, and he's self-deprecating when talking about his skills (or lack thereof) as a director and his reliance on toilet humour in his writings. The track is fun and funny, like listening to a bunch of guys at a bar on a particularly witty and combative night. It's not afraid to go off-topic (at one point a discussion breaks out on the sex-lives of the participants during the making of the movie!), but still manages to cram in more behind the scenes information than most commentary tracks I've heard.

The second commentary track features only Smith, Mosier, and Pereira, and was included because the first track was so jokey and off-topic at times. Smith and Co. wanted to at least appear like real filmmakers who knew what they were doing. So they try and talk about aspect ratios, and film stock, and optical transfers, etc. Which is all well and good, but they also joke around enough to make this track interesting in its own right, while still being funny for non-techno geeks.

Besides the two commentary tracks, the 2 DVD set holds a number of other fine features.

Included in packages liner notes is a lengthy and finely written essay by Smith, which details how and (more importantly) why he made this film. In it, he lays his soul bare, giving up his love for God, and his desire to honour Him (or Her) with an intelligent movie that the masses will see. The only way to do that, he reasons, is by lacing the theologically motivated story with "... and fart jokes". A job well done, Kev.

Disc two has over 100 minutes of deleted scenes that prove why they were deleted. They are often ponderous, and would have been detrimental to the narrative, even while fleshing out each character's backstory. The interesting part about this feature is that each scene is introduced by Pereira and an increasingly larger contingent of the Smith clan, beginning with just Kevin, then him and his daughter, then him and his daughter and his wife, and finally him and his "other" son, Jason Mewes. It's kind of cute to see Kevin, a self-described raunchmeister, in the company of his wholesome family.

The outtakes section was a disappointment. With over 3.5 hours of usable footage, you'd think the produces would have been able to cobble together more than 13 minutes of crack-ups and muggings. But they haven't. Pity.

Overall, the DVD is a fine package. Two minor quibbles: the opening sequence, which plays while the disc loads, was funny the first time. But it's too long. It became annoying when every time I put the DVD in this drawn out joke had to play. Also, when transferring between features, a short condemnation, presumably riffing on the grief the film got from the Catholic League, appears, telling the audience that they're probably going to burn for watching the movie. I appreciate the irony, but not every time I wanted to turn the subtitles on. This got tiresome pretty quickly, too. But besides those two points, "Dogma" is presented in all its splendor, deservedly so.

Rating:
Summary: DOGMA CATCHES THE WORLDS EYE IN RELIGION
Review: THE CATHOLIC CHURCH WOULD HAVE KEVIN SMITHS HEAD ON A PLATTER IF
THEY COULD. THE MOVIE GIVES A CERTAIN SOMEBODYS VIEWS ON THE CATHOLIC RELIGION AND AT THE SAME TIME IS EXTREMELY FUNNY.DOGMA IN MY OPINION IS THE BEST SMITH MOVIE SO FAR BEN AFFLECK AND MATT DAMON PLAY TWO ANGELS SENT BACK FROM HEAVEN FOR BEING BAD.JAY AND SILENT BOB PLAY TWO PROPHETS TRYING TO STOP BEN AND MATT FROM REENTERING THE GATES OF HEAVEN WITH A CLEAN SLATE.NEED I SAY MORE FOR WHAT THE TWO CARMING DUO'S GET THEMSELVES INTO
BRIAN BINDER

Rating:
Summary: the funiest movie ever
Review: This was definately one of the best movies I've ever seen; I've watched it about a million times. I still laugh untill it hurts every time- a great buy in my eyes. Although, if you don't like vulgur humor, it may not be right for you.

Rating:
Summary: Wow. There must be a God if this movie got made.
Review: How can you not like Kevin Smith? Smart, funny, irreverent, but above all, genius. This movie's proof. Plot summaries tend to abound in reviews of movies (even their DVD-released versions), so here's what matters: Smith is a god. A low-level deity, to be certain, but significantly improved over the average human being that hears about his movies and then protests them without taking the time to understand what they're complaining about. Yes, it does take the Catholic church down a few notches. But it deserves to be. If people should stop selling stuff that's offensive, then, guess what? The Bible should stop being published.
But that's just me trying to defend a good movie. With the second-best big name cast Smith has ever assembled (behind J&SBSB, and since Clerks had no big names, it doesn't count for this), the comic romp from Illinois to New Jersey starts off funny, and ends funny ("We can have sex up until the third trimester."). So maybe he can't set up a shot. So what? The writing and the acting are what make this movie. Once again, get smart (and get a sense of humor while you're at it) before seeing this movie. It's humorous and thought-provoking at the same time. And it has George Carlin as a Catholic cardinal.