Review of Men In Black: Collector`s Series (DTS)

Introduction

I`ve only seen Men In Black once - in a hotel room on a small 14 inch screen, and the combination of worn out rental cassette and small screen didn`t do the movie justice. I`ve never got round to watching it again, but with a trip to the cinema planned on Tuesday night to see the sequel, I thought it was time to brush up my knowledge of the first film.

Men In Black is available in a number of guises on DVD, I decided to buy the single-disc Region 1 DTS edition as I wanted the DTS soundtrack, but this edition still contains numerous extra features.

For those needing a quick reminder about the plot, the film features Will Smith and Tommy Lee Jones as agents of a secret government agency responsible for policing the aliens living amongst us...

Video

The video comes in 1.85:1 anamorphic widescreen and is pretty impressive, with no signs of grains or dirt, and plenty of detail.

Visually, the film is everything you would expect from a huge budget Hollywood sci-fi blockbuster - plenty of flashy effects and some amusing - animation (which is rather cartoon-like in style).

Audio

I`ve not watched any of the numerous Dolby Digital 5.1 incarnations of the film, so I can`t compare them to this DTS 5.1 version, which provides powerful reproduction of the soundtrack with plenty of range and clarity.

All channels are used when needed, but as good as the soundtrack is, it doesn`t make the use of sound that we have come to expect from our movies five years down the line. The sound is mainly centred on the front three speakers, with the rears used when necessary - however, when required, the sound is tremendous - for example the flying saucer crash sequence is very impressive and almost shook my house off it`s foundations.

The dialogue is always clear and understandable.

Features

The disc features a good spread of extras, including a visual commentary; multi-angle animation studies; multi-angle scene deconstruction; extended and alternate scenes; art, storyboards; a featurette; a documentary; a music video; production notes and trailers.

The extra count isn`t as high as the two-disc editions of the movie that are available, but there is more than enough to keep you occupied. Access to the extras is via some rather snazzy menus The visual commentary is quite novel - you can either select the more traditional audio commentary from Sonnenfeld and Jones, or you can choose to see silhouettes of them at the bottom of the screen as they give the screen. The documentary runs for about 23 minutes and is quite interesting. The other extras are pretty much as you would expect.

The disc is packaged in a black Amaray case, which contains a colour leaflet giving some background information.

Conclusion

Overall, I thoroughly enjoyed Men In Black and consequently I am really looking forward to seeing the sequel in a couple of days.

The movie moves along at a good pace, has two very strong characters played by Smith and Jones (who share excellent on-screen chemistry), contains plenty of humour, plenty of action and looks and sounds pretty good.

This DVD combines good video, good sound and a reasonable range of extras. At the end of the day, your choice of disc will depend on your preference for extras or the sound format, but I am very happy with my choice.