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PLEASE NOTE: Michael D's is currently in READ ONLY MODE. Anything submitted will simply not be written to the database.
Lots of stuff is still broken, but at least reviews can now be looked up and read.
Dogma (1998)

Dogma (1998)

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Released 14-Feb-2001
Cover Art

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Details At A Glance

General		Extras
Category	Black Comedy	Menu Audio Dolby Digital Trailer-Train Interviews-Cast & Crew Theatrical Trailer-1.85:1, 16x9, Dolby Digital 5.1 (2:29) Biographies-Cast & Crew
Rating
Year Of Production	1998
Running Time	123:10
RSDL / Flipper	RSDL (77:49)	Cast & Crew
Start Up	Menu	Cast & Crew
Region Coding	4	Directed By	Kevin Smith
Studio Distributor	Roadshow Home Entertainment	Starring	Ben Affleck Matt Damon Linda Fiorentino Salma Hayek Jason Lee Alan Rickman Chris Rock
Case	C-Button-Version 1	Starring
RPI	$34.95	Music	Howard Shore

Video		Audio
Pan & Scan/Full Frame	None	English Dolby Digital 5.1 (448Kb/s)
Widescreen Aspect Ratio	2.35:1
16x9 Enhancement
Video Format	576i (PAL)
Original Aspect Ratio	2.35:1	Miscellaneous
Jacket Pictures	No	Miscellaneous
Subtitles	English	Smoking	Yes
		Annoying Product Placement	No
		Action In or After Credits	Yes, during credits

NOTE: The Profanity Filter is ON. Turn it off here.

Plot Synopsis

There is almost a cult being formed around Kevin Smith and his films, and I guess many who are not familiar with any of his work might be wondering what all the fuss is about. Well, first things first - why aren't you familiar with the films of Kevin Smith? Okay, I know that is being a bit over the top, but after watching Chasing Amy and now Dogma, it certainly is a question that I have asked myself. Quite why I have taken this long to get around to indulging in them, I have no idea, but I am sure glad that I finally have. Now don't go jumping ahead and thinking I am about to proclaim Kevin Smith as some sort of cinematic genius, for he is not. But he sure has a very nice way of putting together a story and bringing it to the big screen. In the case of Dogma I guess it did not hurt either that he takes on the Holy Roman Church, devotees of which apparently decried the film as blasphemy. Obviously those devotees of the Holy Roman Church completely missed the plot and thus guaranteed that everyone would go see the film to see what the fuss was all about. Whilst the way the story is told might not be quite traditional religion, in many ways this is a film about the reaffirmation of beliefs, and certainly not the blaspheming of the church.

This is the story of two fallen angels, who millennia ago were cast out of Heaven by God (Alanis Morissette) and banished to exile in the hell that is...Wisconsin. Bartleby (Ben Affleck) and Loki (Matt Damon) live out their existence in Wisconsin by any means possible, whilst trying to find a way back into Heaven. Unbeknownst to them, there is a loophole in the banishment and so Azrael (Jason Lee), a former muse who has also been cast out and is now a demon, decides to advise them of it. His reasons for letting them know are very much personal, but Bartleby and Loki are desperate to get out of exile. So they start a trip to a cathedral in New Jersey where they will be able to pass under a blessed arch which will get them a return to Heaven. Along the way, as is the wont of the former Angel of Death, they intend to do some killing. The slight problem is that should these two succeed, they will precipitate the end of all life on Earth. Minor problem that.

Trying to stop them will be a rag tag bunch of people. Bethany (Linda Fiorentino) is a lapsed Catholic who basically goes to church as habit rather than as a matter of faith. She also has an interesting family tree. She is visited by Metatron (Alan Rickman), one of the elite seraphim who are basically the voice of God, who recruits her for a little task: travel to New Jersey to stop Bartleby and Loki. Since a holy crusade would not be much of a crusade if it only involved one slightly lapsed Catholic, Metatron assigns two prophets to help her. And so she gets to meet these two characters after they fight off the three soldiers of Azrael, namely Jay (Jason Mewes) and Silent Bob (Kevin Smith). This interesting trio head off to New Jersey, but the journey is stalled by a couple of issues: Jay cannot drive, so driving in the one gear cooks the car engine, all he seems to do is spend his time trying to convince Bethany to fornicate, and Rufus drops out of the sky. Rufus (Chris Rock) is the thirteenth apostle - you know the one that is not mentioned in the Holy Bible because he is black. Since a holy crusade needs all the help it can get, he joins the group heading for New Jersey, which group is shortly augmented by a further member - the muse Serendipity (Selma Hayek), another refugee from Heaven who left after getting fed up of not getting the credit for her ideas. And so we gather in New Jersey for what might well be the apocalypse - although it does appear that God has gone missing in her usual omnipotent way.

It really is a wonderful story that Kevin Smith has crafted here and brought to the big screen with a nice effort from the cast. Seemingly consistent film mates Ben Affleck and Matt Damon add just the right sort of ham aspect to the fallen angels heading out on their own crusade. The rest of the ensemble cast do a nice job too, and there really is a nice consistency in the overall performance here. The obvious standout though is Alan Rickman, who never fails to command any scene in which he appears. Well directed, the whole film really works well and it really is quite a blast.

It might not be a true classic of film, but Dogma really is an enjoyable two hours of entertainment that certainly manages a gentle dig at the Holy Roman Church, whilst having a lot to say about faith. Well worth adding to the collection, and given a very fine DVD to boot.

Don't wish to see plot synopses in the future? Change your configuration.

Transfer Quality

Video

It is almost getting routine when reviewing Village Roadshow titles to expect fine transfers, and this one really lives up to that expectation. There really is not much to fault this transfer over at all.

The transfer is presented in an aspect ratio of 2.35:1 and it is 16x9 enhanced.

How boring is this going to read? A nicely sharp transfer, with loads of detail on offer. There is hardly a let down in the entire film, other than those intended by the director. It is a gorgeously clear transfer with no hint at all of grain. Shadow detail is good throughout the film, perhaps the only place where the transfer is let down: I cannot help but feel that whilst this might be exactly what the director intended, there are a few sections where perhaps the detail could have been just a little better. Still, balancing that off are some of the best looking night-time scenes you could expect to see in a transfer. Low level noise is not an issue in the transfer.

The colours are quite wonderful, with deep, even tones that come up very well in the transfer. Very nicely vibrant too, there really is nothing wrong with the colours in this transfer. No undersaturation, no oversaturation and no colour bleed. Really very boring but really very good. Even the blacks seemed to have a nice depth to them.

There did not appear to be any significant MPEG artefacts in the transfer. Apart from a couple of very minor instances of aliasing that are barely noticeable, there is nothing in the way of film-to-video artefacts in the transfer. The only film artefacts here were a couple of white specks that were hardly noticeable.

This is an RSDL formatted DVD with the layer change coming mid-scene at 77:49. You cannot really miss it but overall I would not rate it as that much of a disruption to the flow of the film.

*Video Ratings Summary*
Sharpness
Shadow Detail
Colour
Grain/Pixelization
Film-To-Video Artefacts
Film Artefacts
Overall

Audio

The video transfer might be very good, but the audio transfer is even better. There is only the one soundtrack on the DVD, being an English Dolby Digital 5.1 soundtrack and it is one of those higher 448 Kb/s efforts. I don't know whether it is my imagination or not, but these higher bit rate transfers seem to have a greater clarity to them that really helps improve the separation of the channels and hence the "listenability" of the soundtrack as a whole.

The dialogue comes up very well in the transfer and there are no real problems understanding it, other than in a couple of scenes where the dialogue level is more muted (not a transfer problem I hasten to add). There is not a hint of audio sync problems here.

The score comes from Howard Shore and a decent enough effort it is too, that really helps add a little bit to the film.

The really noticeable aspect of this soundtrack is the hugely satisfying surround channel usage, with some sterling work out of the rear channels especially noticeable. A couple of times, the action kicks in so quickly that it made me jump a little, which is precisely what is intended. There is quite a wide ranging aspect to the surround channel use too, and things like the gun fire really hammer out at you in a most satisfying way. The bass channel gets a serious workout here too. The thing that I really found impressive though was the way they have managed to get Metatron's voice to ring in a real voice of God type way, with just a hint of echo to place it above the normal level of the ambient sound. Really quite cool - even if it is quite subtle. Really terrific stuff here overall.

*Audio Ratings Summary*
Dialogue
Audio Sync
Clicks/Pops/Dropouts
Surround Channel Use
Subwoofer
Overall

Extras

Well, eventually we get to the disappointment and this it it. This is not really good enough and begs the question as to why we have no got better.

Interviews - Cast and Crew

Hugely disappointing. These are a sad return to the disjointed type efforts of early Roadshow Home Entertainment releases where we get a question still and then the interview clip. The whole thing obviously comes across in a somewhat disjointed way. They are presented in an aspect ratio of 1.85:1 and are 16x9 enhanced with Dolby Digital 2.0 sound. Technically they are not at all good. They are riddled with what appears to be MPEG artefacts, mainly the loss of resolution on any shot involving head movement especially, they are quite grainy in appearance and are blessed with substantial video artefacts. I don't recall seeing anything as poor as this on a Village Roadshow DVD for quite a while. I am suspecting that the problems are source related, but that is not confirmed. Add into the disappointment the fact that there is no time information encoded so all you see in your DVD player display is the unhelpful message "play".

Theatrical Trailer (2:29)

A very nice trailer indeed, both technically and artistically (if that is the right word for a trailer). It is presented in an aspect ratio of 1.85:1, is 16x9 enhanced and comes with Dolby Digital 5.1 sound. The only problem is that it highlights how bad the interviews look.

Biographies - Cast and Crew

Reasonably well detailed efforts for all the main cast members, including quite detailed filmographies too.

Dolby Digital Trailer - Train

So nice to see this one turn up every so often on Village Roadshow DVDs.

R4 vs R1

NOTE: To view non-R4 releases, your equipment needs to be multi-zone compatible and usually also NTSC compatible.

The Region 4 release misses out on:

Additional trailers

The Region 1 release misses out on:

Interviews

It would seem that there is little in the way of the extras that would tip the scales either way. Accordingly, the transfer will become the issue and based upon the reviews seen on two major sites, which broadly say good video but with a few soft spots and good audio, it would seem that Region 4 would be the way to go.

But...there is a Region 1 Special Edition version of the DVD that has been mooted, planned to include a truckload of extras including commentaries, deleted scenes, storyboards and more. However, this is currently the subject of some legal problems it would seem and the likelihood of it being released any time soon now appears remote. However, should it get a release, it would be the way to go for sure if you love extras.

Update: the Region 1 Special Edition has been released and is definitely the preferred version of the film on DVD. Two commentaries, a truckload of deleted scenes and a bunch of outtakes, amongst a whole bunch of other stuff? It apparently uses the same transfers as the original movie-only release, but the extras make the decision easy. Make mine a Region 1 Special Edition please.

Summary

Dogma is a great comedy as long as you are not an horrendously devout Holy Roman Catholic, as I am sure this would offend in some manner. Given a very good video transfer and an excellent audio transfer, there is only the comparative lack of quality in the extras that prevents this getting really high praise. Still, miles better than a lot of supposed comedies nowadays and it is well worth adding this one to the collection.

Ratings (out of 5)

Video
Audio
Extras
Plot
Overall

Review Equipment
DVD	Pioneer DV-515, using S-Video output
Display	Sony Trinitron Wega (80cm). Calibrated with Video Essentials. This display device is 16x9 capable.
Audio Decoder	Built in to amplifier/receiver. Calibrated with Video Essentials.
Amplification	Yamaha RXV-795
Speakers	Energy Speakers: centre EXLC; left and right C-2; rears EXLR; and subwoofer ES-12XL

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