Men in Black II: Deluxe Edition
January 2003 Reviewed by: Wes Phillips Format: DVD	(all ratings out of 5): Overall Enjoyment Picture Quality Packaged Extras Sound Quality

Men in Black was a fresh, witty, and thoroughly enjoyable blend of action, comedy, and science fiction. Men in Black II, by comparison, seems tired, dumb, and graceless, not to mention slow moving and predictable. It is hard to believe that the first film's creative team remained virtually intact for the second outing (except for screenwriter Ed Solomon, who was replaced by Robert Gordon for the sequel -- not that I would ever suggest that a writer might actually be responsible for a film's quality).

While the first film had everything, the sequel has everything but a plot. Well, an original or interesting one. MIIB (never trust a film with a logo rather than a title) doesn't have so much a plot as it has a pitch outline. It feels like Sonnenfeld sold the film to Columbia Pictures with one of those pithy high-concept blurbs ("Like the first film, only this time Smith and Jones reverse roles!") and never developed it further.

As a result, Will Smith marches around the film's first half trying to out-grump Tommy Lee Jones's patented staccato delivery, while Jones tries for Smith's air of unaffected wonder (which settles on his craggy features like a cloak of befuddlement). Other than that, there's nothing in the whole film we didn't see in the first film -- unless you count Lara Flynn Boyle's breasts, which are so prominently featured as to deserve credits of their own.

That's the bad news -- the movie's a stinker. The special-edition DVD, on the other hand, is extremely good. The video transfer is sharply detailed and packed with rich colors and deep, deep blacks. It is so good you can easily spot how bad the green screen work is early in the film, when Smith takes a wild alien-propelled ride through the subway tunnels of Manhattan. Similarly, the Dolby Digital 5.1 soundtrack is beyond reproach. There's lots of deep bass and every one of the discrete channels gets a full workout before the film ends. The surround sound is convincing and completely enveloping.

Columbia TriStar has gone all out on the extras and features. One disc holds the film in its entirety, the director's commentary track, slick animated menus, and even an original animated feature (which, although little more than a shaggy dog story, is far fresher and wittier than the film).

The second disc features an alternate ending; a blooper reel; multiple-angle scene deconstructions; interviews with makeup wiz Rick Baker, production designer Bo Welch, and composer Danny Elfman; and a bunch of "creature features" on aliens from the film, not to mention a special-effects-laden Will Smith music video.

But as fascinating as all that is, it's no substitute for having a story worth 88 minutes of the audience's time, which Men in Black II lacks. The end result of all the work (and the amount of hard work contributed by a huge number of people is obvious) is to leave the viewer wondering: why bother?

Not quite the special effect they were going for, I'd wager.

[Note: I watched the widescreen 1.85 DVD version of the movie, and can attest that the video and audio are every bit as good as Wes says, and then some. Viewing the anamorphic transfer on a high-definition widescreen set was almost like being at the movie theater. -- RB]

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