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Dom Robinson reviews
Collector’s Edition / Special Limited Edition
Columbia TriStar
- Cert:
- Cat.no: CDR 24510 / CDR 24510 SE
- Running time: 94 minutes
- Year: 1997
- Pressing: 2000
- Region(s): 2, PAL
- Chapters: 27 plus extras
- Sound: Dolby Digital 5.1
- Languages: English, German and French
- Subtitles: 18 languages available
- Widescreen: 1.85:1
- 16:9-Enhanced: Yes
- Macrovision: Yes
- Disc Format: DVD 9 / DVD 18 + DVD 9
- Price: £19.99 / £24.99
- Extras :
– Collector’s Edition: Visual Commentary from Barry Sonnenfeld and Tommy Lee Jones, Multi-Angle Character Animation Studies, Multi-Angle Tunnel Scene Deconstruction, Extended Scenes, 5 Alternate Scenes, Conceptual Art, Storyboard, Storyboard Comparisons and Production Photo Galleries, Original Featurette, New Documentary- ‘Metamorphosis Of Men In Black, Music Video of Will Smith’s ‘Men In Black’, 11 Talent Files, 3 Theatrical Trailers, Theatrical Trailer for Men In Black II, Weblinks– Special Limited Edition: All of the above plus the following: two discs containing a widescreen and full-screen feature, Scene Editing Workshop never before seen on a DVD, Additional Photo Galleries with over 1,000 images of conceptual art and production photos, Additional Edgar Bug Fight Deconstruction Scene, Technical Audio Commentary with Barry Sonnenfield and the team from Industrial Light & Magic
Director:
- Barry Sonnenfeld
(Addams Family 1 & 2, Get Shorty, Mem in Black, Raising Arizona, Wild Wild West)
Producers:
- Laurie MacDonald and Walter F. Parkes
Screenplay:
- Ed Solomon
Music:
- Danny Elfman
Cast:
- Agent K (Kay): Tommy Lee Jones
Agent J (Jay)/James Edwards: Will Smith
Agent L (Elle)/Laurel: Linda Fiorentino
Edgar: Vincent D’Onofrio
MIB Director Agent Zed: Rip Torn
Men in Black, was one of many Marvel Comic-to-screen adaptations and the success of the summer in 1997, coming only a year after Will Smith‘s other lucrative smash hit, Independence Day, which is also out in the US as a specially-extended version.
The men, only known by a single initial are the alien F.B.I. You see, you may not realise it but aliens really are alive and well and living amongst us. There are some good ones, such as Willie in “V”, but most of them are bad and as the film begins it’s up to Agent Kay (Tommy Lee Jones) to stamp them out.
Agent Dee is due for retirement soon. He taught Kay everything he knows, so now it’s up to Kay to teach his new recruit Jay, aka James Edwards (Will Smith), the secrets of the organisation, but once you’re in, your original identity is erased and when your time comes to retire your mind will be wiped of all MiB knowledge.
The plot is simple as Jay and Kay rid the world of aliens, gearing up for a spectacular finale and recruiting new Agent Elle, aka Deputy Medical Examiner (Linda Fiorentino), in the process. Vincent D’Onofrio, probably best known for his appearance as Private Pyle, the fat one in Kubrick‘s Full Metal Jacket, is Edgar – starting off as a simple farmer but it’s his body that the chief alien decides to reside in, taking his truck with it. Finally, the MIB Director, Agent Zed is played by Rip Torn.
There’s no escape from Agent K The anamorphic widescreen picture is the version that I’ll always be watching, but almost all scenes have some underlying artifacts and a murky haziness which is rather a let-down for such a high-profile release. The average bitrate is 6.17Mb/s, occasionally peaking above 8Mb/s.
The sound is perfect though. So many scenes require explosions, gunfire and general all-round madness, all in Dolby Digital 5.1, such as the screaming as Mikey bites the big one, the truck being smashed to pieces and the final saucer crash.
Do Agent Jay a favour. Look closely and click on this picture.
Extras :
Chapters : 27 chapters for the 94-minute film which is fine, although I thought a Special Edition DVD would have even more.
Languages/Subtitles : Dolby Digital 5.1 in English, French and German, plus an English surround option. Subtitles in 18 languages : English, Polish, Czech, Hungarian, Icelandic, French, Dutch, German, Hindi, Hebrew, Danish, Swedish, Finnish, Greek, Norwegian, Bulgarian, Turkish and Arabic.
And there’s more… : And it’s got to be one of the most feature-packed DVDs available this year. When I first posted this review online I only had the first disc to hand of the Limited Edition 2-disc set. Disc 2 ran out quite quickly (how come they don’t stay together?), but now I also have the single-disc Collector’s Edition which contains almost all of the remaining extras.
The first disc is a DVD18. That means the total space available to Columbia is nearly 18Gb. It’s the first such commercially-available DVD in the UK and means each side is gold-coloured. It’s known as a dual-layer, dual-sided DVD. You’ll notice a number of discs among your collections which have the name on the top and a gold underside to them. Those are DVD9s and are dual-layer but obviously single-sided.
DVD5s are also in abundance. They are single-layer, single-sided DVDs, while DVD10s are single-layer, dual-sided. DVD10s have made a few appearances, but are more likely to be eschewed in favour of DVD9s for the simple reason that it’s more convenient to you, the consumer, to watch all of the content on one side of the disc, without having to turn it over.
For example, the Region 1 DVD of Starship Troopers was a DVD10. This was done so that the film was on side 1, with all the extras on side 2. The UK Region 2 DVD was also a DVD10, but some kind pillock at Warner decided to scrap the extras and place half the film on each side, so just as it was getting to a brillant point of action… the film stopped dead and you had to turn it over. A DVD10 was also used with the UK DVD of Armageddon, until BBC TV’s Watchdog got involved and forced Warner to replace all such discs returned for a free replacement DVD9.
Back to the plot though and here are the extras so far for disc one of the Special Limited Edition set.
- Visual Commentary from Barry Sonnenfeld and Tommy Lee Jones: Similar to that found on the Ghostbusters: Special Edition DVD, this features the two men as they sit and discuss the film like a typical audio commentary, the difference being that you can see their silhouettes in front of the film and they point at what’s going on and draw on the screen to bring things to your attention.
The DVD player has to be put into “4:3 TV” or ‘standard TV’ mode in order to see them, which means a windowboxed widescreen picture for those watching on widescreen TVs as the men are effectively sitting in the black bars.
- Technical Audio Commentary with Barry Sonnenfeld and the team from Industrial Light & Magic: An analysis breakdown of ten scenes in the film, the final one being an exclusive to the Special Limited Edition: The Dragonfly (a very clever opening credits sequence), Making Mikey (the weird screaming creature at the start who also appears in the music video), Chasing the Perp, Saucer Destroys Truck (loudly!), Jeebs Regrows His Head, MiB Headquarters, Making Mr. Gentle, the Tunnel sequence, the Saucer Crash at the end and finally, the ghastly, but impressive, Edgar Bug.
Barry Sonnenfeld is joined by ILM members Rick Baker, Eric Brevig, John Andrew Berton Jr. and Rob Coleman.
- Production Photo Gallery: Scores of photos in three categories: Visual Effects Team: ILM, On the set with talent; and Make-up and Puppet Team: Cinovation.
- A Metamorphosis of MiB: A 23-minute featurette with cast and crew interviews mixed in with clips plus B-roll and work-in-progress footage.
- Extended and Alternate Scenes: 5 scenes lasting around a minute each: Outside Leschko’s Diner, Jay’s MiB audition, Mrs. Edelson, Chinese Restaurant, Bouncing Ball (without SFX)
- Art and Animation: Includes some parts of the Technical Audio Commentary mentioned above, plus Storyboard comparisons, a Storyboard gallery and a Conceptual Art Gallery.
- Talent Files: Filmographies for the director, main actors and some crew members.
- The MiB Recommend: Theatrical and Teaser Trailers for MiB (both Dolby Digital 5.1 and anamorphic 16:9 ratio), plus a Teaser Trailer for MiB II (same credentials, except now in anamorphic 2.35:1) and a 4:3 trailer for Stuart Little.
- Second Featurette: More clips and chat, lasting 7 minutes this time.
- ‘Men in Black’ Music Video: You know the one.
Note that disc two of the special edition contains: a Scene Editing Workshop.
Meet Edgar. He’s friendly. Menu : The main menu begins with an introduction to the MiB headquarters as if you are being enlisted. The animations apes the HQ as you move around the room to access other special features, with music from the main theme. The scene selection menu features moving clips from each chapter situated within cryogenic tanks while the sound of bubbles bounce around as does ‘that ball’.
Also impressive is the opening Columbia TriStar logo when you boot up the disc with sweeping DD5.1 surround sound as the company’s name moves from the rear to the front speakers.
The original fullscreen and widescreen video releases. 
Overall, Men in Black is a great fun film with brilliant special effects, sound and extras to match. It’s just a shame that the picture isn’t up to scratch and there are a couple of slight language cuts where the word “prick” is replaced with “jerk”. It would be interesting to see how the Region 1 DVD compares in the picture stakes.
Final Note: I wonder if Men in Black 2, due out next summer, will follow the same tradition as the sequels/follow-ups to Pretty Woman (Runaway Bride) and 48 Hours (Another 48 Hours), in that the second film swapped round the two lead actors’ names as one had subsequently over-taken the other in Hollywood’s A-list, as Jay re-recruits Kay as he’s in need of help.
PICTURE QUALITY
SOUND QUALITY
EXTRAS
OVERALL 
Reviewer of movies, videogames and music since 1994. Aortic valve operation survivor from the same year. Running DVDfever.co.uk since 2000. Nobel Peace Prize winner 2021.