MEN IN BLACK
A film review by George McAdams
Copyright 1997 George McAdams
In life's greater scheme, movies sometime take on a life of their own, often overshadowing their actual value to society, which seems especially true for summer blockbusters and action movies. With MEN IN BLACK, also known to those in the know as MIB, the hype-machine practically guaranteed that the movie would fall short. And clocking in at barely over one hour and thirty minutes, it's shorter in more ways than one.
As a buddy movie it lacks buddy-ism. It tries to have the Tommy Lee Jones, as K, and Will Smith, as J, banter about in manners reminiscent of the Mel Gibson and Danny Glover in the "Lethal Weapon" movies, but it doesn't have any "heart" between the two. If anything, MIB is more of an update of "Dragnet" (1987) if it had been produced and directed by the Cohen brothers, with a couple of slimy aliens thrown in. Additionally, there's a moment where we see Jones zero-in, via satellite, a woman working in her garden, but this "touching" twenty seconds is more like the movie hitting a speed bump, rather than a detour down a lane to a heartfelt moment.
On the plus side, the movie does have a great premise: that aliens live on Earth, disguised as humans and other animals, and that Earth is sort of a neutral zone. "Sort of Casablanca, without the Nazi's," as K explains to J, which when you think about it explains the behavior of certain basketball coaches, boxers, and that cousin of yours that doesn't really resemble anyone in your family's tree.
The concept reminds me of an early comic routine used by David Letterman, in which Letterman reasoned that the appearance of aliens on earth is that earth is sort of a "Stuckey's" way stop for the galaxy. And while none of Letterman's jokes were used in MIB, the sharply written dialogue was another of the redeeming qualities of MIB.
While MIB offers a good solid performance by Tommy Lee Jones, a smooth performance by Will Smith, good action sequences, and imaginative set designs, it does not live-up to the hype this movie has promised, and we the viewer has had to endure during the past several months. Had it taken the potential that was there to have more human emotions present, I feel it would have been a better movie.
On a scale of one to four, I give this movie a two. I enjoyed it, and would recommend it to those who want to see a mindless action movie that has some snappy dialogue. However, don't expect to see me standing in line again. The web site for MIB is http://www.meninblack.com. It looks great, but lacks some of the pizzazz of some of the other movie sites have.
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