Hey folks, Valkor here. And I'm about to take you inside the Blu-Ray
version of "Men In Black". Now, 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 anyway. Visual/ audio wise the BD
is far superior, plus you get two exclusive extras that can only
be found in 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 and go into a panic. The MIB 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. Lead Agent K (Tommy Lee Jones) is without a partner as his current partner has reached that age of retirement. So he enlists NYPD cop James Edmond (Wil Smith) after James ran down a cephalopod on foot. K being impressed with James' skills, enlist him as 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 are no twists or turns, but there is enough comedy and action to keep anyone interested. Not only do Tommy and Will 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 the story alone make it worth picking up this BD, but there are other reasons as well.
Audio/Video
The film is presented 1.85:1, 1080p. However, the extras are standard definition. Compared to the original DVD, the BD is a big improvement in terms of how looks - because damn it looks great. Picture quality is sharp, clear, and you can make out more detail than you could from the original disk. Colors do stand out more. However, you'll 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. And yet you will appreciate the power of TrueHD. The only scene where it really shines is when J releases the 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 that's 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 I'm 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 that's constant. Plus they talk more about the technical side of things, giving you enough pause to enjoy the story. You also get extended and alternate scenes, such as those that were unfinished with special effects, which to me are a lot of fun. A music video, of course, of Smith's "Men In Black" and you get two BD exclusives. The first is "Ask Frank the Pug", which is something like a magic 8 ball type game where you ask Frank a question, select 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 Multiplayer Trivia Game" that I found to be a lot of fun because you can play with real players, but you can only interact with them through the game. There are a lot of questions, including those with video clips, but some of the questions are quite odd. For example, there is one that asks "how many mailboxes were in that clip" And I'm like "who was looking at the mailboxes"?
If you have the original two-disc set, then you might want to 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 the extras 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. Out of TOV 5 stars, I'm gonna give Men In Black Blu-Ray edition 4 stars and it's been Valkor tested and TOV approved.
