Men In Black - Deluxe Edition
Columbia TriStar Home Entertainment   -   1997   -   98 minutes

Reviewed by Thor van Lingen

Review Date: August 4, 2002

FOR STARTERS

PHOTO GALLERY Agent J

For rapper turned small screen actor turned box office experiment turned box office smash turned acting sensation, Will Smith has certainly come a long way. Culminating with the recent Oscar nomination for his work in Ali, this young man from Philadelphia will be demanding large salaries for some time to come. Already the king of the 4th of July holiday release weekend in 1996 with Independence Day, Smith came along in 1997 with Men in Black and broke his own record, easily. Taking in over $84 million that weekend and at number twenty-two on the all time top-grossing films list, it is no wonder that Columbia pushed for a sequel and got one.

In this first installment, Tommy Lee Jones plays Kay, an agent for a very secretive non-government organization that monitors and regulates alien habitation and activity on Earth. Will Smith plays Jay, a young but talented and ambitious NYPD officer who is propositioned by Kay after he unwittingly chases down one of the previously mentioned Manhattan-resident aliens on foot. Not too impressed by the hush-hush nature of the deal, nor what he perceives as a host of lies from Kay, our protagonist is almost off the case as swiftly as he was drawn to it. Only after seeing Kay interact with 4 rather interesting walking, talking, two-foot bugs in the MIB break room does Jay seem to understand that what the veteran agent is telling him is in fact true.

After accepting the assignment and donning the last suit he�ll ever wear, Jay is ready to completely erase his current identity and sever all human contact he has to pursue a life of playing part cop, part INS agent for a host of alien races. Little did he know that the first two days of his new job would be to perform as an intergalactic Orkin man. That�s right folks, no sooner had the cool MIB standard issue shades been put on that a large and not so friendly bug of an alien decides to make an unauthorized landing in New York. Played to stomach-turning perfection by the talented Vincent D'Onofrio, the bug is the one alien that is not playing nice in the sandbox that is Manhattan.

Before all is said and done, you will have seen enough aliens and futuristic gadgets to open your own MIB branch office in your home. Filled with plenty of special effects, great music, and wonderful makeup and computer-generated images, Men in Black is the kind of movie that is really easy to open up for a sequel, or two, or three. Based on the current success of the second installment, you can almost be assured that there will be a third, provided you can keep the acting duo of Smith and Jones happy enough to want to come back and put on the shades again.

VIDEO

A movie that borders on comic book extremism, Men in Black makes the most of the color palette available to today�s DVD customer. With the color green having a very prevalent and recurring presence throughout the film, other vibrant colors in Agent J's early wardrobe choices really pop out at you. Add to that some of the blue-lit areas around MIB headquarters that are contrasted nicely against the rather dreary gray walls and white furniture that adorn the place, and you've got a nice looking transfer. Other than some minor drop-off in some low light scenes, pseudo-obvious CGI, and negligible edge enhancement, this video transfer holds up well.

AUDIO

As is typical of a Danny Elfman score, the music starts hot and heavy in the title sequence. His enthusiasm for percussion is evident in almost all his work, and this movie is no exception. A balanced yet varied musical interlude, you really get engrossed in the plot as a result. As for the sound and surround effects, the only thing lacking on this disc is a DTS audio track. For my money, ditch the full-frame presentation that is as offensive as it is pointless and get me DTS. That aside, the sound effects in this film are very, very good. With everything from splattering alien guts and high tech weapon discharge to throaty subwoofer bass and excellent reverb at MIB headquarters, this deluxe edition might have you turning down the treble on your system. This is not the DVD to watch if you have someone in the house that asks you to turn it down just when you were going to excitedly turn it up.

SUPPLEMENTS

This release of Men In Black has a number of nice touches that take it a step up from the previous issue. The overall layout is very well thought out, and the menu transitions are fun to watch. Full motion scene selections are always nice, and this one adds a nice themed twist to that feature. Then you add a couple of things that I saw for the first time and really enjoyed. First, there was the Visual Commentary section. This is a Mystery Science Theater-type of interface with the silhouettes of the people talking as well as a John Madden-like telestrator function. Second, there was the Visual Effects Deconstruction, which basically lets you hit the angle button to switch the video to various stages of that scene�s development from storyboard all the way through final cut. And third, there is a Scene Editing Workshop which lets you play editor/director and cut some scenes together in your own order and compare them to what actually made it to the theater.

THE BOTTOM LINE

A DVD release date that certainly did not �accidentally� pre-date the release of the sequel by less than 2 months, this release of Men in Black is the one to own if you love the movie. If you don�t love the movie and/or you already bought a previous version, you can probably live without some of the bells and whistles, though they are nice.