Men in Black II R1 DVD

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Travis Willock reviews

Men in Black II
(Widescreen Edition)
Distributed by
Columbia Tristar Home Entertainment

    CoverBuy the R2 DVD from

  • Cert: PG-13
  • Cat.no: 00187
  • Running time: 87 minutes
  • Year: 2002
  • Pressing: 2002
  • Region(s): 1, NTSC
  • Chapters: 28
  • Sound: Dolby Digital 5.1
  • Languages: English, French
  • Subtitles: English, French
  • Widescreen: 1.85:1
  • 16:9-Enhanced: Yes
  • Macrovision: No
  • Disc Format: 2 * DVD 9
  • Price: $27.98
  • Extras:Alien Broadcast, Audio Commentary, Animated Short Film,Alternate Ending, Blooper Reel, 15 Featurettes, Will Smith Music Video,Multi-Angle Deconstruction, Theatrical One-Sheets.

    Director:

      Barry Sonnenfeld

Screenplay:

    Robert Gordon and Barry Fanaro

Cast:

    Agent Jay: Will Smith
    Agent Kay: Tommy Lee Jones
    Serleena: Lara Flynn Boyle
    Scrad/Charlie: Johnny Knoxville
    Laura Vazquez: Rosario Dawson
    Zed: Rip Torn

Sequels, AKA: guaranteed money making machines.With the exception of epics like Lord of the Rings,Harry Potterand evenStar Wars,I’d say sequels are pretty much summed up that way. Rarely, VERY rarely dosequels ever live up to its predecessors. Most of the time it’s the badfilms that get sequels (likeAmerican Pieand others). And most of the time it’s the summer hits.

Men in Blackwas released in 1997, July 3rd to be exact. It wasexactly one year after Will Smith had herded the audiences toIndependence Dayand brought in over $300 million in this countryalone. ‘MIB’ was just as good, not better, but showed that Smith wasn’tjust a new face but he could at least hold his own. The film wasactually pretty good, it was original at the time and had a smart quickpace to it. So of course they would make a sequel after that huge hitright? Mr. Jones and Mr. Smith held up the deal for awhile for moneyissues and five years later we get this steaming pile of regurgitatedHollywood vomit that gives sequels a bad name. Oh yes folks, it’s THATbad.

I swear I think someone took the original MIB script and just switchednames around. This is pretty much the same story as the first. Let’slook at the following comparions. MIB: alien crash lands on Earth anddisguises himself in the suit of a human, MIB II: same thing (well thistime it’s a lingerie model). MIB: alien proceeds to find key to theuniverse on Earth, MIB II: same thing except it’s now the Light ofZartha.

Among that plot we have this time Agent Jay (Will Smith) working solo.This is really the only half way interesting part of the film in wherewe see that Jay has grown into his job and takes it quite seriously.After going through partner after partner (they should have kept PatrickWarburton ,Seinfeld‘s Putty and The Tick‘s Tick, in the film) he isgiven the same assignment he had in 1997.

Now Smith has to play TommyLee Jones’ role from the first in that he has to recruit him. Kay hadhis memory erased at the end of MIB (sorry to spoil it for you) so nowhe is the only one who possesses knowledge of the location of the light.Wait until you get to the ending and tell me that wasn’t exactly fromthe first film. In fact, that ending was so bad in the theater that Iforgot all about it.

Where the film really fails is the pace. Running at a seeminly brisk 87minutes it feels much longer. The structure is so loose that a toothpickcould topple it at any given second. It doesn’t help that every scene isbasically lifted from MIB. The evils of product placement are revealed:BIG TIME. Watch for The Sprint Store and the Burger King which alwayshappen to be in frame. There’s one scene where Serleena is eating awhopper – doubt she would do that.

Then there’s Sony Wega TVs in the basement of a pawn shop, the Playstation 2controller that serves as an emergency steering wheel in the car. All this andthe terrible rehash that is MIB II make this a candidate for Turkey of the year.Oh and that dog actually sings Who Let the Dogs Out. Silence hit thattheater like a tidal wave when I saw it.

Well the movie sure looks great though. Columbia Tristar has brought MIBII home in an awesome transfer that really suprised me. Presented in1.85:1 anamorphic widescreen. Blacks are very deep, colors are vivid andsharp. Flesh tones look completely natural. Pixelization is nowhere tobe seen. Overall a very good transfer and may be the best from Columbiayet.

The audio also brings the goods. Presented in Dolby Digital 5.1. Everysound is rendered very well and dialouge never fades. In fact thedialogue may be the best part of the audio as every tone is replicatedagainst the loud effects very well.

Columbia Tristar has given the two disc treatment to MIB II. After thedisaster that was ‘Spider-Man’ this was a pleasant suprise as the extrasare pretty decent. Here’s how it stacks up:

Disc 1:

  • Audio Commentary: Barry Sonnenfeld gives some pretty good info on aterrible movie. I wonder if he REALLY liked it or just does because hewas the director?
  • Alien Broadcast: Similar to The Matrix’s follow the white rabbitfeature. An icon will pop up during the movie and clicking it will takeyou to a short feaurette.
  • Frank’s Favorites: Besides the teaser trailer and theatrical trailerfor MIB II there is a short animated film here. It is called the ChubbChubbs and is very recomended. It’s CGI but features an Alien, DarthVader and Yoda playing chess, Robby the Robot, and a joke at Jar JarBinks. I’m puzzled as to why’s it here but I’m glad it is. Trailers forother Columbia films are here as well.

Disc 2:

  • Special Delivery: MIB Orb:Select this feature to create your own featurette order. Each featurette ispresented in full frame and all together run 24 minutes. Decent.
  • Blooper Reel:5 minutes and full frame with non-anamorphic clips. Thisreel is actually funnier than the movie.
  • Serleena Animatic Sequence:Series of CGI and animated storyboards forthe crash landing in the film. 2 minutes, full frame.
  • Multi-Angle Deconstructions:5 scenes total. Switch between 5different angles for each progression during a particular scene.
  • Alternate Ending:Runs 2 minutes and is even worse than the real one.Non-anamorphic 1.85:1 by the way.
  • Creature Featurettes:7 total, non-anamorphic widescreen, each runsaround or over 2 minutes. Also includes ‘Barry Sonnenfeld’sIntergalactic Guide to Comedy’. Runs 6 minutes, full frame.
  • Theatrical One-Sheets:4 total. Real creative design, folks.
  • Music Video:Will Smith’s “Nod Ya Head”, full frame, 4 minutes. Not as bad as you would think.
  • Filmographies:Funny, they neglected to mention Rip Torn’s part in ‘Freddy Got Fingered’.

The extras are actually pretty good but there just isn’t enough. Stillwatachable though.

Packaging is amaray. The widescreen version sports a black backdrop andmakes it look cooler than the full frame’s white. The cover is prettybad as Kay isn’t really a member for a while. Disc art is pretty goodand the first disc sports good menus minus the annoying Twister stylechapter selection.

Overall the only good thing about this DVD is the video, audio, and theextras. The film completely stinks up what could have been a goodaddition to any library. Again Hollywood has churned out a mindlesssequel that the masses still payed money to see. I really hope thereisn’t an MIB III five years from now.

FILM CONTENT
PICTURE QUALITY
SOUND QUALITY
EXTRAS


OVERALL
Review copyright © Travis Willock, 2002.

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