Men in Black II (+ UltraViolet Digital Copy) (2002)

With tongue planted so firmly in cheek as to be in danger of serious injury, Barry Sonnenfeld set out to surpass his own 5 year old triumph with Men in Black II. He didn't quite clear the mark set by MiB, but he came much closer than I ever thought he could.

Clearly, the goal of the MiB2 cast and crew was to expand the best elements of the first movie and lose those bits which didn't work so well. They had a great idea and implemented it well, but I think that they may have gone just a tad too far in paring the story and script down. MiB2 is a great ride, from the first frame to the last, and rarely have I seen 90 minutes go by so quickly. A little too quickly, as it turned out.

This flick is even more densely packed with one-liners, droll humor, visual puns and delightfully cynical satire than the first. It opens with a segment from a no-budget TV series on strange and unexplained phenomena (hosted by Peter Graves, of course) describing how the Earth narrowly escaped destruction in 1978 when we were caught between Serleena, a powerful and evil alien, and the object of her desire, a mysterious force known as the Light of Zartha. At that critical juncture 25 years ago, a super-secret government agency (which licenses and polices alien activity on Earth) kept us out of the line of fire by refusing the Zarthans' request to hide the Light on Earth.

Cut to the present day and Serleena's back. Naturally. She's still looking for the Light of Zartha and she's severely POed that she hasn't found it yet. Arriving on Earth undetected, her first problem is the same faced by the galactic cockroach in MiB: find a disguise that will pass among the primitve humans. As a shape shifting nest of snake-like apendages, though, she had an easier time of it than the 20 foot Bug. Almost immediately, she comes accros a magazine open to a full page Victoria's Secret ad and before you can say "brand new Edgar suit", she's taken the form of Lara Flynn Boyle . . . in nothing more than Victoria's best black lingerie. This is one dangerous alien.

Actually, Boyle does a good job of filling Vincent D'Onofrio's shoes. She's a smarter (if less ghastly) villain than the Bug and before long has put J and K at a serious disadvantage by completely taking over MiB headquarters.

Ah yes, Jay and Kay. Let's face it: the real key to the success of Men in Black was the hillarious juxtaposition of Will Smith and Tommy Lee Jones. Well, Kay is back and the chemistry has lost very little zing in the 5 years it was on the shelf. it turns out that the erstwhile Agent K is the only human being who might possibly know how to find the Light of Zartha. Unfortunatly, he's still got a 35 year gap in his memory and is working as the Postmaster of a small town in Maine. Zed dispatches J to bring him back and get him de-neuralized, post haste.

I won't give away any more of the plot than this; it's thin enough as it stands and I wouldn't want to spoil what few surprises there are. Fortunatly, the movie isn't really about the plot, now is it? it's about the gags, the special effects and watching Smith and Jones have *way* too much fun. Several other characters from the first flick also return, including Tony Shalhoub as the occaisionaly headless pawnbroker Jeebs, the four ungrateful worm guys and the wisecracking, karaoke singing pug, Frank.

Go see it, it's a hoot. The humor is a bit more juvenile than in the first movie, perhaps, but it really doesn't suffer much for all of that.

The inevitable sequel to the immensely popular MEN IN BLACK is on DVD, and while the film isn't as good as the original, the DVD extras are impressive. Like most Hollywood sequels, the tired "Bigger is Better" rule applies here (Somebody has to throw that old Hollywood "How-To" book in the bin). However there is much fun to be had throughout the somewhat un-original plot. Will Smith, returning to the comedy side of things after Michael Mann's ALI, gives another "I ain't touchin' that thing!" performance. And Tommy Lee Jones returns as straight-faced Agent K after getting his memory re-inserted to save manikind from the threat of alien invasion. It's fun, yes, but not as good as it could have been. At least it's better than WILD WILD WEST.

The DVD extras make up for it though, with a substantial amount of extras on the second dic of the 2 Disc set. Starting off with a Director Commentary, 14 (!) Production Featurettes, Alternate Ending, the predictable Will Smith music video, Multi-Angle Deconstructions, Blooper Reel, DVD-rom content, Marketing Campaigns and trailers.

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I really enjoyed Men in Black. I thought the relationship between J & K (Will Smith and Tommy Lee Jones) was wonderful. Tommy plays a wonderful straight man to Smith's zaniness.

I went to see Men in Black II last week, and I found that it fit like a thoroughly used, but still kind of comfortable glove. It's nowhere near as good as the first one, and it suffers from recycling too many of the jokes as well. The talking dog returns in a much more prominent role, the worms are back as well and have more to do. While funny (listening to the dog sing Gloria Gaynor is hilarious), ultimately they don't work as well in expanded roles. It feels almost like running the joke into the ground. A much more successful return is the ever-wonderful Tony Shalhoub as Jeebs. He's in for one scene, but he's still great.

Lara Flynn Boyle completely fails, in my opinion, as Serleena. First, she doesn't play menacing very well. Secondly, she doesn't seem to handle the wry humour and the quips that a villain in a picture like this requires. She comes across as very flat. Thankfully, Rip Torn is wonderful, and Jones and Smith slip into their comfortable roles very easily. They really make the movie.

The film is very short (88 minutes), which also tends to make it seem rushed. The characters jump from place to place without much reason. When reason is given, it's usually very quickly so as to move the plot along to the next set piece.

It was a funny film. No doubt about that. It was worth the [money] that I paid for it. Just don't go in expecting something as good as the first one.

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I know a lot of people don't agree with me, but I rank MIB II among the very few sequels that do just as well as the originals. MIB is one of my favorite movies of all time, and MIB II is just as good.

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This movie is so cool and funny! It's even better than the first of the MIB movies! It follows an alien named Serleena who takes on the form of Lara Flynn Boyle. She's on Earth because she wants a light device that will help her planet and race thrive. Soon, she finds some victims to get information out of, but it's to no avail. Meanwhile, our returning MIB heroes are still looking out for more evil space scum and soon after offing a whole lot of it run into Serleena and some of her minions. The fights happen and soon Serleena herself is the only one left. Ultimately, she makes one last attempt to achieve her goal before being blasted to bits by Will Smith. This movie is funnier than the first, cooler than the first and it brings back memories of good times in my past. You liked the first Men In Black movie? See this one with no delays or hesitations.

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