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

More sequels?

[Theologian]

The sequel, inevitably, has lost some of the surprise.

It has also lost some of the originality. What happened to new movies with original screenplays?

It's fun watching you all miss the point...

[Anonvmous Coward]

I swear, you people are self destructing yourselves so that you can't enjoy the $7 spent on watching a movie.

So far, I've read a lot of comments like 'unoriginal' or 'repackaged' or 'sucked' or whatever.

Blah blah blah.

You guys are kinda missing the point to watching a movie. The idea isn't to get exposed to some killer plot, the idea is to have fun. That means: Don't take it too seriously. MiiB is not part 2 of an epic trilogy. It's a comedy, it's meant to entertain for about 90 minutes or so. And it does do that. But, if you sit there being all critical about it the whole time, you're ruining it for yourself. Blame the movie if you want, but remember that's your $7.50 you're burning up.

The first problem I see is that it's being horribly overanalyzed. One guy went on to say "they shouldn't have written out the chick at the end of MiB, bad bad bad.". Err okay. So you didn't like the movie because it didn't extend the first one by 90 minutes.

Another guy went on to say '...another Wil Smith pop-corn action movie.' Can you say 'oversimplified'? Put it like that, and anything can sound stupid. 'Slashdot is like another Wil Smith pop-corn action movie'. See my point?

You can't possibly enjoy a movie if you sit there and pretend you can make it better. (you can't. All you can do is 'fix' the problems you see with it.) Instead, just sit down, watch it, have fun. MiiB is meant to be silly. It's not meant to be epic, it's meant to be fun. Smile.

If it's not your type of movie, don't go see it. Don't bug us about it either. We clear?