Men In Black
Director: Barry Sonnenfeld.
Starring: Tommy Lee Jones, Will Smith, Linda Fiorentino, Vincent
D'Onofrio, Rip Torn.
MIB. The most anticipated movie of the year. If you haven't heard of
it then you've been nowhere near a cinema or television set or radio
for the past six months. And hype does make a difference. While this
is quite an enjoyable movie, I'm not convinced it warrants a $US230
million gross (USA gross up till 24 August).
The story premise is that there are aliens on earth and it's no big
deal but it's kept from the general public because we wouldn't be able
to cope.
Most of the laughs in this movie come from two places: Mr. Tommy Lee
Jones' completely blase reactions to all the aliens and Mr. Will Smith's
reactions to his new situation. While I found this movie quite
enjoyable and had a couple of good laughs (particularly at the early
outfits of Agent J (Mr. Smith), set up to contrast with his MIB
transformation), there were some elements missing to make it a truly
two thumbs up experience.
First, while I acknowledge that both Mr. Smith and Mr. Jones are good
actors (I loved Mr. Jones in The Fugitive and Mr. Smith in
Six Degrees of Separation), there didn't seem to be much
chemistry between them. I thought Mr. Jones looked flat, almost as if
he were just going through the motions and while Mr. Smith was
mega-cool, he didn't seem to click with anyone (although I did enjoy
his final scene at the morgue with Ms. Linda Fiorentino).
Second, it was really just a collection of funny ideas rather than a
movie with an actual plot. While some of my favourite movies fall in
to this category (Monty Python and the Holy Grail, Life
of Brian), MIB tried to have it both ways showing the loneliness
of the agents' lives. The jokes weren't funny enough to carry the
movie and the story-line wasn't compelling enough to make up for
it. Also, a lot of the jokes work on the element of surprise so
they're not going to work the second time around. If you've seen the
previews, and especially if you've seen
The Making of..., you've seen some of the best bits.
Of course, you have to see it. This is an event rather than a movie.
Since everyone will be talking about it for the next few weeks
(months?), you must see it. Just try to find a cheap session, so that
you can feel that you've got your money's worth.
Rating: CR
© Nikki Lesley 1997