For those of you who for some crazy reason are visiting this site and HAVEN’T seen Dogma yet, here’s the lowdown. Two angels named Loki & Bartleby (Matt Damon & Ben Affleck) who were cast out of heaven find a loophole in Catholic Dogma that will allow them a way out of purgatory (Wisconsin) and back into heaven. God’s nowhere to be found, so the heavens tap doubting Catholic Bethany (Linda Fiorentino) to stop ‘em. Bethany still attends church, but has turned her back on God due to some tumultuous times in her life. After being visited by the Metatron, the voice of God (Alan Rickman), Bethany starts on her journey to New Jersey with Jay & Silent Bob, two “prophets” (Jason Mewes & Kevin Smith), and soon runs into Rufus, the 13th apostle (Chris Rock) and Serendipity (Salma Hayek), a muse who quit her job in heaven but ended up as a stripper when she couldn’t inspire herself for anything greater. Loki & Bartelby aren’t on their own, either — They’ve got the help of Azrael (Jason Lee), an angry demon seeking revenge on God. As the two factions (esstentially, good and evil) make their way to New Jersey, the film focuses on both sides of the spectrum in turn, and raises some interesting questions about faith and religion along the way.

This Dogma DVD was never intended as a “special edition”. It’s merely a precursor to a HUGE, possible 2-disc, special edition due to hit shelves this fall. This DVD release coincides with the flick’s video release, and allows those who just want to see or own the flick as soon as possible. That being said, for what this disc is meant to be, it succeeds very well. Thankfully, the 2:35 aspect ratio has been given an anamorphic transfer, which enhances it for widescreen television sets like the one this disc is reviewed on. The audio is presented in Dolby Digital 5.1. A trailer for the film is also included. Finally, the disc’s flip side features a full screen transfer that we did not review (how barbaric!) but it’s there for those of you who like pan & scan versions, and likely to be the only DVD that’s got that version (we doubt the SE will have room for both). We assume that the video and audio transfer will be the exact same as the special edition this fall (which will feature over an hour of deleted scenes, commentary, a documentary, and lots more), so for those of you who want the best possible version of the film itself, this will be it.

Outside Sleeve	Booklet Cover	Booklet Inside
Main Menu	Subtitles Menu	Scene Selections Menu
Special Features Menu	Trailers Menu	Talent Files Menu

Most anamorphic DVDs of new releases (recent films) look great, and this disc is no exception. No artifacts, shimmering, or other distortions were evident. The 57″ Pioneer widescreen set used to review the disc makes it easy to spot problem areas, so we checked a few key scenes where things are exceptionally bright (Meeting Rufus) and dark (The Golgothan battle, the campfire scene). As a whole, though, Dogma is a generally bright film, so colors are important. We were very pleased to find that the colors were crip and the edges nicely defined, with no bleeding or oversaturation. This is a nice, clean transfer, and it looks great. Video quality, overall, is superb.

The audio mix was something I was very curious about. Having seen Dogma in the Uptown theater in Toronto last year, where the subwoofer BOOMS, I wanted to check some key scenes out to see how they matched up. In a few scenes of the flick, bodies are dropped from the sky, and the subwoofer booms outrageously. We cranked up the sound system and the room shook just like it was supposed to. Like all of Smith’s films, though, Dogma also has some scenes with heavy dialogue. These scenes are primarily focused on the center channel of the soundstage, as they should be. When opportunities arise for surround effects, however, such as music, action sequences, background noise, and the like, the channels are used accordingly and sound fantastic. Rain permeates the rear channels in the diner scene; Wind blows through the desolate scene outsite the church towards the film’s end. In fact, it’s in Dogma’s final half hour when the action kicks into high gear that the 5.1 mix has its chance to shine. The intense music, gunshots, and mayhem are a perfect match. This is one that’ll be fun to crank up.

One small complaint/concern with the audio mix was that the center channel, for some reason, seemed a bit TOO prominent. Most home sound systems have the capability to adjust channel volumes discretely, and I’d say that the center channel would need to come down a notch or two to be a bit less distracting. Could just be the system, but both of us concur that it just seemed a bit too loud. If this is an oversight or a mixing problem, hopefully it’s not too late to address it for the SE. Again, though, it’s a problem that can be overcome by making an adjustment your the home audio system.

The menu presentation on the disc is your standard stuff. The menus are all silent and the transitions very simple. The main menu screen has an animation which zooms the characters in to form what is essentialy the theatrical release poster. A heaven-like white light dissolves you into the submenus, which feature closeup shots of Carlin, Alanis, and more. The chapter screen features non-animated stills, four chapters per screen. It would have been nice to see these animated, or for an easier way to move left and right within chapters (an auto scroll to the next page when you move to the right, for example), but we assume this will be better on the SE. Finally, it was neat to see the Dogma poster come up when the disc was stopped, instead of the DVD player’s own boring backdrop. This disc is the first I’ve seen (though I’m sure others do it) that makes use of the “wallpaper” feature built into most newer DVD players.

The only extras included on the disc are the original trailer (more on that in a moment), a trailer for “The Opposite of Sex” for some odd reason, and a nice little cast biography section. The Dogma trailer was a bit of a disappointment. Sound in the trailer was muffled (definitely not DD 5.1, but not even up to Dolby standards really) and it sounds as if a new VERY out of character soundmix was added (there’s a saxohone blaring through the cast list at the end of the credits, for Pete’s sake). We don’t recall this music in the original trailer at all, and assume legal problems or some other strange reason exist that caused this to change. At any rate, it’s quite distracting. Kevin & crew: Please try and put a better quality trailer on the special edition, and PLEASE include the rough trailer that was cut together by Kev & Scott before the final, even if you can’t get the rights to the music that was used (mute it out or something). That’s just a way cool working trailer that we’d love to see again.

A final sidenote is this marks the first (and probably last!) time that the two of us are immortalized forever on a DVD. And yikes, now that we can watch ourselves again…It’s frightening. If we ever get another shot at being in a movie someday, we’ll do better. Promise. It’s just tough to watch yourself overact, and badly at that, when you don’t even have any lines! But anyway, yep, there we are, clear as day, on a DVD. Scary stuff indeed.

If you’re anxious to own a copy of the film, you can’t go wrong with this disc. Dogma’s a fantastic flick, and this is THE way to watch it in a home theater. Columbia’s pricing structure for the disc is on the low end of the spectrum, so you’ll find affordable prices at a discount store or especially at the online shops. If you’re more of a collector and can wait another 7 months or so to own Dogma, it makes sense to do so, since you don’t want to buy the film twice, and will get oodles of extras for just a few bucks more. Any of you who are reading this review will want to own a DVD player when that day comes, though, so save those pennies. We’ll of course be back to review that disc as well, though we’ll focus on the extra goodies more than the flick since it’s been covered here.