You have to be careful when reading these opinions because although the title refers to the special edition of this disc I noticed that some of the opinions are talking about the limited edition edition.
In a wonderful attempt to make money out a popular film Columbia Tri-star have released two versions both with 'Special' style titles. The first being 'Men In Black Special Edition', a title usually reserved for the second release of a film. To clear up the confusion this is the one with the black cover, featuring Tommy Lee Jones and Will Smith. This itself is an excellent DVD containing not only the usual Trailers and Character profiles but a host of other interesting features.
There is a wonderful on-screen commentry with director Barry Sonnenfeld and Tommy Lee Jones. You can see thier sillouetes at the bottom of the screen and they even draw circles on the screen around what they are talking about. It's all very interesting, although there are times where Tommy Lee seems to be interegating the director slightly to coax interesting facts out of him. There are character animation studies, an original featurette, a documentary, storyboard comparisons, a music video, and a few extended and alternate scenes. Also included is a DVD-ROM section which is fun to look at if you can, but you're not missing anything if you can't.
The picture is well transferred and is presented in the 1.85:1 anamophic aspect ratio. Excellent fo a widescreen TV. The sound is also great as with all recent films on DVD, and the disc contains a rousing DD5.1 surround track.
You must know what the film is about but I will give you a short description: Secret agents 'K' (Tommy Lee Jones) and 'J' (Will Smith) work for a highly funded yet unofficial government agency which tracks civilisation-infiltrating extraterrestrial. K and J must prevent an alien terrorist (Vincent D'Onofrio) from assassinating two galactic ambassadors, on Earth for a conference, dooming the Earth to certain destruction. There you go.
So all in all a wonderful presentation. But this is starting to become standard on Columbia Tri-Star releases. They are always feature heavy where avalible and quite honestly, I can't get enough of them.
Normally this would be the end of the story, but not with this film. Not long after this release came 'Men In Black Collectors Edition' This is the one with the entirly silver cover which only displays the title.
This one really pushes the limits. Two discs of pure excellence!! It contains everything that the above released contained plus extra special features. There is an extra commentary with the special effects team, as well as 1000 stills and more scene deconstructions!! The best new feature however is the scene editing workshop. It alows you to pick a number of different shots from the film containg various different angles of the same scene. You can then piece these together in an order which pleases you and watch your new scene put together seemlessly in front of your eyes!!! Absolute magic!
The disc containg the film has also been revamped. It is now double sided and contains the film in two different aspect ratios. 1.85:1 is the standard widescreen, and 1.33:1 for fullscreen TV's. (Note, I recommend you watch in widescreen even on a 4:3 television because some of the image is lost in the fullscreen transfer,nothing drastic though,it's a personal preferance thing).
Buy! Buy now!
More details
Soundtrack
Outstanding
How does it compare to others by the same director?
Good
Value for Money
What format are you reviewing?
Evaluate this review
How helpful would this review be to someone making a buying decision? Rating guidelines
largely on the strength of Will Smith's engaging performance as the rookie partner of a secret agent (Tommy Lee Jones) assigned to keep tabs on Earth-dwelling extra-te...
largely on the strength of Will Smith's engaging performance as the rookie partner of a secret agent (Tommy Lee Jones) assigned to keep tabs on Earth-dwelling extra-te...
very helpful
off topic
helpful
