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Review: Men In Black II

Posted by JonKatz on from the no-longer-fresh-but-still-fun dept.

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 ;)

10 of 429 comments (clear)

  1. M in B by Shant3030 · · Score: 1, Informative

    As corny and stupid of a concept MIB 1 was, I loved it. I despise Will Smith, but he was tolerable. I have free movie passes and might go see this one...

    --
    100% Insightful
  2. Name is wrong by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Informative

    Rip Torn's character is Zed. Not Sid.

    1. Re:Name is wrong by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Informative

      Well.. actually he is "Z", which is pronounced "Zed".

  3. Um... by Masem · · Score: 5, Informative
    (headed by Sid, played by Rip Torn)

    "Sid"?? I'm pretty sure (and now positive after an IMDB check) that it's "Zed".

    However, I will agree that the movie wasn't like the first, and for some reason, most of the CGI SFX seems poorly meshed with the rest of the visuals (for example, the two-headed alien). And TLJones didn't have the same deadpan that his character really needed (compared with the first). I will say, however, that getting Patrick Warburton (star of "The Tick") to play Agent T was a good choice and provided some good opening laughs.

    --
    "Pinky, you've left the lens cap of your mind on again." - P&TB
    "I can see my house from here!" - ST:
    1. Re:Um... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Informative

      Zed, of course, is how Canadians pronounce the last letter in the alphabet. Considering the other's names in the movies it only makes sence that his name would be "Z" and not "Sid".

  4. The boss's name by Phreakiture · · Score: 4, Informative

    The Boss's name is ZED , not Sid. That's zed as in the last letter of the alphabet in all English-speaking nations except the U.S., where, for some unkonwn reason, we call it zee

    --
    www.wavefront-av.com
  5. Re:Hmm, where's Linda? by Spencerian · · Score: 3, Informative

    Linda Florentino apparently is a difficult actress to work with. I have this on general hearsay from the 'net, so take that as you will. Either she has a prima donna attitude, or does not like to work in sequels. (Note her lack of appearance in any Kevin Smith movies after "Dogma", or MIB2.)

    A third option escapes me, but--who knows--she may simply want to spend more time with her family.

    --
    Vos teneo officium eram periculosus ut vos recipero is.
  6. Anyone else get a CGI short at showing? by Masem · · Score: 3, Informative
    I thought it was odd that when I saw it, there was a brief (10 minute) CGI animated short from ImageWorks called "The Chub-Chubs" (I think, the name didn't stick), that basically just had a bunch of sci-fi refs in it... did anyone else get this? It wasn't bad (not of the Pixar quality in both animation and writing), but it was pretty decent. I found it odd that it wasn't mentioned in any ads that I saw, nor any reviews of MIB2 that I saw as well. (Compared to the Dexter's Lab short in front of PPG, which I did know about...)

    It's interesting to note that Warner Bros. has confirmed they are making a large (more than 6) number of shorts destined for leadins to big screen movies using the standard Looney Toons characters (eg Bugs, Daffy, etc). Along with Pixar's bits and this ImageWorks thing, there appears to be trend towards this in the movie industry. Of course, there's tons more ads and movie previews of late (for PPG today, for example, I had at least 15 min of both), so this might not last long if it takes away too many screenings from theaters.

    --
    "Pinky, you've left the lens cap of your mind on again." - P&TB
    "I can see my house from here!" - ST:
    1. Re:Anyone else get a CGI short at showing? by gblues · · Score: 3, Informative

      This is hardly new.

      40 years ago, WB (and other) cartoons were standard lead-ins to feature shows. Previews of coming attractions used to come at the end of the movie (hence why they are called "trailers"). But, with the large increase in credits, the trailers were moved to the front and the shorts were ditched entirely.

      Thank Pixar for bringing back the animated short, and other studios for acknowledging the market and following suit.

      I, for one, loved the "ChubChubbs" short (did anyone else notice that the yellow things resembled the Langoliers?).

      Nathan

  7. "Came out of nowhere"... by Samurai+Cat! · · Score: 2, Informative

    ...maybe for most folks, but not everyone. Some of us remember that there was a MIB comic years before - the same comic the movie is (somewhat) based on. I met the guy behind it (Lowell Cunningham) eons ago, back in Atlanta in a now-extinct bookstore. It was an independent B comic... no Marvel/DC/etc.

    --

    "People" using "unnecessary" quotes should be "shot".