Men in Black is a universally adored film, I think. But why is it so loved? What is the secret? Well MIB is that rarest of creatures, a film that is all things to all people. It is not simply a big budget summer blockbuster action movie, nor is it just an effects-driven sci-fi film, or a well crafted character piece, a buddy-cop movie or an offbeat bureaucratic comedy. It is all these things and more, telling the story of Agent J (Will Smith, now a fully fledged movie star after Bad Boys and Independence Day) a new recruit to the secretive Men in Black, an organisation tasked with managing the many alien lifeforms on Earth, without the knowledge of the general public. In true buddy movie form, J is partnered with Tommy Lee Jones’ grizzled yet laconic Agent K (who may well be too old for this shit), but I don’t remember Riggs and Murtaugh driving upside down in a tunnel, Tango and Cash delivering an alien squid baby or Turner and Hooch getting covered in slime – OK, bad example.
MIB 2 was a travesty that actually damaged the integrity and quality of the original, taking the ‘best’ (read: most puerile and asinine) elements from the first (Frank the talking dog, the coffee aliens) and teamed them up with casting Johnny Knoxville and an alien with testicles on his chin called a Ballchinian, so bad not even Patrick Warburton and Rosario Dawson cannot salvage it. I only hope the planned MIB 3 is an improvement.
One last request, more David Cross and Tony Shalhoub cameos in films please.
Choose film 8/10
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