Review: Men In Black II

The first Men In Black came out of nowhere five years ago. Barry Sonnenfeld stole the box office that summer with the original, strange, hilarious, spoofy sci-fi comedy. Will Smith and Tommy Lee Jones were the perfect pair for this inventive "who-are-the-aliens-in-our-midst" romp, playing secret agents working for a super-secret government agency keeping an eye on beings from outer space. It was perfect for the era of the still-vibrant X-Files. The sequel, inevitably, has lost some of the surprise. But it's still plenty of fun. Spoilage warning: plot discussed, not ending, not that it matters here.

The story line is almost irrelevant. Will Smith (Agent Jay) has to neuralize one dumb partner after another, and ends up with a smart-mouthed, sometimes hilarious pug for a partner. He pines for his former sidekick Tommy Lee Jones (Agent Kay), now neuralized and working for the institution with the greatest number of aliens, the U.S. Post Office. (The movie, like the first, gets off some great double entendres and inside jokes).

The movie opens with a campy Peter Graves spoof on the Ed Woods' style sci-fi movies of the 50's and 60's. Simply, Lara Flynn Boyle plays Serleena, the powerful alien queen ravaging earth to get her hands on a distant planet's light source. If she isn't stopped, the world will be destroyed, of course. Her prescence forces the MIB agency (headed by Sid, played by Rip Torn) to go and de-neuralize Kay, who comes back to re-join his buddy and save the world.

This is all beside the point, of course. The whole film is a device for Sonnenfeld's loopy rags on Martha Stewart (not perhaps as funny as it would have been a month ago) and Michael Jackson. There are hilarious locker room and worm aliens, and blessedly, the movie never takes itself seriously for a single second. Like the better parts of the Scream series, the movie ends up spoofing itself and the people who loved it.

If you go see it, all you need to know is that the surprise originality of the first is missing, mostly because we know what to expect, but the loopy and inventive spirit of MIB is very much alive.

CmdrTaco my 2 bits is that this movie was bland. It probably is my least favorite of the last half dozen movies I've seen. I loved the original, but this just doesn't have the punch of the first. Its got its moments, but the whole ride is weak. Watch Lilo & Stich instead ;)

Comments

MIB II SUCKED

[swinginSwingler]

Katz, yet again you live up to your moronic reputation. The movie sucked royally. I haven't seen a movie that bad in a long time. Thank god for a short running time. I can't count the number of product placements, plugs and corny-assed jokes I witnessed last night. The only thing missing was an overly obvious placement for the Segway like I've seen in nearly every sitcom on TV lately. Mercedes, Sprint, Cohiba, Mountain Dew and countless other plugs made me sick. Then Martha Stewart and Michael Jackson stepped in. I almost threw up. But yeah, go see the movie, Katz always seems to know what he's talking about.

Had to read that twice:

[MSG]

CmdrTaco: Watch Lilo & Stich instead ;)

I had to look that up in my universal tranlator, because it sounded a bit odd. Apparently it translates to english as:

I am Disney's little bitch. Fund the war on freedom.

Paying the people who oppress you is dumb with a capital "DUMB", Taco.

Re:Lilo and Stitch all the way!

[Kintanon]

Married no kids, not having any.
I thought about my decisions, did you think about yours?

Kintanon

Re:Um...

[Docrates]

I'm sorry, but I need to do this, and I'm not being sarcastic:

and Zed is how non-Americans say what we call "Zee"

America is a continent. The United States of America is a country that calls itself America becuase United-States-men-and-women just doesn't sound right. I understand all that, but when US people refer to non-US people they need to be considerate of the fact that calling, say, Canadians Non-American is just wrong.

Canada is also a country in America, as is the US and Mexico and Panama and Costa Rica. Vicente Fox is every bit as american as George Bush. If you travel outside the US, or talk to an international crowd, keep in mind that to most non-US americans, the fact that the US calls itself America is ofensive and seems extremely arrogant.

If you don't care about the opinion of an international crowd, then perhaps you're posting in the wrong website. Unless, of course, Taco declares Slashdot to be an all AMERICAN (as in US) website and all other "foreigners" are guests that need to conform. If that's the case, lemme know, becuase in that case, I am posting in the wrong website.