Reviewer's Rating 3 out of 5 Ìý User Rating 3 out of 5
Men in Black II DVD (2002)

Just like the movie, the "Men in Black II" DVD lacks the inventive spark of the first release. That's not to say that there isn't fun to be had. It just lacks the epic feel that the made the collector's edition of "Men in Black" such a stunning disc set.

TECHNICAL FEATURES

Picture Don't look so disappointed! It's not all bad news - especially on the technical front - where Columbia TriStar, as usual, just can't help but impress. A pin-sharp picture does the undeniably impressive art direction justice.

Sound A furious 5.1 mix kicks in from the start with plenty of speaker-swapping effects, magnified by some pleasingly alien amounts of bass from the subwoofer. With a sound mix like this, even when the gags aren't quite working, you still get swept along in thinking the film is kicking ass - at least for a while!

DISC ONE SPECIAL FEATURES

Audio Commentary Has director Barry Sonnenfeld been at the helium? He sure hits some high notes during this commentary.

Otherwise Barry is on full pelt chatter mode here. But a lot of it tends to work along the lines of, "now we're on location, now we're on set". Not exactly that interesting but handy sometimes to dip into for the showcase scenes.

Alien Broadcast Choose this feature and, in certain points during the film, you can access a selection of short behind-the-scenes featurettes. Worth a look is the technology behind the 600 foot worm and Johnny Knoxville being made to look scruffy.

Frank's Favourites Frank the Pug has picked out his favourite trailers here. Funnily enough, they're all for recent Columbia TriStar products (along with two game trailers). It seems from this selection that Frank is a bit of a softie at heart.

Hidden Easter Egg It's not that hidden - you'll probably stumble upon it just navigating about anyway.

Highlight the newspaper reading worm and you get a UK exclusive featurette on the celebrities in the UK that are actually aliens and interviews with those very demi gods. It's a nice idea but Vernon Kay, the T4 presenter - some celebrity! Still he's as reassuringly unfunny on DVD as he is on TV. Richard Madeley makes an effort to try and be wacky and Caprice is ...well, you know, not awful to look at!

DISC TWO SPECIAL FEATURES

Special Delivery Enter this section and a choice of nine featurettes (three to nine minutes in length each) awaits you. You can pick what order you want to see them in (through a clumsy navigation system) or just submit and watch them all:

MIIB ADR The moral of the story here is that as long as you order Will Smith plenty of Chinese food, he's yours. What's interesting is that Barry is hoping that during this session Will will come up with some funny improvisations on his lines in the movie. Hardly a vote of confidence in the script is it?

Rick Baker Alien Maker Learn here how Rick Baker decided that he wanted to become a monster effects person at the age of ten. Rick updates us on the latest technology he's using and we get a look at some of the concept work on the movie.

Creature Featurettes: Serleena Rick's back and here he talks us through designing the alien Serleena.

Creature Featurettes: Jeff the Worm More Rick Baker chat, which involves a look at the tiny flower puppet.

Creature Featurettes: Frank the Pug As Frank didn't get much to do in the first film Barry Sonnenfeld decided to make him a star of the sequel. The actual dog proved to be such a one-take genius the production moved ahead of schedule.

The Stellar Sounds of MIIB Ever wanted to see what Foley artists look like? Take a glimpse if you dare at the men that live in what looks like a garage, scraping metal and wearing high heels to provide the sound effects for the movie.

Cosmic Symphonies: Elfman in Space Danny Elfman freely admits to modelling himself on movie music composer Bernard Herrman, and talks about his influence on the music for the film.

Alien Esoterica The yucky aliens get their own featurette here so you can see how they were conceived.

Blooper Reel This five minute blooper reel is better than the movie - it certainly has Will Smith crying with laughter. It's five minutes of highly amusing rapport between Tommy Lee Jones and Will Smith.

Serleena Animatic Sequence See Serleena's arrival on earth through this animated storyboard.

Multi-angle Scene Deconstructions Three key scenes and an alternate opening sequence are presented in multi-angle format. Worth watching is Will Smith fighting an imaginary 600-foot worm.

Alternate Ending Better to see this for yourself than endure a badly written description. It's not much to get worked up over.

Creature Featurettes In this section there are six creature featurettes, which are otherwise also available in the 'Special Delivery' section and the 'Alien Broadcast' feature on disc one.

Barry Sonnenfeld's Intergalactic Guide to Comedy A short featurette where we discover what makes a Sonnenfeld comedy distinct from others. Flat, dry, and ironic appears to be the message - so what's with the over-inflated "Wild Wild West"?

Additional Disc Two Special Features Also on disc two is a gallery of theatrical one-sheet posters, a music video, cast and crew filmographies, and DVD-ROM features including the screenplay, more featurettes, a screensaver, and a game demo.

TECHNICAL INFORMATION:
Region: 2
Chapters: 28
Ratio: 1.85:1 (anamorphic)
Sound: Dolby Digital 5.1
Audio Tracks: English
Subtitles: English and Dutch
Captions: English
Menus: 3D animations of a high standard throughout - one of the highlights of the DVD set
Special Features Subtitles: None of the special features come with English subtitles. Dutch subtitles are provided throughout.

This DVD was reviewed on a JVC XV-S57 DVD player.

End Credits

Director: Barry Sonnenfeld

Writer: Robert Gordon, Barry Fanaro

Stars: Will Smith, Tommy Lee Jones, Lara Flynn Boyle, Johnny Knoxville, Rosario Dawson

Genre: Action, Comedy, Science Fiction

Length: 88 minutes

Cinema: 02 August 2002

DVD: 27 January 2003

Country: USA