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J (Will Smith)has become the alpha dog at MIB (not to be confused with Frank the Pug as voiced by Tim Blaney). J has set a high standard and he can't seem to find a satisfactory partner; several have been neuralized. Just as well, for the key to saving the Earth lies in the suppressed memories of ex-agent K (Tommy Lee Jones). It seems that an evil Kylothian named Serleena (the impossibly svelte Lara Flynn Boyle) has come to our planet searching for the Light of Zartha. Serleena has been traveling from system to system, leaving death and destruction in her wake. After she arrives here, all signs point to K as the key to the mystery of just what happened to the Light of Zartha twenty-five years before. Will J and K once again save the planet? Will the evil alien come to grief as J and K heft those polished chrome energy weapons? Does Lara Flynn Boyle's Wonderbra have so much lift that it's painful?

All our favorite characters are back, from Rip Torn's Zed to Tony Shalhoub's Jeebs. The worms return as does Frank the Pug. Rosario Dawson plays Laura Vasquez, J's love interest. When I saw the trailer and television teasers before the film was released to theaters, I was concerned that Frank and the Worms would have too large a role in the film - like Jar-Jar in Phantom Menace, intrusive and unfunny. I was relieved to find that they play minor roles. The heart of the story is K's rehabilitation and his reunion with J. And that magic synergism between Tommy Lee Jones and Will Smith is just as droll as it was in the original film. Lara Flynn Boyle is in her best Helen Gamble mode, all serious and bitchy. The special effects are better here, having matured in the intervening years since the first film. Both ILM and Rick Baker shine.

There is an unmistakable feeling of deja vu... that we've seen all this before. K's initial visit to his old headquarters plays very much like the first time J laid eyes on the aliens clearing MIB's passport control. The interplay is the same, the climax has a similar structure, and Jeebs again loses his head - several times. Yet there is something quite irresistible about the dry humor, played straight and without buffoonery.

Video: How Does The Disc Look?

The film's theatrical aspect ratio of 1.85:1 is presented in anamorphic video. This Columbia Tristar Home Entertainment Superbit DVD is very nicely detailed with great textures and small object detail. Notice how well Frank's fur is resolved between 0:19:00 and 0:20:00; good on the original release, it's outstanding here. The disc offers vivid colors with no chroma noise or smearing. Shadow detail is first-rate. And there is an absence of compression artifacts like blocking and mosquito noise. But skin tones lean toward the red, imparting an unnatural pinkish hue - particularly well-lit close-ups of Tommy Lee Jones - that is even more severe than a similar flaw on the Men in Black Superbit DVD. Edge halos were less obvious and intrusive on the original Men in Black II DVD than in most of this studio's DVDs, but alas, Columbia/Tristar did not manage to completely eliminate the halos at Superbit's higher bit rate. They appear narrower and have lower amplitude, but on high contrast transitions, they remain. The halos are not intrusive, but this disc is not compressed as well as the Men in Black Superbit DVD.

Audio: How Does The Disc Sound?

There are two 5.1 tracks on this DVD: Dolby Digital and DTS. Each is superb. Sound effects are rendered very well. The surround channels seem constantly active immersing the viewer in the action. And as with many modern films not mixed for an EX venue, this track decodes wonderfully with the center surround active. There's one gag in which a hubcap rolls from the right rear to the left rear; it pans smoothly across the back of the theater with EX enabled. Just as smooth are the many flybys by vehicles and aliens alike. Danny Elfman's fine score is presented with pleasing fidelity within a believable acoustic space. Deep bass will require a capable subwoofer to shake the room. The dialog remains crystal clear throughout.

My comparison of the two 5.1 tracks yielded quite different results from a similar comparison during my review of the Men in Black Superbit DVD. Here, I found that the modest improvements in the timbre of voices and music were accompanied by a subtle enhancement of the bottom-most octave when listening to the DTS track. For this disc, DTS wins.

Subtitles are included in French, Spanish, Portuguese, Chinese, Korean, Thai, and English, for which Closed Captions are also offered.

Supplements: What Goodies Are There?

All the extras found in the two-disc special edition are gone. This is not a Superbit Deluxe Edition, so fans may want to own both releases, the original for all the supplements, including Barry Sonnenfeld's witty and informative director's commentary, and the Superbit version for the superior video and audio. The surprisingly short 88-minute film is organized into twenty-eight chapter stops.

DVD-ROM Exclusives: What do you get when you pop the disc in your PC?

No ROM extras have been included.

Parting Thoughts