‘Dogma’ 4K Review — The Holy Grail Of Religious Comedies
Kevin Smith’s Dogma turns 25 this year, and it’s getting a 4K restoration with a well-deserved theatrical run and a home release to follow. The film has been in limbo for years, as the previous Blu-ray has been out of print for years. And it’s never been available to stream or purchase digitally thanks to a deal that predates streaming (with the Weinsteins, no less). After a long battle with “the Devil himself,” Smith finally regained the rights, and this restoration is seeing the light of day.
The View Askewniverse has always been extremely hit or miss. I haven’t been able to take a Kevin Smith film seriously since Tusk, which is a bizarre thing to say given what that film is about. However, Yoga Hosers is so bad that it soured everything positive about the New Jersey filmmaker.
But even with the success of the Clerks films, Mallrats, Chasing Amy, Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back, and Zack and Miri Make a Porno, Dogma has seemingly always had this reputation of being the pinnacle of Smith’s films. And it should be held in such high regard because it has arguably the best storyline of any film Smith has ever done.
The restoration of the film was done by cinematographer Robert Yeoman who has worked on the majority of Wes Anderson’s films and dozens of others throughout his over 40-year career. Dogma looks crisp with rich colors, but the upgraded version of the film is just a bonus. Finally having the opportunity to see this hoarded treasure of a film is the real treat for film fans. Just being able to see Dogma without having to pay a fortune is all we’ve ever asked for.
Many things in Dogma still work incredibly well two and a half decades later, and some are still surprisingly timely. After the death of Pope Francis, Leo XIV was elected as the new Pope in May of this year. In Dogma, seeing the church want to retire the crucifix and reinvent Jesus’ image as Buddy Christ hits a little differently.
Apart from Smith’s stellar dialogue, which has always been the highlight of his films, an ongoing theme in Dogma is losing faith. Fallen angels Loki (Matt Damon) and Bartleby (Ben Affleck) have been stuck in purgatory in Wisconsin ever since. Now they’ve found a loophole to get back into Heaven, but not before partaking in a massive killing spree first. If they succeed, all of existence is likely to be erased since they’d be proving God’s infallible word wrong.
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Bethany Sloane (Linda Fiorentino), despite being the last scion and a direct descendent of Jesus Christ has lost all of her faith in Dogma. She still goes to church every week, even though it leaves her feeling empty. And she recently went through a divorce because she can’t have children. Losing everything and the overwhelming emptiness that she’s currently experiencing leaves her feeling like God either doesn’t exist or doesn’t care, even when actual angels and demons show up on her doorstep.
The story in Dogma is still quite good, but the comedy is a lot more cringe-worthy than you probably remember. Jay (Jason Mewes) comes off as a masturbatory freak whose sexual desires are only kept somewhat at bay thanks to the unreasonable amount of weed that he smokes. Looking back, when you watched the films Jay was a part of when they were theatrically released, you remember him as being a stoner who was proud to boast about his heterosexuality and didn’t have any sort of filter.
The unpredictable nature of the character made him humorous. He’s come to be obnoxious over the years and is more of an insufferable motor mouth who never knows when to shut up. Maybe raunchy actions and dialogue refuse to age well in any medium.
The CGI in Dogma is still trash. The finale at the church that features a handful of computer-generated shots of Bartleby flying in the sky looks horrendous with all of its ugliest details shining in 4K. Oddly, filmmakers and directors will shell out so much money to make their older films look great in high definition yet refuse to update special effects. Perhaps it’s an issue of artistic integrity or that changing what people originally saw in theaters compromises the film and/or the director’s original vision.
Or maybe we’d view Kevin Smith in the same vein as George Lucas after he released the special editions of the original Star Wars trilogy. It also couldn’t be as extensive as bringing in Zack Snyder for $70 million to make a four-hour cut of Justice League. It’s a handful of shots that last maybe 45 seconds, and it would just be nice not to see CG Ben AI-fleck floating around like an 8-bit Light Cycle from the 1982 version of Tron.
If you’re an action or martial arts film fan, then maybe we’ve been spoiled with all of the spectacular action we’ve seen over the years because what little action sequences are in Dogma are horrid. To be fair, Dogma isn’t trying to be an action film, and it’s not like the film had an action choreographer or fight coordinator. But “fights” are generally noticeable ghost punches and people falling to the ground like a geriatric sloth. Or the editing has so many cuts that you can’t tell what the hell is going on.
Dogma is worth revisiting, especially in 4K. Or if you’ve never had the opportunity to see it before now, then this is the best way to see it. The comedy has aged like a bowl of hot and expired #MeToo molasses, but the film has an immensely talented cast and superbly written dialogue. If you have a Mount Rushmore of Kevin Smith films, Dogma chisels itself as the Holy Grail of religious comedies.
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Dogma (1999), Triple Media Film
PROS
- Earns its place as one of Kevin Smith's best films
- Is surprising relatable and or timely
- The cast is stacked for a $10 million film
- The dialogue is ridiculously good (apart from Jay's)
CONS
- Most of Kevin Smith's comedy ages poorly
- Horrendous CGI
- Terrible action and editing during fight sequences
