• Avail: Now
• Distributed by: Sony Home Entertainment
• Run Time: 98 minutes

Hey folks Valkor here with a look at the Blu-Ray version of “Men In Black”. I already own the two discs limited DVD, so I was a bit hesitant to purchase the Blu-Ray version. But I plunked down the bucks. Visual/ audio wise the BD is far superior, plus you get two exclusive extras that can only be found on the BD.

The Story

MIB tells the story of a secret organization that exists outside of any government organization. Their job is the monitor alien life on planet earth, so that we regular earth folk don’t find out. They work in secret, they exist in shadow, and oh yea… they dress in black. If you find out who they are or witness some alien activity, the MIB simply erase your memory of it all.  Lead Agent K (Tommy Lee Jones) is without a partner, so he enlist NYPD cop James Edmond (Wil Smith), after James ran down a cephalopod on foot. Impressed James becomes Agent J and together the two must track down a giant bug before he destroys a galaxy, which in turn would destroy life on earth.

I love the straightforwardness of the plot. There’s no twist and turns, but there’s enough comedy and action to keep anyone’s interest. Not only do Tommy and Wil bring their best to the acting table, they also have a great supporting cast to bounce off of such as Zed (Rip Torn), Dr. Weaver (Linda Fiorentino) and Edgar/ Edgar suit bug (Vincent D’onofrio). The cast and story alone make it worth picking up this BD disk, but there are other reasons too.

Audio/Video

The film is presented 1.85:1, 1080p. The extras however are standard definition. Compared to the original DVD, the BD is a big improvement in terms of how it looks, because damn it looks great. It’s sharp, clear, and you can make out more detail than you can in the original disk. Colors do stand out more, though you will notice some grain in certain scenes. Audio is presented in Dolby TrueHD 5.1 and it sounds wonderful, though this isn’t a sound effect heavy film, you will appreciate the power of TrueHD. The only scene where it really shines is when J releases that ball that crashes all over the place. Overall not bad.

The Extras

The Extras are the same from the original limited disc set, with some added bonuses. You get two commentaries: the first is an “enhanced” telestrator commentary by Barry Sonnenfeld and Tommy Lee Jones, which is done MST3K style, which is kinda weird because it’s not them but an animation of them. And it’s funny because the Barry character would do stuff that’s out of sync with what’s going on. Like the character would point at something and you’re like “ok what’s he pointing at and why?” (You can turn that off by the way). You also get commentary by Rick Baker, Barry Sonnenfeld and the ILM team which is BETTER than listening to Barry and Tommy talk because there’s a flow there that’s constant and talk more about the technical side of things, giving you pause to enjoy the story. You also get extended and alternate scenes, such as scenes that were not finished with special effects, which to me are a lot of fun. A music video, of course, of Wil’s “Men In Black” and you get two BD exclusives. The first is “Ask Frank the Pug” which is kinda like a magic 8 ball type game, where you ask a question, selection the category your question pertains to, and he answers. Cute but you’ll enjoy that for about a minute. The second is the “Intergalactic Pursuit: The MIB Multi-player Trivia Game” that I found to be a lot of fun, because you can play with other real players, but you can only interact with them through the game. There’s alot of questions, including those with video clips, but some the questions are quite odd. There’s one that asks “how many mailboxes were in that clip?” And you’re like, “who was looking at the mail boxes?”

If you have the original two disc set, then you might… just might wanna consider double dipping and picking up the BD version of Men in Black, simply for the fact that you get better audio and video, plus all your extras will be contained on one disk. If you don’t own it or if you have the single disc version, then definitely pick up this disk. It’s a great flick, with tons of extras (I didn’t even mention the full extent of what’s on the disk), plus the interactive game really completes the package. I’m gonna give Men In Black Blu Ray edition 4 stars and its been Valkor tested and TOV approved.

Valkor Out!

Email: valkor@the-other-view.com

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