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Health & Fitness

Film Review- "Men In Black III"- 2012

Will Smith and Tommy Lee Jones return as the Men In Black in this science-fiction/action comedy.

 

Men In Black III

Directed by- Barry Sonnenfeld

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Running Time- 106 min.

Rated PG-13

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When a comedy-action movie is successful enough to have a sequel, no matter how much worse part two is, nowadays they always make part three. And part three doesn't have to be as good as part one. It just has to be better than part two, which this movie is. I know this is a science-fiction-comedy-action, but the rule still applies.

Will Smith and Tommy Lee Jones reprise their roles as J and K, agents who work for the secret agency that monitors alien activity on Earth called Men In Black. The agency operates outside of any government jurisdiction and, thanks to a “neurolizer”- an electronic wand that erases a person's memory- no one ever remembers they exist even after encountering them.

J was recruited by K back in part one and they have been perfect foils for each other ever since. Smith's J is charming and personable and is funny and a bit of a smart aleck. Jones' K, on the other hand, is boring, cold, deadpan and dead serious. The two are very funny together and the comic banter is as good as it gets in writing and delivery. It is also cool how each of them has a their own way of doing their job that matches their personalities and yet both ways are always effective in saving the world from aliens.

This time an alien named Boris the Animal, a Boglodite which is a human-like alien with a wrinkly face and gargled speech, played by Jermaine Clement, uses a time-travel device to go back to 1969 and kill agent K, who shot off Boris' left arm and captured him the first time. Agent J is the only one who knows anything has happened when he wakes up looking for K and not only can he not find him, but no one knows who K is. When he asks his commanding officer Agent O, played by Emma Thompson, (in a role she appears right at home in) she tells J that agent K died in 1969 and the fact that J still remembers K is proof that there was a fracture in the space-time continuum- a term most of us know from the “Back To The Future” movies.

So J finds a techno-geek who is the son of the man who invented the time travel device Boris used. He provides J with a device that allows him to follow Boris back in time to the day before he kills K in 1969. The time travel is called a “jump” because J literally has to jump off the Chrysler building in order to time travel. The special effect is cool and scene manages to stay true to the comic tone of the series. Despite all J's abilities as a Men In Black agent, Smith always plays him with a look on his face like a man about to get hit by a tidal wave.

After his successful “jump” J meets up and is apprehended by a 29-year-old K, played by Josh Brolin (in a role it seems like he's been waiting his whole life to play). Ever since the first preview came out, I, like most people, have been amazed at how much Brolin looks like and talks like a young Tommy Lee Jones. Brolin is making a habit of this too because he has already provided convincing turns as Dan White “Milk” and George W. Bush “W.” both in 2008. For a man with a western accent he is turning out to be quite the chameleon. K forces J to tell him the truth about what he knows and after learning the truth and how future Earth is in danger of attack from the Boglodites, Brolin simply looks deadpan at Smith and in his best Jones impression says, “Alright.”

Following future Boris' trail leads J and 1969 K to an Arcadian- an alien who has the ability to see into all possible futures named Griffin, played by Michael Stuhlbarg. Stuhlbarg plays Griffin as a soft spoken, shy, sage, joyful creature. Griffin also has a device called the ArcNet which provides a force field around Earth and will prevent a Boglodite attack in the future. It was the device K deployed the first time in 1969 and it is why Boris needed to travel back in time in order to kill him before he did.

Turns out the only way to deploy the ArcNet is to put it on the Apollo 11 spaceship before it launches its historic trip to the moon. J and K travel by jet pack to Cape Canaveral where they have to not only get past military security but fight off both Boris-es in order to complete their mission and save future Earth. I won't give away the ending but you can figure out that everything turns out okay in the end.

Men In Black III provides all of the same schtick as its predecessors with Jones' K delivering completely deadpan ratta-tat-tat dialogue while Smith's J provides all the movie's elaborate slapstick physical humor while he tries to draw out K's emotional side to no avail. All of the fun action scenes filled with interesting special effects and playful Danny Elfman score are still there too. What this movie adds is some history as to the origins of K and J's relationship and the roots of the motivations behind their characters. The plot is straight forward (even if it's not that deep) and the story is fairly simple to understand and the array of characters are well drawn enough to be interesting and fun to watch.

Everything in this movie is family friendly while the pace and look remain sleek and the comedy manages to remain intelligent. Having stated all that, like I pointed out in the beginning, this movie is not as good as part one but is definitely better than part two and should ensure a part four in another few years.

 

Review Grade- B+

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