Men in Black Review By David Wilcock (C)1997 David Wilcock
Starring Will Smith, Tommy Lee Jones and Vincent D'Onforio. Directed By Barry Sonnenfield A Columbia Picture
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.
Overall Rating=**** out of ***** (Very good film) ============================= DAVID WILCOCK david.wilcock@btinternet.com http://www.geocities.com/hollywood/9061
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