Men in Black 2 (Superbit, 2002)
Film:
DVD:

Written by Barry Fanaro & Robert Gordon, based on a story by Gordon, which was in turn based on the comic book by Lowell Cunningham
Directed by Barry Sonnenfeld
Starring Tommy Lee Jones, Will Smith, Lara Flynn Boyle, Rip Torn, Johnny Knoxville

Released by: Columbia/Tristar.
Rating: PG-13
Region: 1
Anamorphic: Yes.

My Advice: Rent it.

Back in black, so to speak, is Agent Jay (Smith), although he never really went away. In fact, he's working his arse off and blowing through partners who just can't hack it for one reason or another...at least in his mind. Enter Serleena (Boyle), a ruthless extraterrestrial killer who has come to the planet looking for The Light of Zartha. Whatever it is, it's not even supposed to be on-planet. However, the only one who knows what really happened to the Light is Kay (Jones), Jay's former partner and mentor who's now living the civilian life and dealing out order at the post office. Jay's mission is to grab Kay, zap his memories back and then figure out how to stop Serleena before the planet gets destroyed.

This sequel is, sadly, like many sequels, a pale shadow of the original. The original was no modern day classic either, so law of diminishing returns and all that. The entire film, riddled with plot holes and unexplained things that Simply Are, feels like it was thrown together at the last minute. A little bit of script work could have made most of these situations go away, so the sloppiness is just inexcusable, especially if you know anything about how much work it was to get this project off the ground.

No blame on most of the cast--Jones and Smith are trying, God bless em, to make lemons into lemonade. Dawson's character is pretty much a mildly interesting cypher. Boyle gets no blame--she just wasn't right for the role. And, come to think of it, the role wasn't right for the movie. Serleena's about as evil and diabolical as that villain from Disney's Mulan who nobody can remember the name of. And the only reason Serleena isn't eminently forgettable is because her henchman, played weakly by Knoxville, is even more forgettable. He has two heads--wonderful, it's a crack cocaine version of Zaphod Beeblebrox. Whoopee.

Now, the good news is that if you did like the film and you are in ownership of a home theatre system that can rock the house, this will be a good pick for you. It's the Superbit version, yes, so the special features of the non-Superbit version aren't here. Instead, you get a higher rate of audio and video to replace all the space the features take up. In this case, the original version had worthy features on it, so if you are in possession of the Uber-Mongo home theatre, you're making a decision--but, the enhanced audio and video are plainly superior for what they are.

If you're a fan of the flick with a home setup, then this disc might be good to own, but for the most part, it's probably a solid rental. Although if you're not a fan of the film, rent the original version with special features--they can make up for where this film went wrong.