Men in Black 2 Review

Men in Black 2 (2002)

Starring: Tommy Lee Jones, Will Smith
Director: Barry Sonnenfeld

Rating: PG-13

Studio: Columbia

Review Posted: 7.19.02

Spoilers: Yes

Rating: 2/4 (C)

Men in Black 2 is a disappointing sequel to the 1997 hit about FBI-like agents who keep aliens in check. It has a few funny moments and a talking dog, but oddly enough, it always remains a near boring film that never quite manages to lift off the ground. The biggest reason why is the script, which not only gives us a tired retread of the first plot, but also strips away everything that made us care about it.

Will Smith returns as Agent Jay, the Men in Blacks top agent now that Kay (Tommy Lee Jones) has retired. Only the lonely Jay is starting to realize the drawback of the job, mainly being that he doesn't exist anymore. When an alien on alien murder is committed at a pizza place, Jay is called onto the scene to investigate. Here he meets a beautiful young woman named Rita (Rosario Dawson), who witnessed the murder. It's in Jay's best interest to find out what she knows and then neuralize her (erase her memory, "Did you flashy thing me?"), but in the film's most ridiculous scene, she seems unfazed by all this and he doesn't erase her memory, all in the hope that a romance will form.

The murder itself traces us back to the main plot of the film, where a little thing has come to Earth to find the Light of Zartha, something that serves no purpose in the film other than to be found. This thing is also a morphing alien that first sees a conveniently placed Victoria's Secret catalog, and so becomes the curvy, underwear clad model (Lara Flynn Boyle) inside. From there she proceeds to round up her two headed henchman (Johnny Knoxville in a near useless role) and find this Light.

It becomes Jay's objective to do the same thing, but doing it will be harder than he ever could have imagined. It was given to the leading Men in Black agent many years ago so he could hide it, but this agent has recently left the life of fighting crime and now works for the Post office. This agent is, of course, Jay's former partner and neuralizee, Kay. It is up to Jay to help Kay reclaim his memory of the Men in Black, and do it quickly because this sexy alien baddie has taken the rest of the MIB hostage until the Light is given to her.

To create some suspense in a film that really has none, it is later said that the MIB duo have a specific time limit to get the Light of Zartha off of Earth before it explodes. Only this is cliché, and comes at a point where we could really care less anymore. The plot serves only as background here. Very few things are explained or credible, and there's nothing here that even comes close to suspense. MIB 2 mostly takes the path that many other sequels have crossed, where the plot only serves as an excuse for more shtick.

Only here, if the shtick was good, MIB 2 could have been much more fun. Instead, many of the special effect aliens look cartoonish and as if they're separated from their human foes. The result is always something that looks less exciting and more weird and stupid.

The cast is all game, but even they can't save this thrill-less update. Will Smith seems to be the guy trying the hardest. He brings his zany charisma to Jay, and also has a knack for the physical comedy as well. Tommy Lee Jones is again the straight man, but seems to spend much of this movie looking like he just pulled an all-nighter. And Lara Flynn Boyle is sexy and fun to watch, but her character is never really that threatening, and she doesn't even come close to Vincent D'Onofrio's great performance in the original.

Men in Black 2 is sadly just another sequel. It doesn't try to be any more creative than the original already was, and it seems like the makers behind this thing forgot what exactly made the original so much fun. Maybe they were neuralized, too.