Mr. Smith and Mr. Jones team up for yet another special effect laden summer movie. And, like The Lost World, this one isn't half bad. It centres more on the comedy and characters than the special effects themselves, which is damn good, and movies should follow this example!
The Men in Black (MIB) are a agency which moniter extra terristial life on Earth. However, these aliens don't LOOK like aliens, they look like humans. At one point, a board comes up showing who some of the aliens are, and these include George Lucas and Sylvestor Stallone. A nice joke there. Anyway, an evil alien, who steals D'Onforios skin, is on a plot to take over the world. So, the MIB are called in to stop this.
What follows is 90 mins of non stop action and laughs. '90 minutes?' I hear you cry? Yes, thankfully, MIB is a very short film. Not that it's too short. 90 minutes is the perfect running time. It's not too much, and it's not too little. Will Smith does a good Eddie Murphy impression, and delivers his jokes in his Fresh Prince style. Jones, however, does his Leslie Nielson impression, and delivers his jokes in a perfect deadpan way. These two comedic styles go toghether prefectly. Rip Torn also gives a good performance as their boss. One of the best performances is D'Onforio. Watching him lumber around, in skin which is too big for him, is hillarous. He dosen't say much, but he's very, very good. However, Linda Fiorentino (The Last Seduction, 1994) is dissapointing as a leggy coroner. Her performance is good, but her part is hopelessly underwritten. She just seems to be there to help with the ending. The special effects, and the aliens created by Rick Baker (The Nutty Professor, 1997) are excellent.
This film may cause some trouble with easily scared children. Although nowhere near as intense as The Lost World, there are some scenes which could be scary, even though they're not meant to be. So don't take the PG rating lightly. The ending is probably the worse bit, although they're little bits throughout which might upset kids. Like most Spielberg adventure films, there are intense scenes. If your child went through The Lost World OK, though, or the Indiana Jones films, then they should get through this OK. Overall though, I think only a few children would be scared by this film. MIB, then, is highly recommended. If you're looking for a movie that lampoons references to many other films and in particular, one t.v. show and if you're looking for an original and at times pleasantly shocking delight then 'Men in Black' is the movie for you. Executive produced by Steven Spielberg and directed by Barry Sonnenfeld ('Get Shorty', 'The Addams Family'), 'Men in Black' stars Tommy Lee Jones as a secret undercover agent working to protect the Earth from 'the scum of the universe.' His elderly partner is about to retire and Jones' boss (Rip Torn) seeks a replacement and finds it in a sharp and clever NYC cop played in a gleefully daffy manner by Will Smith.
Based on the Malibu comic of the same name, 'Men in Black' works so well in particular because of Jones' deadpan and loosely charismatic performance as the agent who will do whatever it takes to get the job done. Aside from Smith in contrast to Jones' portrayal of the straight man is a campy and tongue-in-cheek story of an alien landing in upstate New York whose passenger is a giant insect, sort of a cross between a cockroach and an ant played by Vincent D'Onofrio who assumes the identity of a dead farmer and 'borrows' his skin and his presence could spell the end of the world for the Earth. D'Onofrio is hilarious as his haunting and wildly over the top performance is reminiscent of one of the zombies from 'Night of the Living Dead' (1968), (forget about the 1990 remake), and Linda Fiorentino rounds out the cast as a doctor with the coroner's office who becomes entangled in a strange autopsy she performs and discovers alien life on Earth.
The clever but not always instantly recognizable references to 'Pulp Fiction', 'The X-Files', 'Ghostbusters', 'The Blob' and 'Close Encounters' are funny enough to give 'Men in Black' extra marks for not making them so obvious and while it establishes an identity of its own, its ability to not takes itself seriously is what ultimately saves it.
Cast
Tommy Lee Jones .... MiB Agent K (Kay)
Will Smith .... Officer James Darrel Edwards III/MiB Agent J (Jay)
Linda Fiorentino .... Deputy Medical Examiner Laurel Weaver, M.D./MiB Agent L (Elle)
Vincent D'Onofrio .... Edgar/Edgar Bug
Rip Torn .... MiB Chief Z (Zed)
Tony Shalhoub .... Jack Jeebs
Siobhan Fallon .... Beatrice
Mike Nussbaum .... Gentle Rosenberg
Jon Gries .... Nick the Van Driver
Sergio Calderón .... Jose
Carel Struycken .... Arquillan
Fredric Lehne .... INS Agent Janus
Richard Hamilton (I) .... MiB Agent D (Dee)
Kent Faulcon .... 1st Lt. Jake Jensen
John Alexander (II) .... Mikey
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