Men In Black II (Superbit Collection) (2002)

· Starring: Tommy Lee Jones, Will Smith, Lara Flynn Boyle, Johnny Knoxville, Rosario Dawson, Tony Shalhoub, Rip Torn

· Directed by: Barry Sonnenfeld

· Studio: Columbia TriStar Home Entertainment

· Video: 1.85:1 Anamorphic Widescreen

· Audio: English Dolby Digital 5.1, English DTS 5.1

· Subtitles: English, French, Spanish, Portuguese, Chinese, Korean, Thai

· Extras: Scene selection

· Length: 88 minutes

· Rating: ****

Serleena, a renegade Kylothian monster travels to Earth and takes the physical form of a lingerie model. She is here in search of a power source called “The Light of Zartha” and Serleena is destroying everything in her path until she acquires it. Meanwhile, Agent Jay of the MIB has been struggling to find a new partner ever since Agent Kay retired. However, when Agent Kay appears to be the only key to finding this Light of Zartha, he is brought out of retirement. Once again pairing up with Agent Jay, the two set out to stop Serleena and save the world from destruction.

The video quality of the previous standard widescreen DVD release was excellent and this Superbit release is even a little better. Images are a tad more crisp and sharp. Blacks are continuously deep and dark throughout. Colors are vivid and rich with fully saturated hues. Picture defect mastering is perfect with no major flaws or digital compression artifacts. The overall audio quality is excellent as well with the English DTS 5.1 track serving as the basis for this review. The soundtrack mix actively utilizes all of the discrete channels with good channel separation. Dialogue is intelligible and natural sounding. The surround channels are often aggressive, used for both music and ambient sounds, and include multiple split rear effects. The low frequency bass is dynamic, occasionally thunderous, and has better overall depth with the new DTS track. Present in about one-half of the DVD’s chapters, tactile effects appear as light to heavy impacts and originate from the sound effects and music score.

Reference equipment used for this review: [Video projector- Studio Experience Cinema 17SF Projection screen- Da-Lite 106” Da-Snap; DVD player- Pioneer Elite DV-37; A/V Receiver- Sherwood Newcastle R-963T; Speakers- BIC DV62si mains, DV62CLRs center, Adatto DV52si rears, D1210R subwoofer; Tactile Transducers- Clark Synthesis Gold; Video Switcher- Key Digital SW4x1; Cables and Wires- Bettercables.com]