Summer Cinema: ‘Men in Black II’
Will Smith and Tommy Lee Jones are back in black again this summer, but don’t nod your head at this sequel just yet. Sure it made $90 million at the box office in its first five days out, but it did so on mediocre villains, tired jokes and actors who were there just to get paid. In other words, this film is the type of mediocre entertainment the public has been duped into rejoicing over.
“Men in Black II” has Smith reprise his role as J, a member of a secret government agency that hides the existence of aliens from the inhabitants of the Earth. After a shape-shifting alien named Serlina (Laura Flynn Boyle) lands on the planet in search of the Light of Zartha, J has to give K (Jones) his memory back so they can find the light before Serleena. The evil alien takes MIB headquarters hostage, and the two agents with the help of Laura (Rosario Dawson), eye-witness to an alien’s murder, the worms and Frank the dog attempt to save the world from the scum of the universe again.
It’s unfortunate the general public is so brainwashed as to accept this form of mediocre fanfare as entertaining. The first MIB movie was great. The jokes were new and funny, Jones and Smith worked well off each other and Vincent D’Onofrio stole the show as the bug in the Edgar suit.
The majority of the jokes are tired rehashes from the first movie like alien mailman workers and new memories for the naïve, neuralized public who inadvertently cross paths with the hidden aliens. The only mildly original funny moments in the film involve Frank and his interaction with the agents.
Granted a lot of the problem lies in the script, but Jones looked utterly bored with his part and is clearly only there to collect his salary. The actors really didn’t have to do anything but show up and say their lines. With the first movie’s reputation, the second one was almost guaranteed to make money unless it was a complete waste like “Blair Witch II” was.
As for Boyle, she was just a sexy model in black leather and lingerie to excite the raging teenage hoards who would inevitably flock to see the film. She was not sinister in the least, and was almost comical in her attempts to come across as so.
Some of the product placements were so shameless that I felt like I was watching “Josie and the Pussycats” again (a thoroughly awful movie that makes one lose IQ points for watching it). Watch for Burger King and Milton Bradley to name just a few.
Really there are two major problems with this film as I see it. The first is in falling victim to the sequel syndrome. Out of fear of failure, the studio made the second film as near to the first one as possible without completely remaking the first. This is where the stagnancy comes from. It is also more than likely the source of Jones’s boredom.
The second is money. It seems like so much was spent on effects and paying for Smith and Jones that there was nothing left over to make the movie good. Why don’t we have Smith’s girlfriend from the first movie? Why wasn’t the script rewritten to make it funny? Considering what they are making on this film it’s a wonder the studio couldn’t spend the money to make it good.
All in all, this is a crummy sequel to a relatively funny movie. It may have the big stars and reputation of the first movie, but don’t waste your money on this piece of mediocre otherworldly comedy.
Grade: C-