“Imagine a giant cockroach, with unlimited strength, a massive inferiority complex, and a real short temper, is terror-assing around Manhattan Island in a brand-new Edgar suit. That sound like fun?”
The Men in Black are back and this time they’re in Blu. Should that be black and blu men? It’s not Jesse Ventura and Alex Trebek (a little X Files tie in for you), but Mr. Smith and Mr. Jones who battle those nasty space aliens and this time they do it in high definition.
James Edwards (Will Smith) is a NYPD police officer that is after a suspect and continues the pursuit long after the other officers have given up. He catches the guy at one point and a strange weapon falls out of the guy’s coat and disintegrates, but the guy gets away. When Edwards finally does corner the perp on a rooftop the guy blinks with two sets of eyelids and then jumps off the roof to his death.
While Edwards is being debriefed at the station about his pursuit he’s approached by Agent K (Tommy Lee Jones) who wants him to identify the weapon that he saw fall out of the criminal’s coat. He takes Edwards to local fence Jack Jeebs’ (Tony Shalhoub) pawn shop. Edwards knows Jeebs as a dealer in stole merchandise but he’s shocked to learn that he’s an alien that also deals in alien weaponry.
Agent K asks Edwards, now dubbed Agent J, to report to MIB (Men in Black) headquarters to become his new partner, all under the watchful eye of Zed (Rip Torn) the leader of the group. An alien spaceship crashes on Edgar’s (Vincent D’Onofrio) and the beastie inside grants his request to take his gun out of his cold, dead hands, skins him, and puts on an “Edgar suit.”
The alien is a rather nasty one and is after a “galaxy” that resides on Earth and in doing so endangers the planet with annihilation from another alien race that will stop at nothing to keep the bug from getting it. So it’s up to Agent K and Agent J to save earth and stop the bug.
Men in Black, based on the comic by Lowell Cunningham, was a massive hit and catapulted Will Smith to the top of the box office (which Hancock would appear to have tarnished that standing a bit). The film would earn nearly 600 million worldwide and lead to a sequel.
The film makes its high definition debut and Sony has pulled out some stops to make it a great experience. The picture is stunning and you can see all the craggy landscape of both Jones and Torn’s faces. Maybe it was that I was paying more attention this time around or maybe it was the definition, but I also found D’Onofrio’s nutty performance most appealing.
The high def did let you get a better look at some of Rick Baker’s Oscar winning makeup effects, especially on D’Onofrio (maybe that did have something to do with me looking more at his performance). The movie is just pure fun and the combination of the gruff Jones and the young, hip Smith is fabulous.
So much so that a sequel basically repeats the formula (I bet that one will be out soon on Blu too, maybe next year).
Men in Black is presented in a 1080p high definition transfer (1.85:1). There are several new special features exclusive to this new Blu-ray release. The most fun is the multi-player trivia game. You can either go it alone or use your BD Live (aka profile 2.0) player to challenge others online.
The other two are a little less exciting. The “Ask Frank the Pug Interactive Game” is akin to a magic eight ball and the film has an alien subtitle track (which is definitely the lamest of the new features). The rest of the special features are ported over from the DVDs and are in standard definition.
First up is commentary with director Barry Sonnenfeld and Tommy Lee Jones. You can also turn on the “telestrator” (obviously an alien technology stolen for this Blu-ray – which may also be a stolen alien technology) version of the commentary. It puts shadows of the participants on the screen and allows them to circle pertinent bits on the screen.
The next commentary is billed as a technical commentary and has Sonnenfeld, makeup master Rick Baker, and his ILM team. Next are 4-minutes of deleted and extended scenes. The 23-minute “Metamorphosis of Men in Black” goes into the making of the film from the comic to the screen. The 6-minute “Original Featurette” is shorter and less comprehensive than the previous featurette.
The “Scene Editing Workshop” lets you piece together your own scene. The “Visual Effects Scene Deconstruction” has two scenes in various stages of completion and has commentary from Sonnenfeld.
“Character Animation Studies” shows some characters in various stages of development as well as a series of galleries and a storyboard comparison. Next is the 4-minute “Men in Black” music video with Will Smith and Mikey. Finally, you get the theatrical (2 minutes) and teaser (2 minutes) trailers, though they’re both in high def.
Men in Black is a film that holds up after all those years. Hard to believe that it’s been over ten, but it’s still a fun ride.
The Blu-ray offers a spectacular picture, but the new special features could’ve been a bit better – like some new insights from the stars or crew. It’s still worth it for the gorgeous transfer.
Men in Black [Blu-ray] is now available at Amazon . Visit the DVD database for more information.
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