Men in Black II (2002)

This is quite possibly the worst movie I've seen in the last few years. There was no plot, and the acting was terrible. Will Smith and Tommy Lee Jones are capable of much better performances.

Lame. Really lame. I'm sorry to have spent $7.25 on it.

Fmovies: This movie is the sequel of course to the hit movie "Men In Black". I gave this movie a six, but I felt like being generous (I probably should give it a five). This movie is short. I mean really, really short. There is a short that preceded the movie so that tells you how short this movie is (the short got more laughs than the movie I think). I went to this movie knowing how short it was, but it just went by so fast and the movie was a bit unmemorable that it was a waste of time to drive to the theater. There was no time for character development or much story development. In fact, the opening credit scene itself took four or five minutes. The story has Smith's character trying to get the memory back of Jones character to battle an alien threat. For the most part there isn't much that is funny in this one, but there are a few scenes to make a person chuckle. Then there is the pug dog. I think it had the same screen time as Tommy Lee Jones. It was funny in small doses, but its role was expanded way too much for the sequel. Johnny Knoxville's character was lame as was the main villain, which had looks but no funny dialogue at all. Tony Shaloub is back, and once again his character's role is small and underused. So all in all this is an inferior sequel by all means with just enough to look at to keep you from getting bored. If they ever make a part three, please let them get a director who is capable of making a movie.

Sequels are almost inherently inferior to their original films. The reason that a sequel is ever made is because the original film was a huge success and therefore people want to see more, but at the same time have developed high expectations from the original film, expectations which are rarely if ever completely fulfilled. In my opinion, every sequel has a right not to live up to the original that it followed, but Men In Black II abuses the privilege almost as much as Austin Powers has already done twice so far. Roger Ebert makes an interesting comment in his review of Men In Black II, stating that the original was so enormously successful because it was unexpected and we had not seen anything like it, while the second one is a rehash of the original, and now we HAVE seen something like it. The expected result is that, like the two Austin Powers sequels, what we have here is little more than an extension of the same jokes that we saw in the original film.

The entire cast has come back, of course, since this is guaranteed to be a hugely popular film (although at the same time guaranteed to be an artistic failure), and we also see a few more introductions to the cast of actors and artists with flailing careers like Lara Flynn Boyle and even Michael Jackson, who embarrasses himself in the film by playing the part of someone desperately trying to secure himself a position as one of the Men In Black (`I can be Agent M! Pleeeeeeeeeease???'). Naturally, everything that got a laugh in the original film is milked to death here, although not entirely without effect. I thought it was really funny when K blows off Jeebs' head (feeding off of one of the more amusing scenes from the original during J's introduction to the aliens amongst whom he lives), and J asks him how he knew that Jeebs' head would grow back if his memory had not been restored, and K replies, `It grows back?' Not very creative, but certainly amusing.

The movie has its strong points, I am not saying that it was a stone-faced bore, but the problem is that it completely feeds off of whatever was successful about the original film. There is virtually nothing creative presented in this film, it is much talkier and drier than the original and doesn't seem to have a personality of its own. MIB followed an alien disguised as a redneck named Edgar as he tries to get his hands on a galaxy that is small enough to fit on a cat's collar. In the second film, we not only have a charm on a bracelet that is the most sought-after item in the film, but we also catch a couple of overly brief glances at some tiny populations of life forms that are able to fit into an airport locker but are still not able to secure themselves a larger part in this film, which chooses instead to entertain us with a talking dog. How's that again? Why is it that there were so many interesting creatures in the original film but this one gives us a quick glimpse of some fascinating creatures but then tries to distract us with the talking (and sometimes singing) antics of a tiny dog, which had just the right size role in the original film?

Things like this and the fact that the movie had nothing new to add to the Men In Black story bring the quality of MIIB way down, leaving it to tag along behind its predecessor like an annoying little sister. We already know there is going to be a Men In Black III (hey, if they made a second sequel after the ridiculous Austin Powers 2Â…), so we can only hope that the producers and director will take a little more time in decid

Men in Black II fmovies. If you've already seen "Men In Black" and "The 5th Element" then you certainly don't need to see this. They just blended these two movies into a crap smoothie. Absolutely no originality, no flavor, no reason to see this movie unless it's free and you are bedridden. Otherwise, go for a walk and save your money.

As funny as the original MIB was, the sequel proves that the same old thing can get very old and very tired very quickly. I mean, how often can you really find it funny to watch an alien grow its head back after having it shot off? This was a cute gag in the original (and I think we only saw it happen once if I remember correctly.) In this one, it happens over and over again. HEY! AFTER THE FIRST TIME IT'S NOT THAT FUNNY! That's the basic problem with this movie. It doesn't seem to have a lot to differentiate it from the first one, with the result that it's just not that interesting.

Will Smith and Tommy Lee Jones reprise their roles as Agents "Jay" and "Kay" respectively, and here was one element of the story that might have made this a fun adventure if it had been developed. "Kay" is retired as this movie opens, and he's been "neuralized" - his memory of having been an MIB agent has been wiped clean. If the story had focussed more on "Kay" and his attempts at re-integrating into the MIB agency, I think this might have been a very funny movie. But "Kay's" re-integration just seems to happen far too easily, and for the most part the focus of the movie is on Smith's "Jay." The problem with that is that I just feel Jones is better suited to the whole MIB persona, and I felt Smith quickly became tiresome without Jones balancing him more fully. (And Frank the dog - another of Jay's "partners" - just didn't cut it. I really wanted that dog to get eaten by the big worm or something. A very irritating character, in my opinion.)

My advice: stick with the original.

3/10

Men in Black II (2002)

* 1/2 (out of 4)

Boring and bland sequel has Earth coming under attack from a dangerous alien (Lara Flynn Boyle) so Agent Jay (Will Smith) must bring Agent Kay (Tommy Lee Jones) out of retirement. I really wasn't sure what to expect out of this sequel but the very, very, very last thing I did expect was something boring. I must admit that I was really shocked to see how bland and downright bad this movie was as sadly it's yet another example of a sequel to a good movie being about nothing more than money. The original film was smart, clever and funny in regards to the subject matter but this sequel just lacks any sort of originality and it's really nothing more than a copy of the original. What's so sad is that there could have been so many good and interesting story ideas but sadly we're just given a copy of the first film and we even get many of the same jokes. It's funny to think that the jokes worked so well the first time but here they're just annoying and unfunny. I think the majority of the blame has to go towards the screenplay, which is just a mess. It's never funny, never makes too much sense and sadly it's clear that very little went into it. The performances outside of Tommy Lee Jones really aren't all that memorable either. Lara Flynn Boyle has no problems looking sexy but her character is bland. Rip Torn isn't given much to do and the same is true for Johnny Knoxville and Rosario Dawson. The incredibly bad love story with Dawson is just an embarrassment. MEN IN BLACK II even features some very poor CGI effects and in the end this is just a rather worthless movie that isn't worth the trouble.