Directed by: Barry Sonnenfeld
Starring: Tommy Lee Jones, Will Smith, Rip Torn, Lara Flynn Boyle, Johnny Knoxville
MPAA Rating: PG-13
Distributed by: Sony Pictures Home Entertainment
Release Date: May 1, 2012
Running Time: 88 minutes
Film: 3.5 out of 5 stars
Extras: 3.5 out of 5 stars
To celebrate the upcoming release of “Men in Black III”, we get a chance to experience this great sequel for the first time in high-definition Blu-ray. Even though this film doesn’t exceed the first film, as most sequels don’t, this is still a fun movie and looks great on Blu-ray. This release also includes a sneak preview and $10 voucher to go see “Men in Black III” and also a playable demo for the upcoming PlayStation 3 game.
This Blu-ray packs a very solid and sharp 1080p high-def transfer, with its original aspect ratio of 1.85:1. The audio packs a fantastic DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 track. Danny Elfman’s score works great again on this Blu-ray. Like the recent new “Men in Black” Blu-ray release, I would have like to seen Sony give this film a 7.1 track but the one included is still solid. Lastly, a real draw for this release is a streaming Ultraviolet digital copy. I love that most if not all Sony releases are following this path.
The special features are also impressive like the Blu-ray presentation though none of them are in high-definition. There is an audio commentary with director Barry Sonnenfeld, which is fun but lacking compared to the great MST3K track from the first “Men in Black”. There is an alternate ending and blooper reel included, which I enjoyed. There are a bunch of featurettes including “MIB: ADR”, “Design in Motion: The Look of MIB II”, “Rick Baker: Alien Maker”, “Squish, Splat, Sploosh: The Stellar Sounds of MIB II” and “Cosmic Symphonies: Elfman in Space” and “Barry Sonnenfeld’s Intergalactic Guide to Comedy”. All of these are decent length and worth checking out.
There are a few short but sweet featurettes on this films creatures including Frank the Pug, Scrad/Charlie, The Worms, Serleena, Alien Esoterica, Jeebs, Jarra, and Jeff the Worm. There is a very short Animatic Sequence on the creation of Serleena. There are five scenes with a “Multi-Angle Scene Deconstructions” including “Opening Sequence: Alternate Version”, “Jay and Jeff”, “Car Chase”, “Jarra Fight Scen, Part 1 & 2. Lastly there is an music video with Will Smith for “Black Suits Comin’ (Nod Ya Head)”.
