Men in Black 2

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Dom Robinson reviews

Men in Black 2
Distributed by

Columbia TriStar

    Cover

  • Cert:
  • Cat.no: CDR 32718
  • Running time: 84 minutes
  • Year: 2002
  • Pressing: 2003
  • Region(s): 2, PAL
  • Chapters: 28 plus extras
  • Sound: Dolby Digital 5.1
  • Languages: English
  • Subtitles: English, Dutch
  • Widescreen: 1.85:1
  • 16:9-Enhanced: Yes
  • Macrovision: Yes
  • Disc Format: 2 * DVD 9
  • Price: £24.99
  • Extras :
    Disc 1: Alien Broadcast, Frank’s Favourites, MIIB: Crossfire Game, MIB Training Video, Audio Commentary.
    Disc 2: Special Delivery: MIIB Orb, Blooper Reel, Serleena Animatic Sequence, Multi-angle scene deconstructions, Alternate Ending, Creature Featurettes, Theatrical One-Sheets, Music Video, Filmographies, DVD-ROM content.

    Director:

      Barry Sonnenfeld

    (Addams Family 1 & 2, Get Shorty, Men in Black 1 & 2, Raising Arizona, Wild Wild West)

Producers:

    Laurie MacDonald and Walter F. Parkes

Screenplay:

    Robert Gordon and Barry Fanaro

Music:

    Danny Elfman

Cast:

    Agent K: Tommy Lee Jones
    Agent J: Will Smith
    Laura Vasquez: Rosario Dawson
    Serleena: Lara Flynn Boyle
    Scrad/Charlie: Johnny Knoxville
    Jeebs: Tony Shalhoub
    Agent T: Patrick Warburton
    Himself: Peter Graves
    MIB Director Agent Zed: Rip Torn
    Frank the Pug (voice): Tim Blaney

How do films get to be this bad?, The original Men in Black was to Ghostbusters, as Men in Black 2 is to Ghostbusters II, i.e. it’s a sequel that should never have happened when all they had for a script was one so completely piss-poor that it shouldn’t have left the drawing board. By comparison, it makes those made-for-TV sequels look abundant with originality.

Lara Flynn Boyle plays Serleena, a bizarre woman with a snake-head who only resembles the actress who plays her after seeing a modelling catalogue and then assimilating her appearance. She’s come to Earth to find The Light of Zartha, whatever that is. It doesn’t matter why, either, since I didn’t grasp that and it’s not something you should concern yourself with. She’s just looking for it and that’s all you need to know.

Whereas the trailer almost instantly drops Tommy Lee Jones back into the frame, as a post office worker called Kevin, it takes around 30 minutes before he appears in this short film, since only he, as Agent K, knows something or other about this Light and he’ll need to be found first and deneuralised before Agent J (Will Smith) can retrieve the information and, thus, save planet Earth. Got that?

At around 80 minutes before the closing credits kick in, it’s too short a movie and feels rushed at the start. Looking back, the first film probably had as much content when it came to dealing with its storyline, but it was extended courtesy of the introduction as Will Smith was chosen to join the men in the black suits.


Tommy Lee Jones returns to defeat alien scum.

I thought that perhaps the shortfall in entertainment would be made up in the CGI effects, especially with five years to improve upon from the first film and since the Edgar alien was quite a treat to look at, but no. Alien prosthetics are no different than in the original and so look incredibly dated. As for the CGI, this dates even more so. Scrad (Johnny Knoxville) has a second head that evolves from a very long neck, appearing out of his backpack, but it doesn’t look so much drawn in with Microsoft Paint, as drawn onto a piece of paper and stuck over the film print with glue, such is its unconvincing nature. Just what were they thinking?

And if that wasn’t enough, then please get rid of Frank the dog. He just unwantedly chips in like Jar Jar Binks and makes as much sense, pausing only to sing tunes like “I Will Survive” and “Who Let the Dogs Out?” (surprise, sur-fucking-prise!) It’s enough to make you cringe with as much embarrassment as watching an ITV sitcom.

To add insult to injury, Michael Jackson pops up in a brief cameo as an MiB agent. It’s quite fitting that he’s amongst aliens and other weird-looking creatures, but it’s clear that he hasn’t got any acting talent and should not try to make out a thespian career now that his musical one has gone down the dumper.

Oh, hang on, what happened to Agent L/Elle (Linda Fiorentino). She’s explained away, badly, with a single line somewhere along the way.

I have no complaints on the audio-visual scale. A crisp anamorphic 1.85:1 widescreen image has great flesh tones and lets the full flavour of the special effects breathe out (when they’re worth watching).

Sonically, when something’s going on all the speakers will let you know about it, while quiter moments will make good use of atmospherics all around you. Special effects-wise, there doesn’t seem to be as much going on as there should be in this sequel though.

film pic

Do Agent Jay a favour.
Look closely and click on this picture.

Like the first film, this title is also abundant in extras, although thankfully we’ve been spared two separate releases as some companies are learning that we all want our extras from day one (this didn’t seem to work for Panic Room, which is apparently due a Special Edition release at some point, although this might be Region 1-only).

Disc 1:

  • Alien Broadcast: A feature that’s used time-to-time on DVDs. An icon will appear onscreen at irregular intervals during the film. Press ‘enter’ when you see it, and the film will temporarily stop to show extra “making of” footage, here containing up-to-the-minute transmissions from the Alien Broadcast Network.

    Those with The Matrix will know it as the “White Rabbit” feature.

  • Frank’s Favourites: A collection of trailers. Four for MIB2 (Teaser, Theatrical and two computer games), plus ones for Ghostbusters, Stuart Little 2, Close Encounters of the Third Kind and a CGI short film,The Chubb Chubbs (16:9 anamorphic, 5½ mins), about a janitor at an alien nightclub who gets his wish to become a singer. I’d hazard a guess that this short played in cinemas before MIB2.

    The MIIB: Crossfire Game trailer states that a demo is available on this DVD, but given that it looks a bit of a ropey third-person game with an isometric view with the ‘camera’ held up far too high to be useful, I think I’ll pass. In fact, only the other game, “Alien Escape”, seems to be available in the USA and neither of them here in the UK.

  • MIB Training Video (6 mins, 4:3): An easter egg that’s not visibly part of the main menu unless your cursor goes past the alien holding a newspaper.

    Agent T shows us interview clips with so-called celebrities that he claims are aliens. Presumably America have different interviews than us, but sadly we get to endure the likes of Vernon Kay and Richard Madeley, but alternative you do get to gaze at the lovely Caprice.

    The links from Agent T are neutral enough to suggest that the scripts are the same from country to country.

  • Audio Commentary: featuring director Barry Sonnenfeld.


This film’s alien scum.

Disc 2:

  • Special Delivery: MIIB Orb (60½ mins, 4:3): The ‘orb’ is an intro sequence to nine short featurettes that look at various aspects of the film, such as CGI work, re-dubbing of dialogue and Danny Elfman’s music score.

    With the orb, you can select any or all of these in the order that you choose, but some of this footage will be what you’ve seen earlier from Disc 1’s “Alien Broadcast” feature.

  • Blooper Reel (5 mins, 1.85:1 letterbox): Cock-up clips, some of which Denis Norden would be proud of.

  • Serleena Animatic Sequence (2 mins, 1.85:1 letterbox): Storyboards for Lara Flynn Boyle’s enterance.

  • Multi-angle scene deconstructions (7½ mins, 1.85:1 letterbox): See how the effects were put together. The opening sequence, not looking much different but listed as ‘alternate version’, Jay and Jeff – the underground worm, a car chase and two parts to the fight scene with Jarra.

  • Alternate Ending (2 mins, 4:3): Alternate, but not much better.

  • Creature Featurettes (27 mins, 4:3): Chat about some of the films creatures – Scrad/Charlie, the worms that hang out at MIB HQ, Serleena, Jeebs, Jarra, Jeff the worm and Alien Esoterica (the four thugs ordered by Serleena to go after our heroes), plus Barry Sonnenfeld’s Intergalactic Guide to Comedy, in which he comments that he’s only yet directed comedies. Hmm… MIB2 didn’t make me laugh much.

  • Theatrical One-Sheets: Posters, in other words. Four of them.

  • Music Video (4½ mins, 4:3): The original “Men in Black” theme, a basic play on “Forget-me-nots”, was catchy, but “Black Suits Comin’ (Nod Ya Head)” is quite fitting for this sequel since they both match each other in terms of quality(!)

  • Filmographies: The main cast members, plus all the crew listed atop this review, not including Danny Elfman. Even then, they’re only “selected filmographies”.

  • DVD-ROM content: More behind-the-scenes featurettes, concept designs for MIB2, the MIB2 screenplay, a screensaver and the aforementioned “Crossfire” game demo.

If you enjoyed the film you may take a look at those extras a second time, but there’s not much to be gleamed that you won’t get from paying attention the first time round.

Most of the menus are nicely animated and scored, in keeping with the film’s theme, there are subtitles in English and Dutch for the film (but only Dutch for the extras – why never in English, Columbia TriStar??) and the film is divided into 28 chapters.

FILM CONTENT
PICTURE QUALITY
SOUND QUALITY
EXTRAS


OVERALL
Review copyright © Dominic Robinson, 2003.

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