“Sold Out: A Threevening with Kevin Smith” DVD Review
The third installment of Kevin Smith’s popular “Evening” series, Sold Out: A Threevening with Kevin Smithonce again finds the writer/director/actor answer fan questions and talking about everything from his experiences with Bruce Willis to a painful recollection of his time performing jury duty. There will be moments you can’t believe what the man is saying, but that’s on par for what you experience from his library of work. So sit back, grab a drink and some popcorn and prepare to laugh yourself silly—as long as you know what to expect from this decidedly vulgar individual.
Synopsis
The Clerks guy is back, telling tall tales and basically being a big, fat, popu culture geek. Join the cult film icon and director of Zack and Miri Make a Porno as he celebrates his 37th birthday in a hilarious, profusely sweaty, take-no-prisoners performance in front of a packed hometown crowd! You’ll be gasping for air as Smith colorfully details the behind-the-scenes on Live Free or Die Hard and Clersk II, provides far too much information on the mating rituals of his dogs, and paints a painfully funny picture of the JurY Duty from Hemorrhoid Hell! A Threevening with Kevin Smith means 3x the raunch, 3x the hilarity, and 3xx the charm of the film world’s favorite potty-mouth raconteur.
Initially when I saw this special was split across two discs and was over three hours in length, I fully planned to split it up across a couple viewing but instead found myself just plowing on through the entire segment in one sitting. The clocks may have said I spent three hours watching Smith recount with extreme vulgarity the goings on in his life, but I really wasn’t even aware of it at the time. I had so much fun just watching and laughing at it all, that all other sense of responsibility and things I had to do melted away.
This was actually my first time watching one of Smith’s specials (although I’ll definitely be checking out the other two now) and after hearing the man on special features and commentaries over the years, I wasn’t particularly surprised by his detailed and colorful dialogue, so much as I wasn’t sure how much of it I could take in the three hours. I was laughing at every single word he said, but once he got to the anal fissures story I (and the audience) had a hard time laughing at the story simply because of how damn painful it sounded. Still, Threevening was nothing short of a riot to watch and there were many more stories to hear from the man than just the hemorrhoid recollections.
My favorite area of Smith’s dialogue was his comments on Superman Returns (which were things I’d always felt about the film, although his verbalizing of it made me realize just how much of a mess that film was), as well as his comments on the production of Clerks II. When all is said and done, however, my absolute favorite segment was Smith’s recollection of his time spent on the Live Free or Die Hard set and how his first day on the film was spent doing nearly absolutely nothing. From his dialogue with Willis about the films story or the fact that the day cost the studio over $200,000 despite nothing actually getting done, the whole story was a riot to listen to.
Overall it’s hard to review what is essentially a stand-up special, but anyone who has heard of the man or is a fan of their works will no doubt have already added this to their collection. I know I’ll be seeking out the previous two releases, as if they’re half as funny as this one was then I’m sure I’ll be experiencing intense pain from laughter. Smith is vulgar, yes, but that’s part of what makes him such a riot to listen to. Just don’t watch this around the young ones. Highly Recommended.
The DVD
Genius Productions has released this special on a two-disc DVD set, with the entire first disc dedicated to the 480i transfer (accompanied by a English Stereo mix and optional English SDH and Spanish subtitles) and the second disc containing the final portion of the special as well as a round of extras. The two-disc set is contained inside of a standard two-disc amaray case and the video and audio are what you’d expect—clear and audible, although the interlaced transfer is a bit of a surprise. But really, how much clarity does one need to see Smith sweat and ungodly amount on stage for three hours? I doubt a progressive transfer or a Blu-ray release would benefit anyone.
The aforementioned extras for this release are really just removed segments from the film (the whole special was cut together so well I didn’t even notice any cuts, which is rather impressive—usually with live specials I can pick out when something was pieced together) and run an aggregate 1:14:07. These segments aren’t quite as hilarious as the rest of the special, so it’s obvious why they were dropped (and also because the majority don’t play into any big story as the ones in the special do).
Overall this isn’t a bonus feature packed release, but with over “five hours of uncensored material” to watch, this release will keep you in front of the screen for a fair amount of time. Recommended.
Sold Out: A Threevening with Kevin Smith is now available on DVD.