10 years later, 'Clerks' still rocks

Kevin Smith's "Clerks" was one of the first films to represent Generation X so astutely dead-on. In honor of its 10th anniversary, "Clerks" has been given the royal DVD treatment, including two versions of the film, both unmuddied and clarified for the best picture and sound ever to spring from a couple cheap microphones and a 16mm black and white camera.\nFor those unfamiliar with Smith's slacker masterpiece, we're treated to a day in the life of a couple of verbose, opinionated and thoroughly-jaded convenience store workers. Brilliant dialogue abounds, as Smith's rapid-fire, academically-literate screenplay paved the way for a whole new genre of comic writing in which the characters speak as those in their generation do in their daily lives, no matter how raw or uncensored.\nThe obvious draw of this 10th anniversary edition is the amazing array of extra features complete with Smith's hilarious and talky feature intros. To attempt to condense them all into a paragraph is futile, but one can try. We've got "Mae Day," Kevin Smith and Scott Mosier's film school debut; a set of gut-busting Jay and Silent Bob shorts made for MTV; original cast audition tapes; the original 93-minute version of "Clerks" with original commentary; a new 103-minute director's cut with new commentary; a 10th anniversary Q&A with the cast and crew and, most notably, the 95-minute "The Snowball Effect," a comprehensive documentary covering all aspects of the film from pre- to post-production.\nFor diehard Kevin Smith fans, as well as those who enjoy intelligent comedy with a slacker sensibility, "Clerks X" is the only edition of this classic to own.